Sellers in real estate could be motivated for a variety of reasons including but not limited to closing an estate, relocating due to a new job or even losing a job thus trying to avoid foreclosure. Motivated sellers are great prospects to get a fast transaction for a great price. Here are three negotiating tactics for dealing with motivated sellers in Fresno.
Get Curious About the Motivation
If someone is motivated to sell, be an active listener to understand the reasons why. You might get this information directly from the seller or the real estate agent. Become well versed in asking probing questions that aren’t obtrusive. People will develop trust with you and feel comfortable sharing information.
As you learn more about why a seller wants or needs to sell quickly, you can artfully craft your offer to hit all the emotional buttons to affect them. Selling a home is an emotional transaction to begin with. Knowing if someone needs to sell because a parent passed away or because they lost their job is a different type of negotiation than someone who got a new job in another state or who just got married.
The more information you can obtain, the more effective you will be in developing your negotiation tactics for a successful sale. Using positive trigger words like “deserve”, “happy”, and “trust” over negative words such as “death”, “sad”, and “difficult” can help encourage a good mood during a stressful time. Learning how to communicate effectively in negotiations with motivated sellers can increase trust and help close more deals.
Those With Patience are Rewarded
One of the best negotiating tactics for dealing with motivated sellers is having patience…at least more than your competition.
Chances are you will make an offer much lower than the sellers want. Even though they are motivated, they want as much as they can and sometimes have skewed ideas of what the actual value of their home is. Don’t let this deter you.
Motivated sellers might not get a lot of offers if the market is slow or the property is in any level of distress. Stay firm to your offer and wait. Watch the property and check in with the sellers to see if they have accepted another offer. As time moves on, the sellers will become more desperate to begin escrow and get on with their lives. Whatever the motivation is behind the sale, time is not going to lessen the need to move the property. As time goes on, it only increases the need to sell quickly.
If you have padded your offer with enough wiggle room, you can still get the property for less than what the seller was trying to get earlier using a quick closing as your tactic to move forward.
Cash is King
Once a motivated seller gets an offer, he’ll want to know how fast you can close. His eagerness is key to accepting your offer if it looks like your offer is the fastest and most guaranteed to close. In fact, a motivated seller might accept a lower offer from one buyer that is viewed as guaranteed rather than a higher offer from a buyer who might not be able to close.
One of the easiest ways to structure an attractive offer to a motivated seller is to have cash for the sale. This way the seller doesn’t need to wait for appraisals and loan funding to close the deal. Cash closes faster; it’s just that simple. Do what is necessary to get the cash prior to making the offer.
To further entice the sellers, make the offer “as is” so the sellers no longer need to worry about credits or repairs. When a seller knows he won’t be nickeled and dimed over every little thing, he is more likely to accept the offer and get through the process as quickly as possible in order to get his proceeds.
These are some of the more important and basic negotiating tactics for dealing with motivated sellers in Fresno. If you would like to learn more, give us a call at (559) 554-2230.
