Trailer Shopping: “Or Best Offer”

[3chestnuts]

I’m in the process of shopping for a used two horse trailer with a dressing room, and the market is hot right now in the northeast. Trailers are selling quickly and sellers are getting top dollar for them!

I’m going to look at a trailer this afternoon that I’m very interested in. It’s listed for $9k “or best offer”.

Although I’m stretching my budget, the asking price seems to be fair. I want to be sure when/if I make an offer that I’m not leaving money on the table, without insulting the seller. Typically, I’d think an initial offer of 10-15% off asking would be legitimate, but that’s a significant amount of money with a larger purchase like this.

So, those who have been around the block more than I have - what do you offer on an item listed as “or best offer”?

[trubandloki]

There is no one correct answer here. There is no easy way to know if the seller priced high expecting to get 15% less or if the seller expects to get very close to the asking price.

On other ‘what would you offer’ threads I have seen people post their success stories of low ball offers and people post how the low ball offer caused the seller to not be willing to further negotiate with them.

If you are thinking of offering $8,000 then I say go for it. It will either work or not work.

[NaturallyHappy]

^^^^ This. I’d probably couch it in a manner similar to this “ I was hoping to stay within my budget of 8k. Would you consider that?” or something like that so as not to insult the seller and leave room for negotiation. I have an acquaintance who routinely insults sellers lowballing them.

[Foxglove]

Very soon (I hope) I’ll be selling my trailer —waiting on the manufacturer to give me a delivery date for the new one --I will sell mine immediately and list it for $8K OBO --the dealer has offered me 6K for it in trade in --clearly the 6K is firm and anything above that will be going into my pocket (or toward the purchase price of the new trailer). So the OBO may be “personal choice” —right now one of the stable workers is trying to get her parents to make an offer --I would take 6K from them immediately —because the stable girl has been a hard worker, every day for two years. I like giving a kid like that a break. Once I have a firm delivery date --and someone puts 8K in my hand --everything ends. However, assume that the manufacturer’s delivery date gets close, and I’ve had no offers --well, at that time, your best offer of $7K looks a lot better than the trade in offer. Or you make an appointment, show up on time, are polite, explain that $7K is the best you can do, it’s a great trailer --hey, I like you and the trailer is yours. Show up late, point out everything wrong with the trailer, sigh a lot, act like I’m a jerk for asking $7K --nope, I’d keep it rather than sell it to you.

As the others said, make the offer. Worst that can happen is the seller says no. If someone is offended, remind yourself it is business. Maybe the “nice guy” who gets mine for less isn’t really a nice guy --just acts like one --doesn’t matter --I’d still rather sell to someone who acts nice and appreciative of the care I’ve put into my trailer than someone who acts like a jerk.

[rothmpp]

So long as you don’t offer something like half the asking price and are polite about i, worst the seller can say is no. Depending on how popular the model you are looking at is and how long it has been for sale, I’d probably start at $8k and see what the seller has to say.

It’s always a tough needle to thread - trying to figure out what amount is not offering more than the seller would take without having the seller not willing to negotiate at all with you.

[mmeqcenter]

IME it’s an absolute crapshoot on how much a seller is willing to negotiate, no matter what they’re selling, so just make the offer you want. I’ve never understood sellers that get offended. Just say no if it’s not an offer you’re willing to take. People always try to get stuff for dirt cheap or free, it has nothing to do with the seller or their item, it has everything to do with the buyer trying to get a heck of a bargain.

I’ve consigned horses whose owners were open to accepting literally 50% of their asking price.
I bought my trailer from a boarder, and she offered it to me for 65% of her public asking price when she heard I was looking.
I’ve offered $45 for a $50 item on Craigslist and been told absolutely not. :lol:

Offering $8k on a $9k asking price? NBD to me.

[Mango20]

I think an $8000 offer is reasonable. It will probably get you a counter-offer, though. I sold a trailer a couple of months ago. I was asking $6000. A prospective buyer asked if that was negotiable, because her budget was $5000. I said, yeah, I was thinking I’d go down to about $5800. But, I was kind of done with it all and just wanted to sell the damn trailer, so told her I would be willing to meet her in the middle at $5500, but was not willing to negotiate any lower than that. She bought the trailer. I got a little less than I wanted, but I got a quick, uncomplicated sale.

[3chestnuts]

Thanks, all. Your insights were very helpful.

I let them know my budget was $8k and asked if they could meet somewhere in the middle. There was a lot of interest in the trailer, so I was happy to settle on $8,500 (my husband, maybe not so much 😆)

The trailer has signs of wear, but has overall been well maintained. Here’s to hoping this is the last trailer I’ll be buying for a while!

[mmeqcenter]

Congratulations!