Buyers may even personally write a letter to the sellers to make their point, as they did when the market was hot and they aimed to stand out from the crowd, Gaylord said. That way, they can detail what they like about the house but express their fear of future dropping values.

That's still not to say the seller will respond positively.

"The difficulty we're having in my market right now ... sale prices are not dropping, things are staying on the market longer," Gaylord said. "Buyers read about how terrible the market is; sellers don't want to budge because they're reading that prices aren't falling."

3. Prepare for the possibility of rejection, or negotiation.

Ultimately, a real estate agent working on behalf of a buyer needs to honor and facilitate the offer that the buyer wishes to make - even if it seems to be too low.

Gaylord offers a word of warning to buyers making very low offers, pointing out that the seller might refuse to negotiate. On a "super-aggressive offer," Boyd might tell a client "there's a one in five chance there will be a positive response."

Still, there's that potential for a seller to counteroffer, especially if there haven't been many other bids. Danielle Kennedy, a real estate sales coach and author based in Pacific Palisades, Calif., advises sellers not to think of a low offer as an insult but as "a sign of interest."

"And it begins the dialogue regarding the purchase of your house," she said in an email interview. "They should make every effort to be grateful that an offer has come in."

Also, not all hope is lost even if a seller doesn't bite immediately.

Sometimes after time elapses, the seller comes around and decides to negotiate, Boyd said. Or new information - such as the sale of a comparable home at a lower price - can nudge a seller to give an aggressive offer a second look and open the negotiation process.

(c) 2007, MarketWatch.com Inc. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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