Outside The Box Ideas For Getting Real Estate Buyers Offers Accepted

Wade Webb on May 26, 2021

getting real estate buyers offers acceptedAlmost everyone is experiencing hyper real estate buyer, low inventory market conditions and are struggling to get their offers accepted for their buyers. Am I right?. You continue to write offers and don’t get them accepted or even counter offered and your buyers are getting so frustrated and you the agent is getting so frustrated too. So this week we want to share with you a few different strategies that you may or may not of thought of to help get your offer accepted over the competing agents offering against you and help you compete a little better in the market place. So here we go…..

  1. Humor – I love and believe so much in this statement “If you can make them laugh then you can make them buy.” So why not use some humor in your offer strategy to engage, capture the listing agent and their sellers to want to choose you and your clients to own their home. Make a comment about your offer being the first offer and your second offer being you buying them all hot wings and beer on you at Wings after they accept your bid as the winning bid and say “just kidding.” Show your personality during the process and stand our and pull them in by using something funny. Even try posting something funny in the subject line like “Wade’s favorite, special, double deluxe offer on 1234 Maple Street.” And make sure that it is at least a good offer and stand out from the rest with a funny email subject line. Remember visibility can trump ability every time!
  2. Don’t Just Offer The Higher Price – Don’t just offer the highest price and only rely on your price to win the bid but add something else. Add things like covering their legal costs, their moving costs up to $1,500. Communicate some creative incentives for the sellers in your bids to help you stand out from the rest of the bids in the cue. Dare to be different!!
  3. Detailed Summary Page or Video Included – Think about how many offers and how many pages of information that the sellers and listings agents have to review? Take the time to write out a simple, detailed point by point summary of your offer details saving them both time and energy to help you stand out form the rest of the bids as well. Most agents don’t have a separate written summary or summary video accompany their offer to save the seller and listing agent time and stress. You hope they really appreciate the fact you did this and give you a chance to be that winning bid today. Service above and beyond the rest of the bidders indeed!
  4. Buyer Pay My Selling Commissions – Why does every offer has to be the seller paying both agents the commissions? What about being creative and present a bid that is not payable of the buyer agent fees as I am collecting my fee from my seller to allow you to net more to you the seller. We have drawn up the buyer agreement separate from our offer to pay me the buyer agent and hope this will put us in a better position for our offer to be accepted today. A simple and creative way for our bid to stand out from the other normal bids that agents present.
  5. Don’t Underestimate Relationships – Nothing more powerful than having the right relationships in your market place. Don’t be that agent! You know who they are in your area. Be known as the agent that everyone wants to do a deal with rather than the agent in the area that every agent can’t stand doing business with you because of your ego, reputation and how you treat fellow agents like crap. Many sellers will look at their agent for direction for what agent and what bid and buyer do they like, trust and think will be best to do the sale with? Don’t forget that what goes around always comes around and we take care of our own in this industry. Relationships and reputation always trump all and agents never forget!

There you have just a few creative, outside the box strategies for presenting offers in this current market. Feel free to email me or comment and share some of the best little nuggets you have found give you an edge in the marketplace and helped you win for your buyer the accepted offer. Would love to hear from you!

 

Strength and courage,
Wade

The Art Of Real Estate Offers In 2014

kelowna on October 22, 2014

Real Estate Offers – Learn From the Legends

real estate offersI realize my more than two decades of real estate experience may hurt me this week and I may get some of the new generation of agents thinking this content is completely ridiculous but I honestly believe the art of real estate offers has been lost and that we need to seriously be reminded of some old school fundamentals.

What happened to the days of face to face presentations of real estate offers?

Doesn’t the amount of money we receive for our services warrant the listing and buyer agents getting together and bringing the clients together in the office for an offer presentation?

I remember the day when the listing and selling agents would actually call each other and talk prior to the offer.

Without breaching agency and without breaking our fiduciary duty to our clients whatever happened to both agents prior to preparing and presenting an offer share with one another what the seller is doing if they sell? Why the buyer has chosen to write on this listing and what is their second choice?

Is the seller thinking that their Price, Timing or Terms are most important?

All three?

Why not ask the listing agent to send over their comparables they used for establishing price for their seller and you send the listing agent the comparables you used to establish your buyers price and each of you may find one or two that you might have missed and be able to present to your clients?

