I am utterly amazed at a lot of the opinions in this thread. Everyone is entitled to theirs, but wow this is eye opening.
I don't understand the idea that negotiating (in good faith) is antagonistic. Maybe some people just don't like it and are uncomfortable, because they aren't good at it.
Buyers can come with a low offer, but the seller can't start with a high offer? That is a weird position to take. If it is too much work for you to make an offer and negotiate toward an acceptable deal, as the buyer, then you deserve to either pay more than you could have, or to have to look elsewhere for a better deal. If it is too much work as the seller to negotiate toward an acceptable deal, then you deserve to get less than what you could have, or have to wait for another buyer to come along.
And by the way, where is the rule that says the seller has to come down to his minimum acceptable offer every time? That is a skewed view. The seller might have multiple potential buyers, in which case, the buyers are competing with each other. But, the seller might be competing with other sellers for the attention of a single buyer. It is all about leverage, who has it, and who doesn't, just like it should. Kinda sounds like supply and demand, no?
Any time that one party wants to sell an item, that item has a certain value to them, and a separate value to the buyer. How bad does the buyer want it, how bad does the seller need to sell it, how hard is it to find, how many are available, all those things come into it. Working toward a price that meets both parties' perceived value is not by any means antagonistic. You don't have to make a deal. If the price is too high, you don't have to buy it. If the offer is too low, you don't have to sell it.
A seller can't force the buyer to purchase it, and vice-versa. So I don't know what the problem is. I have never been offended by a low ball offer, I just make a counter offer. Sometimes that leads to additional negotiation, sometimes not.
As the seller or the buyer, you have no idea of the other party's situation. They might be willing to spend way more than what you think. Or they might be willing to sell it for way less than their initial price. Chances are you will never know, and ultimately, that is a good thing.
It would be interesting to know everybody's age in this thread. I am 44. My guess would be that there are a lot of millennials in this thread.
I am a "millennial" at 29, but I'm not sure how that comes into play as all of my posts are in agreement with everything you have said here...