Submit Feedback
Member Login
Date: August 22, 2007
RealTown's RealTalk
Create New Discussion 
Digest Archive
To Top
Quote
Reply>>>>Buyers want to come back and show the house to mom or uncle, or measure for refrigerator, or carpet or whatever.... I don't understand why some of you are such kill-joys. The buyers are excited. They are involved. They are making plans. You want to be the wet blanket?
Some times it works that way.....and then, there is my most recent example.
This was the scheduled walk thru, 2 days prior to closing. So, MOM comes along (apparently not just your run of the mill Mom, but the Mom from hell, type of Mom!) and starts dissing everything about the place (there were no reall defects or problems, just a used home that had been well cared for, with a few dings). Gee, the seller had moved out since the buyer last saw it "and fell in love" two month prior, and it had not totally been cleaned up yet, and so it did look different without any furniture...and gee, there were a couple of items that they could have asked to be reparied but they didn't catch them during the inpsection, etc.
So the buyer's agent calls me and sez, "Gee, but the buyer is considering not closing." (This is after waiting two months, for the buyer to sell her condo!!!!!!) I said and she knows she'll loose her earnest money. "Oh yeah. The mother is a wackooo and has told the daughter she should not buy this townhome."
Well the seller and I were on pins and needles for 48 hrs. waiting while the buyer's agent did her best to keep the buyer in the deal. Luckily the buyer's agent was able to........but, my blood runs cold now when the buyer wants to go back in---for anything, especially if the appearance has changed significantly since the last time it was seen---you don't know who they are bringing with them and what that other person will say!!!!
Diane Wolta, Denver
Prudential Colorado RE
Prudential Colorado RE
Shape Yahoo! in your own image. Join our Network Research Panel today!
Diane, while it may be true that parents can/could be the "kiss of death" for a sale, it actually seldom happens that way. I think I only ever had one deal where the parent killed a deal. Some parents feel nothing is quite good enough for their darlings.
My mother tried to talk my sister out of all three of her houses, but my sister bought them anyway.
I'm a parent, and I would want to see anything my children are contemplating to purchase. I would point out the negatives and the positives. Grown children will still make up their own mind. Trying to keep a parent away is not in anyone's best interest, as it can foster hard feelings, and make both agents look bad.
A house that looks bad during a walk-thru, can have issues whether or not the parent is there. We've all seen how the carpet and walls can look awful after the Seller's stuff has been removed. (One of the reasons I prefer vacant houses...) If we warn the buyers of this in advance, they won't be quite so dismayed.
Not all my deals were peace, love & harmony, but MOST were. It's not that difficult when both agents emphasize "accommodate" rather than "stumbling-block".
In Diane's case, it sounds as though both agents kept their cool; did not overreact. This probably held the deal together, while the buyer mentally worked through their last-minute doubts.
Many times the Dad can't wait to get in there and help paint or whatever... :o)
Lindy in Houston
I tend to agree with you. Even though the offer is accepted, the sale of the contract is not complete. There could be any one of many liabilites that could occur. The appraiser along with the inspectot should be the only one permitted to come into the house, especially when it is occupied
It really depends on the situation but for most cases, I would tell them that I would have to check with the seller and ask the seller. I would probably recommend the seller to say okay once we are in contract and contingencies been removed.
Looking for ideas on buyer situation, My name is Vera Hardy, I am a Realtor in Central Texas (Hill Country). My son and his family live in Pistacaway, N.J, they have had their home for sale for more than 6 months now. They have reduced the home. I do not know if this is the right place to put this, but if a Realtor in the area has some suggestions on how this home can be sold. Please advise. My son has taken a job in this area and needs to sell his home in order to move. The address of the home is 26 Jersey Avenue, Piscataway, N.J., 08854. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Sell it if you can. Vera Hardy ePRO.
