How to Handle a Lowball Offer on Your New York Home

A lowball offer – an offer significantly below your asking price – is one of the most emotionally activating events in the selling process. The instinct is to reject it outright, or to be offended enough that engagement with that buyer feels distasteful. Here is a more useful framework.

Don’t Reject Without Countering

The most common seller mistake in response to a low offer is outright rejection. Unless the offer is so far below any reasonable value that engagement is genuinely pointless, the better response is a counter-offer that clearly establishes your position.

A counter-offer does two things: it keeps the negotiation alive in case the buyer has room to move significantly, and it establishes a record of good-faith engagement that matters if the buyer escalates toward your price.

Counter at or Near Your Asking Price

When countering a low offer, sellers often make the mistake of meeting the buyer dramatically in the middle – countering at $730,000 on a $750,000 listing when the offer was $680,000. This signals that there’s room below $750,000 and invites another round of low-ball negotiation.

In a well-priced listing with supporting comparable sales, the counter should be at or very close to the asking price. The message is clear: the price is the price, and while you’re willing to engage professionally, the comparable sales don’t support the buyer’s position. A firm, well-grounded counter forces the buyer to decide whether to move meaningfully or walk away.

Evaluate the Buyer’s Situation

Before deciding how hard to push back, understand why the offer is low. A buyer who is financially qualified, genuinely interested in the property, and making a low opening offer as a negotiating tactic is a different situation from a buyer who genuinely cannot go higher. The former is worth engaging aggressively; the latter may not be your buyer regardless of how the negotiation goes.

Your agent should attempt to learn – through the buyer’s agent – whether the buyer has meaningful upside or whether the low offer reflects their actual ceiling.

Know When to Walk Away

Not every buyer is your buyer. A buyer who is committed to a price that doesn’t make financial sense for you, who presents a financing profile that makes deal certainty questionable, or who behaves in ways that suggest a problematic transaction is not a buyer worth pursuing past the point of reasonable engagement.

The right offer at the right price from the right buyer is a better outcome than getting to contract with a buyer who will create friction at every subsequent stage.

I help sellers respond to every offer – including low ones – with strategy and data rather than emotion. Call me at (321) 447-4259 or visit movewithricky.com.

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Rakesh (Ricky) Khanna | Licensed Real Estate Salesperson
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Realty Connect
Call or text: (321) 447-4259 | movewithricky.com