Did you counter? I'm curious becaus our first offer (on our recent FSBO) was quite a bit below asking. We countered with 1% off our asking and they accepted. We closed a month ago.

No counter that I know of, although my SO might have sent back an "are you kidding me?" e-mail.

... when they are 115K below the stated asking price and almost 200K below the Zillow estimate they are either looking to buy to flip or are way out of their budget range.

There's negotiating and then there's downright ludicrous.

My husband and his ex have put their home on the market for 1.6 million. First offer was 1.3 mil because they said it would take the difference to bring the house up to what they want. They countered at 1.550 mil. The new offer back was 1.5 mil. They are sticking to the 1.550 mil price and will not back off that, but at least negotiations have begun. This couple has a house to sell, and doesn't want to put it on the market until they have a firm acceptance from my hubby and his ex. Odd. I guess people will try anything.

They have another offer at full price, but the buyers are a young Asian couple getting the money from mom and dad who will arrive in August from China to view the house and determine if it's good enough for their investment.

Good luck, but you should counter. Can't hurt!

There is no upside to NOT offering a counter. I always find this tactic (or lack there of) baffling.

I just asked (we're bi-residential right now) ... he countered with the original price.

Zillow's estimate is very inaccurate and means nothing in most markets. If you tried to make an offer on my house based on Zillow, you would be low balling it by at least $1 million!

"There is no upside to NOT offering a counter. I always find this tactic (or lack there of) baffling."

If the owner has a counter out to a buyer, he/she can't counter to another buyer's offer. So, if the owner wants to counter a low-baller, he/she should give them a very short response time so he/she isn't tying up time that could be spent negotiating with more reasonable buyer.

I only remember not countering to one person -- three different offers. Not only was the price way low but the rest of the details reflected a buyer who was not in a strong position to close the deal. The third offer came in about the same time as two others. One was just below asking price and the other just over -- and they couldn't understand why we didn't want to deal with them. Really? I don't see any reason to respond to such low or weak offers with anything other then let us know if you want to get serious.

Good luck with your sale.

I got a low ball offer; not as low ball as yours but definitely a bit ridiculous. I countered a few thousand below my asking point (I was ready to do so) and we sent them the comps showing the price point was fair. They countered up to my counter! The sale is now proceeding--fingers crossed.

I believe, as my realtor said, they were just "testing the waters" at first since my house had been on the market some weeks.

Lazy... what was their response to your counter?

I have found Zillow to be less than acceptably accurate in my area. I would rely on an actual appraisal to determine value. Good luck.

NCrealestateguy ... crickets, of course. Seeing a house built in 1983 being sold by the original owner means someone looking for naive or desperate elderly sellers might get lucky if they lowball wildly. So they did.

Houseofsticks ... We're looking at the bank's estimate as well as the Zillow one.

Zillow is pretty accurate IF you have a fairly homogenous area with moderate turnover (tract housing), which we do. It's not so good when you have wildly variable ages and sizes of houses and lots.