The *Real* Negotiations Begin

My realtor called the seller's realtor around 3pm today and presented them with my counter offer, which was $4K below the seller's counter offer. Within 4 hours, the seller's realtor was on the horn to my realtor with another counter offer. Their offer was $2500 above my offer and they took away the home warranty ($400 value). Both my realtors... well, one is the assistant... think the seller is desperate since they called back so soon. My realtors want me to stand firm at my offer for now and are going to call the seller's realtor back tomorrow at 4:45pm to tell them. We have until 5pm to make a decision. We're going to make them sweat it out. LOL

The other thing we have in our favor besides it being a buyer's market is that the house has been on the market for 255 days and no offers whatsoever.

Another interesting note: The seller told her agent that she put $1500 worth of work into the bathroom. Both my realtor and myself think she's full of crap if she thinks we'd believe that. There is NOTHING in that bathroom that is new. The toilet doesn't even flush right. The linoleum on the floor is stained around the toilet which means at one point it leaked. There was new flexible hose on the toilet, but that didn't cost $1500. The shower or sink fixtures aren't even new. My realtor said that if she spent $1500 then she got ripped off.

I'm taking TeeJay's advice and finding out exactly what the $1500 was spent on since I can't see where that amount of money was spent on the bathroom. I also have a call into my realtor to find out how long the current owner has owned the home, how much she paid for it, and how much mortgage she's carrying. It'll take some detective work...