Q: Our house has been on the market for 4 months with mild interest from buyers. However, there has been on couple that have been through the house SEVEN times (4 open houses and 3 private showings). What little feedback we get from them indicates they like the house but calls to the agent asking if there is a way we can make things work usually go unanswered. At this point we are almost ready to not let them see the house again. We’re sick of getting everyone loaded up in the car and driving around for an hour.

I bet these folks aren’t alone. There is an old adage in sales – “The hardest word in the English language is “YES”". Volumes have been written on getting people to say it. Each year sales professionals spend time and money going to seminars to learn how to coax it out of people. In a typical setting, like a store or car dealership, getting to “yes” is much easier than in real estate. In real estate there isn’t always direct contact between the seller (or seller’s agent) and the actual buyer. Usually there is another agent guarding the buyer’s door and you have to go through them. Some of these buyer agents can be easy to work with – they’ll relay everything the seller offers or asks to their clients. Some – too many – don’t. They’re busy with other things or, dare I say, lazy. Some view relaying this info to their buyers as hounding them, so they keep it to themselves.

The question here is, how do you get through the gatekeeper to the buyer? And, how do you know for sure that the buyers is getting all the information you are sending?

In a normal sales setting you could employ a method I call “Wouldya couldya.” It’s pretty easy and requires no salesmanship whatsoever. Someone expresses interest in an item and the “salesman” says something like “Wouldya buy it if…?” Insert a price, color, model etc after the if. Most common would be “Wouldya buy it if the price were right?” The two problems with this in a real estate transaction are the buyers agent and the fact that things discussed verbally aren’t worth the paper on which they’re written.

In the case where a buyer has been through multiple times and/or has expressed decent interest in the property, I would suggest to my sellers that they write an offer to the buyer.

At first the sellers usually object saying they don’t want to waste the time putting it in writing if the buyers are non-responsive verbally. Let me ask you this – what is an hour writing an offer compared to another month (or more!) on the market? Putting anything in writing makes it real – the buyer can look at it, hold it in their hands, it details every little item and contingency and gives them a lot of reasons to say yes. While it is easy to say “no” with their mouths, it is much harder to affix their initials on the line of the offer where it says “this offer is rejected.” To their minds, they aren’t just rejecting the offer, they are rejecting the house.

WRITING THE OFFER

Writing an offer to a buyer requires some thought on your bottom line price. What is the least amount you will accept for your home? The next step after this is deciding whether you want to put that price to the buyer or inflate it a little to leave room to negotiate. You can go either way here. Some sellers might be concerned that their offer gets countered by the buyer for a lower price. First, it is highly likely that they will and second, it is OK to repeatedly counter-offer at your original offer price. There are a variety of things in an offer on which you can negotiate.

After you have decided your terms, it is time to put them on paper. Your agent writes the offer the same as he or she would write any offer. There may be some terms you may not know – such as down payment amount, if they are taking conventional financing or FHA, a 15 year or a 30 year mortgage. Don’t worry about that, just put in some normal terms for your market (for instance, if your home falls into the first time buyer market, a 30 year FHA loan with 3.5% down is pretty typical). Once done, just sign the offer where it says “Seller” and send it over. Your buyers WILL see the offer. Agents are obligated to present every offer submitted to them, even if its something as unconventional as an offer written by a seller. If their agent refuses, your agent has the right to present it to the buyers himself. You are guaranteed the buyers will see it.

The reason why you can “fudge” a little on some of the terms of the offer is that the true goal of this is to start a conversation (or to stop the endless showings by buyers not willing to move forward). While a signed contract would be nice, a counter-offer back from the buyer is a definite win for you. If you’re a fisherman, you just set the hook. From here on out you negotiate the deal just like you would any other.

There is a lot of uncertainty in the market today and because of that, buyers are finding it harder and harder to say “yes” to a home they would otherwise jump at. Some of these truly can’t buy the house but the vast majority, in my opinion, can. By writing an offer to your buyers you are reaching out to them as if to say “we want you to own our house. Let us help you do that” and that can go a long way to some buyers. Seller’s in todays market have to be pro-active in every way possible. Marketing and pricing aggressively, repainting and staging the home are great ways to help get your home sold, but they are passive. Writing an offer to a buyer is a great way for a home seller to actively get their home sold.

Posted in: Sell Your Home
Tags: buyer's agent, First Weber, Home Buying, home selling, open houses, private showings, Real estate, real estate transaction, realtor, sales professionals, salesmanship