Why a small community changes how the offer gets built, not what it's built from
With fewer houses selling in a given year, there's less recent, directly comparable data for a buyer or an appraiser to point to. That doesn't make an offer less legitimate, but it does mean the reasoning behind the number matters more — a buyer working Merlin regularly should be able to point to nearby comparable sales, even if they're a town or two over, rather than pulling a figure out of thin air.
Rural and small-community houses in Chatham-Kent often carry the same age profile as everywhere else in the municipality — older roofs, older furnaces, and wiring that predates modern code — so the core inspection points don't change just because the town is smaller.
What to ask a buyer who says they work Merlin
Have they actually bought here before, or is this the first inquiry from the area? What comparable sales are they using to set the number, given there may not be many recent ones right in Merlin itself? A buyer without a good answer to either question is guessing, not pricing.