Last month I got a lowball offer that was so absurd I genuinely thought it was a typo. The house was listed at $425,000—priced competitively, great condition, updated kitchen, the whole package. The offer came in at $289,000. No contingencies to sweeten it. No explanation. Just vibes and audacity. I called the buyer's agent thinking maybe a zero got dropped somewhere. Nope. She said her clients "really love the house but feel the market is shifting." Shifting to what? 2009? The best part? They wanted the sellers to leave all the furniture AND cover closing costs. I'm sorry, would they also like my client to personally drive them to settlement in a horse-drawn carriage? I presented it to my sellers with the straightest face I could manage. The wife just stared at me for a solid fifteen seconds before asking if this was a prank. The husband wanted to respond with a counter of $50,000 ABOVE asking just to make a point. We politely declined. The house sold two weeks later for $418,000 to someone who understands how numbers work.