How to prevent buyer fatigue

Question

I recently had a client who put in offers every weekend for a month and just got terribly burned out and ended up quitting.  As a noob in the business I am wondering what all the pros out there would do to try and prevent this from happening.

Bruce Lynn · Answer

Set them up for success....show them comps for the area before they go out looking.....have that conversation.....homes are selling for X % over asking....are you prepared for that?  Where is the extra cash coming from since you won't be able to borrow that.  You have access to that cash today right?

You understand you will probably pay more than the appraisal.....you're good with that.  Explain why there are appraisals and who they are for......they're not for the buyers...they're for the banks...who are lending 80-95% of the price and need to protect their investors.....make sure they are comfortable paying more than appraised value and show them the form they will sign to agree to that.

Here's what a typically winning bid looks like......explain each section so they understand up front.   Show them one of your seller spreadsheets with 10-12 offers.....if you were the seller which one would you pick?   The Cash-Conv-or FHA financed offer.....if one comes in with $2500-$10,000-$25,000 earnest money which one would you pick?   and on and on with each section.

Explain the concept that your seller got 10-12 offers, but only one person gets the house...what happens to the other 11 serious buyers who have preapprovals, who have good agents, who wrote competitive offers.

Talk to them about what constitutes a strong offer and how to make it stronger....and how strong do they want to make it.

Walk them through changes in interest rates and how that can play into payments.....if interest rates increase 1% this year, how will waiting affect your payment....how will you feel paying $X more a month for the same house you could have bid a little bit more for today, but saved $100,000 in interest payments over the next X years.

I also try to council them on how many offers the typical buyer might have to make to get one to stick....especially if they want to just make average offers, but not winning offers.

This is the beauty of getting them in the office or somewhere to do the buyer consult....and hearing their sentiments and getting their buy in and comfort level.  There are buyers I just flat out turn down or suggest an alternative arrangement to these days.    Investor asked me one day if I am willing to help him make 100 offers at minimum 20-50% of list price....I said sure for $150/offer.   I'm not doing that for a free fishing trip, when most homes in my market sell 5-25%....and there is not one that sold for more than 10% off in the worst condition in the past year.

Might sound harsh, but people remember the 1980s where you could bargain on car prices and homes.  You could also show them what prices were in the 1980s and where they are today and let that sink in on potentially how much money people have made.

Bahman Ghashghaei · Answer

Excellent advice above. Don't expect to win every battle. It's very much a seller's market and they are in a disadvantage. There's only so much you can do. I have even sent them a meme re being a buyer in this market. So they don't feel it's them.

At the same time, start working on developing your business to get more seller leads. I'll tell you a secret: Not too many agents farm any more. It's energy consuming and hard. Most didn't come to real estate to work hard. Good old farming, dropping off post cards, flyers, notepads, to stay top of mind. Then do open house in your farm so they see you again. For the first time, I'm organizing a Community Garage Sale for March and I'm taken aback by how much my farm is loving it. Feel free to call me if you wanted to know more about what I do.