It's still a buyer's market out there, which means if you're buying a house, you have the advantage. What a buyer's market means is that you can often place a lower offer on the London, Ontario townhouse or Gatineau, Quebec condo that you might have been able to get away with a few years ago. However, as the market recovers, you might find offering a low bid isn't working out as well as you thought. Here are some of the things that could happen if you offer a low bid.
It's accepted
This probably won't happen as much now as it did two years ago or even last year, when sellers were so desperate that their Etobicoke real estate brokers were telling them to accept whatever offers came their way. Today, you're only likely to get an immediate acceptance on a low bid if the house has been on the market for a long time or it was really overpriced.
It's rejected
This is probably the least likely outcome since we've still got the remnants of a buyer's market. You will only usually be rejected outright if your offer is so low as to insult the owners of the Milton real estate you're trying to buy. If this happens, they'll have to be pretty desperate to go back to the negotiating table with you because you have ruined the relationship.
It starts negotiations
This is the most likely outcome. After consulting with his or her North York real estate agents, the seller will counter your bid with one they feel is more reasonable. This figure will probably be closer to the asking price than your bid. What you do after that is up to you. You can either engage in a back-and-forth and come down in the middle (or to one side if one party is more stubborn than the other) or you can walk away and find a different house.
How to decide whether to bid low
Whether you're buying real estate here in Gatineau or Port Perry real estate, general consensus is that you never offer the asking price straight away. You always bid lower to see if the seller will go for it first. However, deciding how low to bid can be tricky. Obviously you want to save as much as possible but you also want to preserve the relationship with the seller. The best way to go is to take your cue from the market.
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