The Preemptive Price Bump

Cash is King

Instead of just accepting our offer, the seller countered asking for another $7,500. We accepted and raised the offer.

I was assuming the seller was asking for the additional $7,500 so that our offer matches the highest bid until I saw the seller disclosures and we completed inspections...

Inspection results included a leaking cast iron pipe in the basement ($250), KnT wiring/service upgrade electrical ($18,000), etc… Meeting in the middle would be around $10,000ish off the purchase when the seller asked for an increase of $7,500 in the beginning. Maybe the seller knew that the inspection would result in this and that's why he decided to counter with a $7,500 raise in purchase price... The Preemptive Price Bump!

Did the seller’s agent raise the purchase price by what the repairs may cost after inspections so that we would land at the original offer amount at the end of negotiations?

The PPB Strategy is when a seller adjusts the purchase price, before accepting the best offer based on the estimated cost of the repairs he/she expects the buyer to request after inspections.

In this case, the seller asked my buyer for $7,500 over our offer, all the repairs add up to about $20,000 so if the seller were to meet us half way, it would be about $10,000 off the purchase price.

Make sense?