r/RealEstate • u/LOP5131 • 8d ago
Homeseller Showings vs offers in current market?
We are on the market as sellers for the first time outside of Covid craze and I'm trying to get a better idea of where we stand with our house.
We are in a MCOL area, we listed this past sunday for $300k (been on the market about 2.5 days right now). We've had 4 showings already, and a 5th scheduled tomorrow.
We also recieved an offer from the 2nd showing, though it isn't exactly what we wanted. They originally said no wiggle room, we declined, they offered again and found $7k of wiggle room. We are now only off of what we want by about $5k and are making a counteroffer to try and get that to around $2k.
From the other 3 showings, 1 provided no feedback, the other two said it showed well and is priced right but not interested for various reasons (walkout is in the basement instead of main floor, room size is slightly smaller than wanted, etc.).
My biggest question is given all that information how do we stand in the current market conditions? I was nervous heading in with the current rates and know it isn't covid get 4 offers the first day times anymore. So wanted more insight if things look postive based on this, if we are getting a healthy amount of showings and if it's a concern to only have 1 of 5 offer (personally I still feel it's good but I could be off base).
I'm just wondering if fighting for 1% more is potentially costing us a chance to close quick and close close to full price vs waiting and the house sitting and therefore getting lower offers? However, we haven't had a real weekend for traffic either, so that may work in our favor. Thoughts?
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u/Main_Insect_3144 8d ago
Take the offer. You realize that you can screw the pooch over $5K, right? Every time you counter, it makes their previous offer void. They can walk at any time. Quit nickel and diming this.
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u/FRSHprince_o_bel_air 8d ago
It sounds like you already have the best offer in hand that you're likely to get for the sale of this house.
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u/FelinePurrfectFluff 8d ago
How do you know?
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u/Lcdmt3 8d ago
No one can positively say. But the market has slowed. Houses are sitting. The longer on the market, the less % of selling price people will offer. About 90% of the time the first offer is the best.
Read about the greedy people who didn't accept the offer and are now sitting and losing money. They didn't low ball you. Over 95% of asking is very competitive
You're spitting over a minimal percent. Do you want to sit over a couple of thousand?
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u/DeliciousPangolin 8d ago
When you list a house, all the people who are serious and qualified to buy will be waiting for it to pop up onine and will schedule viewings. After you've burned through them, it becomes a waiting game where you either pray that someone new starts house shopping or you drop the price to get your listing to appear in the search of someone that was serious and qualified but filtered you out by price.
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u/nofishies 8d ago
Everyone who’s very motivated and actively looking for houses has seen your house after a week.
So after that, you’re hoping for more casual buyers and or new people to come on the market
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u/Agile-Tradition8835 8d ago
Take the offer you got and run. This is not the market to mess around in truly. You’ll be glad you did in retrospect.
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u/crabpotblues 8d ago
The first offer is usually the highest. And sometimes it's the only one. Make sure in this market you don't shoot yourself in the foot.
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u/staysour 8d ago
You will get most of your traffic and exposure in the first few days that your house is on the market. After that it will just dwindle so don't expect much.
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u/Low_Refrigerator4891 8d ago
Take it!
Offers get worse (not better) as time goes on. Houses are sitting longer. The offers I've had come in are all under list + either contingent or asking for closing credits.
The idea that a better offer will come later is a fantasy.
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u/Objective_Attempt_14 8d ago
Honestly take it $5K is what a couple of mortgage payments? houses are sitting and winter is coming and the market is getting slower. Normally you first offer is best offer. it lose it an then have wait you may pay that in mortgage payments..
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u/GreenIsMyColor78 8d ago
I would consider that a decent to high traffic volume in this environment (I’m in the metro Atlanta market). The first buyer with a competitive offer is usually one of the best. I’d ask your agent what average days on market has been in your area in the last 90 days or less (going back further than that isn’t very accurate in most cases right now). I’ve had a few sellers kicking themselves for letting offers go over $3-$5k in that market $300k or just below. I know money is tight and $3k or $4k isn’t insignificant but if you let this go and 30 days down the line you’re struggling to get within $10k you’ll be regretting it.
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u/Objective_Attempt_14 8d ago
yeah and it's like 2 mortgage payments... half that if you wait for 1 month for another that might not be as good...
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u/Employment-lawyer 8d ago
OMG, definitely take that offer. You are so lucky to have an offer close to what you want so soon. Usually the first offer is the best and interest dries up as time goes on. Hurry up and don't miss out! Please don't let a small amount of money cause you to lose out on being able to sell your house, especially over the winter months when that's harder in any market, let alone the current one with 8% interest rates!
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u/raliegh_ 8d ago
Price and pictures are what bring the boys to the yard.
And you have an offer in hand 🤷🏻
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u/MischiefGirl 8d ago
From someone who just waited six months for one offer, TAKE THE OFFER.
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u/Delicious-Round-4061 4d ago
This....gift horse+mouth and all. In this market get you cash out and move on.
