Bob Foster

Ok. You have a good home. You have worked on it and there are lots of improvements made since you moved in. You have looked at the comparables, and, with the advice of your agent you have come up with a good list price. You know enough about the market to be sure you are priced competitively and you are reasonably confident you can sell for something fairly close to your list price.

Then you get a call from your agent saying that an offer has come in, but the tone of voice sounds less than encouraging. You find that the potential buyers have sent in an offer that is far, far below what your property is worth ... you have been low-balled!

So, what do you do?

The first thing that comes to mind might be to throw the offer in the waste basket and tell your agent that you have been thoroughly insulted. You may think that people who would put in an offer like that have no idea what your place is worth, and that they will never some up to a reasonable price. Why bother negotiating at all?

Well, you may be right ... but ... is there any harm in finding out?

Some people low-ball offers with absolutely no expectation that you will actually accept them; they just want to check out your response and see how far you will go to accommodate them. Do they know who much you are willing to settle for? No.

So ... before you toss the offer away ... talk to your agent. Is your property really fairly priced? If so, then consider this: you have a buyer interested enough in your property to sign a deposit check and put in an offer. At this point, they don't know what you will accept, and you don't know what they will pay - so send them a message.

If your bottom line is that you will reduce your price by no more than $6,000 and they have offered $30,000 less, sign back with a reduction of $3,000. What can you lose? If they are not really interested, they will walk away. If they are, you have started a more meaningful discussion.

Yes, be realistic, and, yes, be informed about the changing market. But, if you have a property that is priced correctly, there is absolutley no reason why you need to accept less than a fair price. At the same time, there is no reason why you should not respond to any offer that comes in.

Recently some of my clients had a low-ball offer. We talked about this, and they decided not to toss it away in anger. In the end, they dropped $9000 from the list price, but the buyers came up $30,000. The deal was there to be made, and there would have been no advantage to anyone if the initial offer had been thrown in the wastebasket in anger.

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Bob Foster

YourHomeinQuinte.com

I must admit that I really haven't paid much attenion to what is happening in terms of real estate sale on eBay. I mainly use it to buy bargain batteries for my cameras and cell phones, and it seems to be a great source for those products.

Just for fun tonight I checked to see what was happening in my area (Ontario, Canada) in real estate sales on eBay.

First I found this ad. Ok, a lakefront cabin, and the starting bid is $30,000 US. Sounds like a bargain. But then I get down to the small print and find out what the $30,000 is buying -

"By participating, you are not entering into a contract to purchase this property. You are, however, expressing serious interest in the property and in pursuing contract discussions."

Ah ... so here is an efficiency move. Forget downpayments and escrow. The owner is basically saying, "Send me $30,000 or more and I will know that you are seriously intersted in talking to me about buying this property." Interesting.

Or consider this one.

The starting price for this 120 acre parcel of bog land, with, the owner says, some silver in the ground, is $500,000 US, or, if you would like to avoid all the competing bids, you can "Buy It Now" for $20,000,000 US.

Ok ... no reports on the mineral deposits ... and the main asset here seems to be that he wants someone else to come in and dig out all of the peat moss, make a lake, then sell off lots around the lake. I'm not familiair with the area, but it would be interesting to see what he paid for the property. $10,000 perhaps?

So, isn't this all very curious?

Why are the listings on eBay so disreputable?

Is this happening in the eBay listings for your area as well?

Today was the day to plant the Sweet Pea flower seeds I had purchased. They had soaked in water for 24 hours, and the earth was dug, rish and fertile, with lots of peat moss to aid with water retention through the summer. As I planted them, my mind flashed back more than 50 years to a time I shared with my grandparents.

I was lucky enough to spend each summer at a cottage they had on Lake Simcoe, and when the time was right, our whole family would get in the car (a 1940's Durant, I think) and drive to an abandoned farmer's field to pick sweet peas. My grandfather, "Gramps", would explain that the fact that the sweet peas were now growing wild in this field meant that this was likely the site of an old homestead. The house was gone. Whatever foundations there may have been there originally were gone too, but the sweet pea flowers that may have been planted by someone there a hundred years ago still came up beautiful, delicate and oh so fragrant. When we got back to the cottage there would be a large bouquet, and the sweet smell would linger through the summer.

