Asking a range?

Has anyone heard of a homeowner asking for "a range" instead of a set asking price? We just ran into this about 2 weeks ago. The guy was asking 519-569K, completely threw us off because we had never encountered that before. His agent basically said come in with any offer in or around that range, and the homeowners are willing to negotiate. Ok.

We go look at is house twice, bring my mother along, get serious. Put an offer, homeowner counters, we counter, homeowner says final 555K. Period.

We were a little confused and frankly pissed that we wasted our time. His realtor seemed a little embarrassed that she herself did not know her clients expectation on the homes final price. When asked how come he is asking a range if he obviously has a set price in his head, she was just apologetic for wasting our time.

Anyway, we walked away because the comps do not justify paying that amount. So, just wanted to know if anyone else experienced this "range" or lack thereof in this case. Lol.... Such a shame.

Re: Asking a range?

I personally never put a "range" of asking price on my listings. I agree it doesn't really make much sense. I always wonder, when there is a range, who is ever going to come in at the high end of the range?

It's really two possible things (or both) when you see a range:

1. The homeowner and his real estate agent really didn't agree on a list price. The homeowner wanted to list at $569K, but the real estate agent felt the comps dictated a lower price along the lines of $519K. So as a compromise, they list it as a range. It does get more market exposure that way, because if someone is searching up to $520K, say, the house will still come up in their search because the low end of the range falls within the parameters. So it helps get more buyers in, because a lot of people might cut off their search at $550K, say, and if it was listed at $569K, these buyers would not come in to see it. But it is kind of a waste if the seller really wants the high end price (plus again, putting the range is really inviting lower offers).

2. The second reason for putting the range may be the seller (and his agent) trying to discourage low ball offers by setting parameters on what they will consider. So it's basically saying "I won't consider offers below $519K." I guess arguably someone could say they would accept an offer lower in the range if the terms were great (maybe an all-cash offer, for example).

But I still think it's a better tactic to just list at ONE price, even if it's a little high for the market. Let the seller test the market and usually if there's no activity at that price, the seller will lower the list price (if there's motivation). And of course, buyers will usually come in looking to negotiate. So I feel there's no need to set an artificial range... houses usually sell for around their market value, regardless of the original list price (whether it's over or under priced to start), and regardless of whether there's a range or a set list price.

Sorry you had a frustrating experience!

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The range is just a trick to get many people in, IMO and then just play games with them until they get the highest price they wanted anyway.

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The house we bought was listed as a range and our experience was very similar to yours, except he finally started negotiating realistically with us.

The logic doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I think sellers just think they're being clever, but I agree, they are usually just wasting everybody's time.

Message edited 10/9/2013 2:04:28 PM.

Re: Asking a range?

Our home was listed as a range from $349,999 - $389,999. It was a waste of time. They wanted anything over the $375,000 range. Why not just list it at $389,000 then? We started on the $350,000 side but obviously they weren't having it.

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this happened to us. basically, the owner thought it was worth more than the realtor, so she convinced him to allow for a range.....

when we asked the owner about the range when we first saw the house, it sounded like he had no idea what it was about other than it was his realtor's idea. it was pretty clear from speaking with him that he strongly felt that the house was worth more than even the upper end of the range....

so yeah, we put in an offer in the middle, and wound up coming up. there were also multiple offers on the house at that time (probably b/c of the lower end of the range).

i wasn't a fan of the range, but we liked the house....actually, if the house was listed at the higher end originally, i am not sure if we would have been in as much of a rush as we were to see it....so i guess it served its purpose in a weird kind of way...

Re: Asking a range?