Offer came too early?

tell them if they are willing to meet the list price, you can start the contract process and they need to sign within a week.

And you will show till they sign. You do not have to tell them that upfront

Remarkable - we don't know the price, we don't know the comps, we don't know the velocity of deals in the area, relative price points, condition of the apartment. We don't even know the number of bathrooms let alone the number of bedrooms. Further, we don't know about the financials of the prospective buyer, the manner in which they communicated their offer, and what they have communicated in the "few weeks" since that offer was made. We also don't know the credentials of your broker, how many deals they do in your price point and area.

Yet 300_mercer has the answer, knows exactly what you should do with one of your most valuable assets. Remarkable.

You don't have to know all the details for offer your suggestion. BTW I like 300_mercer's .

steven. Some people need to take their meds or be institutionalized. I just ignore them as hopefully others on the board do.

Prescribing medication without going to medical school or knowing my medical history? Remarkable.

I wonder if the OP is refusing the current offer because it comes from a "young couple."
This of course would be illegal.

I bought in a buyer's market and sold in a seller's market. As a buyer, I demanded a response within 24 hours, which was negotiated to a very firm 36. I gave a strong (but not full price) offer for an apartment that had a lot of interest, and I did not want the offer shopped around.

When we sold, we did not reply for 10+ days to a full-price offer that came in the day after the first open house. (We had two other comparable offers come in that day as well.) I am sure there was communication between the two agents, but I actually felt really badly for the couple who made an excellent offer and sat waiting for 10 days as we had two more open houses. Then got told to go to best and final within 24 hours. Then came back with the highest price. And finally got turned down for a cash buyer with a better chance of passing the Board. NYC real estate is brutal. I feel terribly for the buyers and hope they found something they love even more.

As for the OP, if your place has been on the market for 2-3 weeks and you don't have any other offers, I'd say you should negotiate on the offer you do have.

Always counter a reasonable offer. That is my opinion. You never know where the conversation will lead you. I also think you received not so great advice, many of the best offers come in sooner rather than later.

Keith Burkhardt
The Burkhardt Group

@lad. great insight.

Often your first offer is your best offer.

@30yrs_RE_20_in_REO

I agree on one hand. On the other hand, I think days on market is too short to make the decision.

I think it is a mistake to not engage with every legitimate opening offer, whether you are selling widgets, or airplanes or real estate. You want to keep the buyers in the game and interested. If you just wish to merely keep them at bay, tell them that you are not entertaining offers below the ask at this time. If you only want a better offer, counter. They expect you to, and aren't going anywhere. You will have several weeks to go down this path while still having the option to take higher or better offers before a contract is signed. The buyer you turn down or ignore is not likely to reappear, unless you have some incomparable property.

WTF does it mean to agree on the one hand and disagree on the other hand? I'm in the car, and I have one foot on the gas, and the other foot on the brake - I don't seem to be going anywhere, but the gas is rapidly depleting, what is going on?

Be thankful we only have two hands

"a few weeks ago" is not a short period of time to be listed. If you wind up getting beyond 30 days on market, buyers will begin to wonder, 'whats wrong with this?' No offer is too soon if the price is acceptable based on what you wanted to achieve. Ultimately the market sets the price, the longer you are listed the less leverage you have as a seller. As a broker that currently only represents buyers, we love when a listing agent/seller mishandles a listing (mostly through pricing unrealistically and then remaining anchored to that valuation). We have signed 2 contracts this week where we were able to take advantage of this. Both sellers came back to us after initially rejecting our bids without a counter. Either way, best of luck!

Keith Burkhardt
The Burkhardt Group

Have you had any buyers come back for a second look? If in 2-3 weeks you haven't had repeat lookers (and you trust your broker is doing a decent job) I might consider the offer. You can check sold comps/number of days on market using the street easy tools. How does your listing line up with these? How far off are they from your asking price?

@dharma.

About 2nd showing, it totally depends on the buyer. I decided to buy my current condo after 5 mins viewing. A buyer requested 2nd showing for my apt, then made a low ball offer a day later.

The 1st offer was not far off from the listing price. I will be making decision this week .

You seem fun.