Show Home Sellers The Money
Recently a real estate agent called me about one of the homes I have for sale. He had a buyer who was interested in buying the home. The buyer wanted to make an offer. However, the home buyer wouldn’t make an offer unless they first heard whether the seller was “negotiable.“ I told the other real estate agent, I could only tell him the asking price for the home. I couldn’t tell him or anyone else for that matter, what the seller would do with an offer to purchase his home. It’s the homeowner’s decision, not mine, and often homeowners don’t know what they’ll do until they see the whites of a buyer’s eyes and the blue ink of a contract. If this buyer wanted to make an offer on my listing, then I suggested the buyer put pen to paper. The seller could look at all the terms of the offer, including the price, and then make a decision. Without an offer, there was no decision to be made.
The other agent insisted I have a conversation with the seller or no offer. I warned this agent, in all kinds of markets in the past, when sellers had been asked this question there was the typical “knee-jerk” reaction with something like: “Let’s see an offer “ or “no way”. This buyer risked the seller responding like this, because no seller will take any buyer seriously who won’t show them the money.
Maybe other real estate agents will answer this question when asked, but according to license law, we agents have a fiduciary responsibility to our client, in this case, the seller. This means we can’t speak for the seller. If you’re a serious buyer, show the seller the money and write an offer the homeowners, not the Realtor, can then respond to.
So home buyers, step up to the plate. If a home seller is educated about the market and realistic, they’ll listen to your offer. Can the offer offend the seller and be rejected? Yes, but it can also be countered with a different price or accepted. Our job as real estate agents, and as advisers to a home seller, is to work through the offer price and terms to help a sellers come to a decision. Maybe the decision will be to reject the offer, maybe it’s a counter, and maybe, even maybe, it’s acceptance. But if you’re not willing to write an offer and show sellers the money, you and the sellers will never really know what they would have done. We do know without the offer you won’t be buying the house and the seller won’t be selling it to you.
What have you seen happening in the marketplace? How would you respond to the other agent’s question?
No related posts.
No related posts.
-
http://www.debrasinick.com Debra Sinick
-
http://www.debrasinick.com Debra Sinick
Equal Housing Opportunity. Equal Opportunity Employer. · 
©2012 NWMLS. All rights reserved. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. The listings presented here may or may not be listed by the Broker/Agent operating this website. Listings that are provided courtesy of NWMLS are marked with the NWMLS "three tree" icon. Information last updated on 2/9/12 5:30 PM PST.