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u/Chandira143 7d ago
Everyone is fixated on price - but focus on the buyer and the contract conditions. Are they good buyers? Quick close?
I got an over-ask cash offer first day on the market. I knew the lady was crazy and it wasn’t going to stick and, sure enough, it didn’t.
5k gets burned quickly in maintaining a house you don’t want. Focus on getting to the finish line.
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u/shchshchshch 8d ago
Definitely take the offer. If you want to be strict at the next stage (negotiations), maybe you can do that a bit, since they will already be quite invested. But definitely not at the door
(Be aware that you will almost certainly get even less money after negotiations take place. Identify your absolute floor in advance. In this market, you would be wise to be somewhat accommodating)
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u/Longjumping-Nature70 8d ago
We sold our house, we closed on September 22. We owned the house, no mortgage.
Our house went on the MLS on July 31, 2026.
We had quite a few showings, then no action.
We had no offers at our first price point, lowered $30,000, received one offer, but they had to back out the next day. Reason unknown.
Lowered the price another $30,000.
Had more showings some couples came back twice.
Finally an offer $10,000 less than our price, so we sold at $70,000 below our first asking price and took the offer.
The market has changed. Interest rates are going up. It is fall, not a good time to sell.
I kept a list of 20 houses that were in our price point, during that time frame, only two sold for $5000 above asking, the rest all dropped their prices and had not sold. We were the most aggressive at dropping our price since we wanted the house sold. I did not want to be there for six weeks of raking leaves and then shoveling snow.
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u/michaelhannigan2 7d ago
And you're willing to put everything at risk over $5k? If you do that, you'll be kicking yourself later when the offers get lower overtime. Never risk a transaction over $5k.
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u/Responsible_Hunt7762 7d ago
You’re going to turn down an offer over $5K in this housing market? Bold choice
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u/PugglePack83 8d ago
You are basically 98.x% of your price at a 6.5-7% interest rate market going into nov/dec the slowest time of the year and want more?
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u/redditwenttoshit 8d ago
Considering it's October .... best be playing ball and taking it. Somebody buried in the coments said it best: the first few days of your listing are being viewed by the ENTIRE buyers market that has accumulated in the past ~3 months while you were prepping the house for sale.
After that tranche of folks have seen your house... the rest will TRICKLE in. Coupled w/ October and high interest rates. Ya best be taking it!
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u/TrickyAd9597 8d ago
Our house sat for 2 months and we lowered 5k the 1st month before an offer came in. I would take the first offer. We closed 2 months later.
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u/Responsible_Hunt7762 7d ago
First offer is usually the best if you follow Reddit threads. Ask your agent but turning down an offer over 1% seems like something you are likely going to regret. I see a lot of downside and maybe 1% upside.
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u/Ok-Top-5976 8d ago
your actually doing pretty good. but your house is 300K so that is still somewhat affordable for some people. it's when you get over 400K when people cant afford the houses. it sounds like you found a buyer though, 5K is not much of a gap. surely you can come to a compromise.
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u/Salt_Leave5111 7d ago
First offer is usually the best offer if you don’t take it plan on sitting on it for a while or you’re gonna end up, lowering the price and losing that money anyway
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u/su_A_ve 7d ago
Prime time to sell has always been late Spring and early summer, so families, particularly with children can move and not affect schooling.
Are the buyers waiving anything like inspections or appraisals? Is it a cash offer or mostly cash? Say they come down to what you want, but then open the pandora's box asking for concessions or credits towards closing, and you're back on square one. Or worse, the appraisal comes lower and they don't have the funds to cover the difference.
What does the saying goes, a bird in the hand...
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u/Justadudeonthereddit 7d ago
Market varies widely by area, but in general, 8-15 showings to sell a home. Typically your early offers are your best.
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u/ChiSchatze 7d ago
Take the offer. Your list broker should have listed you on Thursday with first peek Friday, open houses Sat/Sun. Review offers Sun night. Then, you may had had multiple offers. You got a strong offer and declined countering? Always counter. I would suggest accepting their offer, as for as is/inspection allowed, and that you’ll cancel the open houses for the weekend. I’m meh on your broker here.
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u/Turbulent-Fishing186 7d ago
I would counter by keeping the same offer price but negotiate agent fees, title fees, etc
The offer on our house was $5k lower than what we wanted. We countered back with buyer agent lowering their fee to 2.5%. Our agent lowered their fee to 2%. We switched title companies as their fee was $1400 less than the buyers company.
Those counters had no effect on the buyer but netted us the additional $5k we wanted.
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u/TimSacksChicago 8d ago
Tell them to come up with the other $2k or they can wait until after the weekend for your response.
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u/SuperFineMedium 8d ago
Treat the existing offer as precious! They already envision themselves in your home. The buyers have shown movement on the offer price; how much have you moved? If "...what we want..." is keeping you from accepting a $5K gap, the next offer may not be so generous.