Another idea I have is sharing about the average days on market and the average list to sell ratio percentage and try to bring both agents and their clients education levels up prior to entering into the offer and presentation.

After covering the pre offer strategies let’s take a look at some of the presentation strategies that would help get more of our offers accepted.

The most important thing both agents want to create is a spirit of cooperation vs. a spirit of competition.

So many times I have had to say to the other agent “Hey, I am not the enemy here I am just the messenger. The last time I checked you and I get paid if we can get our clients together so let’s try to keep that focus and not work on another offer that doesn’t come together.”

Once we have established that spirit of cooperation then we establish the location and grounds for presentation and there is no better place than to meet at the office. The office is neutral ground and the seller is emotionally disconnected from their home and when the agents and both clients are all meeting at the office we send a message to all parties that something is going to happen and this is business.

Face to Face Real Estate Offers

The presentation begins and the worst thing the selling agent can do is open with a presentation of their own market evaluation. This will send two messages to the other agent and their sellers.

The first is that the listing agent doesn’t know how to do their job and you have taken the liberty to do it for them and the second message is the seller is uneducated and not well informed and you are here to bring them up to speed.

I just cringe when the agent does this because when they leave the presentation usually my sellers are absolutely insulted and don’t care if they ever sell their home to that agent and their buyer.

Someone needs to take control of the offer presentation and that person is you!

I always take control of the presentation by taking everyone out on what Floyd Wickman called the “safe island”.

The safe island is a technique that lets all the parties know what is about to happen prior to it happening.

“I want to thank the selling agent for coming this evening and choosing our home to write their offer on. We know they had other choices. What we will do first is get the selling agent to tell us why they chose to write on our listing first and let us know if they have a second choice.

Then tell us a little about your buyers, who they are, where they are from and what they do for a living.

Then we will get the selling agent to start with their offering price because the price is most important to you Mr. and Mrs. Seller and then share with us the dates and terms of the offer to follow.

We will then have a chance to ask the selling agent any questions and clarify any details of the offer. We will ask the selling agent to excuse themselves and have a chance to discuss the offer with Mr. and Mrs. Seller in private.

Why don’t you begin by telling us about your buyer?”

A few other tips I like to add is pay the clients a compliment on their choice of agent and only if you truly respect that agent.

I also like to remind the seller they have three decisions to make today…

1) Accept the offer and you can stop showing, cleaning and get onto your next goal.

2) Counter and risk losing the buyer and continue showing and cleaning and maybe losing the property they are wanting next.

3) Reject the offer and not respond, again losing the property you want to buy next. I always like to remind the buyer and seller that market value is “what a willing seller and a willing buyer are going to agree upon at that day and time.”

I also like to remind the other agent to remain “Charged Neutral” which is to stay non emotional in all of this and try not to be the “White Knight” and remember this is not our property, not our money and definitely not our decision today, it is our clients.

We are all busy and I know we have all this amazing technology that allows us to never see anyone during the process but I believe if we can merge some of the old school with some of the new school we may just win a few more offers and create a boost in our real estate income and business.

BONUS REAL ESTATE OFFER TIPS:

Multiples Offers

  • Always ask the listing agent if the competing offer is their own.
  • Always wait to present the multiple if possible face to face.
  • Bring your buyer to the offer presentation. Shows you are very serious and can act quickly.
  • Leave the acceptance time for your offer for only say 30 minutes. Doesn’t leave the listing agent enough time to play your offer.
  • Try to bring a letter from the lender stating your buyers financing position.
  • Try to present last if possible. Ask if the other offer included any commission concessions?
  • Take time to educate your buyer to put their best foot forward. They may only get one chance to offer.

Back Up Offers

  • Confirm the collapse date of the first accepted offer prior to writing your back up offer.
  • Make sure you put “Subject to the seller not being obligated to the previously accepted offer on or before (Date). For the sole benefit of the seller.
  • Add the term “Seller and sellers agent agree not to grant any extensions to the first accepted offer.”
  • Add the term “Seller and sellers agent agree not to notify the first party of the existence of the back-up offer.”
  • Add the term “Seller and sellers agent agree not to disclose any details including price, terms and time of the back-up offer to the first party.”

**DISCLAIMER: Consult with your broker owner and/or legal counsel regarding adopting and/or implementing the above information.**

I trust some of this content is helpful and that you can take it and implement it today in your business!

Strength and Courage!
Wade

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