A Unique Way To Get Your Home Sold

A Unique Way To Get Your Home Sold
Frank J. Helderle
With today’s market being what it is and buyers being in control, sometimes a real estate agent has to become creative, aggressive and think “outside the box.”

After being on the market for 120 days with tons of showings, we couldn’t get anything to happen on our listing. It was a nice listing, only 3 years new in a very upscale subdivision. It offered every builder option available, and was priced $20,000 under what the seller paid. Why, it wouldn’t sell was beyond me.

Finally another agent called who had a re-location client who was looking for a quick closing and was a cash buyer. I held my breath and crossed my fingers, nothing happened. The agent called the next day and said they liked it but that they were trying to decide which property they liked the most of the ones they had toured and wanted to go back in for another look. I asked which properties they were comparing our listing to and did some quick comparisons and even visited and toured the other two homes.

The next day the other agent called and said they really liked our listing but had decided to write an offer on one of the other properties. Since that property was about $15,000 less than ours with fewer amenities I asked the agent to give me a couple of hours to discuss some possibilities with my seller.

I immediately got on the phone with my seller. Since this seller had transferred out of town and purchased another home already he very much wanted this home to sell. In some of our previous discussions my client had confided in me that he was prepared to reduce the price lower but only if we had a qualified buyer who was ready.
I suggested he reduce his price to the point he was willing to go and that we write a reverse offer.
We wrote the offer and presented to the buyer’s agent, who after a brief education on reverse offers, presented the offer to his buyers. The buyers were elated and accepted the offer. The seller was able to get his home sold with a minimal reduction in his asking price.

There are just too many choices out there for buyers today and by offering an incentive to them it should make them take notice. Sellers have to become more aggressive and let the buyers know they are serious.