Agent Advice: How to get offers accepted.
A big part of our role is not only to bring offers to the table but to help owners understand what the market really thinks of their home, so they can make logical real estate decisions based on facts.
One of the toughest challenges in real estate is getting realistic offers accepted when an owner has unrealistic expectations.
Here are a few common scenarios...
- You are selling a poorly presented, 3-bedroom suburban home with lots of outstanding repairs. Your vendor has a bottom line of $730k. Market feedback puts the property in the mid $600's at best. You secure a solid offer at $680k after 4 weeks on the market but the owner won't even consider it. After pleading with them to at least counter-sign, they agree to go back at $760k. You struggle for weeks to get closer but after growing more and more frustrated, the buyers walk away and buy another home nearby.
- You've been trying to sell a large 5-bedroom home with weather tightness issues for 3 months. The owner wants $900k which you know is unrealistic. Market feedback puts the property at $750 - 800k tops, which you have been communicating in your vendor reports throughout the process. You finally secure an offer (your first since going on the market) at $750k and the owner won't even counter-sign it. In fact, they blow their top at you for presenting such an insulting offer.
- Your owner is hoping to get $600k for their total doer-upper with consenting issues. You run a 3-week deadline process and secure 7 offers. All of which are between $450 - 550k, painting a clear picture of market value. Your owner wants to turn down all offers and go back on the market.
Do these situations sound familiar?
Firstly, don't beat yourself up if they do. We've all been there. Real estate is a tough gig! It's standard practice for owners to want more for their houses than what the market thinks is realistic.
Understanding your role
As a real estate professional, our job is to find out what a property is worth in the current market. That means, we need to attract buyers to view the home and encourage them to make offers where they see value, while trying everything we can to negotiate the best possible price for the owner(s). If we can generate competition between buyers, it usually makes our job a lot easier.
Securing offers is seriously challenging, especially on properties with issues. So when you do get that far, give yourself a massive pat on the back for doing your job.
Just getting offers doesn't pay the bills though. We need to turn these offers into sales to build a thriving real estate business.