High Hanging Fruit with Buyer Offers - 3 ways to WIN that contract
Theory Of High-Hanging Fruit
When the home-selling market is on a 'high', most salespeople are adept at picking the low-hanging fruit. When homes are selling fast, It's so easy to sit and wait for the fruit to drop in one's lap. For example, in a 'hot' real estate market, an average agent can put a sign in the yard and a lockbox on the door. Offers go out on behalf of buyers without pre qualifications or approvals, buyer cover letters and selling zones. In fact, in high traffic areas - in a 'hot' market-, even sellers have better luck than normal, selling their homes by themselves. FSBOs have been steadily declining, down from 14% in 2004 to 9% in 2013, as more sellers realize that the majority of sales are not procured from the house sign. Most shoppers do their 'drive-bys' online, and then contact an agent. Also, the importance of pricing so that buyers trust the price is more important than ever before.
Insure Your Business - In Good Times And In Bad
So what added benefit is there in learning how to to pluck the high-hanging fruit? Imagine the additional business the advanced agent has, even in the high times. The low hanging fruit still drops easily into the basket, as well as the high-hanging fruit that most salespeople ignore in good times and in bad. Consider that in some areas, up to half of the agents simply leave the business when the easy times pass, which (historically) they do every 7-10 years as the market shifts.
There is always a shadow group of buyers and sellers that get left out of a high market, and even more in a 'low' market. Agents may cast aside the low-priced homes, and types of homes or land that are more difficult to work with. After all - who wants to expend energy plucking those high-hanging fruit?
When a strong foundation is built, you will have a great operations manual that covers how to work with the high-hanging fruit.
Buyer Offers
Elements of a great buyer offer, that increase the probability that the buyer will be successful:
1: PRE-APPROVAL
2: COVER LETTER
3: SELLING ZONE
1. The pre-approval letter for the mortgage: buyers are advised to start the process at least a month before they start looking at homes. Various paperwork is required that may be buried somewhere, and credit may be improved a few points to save money. Most loan officers can help with this. Ask yourself, why would any seller consider an offer without a pre-qual or proof of funds?
2. The buyer cover letter: buyers and sellers are human beings and the cover letter from the buyer has been shown to greatly improve the likelihood of that offer being accepted, even against stronger offers.
Tip : When speaking to a client, use “House” for Seller and “Home” for buyers.
Use the seller's first names
Thank the sellers for considering your offer
Complement the seller on something- their decorating/paint choices, landscaping, how clean the house is, etc
Use the buyer's first names
Share a little emotion - kids, dogs, new beginnings, etc
Describe an area of the house and how it will be used - backyard and kids, porch and sitting with family, garage and working on hobby
Describe the intention of a smooth closing. Find out if there is anything they want - longer closing, time in the house after closing etc.
Thank them again for consideration
Include a picture if you think it could help or are in multiple offers
3. Selling Zone: adding the selling zone into the offer pack can help the buyers decide where their offer should be, and show the sellers why they chose that amount. The selling zone is an alternative way of presenting a CMA which gives the sellers and buyers more input into the pricing decision. The sellers / buyers take a moment and say where THEY think it should be. Think 'pin the tail on the donkey!'
Occasionally, sellers may never have seen a CMA when listing their home, or they were presented with the version where you press a button on the MLS and it spits it out. Adding a selling zone to the offer (as long a the offer is reasonable compared to the selling zone!) can be the addition that wins the deal! See video on how to use.
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