So, as I planted my sweet peas, I thought about my parents and grandparents, and my younger sister eagerly gathering these beautiful flowers, and I also wondered about who it was that planted them there originally, bringing a touch of beauty into a life that may well have seen more than its share of hardship and hard work. I appreciated the fact that my parents and grandparents wanted to acknowledge the lives of those who had gone before them, and realised that I was now at an age where this was important to me as well.

Our lives are all about dropping seeds into the earth. Just like the person who planted those sweet peas perhaps a hundred and fifty years ago, we have no way of knowing what influence we may have for good in the future.

Through email correspondence I have been getting to know Pam, a teacher in Alberta who is interested in buying some investment property back here in Belleville, Ontario, where she was raised. I mentioned that I was a teacher as well - for 38 years - and today she asked, "So do you miss the teaching?" Pam had no way of knowing that I am a blogger, and I hope she will excuse my posting the reply. In my experience, there are quite a few retired teachers in real estate, and I'm sure they will have something to add to make my answer more complete. So here it goes -

Dear Pam,

I have a lot of great memories from my years in the classroom, and I don't know that there will be anything I do in my entire life - other than being "Dad" - that will leave as much of a legacy as the work I did as a teacher. I meet up with former students all the time, and when they stop to chat to me, I feel really honoured. In the schedule of bells, lessons, projects, test and deadlines, it is sometime difficult for teachers to see what they are accomplishing, but I want you to know that teachers leave a legacy every day, and that, most often, it is one of encouragement, trust and growth. When that doesn't happen, I question if the person at the front of the classroom is actually teaching.

While I am no longer in the classroom, I'm not sure I can ever miss teaching, because I know that the day I actually stop being a teacher will be the day I am on planet Earth. The reason is simple enough. Beneath all the clutter, teaching is really about understanding who someone is, where they are, where they need to go, and helping them get there. This is a human activity, not limited to one profession, and I am still a teacher even though my business cards now says, "Realtor".

This past month I listed a home for the parents of a young and growing family who need more space, and who can afford it due to their hard work. Both the husband and wife are people I taught in Grade One - and that is why they called to list with me. I will have a great time selling the place they have now, and helping them find a wonderful new home for the future.

I also started working with a young man looking for his first home, a family moving back from Manitoba to Ontario, a Mom who is looking for a good place for herself and a handicapped daughter, another Mom who can no longer maintain a beautiful home and needs to find a condo where maintenance is done for her, a gentleman looking to rebuild his future by buying his first home in many years, a former colleague who is looking for a waterfront getaway, and a couple who found a dream home and property for their retirement.

If it sounds like these people are all different and all need different things, that right. It's really the same as what teachers face every day as they come into a classroom of individuals and know that one presentation, one answer, is never going to work for all of them.

Many of my clients are advanced, self-directed learners. They have great skills, and all I need to do is to give them the right information for decision-making. Others will do better with a lot more coaching. No one expects a first time buyer to understand everything going on in a real estate transaction. So I am still teaching, as required, and still helping people meet their goals.

I don't miss the bells. I wish I could miss the staff meetings, but we still have plenty of those :)

I don't miss the pressures involved in covering all the curriculum effectively. I do value the opportunity to get to know some great people at various stages of their lives and help them as much as I can.

I haven't left teaching.

Sorry, but I can't resist posting these real estate jokes that I find on the Internet. If you have others, please send then along because I am also building a page for them on my website.

Here's today's story -

Some men in a pickup truck drove to a lumber yard.

One of the men walked into the office and said, "We need some four-by-twos."

The clerk asked, "You mean two-by-fours, don't you?"

The man said, "I'll go check," and went back to the truck.

He returned shortly and said, "Yeah, I meant two-by-fours."

"All right", said the clerk. "How long do you need them?"

The customer paused for a moment and said, "I'd better go check."

After a while, he returned to the office and said, "A long time... we're gonna build a house!"