A lowball offer on a Highland Lakes home isn’t always the same kind of lowball, and how you respond should depend on why the buyer is actually offering low. In a region with ten towns and several very different lake and inland markets, buyers have more specific (and sometimes more legitimate) reasons for testing a low number here than they would in a single, uniform market.
I’m Robbie English, Broker and REALTOR® for Uncommon Highland Lakes Realty, and I negotiate offers across all ten Highland Lakes towns. Here’s how I sort through a lowball offer before deciding how to respond to it.
Read the Reason Before You React
Some lowball offers are just buyers testing the water, hoping a seller is more anxious than the listing lets on. Those are usually easy to identify: a bare-bones offer with no supporting comps, a pre-approval that’s thin or missing, and terms that ask for everything: low price, seller-paid closing costs, a long option period. Other lowball offers are buyers making a real argument, and those deserve an actual answer, not a reflexive rejection.
Waterfront Offers: Know Which Lake You’re On
One argument I see fairly often on waterfront listings is a buyer citing “lake level risk” to justify a low offer. Whether that argument holds up depends entirely on which lake the property is on. Lake LBJ and Lake Marble Falls are constant-level lakes: the Lower Colorado River Authority holds them within roughly a one-foot range year-round as pass-through reservoirs, so a dock or boathouse on either one isn’t exposed to meaningful seasonal drawdown. Lake Buchanan, upstream near Burnet, is a water-supply reservoir that’s designed to fluctuate, sometimes substantially, for flood control and water supply. A lowball offer built around lake-level uncertainty is a legitimate point on a Buchanan-adjacent property; it doesn’t hold up on Lake LBJ or Lake Marble Falls, and knowing the difference lets me counter with the actual facts instead of just asserting the seller won’t budge.
Comps Have to Match the Actual Competing Inventory
A buyer offering low on a Kingsland lakefront listing will sometimes point to a lower-priced sale in a different town on the same lake as justification. That comparison is only fair if the properties are genuinely similar: same lake, similar dock and water depth, comparable square footage and lot. Because I work all ten towns, I can pull real comps from Kingsland, Horseshoe Bay, Granite Shoals, and Sunrise Beach Village at the same time and show a buyer’s agent exactly where their comparison breaks down, rather than arguing from a single town’s data.
Countering Without Losing the Buyer
The goal with any lowball counter isn’t to win an argument, it’s to move the number without losing a buyer who might genuinely close. That usually means countering with specific justification: the actual comps, the actual lake facts, recent showing activity, rather than a flat refusal. If the buyer’s number is close enough to be worth engaging, a small concession on closing costs or timeline can sometimes bridge the gap without moving on price at all.
When to Hold Firm and When to Walk
Not every lowball offer is worth countering. If a buyer’s opening position, financing, and terms all signal they’re not seriously ready to transact, spending negotiating energy there can cost you a better offer that’s about to come in. Reading that signal correctly (and knowing when the listing simply needs more time on the market rather than a lower price) is part of the job.
About Robbie English
I’m the Managing Broker at Uncommon Highland Lakes Realty, and I’m also a Real Estate Negotiation Expert (RENE) and a national instructor who has taught negotiation strategy to agents across the country since 2016.
If you’re sitting on a lowball offer and trying to decide whether to counter, hold, or walk, let’s talk it through before you respond. Call or text 830-953-5571, or reach out to my team.
