This year I wrote an offer for a potential buyer that was really, really bad. It wasn’t the worst offer I’ve ever seen. That came across my desk 20 years ago when I sold a property for $100,000 over the asking price. A lawyer wrote his own offer, not using any standardized forms, for half the asking price. It was just complete nonsense, especially considering the market conditions. I forget how many offers I got on that house, maybe 20? Back in 2005 the housing market was going crazy with all kinds of people making offers on houses they couldn’t afford. Predictably the buyers were eventually foreclosed upon.
Back to 2025, this offer I wrote was borderline offensive. My former client, who I stopped working with after getting that first and only offer I ever wrote for him rejected, wrote 15% under the asking price during the first weekend the property was on the market. There were other glaringly bad terms in the offer, including asking the seller to clear section 2 pest work. That was a first for me. I’ve never seen a buyer ask for section 2 to be cleared. Section 2 is recommended maintenance. Section 1 is damage that needs to be repaired, and it’s not unusual to see buyers ask for that. Plus, he wanted a $36,000 credit towards closing costs.
Half way through writing the offer I closed my computer and told myself I couldn’t do it. Then I took a few deep breaths and figured I’d have nothing to lose, except the time it took to write and submit the offer. Since the seller was also using a Coldwell Banker agent, submitting an offer was only going to make the seller’s hand stronger. When you can tell buyers and agents that you’ve already got an offer in hand before the first public open house, it will often make people think, “How high do I need to write to get this house?” The seller’s agent doesn’t need to tell buyers the offer is crappy.
There was really nothing to like about the offer. The buyer also tried to strong arm the seller into accepting or countering right away. He gave until Monday at 5pm to get a response. When the other agent told me they were going to wait until Tuesday to look at offers, my buyer responded that he would not be extending the expiration date. If he was close to the asking price this might have been an effective strategy, but being a couple of hundred thousand off the asking price he had no leverage.
If they received no other offers they could have always come back to us and tried to negotiate, but that didn’t happen. The smartest thing my buyer could have done would have been to extend the expiration date in case no other offers were submitted. In the unlikely event that no other offers were received, maybe they would have considered countering at that time?
Just a word of advice to potential buyers out there. If a property has been on the market for a while you might have a shot at getting a significant price reduction. If it’s the first weekend, good luck with that. If you write a weak offer and the seller asks you to extend your expiration date, by all means do. You’ve got nothing to lose, except not getting the house you want. I don’t think my buyer really wanted the house anyway, otherwise he would have made a reasonable offer. And that’s the story of the worst offer I’ve ever written.