We have never put in an official offer on the land. The numbers being bounced around were from agent to agent and then them calling/texting the seller and myself.
Writing up an offer is going to let them know you’re serious and not just kicking tires.
Everyone is different in the way they do business.
When I sold my house I placed a number higher than I expected to get. The people that got it came back with an offer that we wouldn’t have ever taken. I had a number in my mind that I was willing to take and put it out to him with the info that this was my bottom line. He ponied up. I would not have taken any less. Perhaps, I could have gotten more, but we wanted to sell and I was satisfied.
That buy/sell agreement let me shop for a new lot where we wanted to move. I found an ideal piece that had set for three months and had actually been discounted a couple months previously. By chance, the owner was on site when we drove down to look at it.
We were able to have a good conversation and I asked if he was willing to consider offers, or if he was firm. He said he had just gotten an offer the previous day but he wasn’t planning to accept the terms because they wanted him to carry the note as part of the deal.
My wife and I talked it over and agreed that we hadn’t seen anything for that price in four months of looking and it wasn’t going to last long. We gave him a full price offer the next day. The following day, he received two more full price offers and between our buy/sell agreement and settlement date he received several higher offers.
Since then the value of that lot has risen over 25%.
I haven’t seen anything comparable since then.
The seller and I talk fairly frequently and he told me, “ I knew that I was giving you a good price.” I was in full agreement.
That’s one time where trying to get more would have ensured I would end up with less.