gene.anemojanis@gmail.com
Date: August 28, 2007
Vera Hardy, did you discuss this with your son's listing agent?! What was and is the traffic on this listing? Was there a brokers' open where the feed back of other agents is most valuable for the seller. There are ways to analyse objectively the RE market conditions in Pistacaway. If the description of the house is appealing, the pictures in MLS are attractive, and the listing agent advertises the property by weekly then there is an obvious problem. The condition of the house and the sold comps don't support the asking price. Six months on the market is a long time especially if one has to move. September is the natural slow down of the market, add to it the multitude of foreclosures on the horizon, doesn't look a bright picture. Why didn't you visit your son for a few days to help him. Hope there is enough equity left in the house so it won't end up in a short sale or foreclosure. This could be a very long topic for discussion via e-mail. Talk to the listing agent, find out if she/he is experienced, etc, etc...
Experienced, doing the best for our clients?!!! Just out of curiosity I looked at the website of one of our Real Talk colleagues. One of her listings had all winter, snow pictures in August! Perhaps adequate for "Coming Soon" listing in North Dakota! Any buyer would be turned off looking at a house (in MLS or the agent'sl web site) that has been on the market for such a long time (until the next snow fall).
Gene A/
Vera Hardy says,
Looking for ideas on buyer situation, My name is Vera Hardy, I am a Realtor in Central Texas (Hill Country). My son and his family live in Pistacaway, N.J, they have had their home for sale for more than 6 months now. They have reduced the home.
Vera, I don't know if this information will help or not, but as the Marketing Manager for our company, I uncovered some research recently that I found very interesting.
We do most of our listing and selling of homes in the Gilbert, AZ area. These figures are for this area, but may work for you, too.
With the huge inventory in our area, only about 7-9% of homes are actually selling. I set out to find "What is Selling and Why?" SOMETHING is going to sell, and I want to be the one to sell it.
I used the PENDING sales in Gilbert since August 1,2007. Of the pending sales, 5.68% were Short Sale/Pre-Foreclosure, 15.08% were REO/Relocation, 21.7% were Builder Spec sales, and 57.54% were "Average Homeowner" sales. An incredible pattern emerged from the 'average homeowner' sales. Licensed real estate agents were the OWNERS of 65% of the pending sales in this catagory!!
That leaves only 35% of the rest of this catagory to REALLY be "average homeowners". Well, guess what, of THIS 35% left, INVESTORS owned over 50% of the pending sales. What does all of this mean?
Real estate agents are starving and 'dumping' excess property as quickly as possible. This means a low price, great condition, above average co-brokes and closing cost incentives are being offered on these homes that went pending. Only a small percentage of 'average homeowners' actually went pending. When I examined these, I saw that they were making the SAME offers as the builders, REO's and Realtors. Below market price, excellent condition, great co-brokes and buyer incentives.
I have concluded the following: Take NO 'average homeowner' listings unless they are willing to compete head to head with the builders. Search and find as many pre-foreclosures as possible. It is more work, but at least you have a chance to get paid. Team up with a local builder with inventory he wants to move. Get permission to advertise his 'specs', so the buyers call YOU first. You'd be surprised how many are willing to let you do this.
As for your relative, the ANSWER is easy. DOING it is hard.
1) Offer a BELOW market price 2) Have all repairs completed and have the home sparkling like a model 3) Be easy to show with a lockbox and availability at a moment's notice 4) Offer at or ABOVE market co-broke commission and /or help with the buyers closing costs. In our area, THIS is what a seller must do, whether he is a pre-foreclosure, short sale, REO, builder or average homeowner, to get the property sold. If the seller CAN'T or WON'T do ALL of this, then get off the market.
--
Deede Wockenfuss
Marketing Manager
Assist 2 Sell, Buyers and Sellers Best Choice
Go To:
www.4GilbertHomes.Com
for your FREE "Real-Time MLS Market Report!
Deede Wockenfuss has 4 thoughtful suggestions to agents who are attempting to move property. I have highlighted my responses with my typical follow up.
1) "Offer a BELOW market price "This is what every buyer is looking for"
2) Have all repairs completed and have the home sparkling like a model "Who wants to date the ugly chic?"
3) Be easy to show with a lockbox and availability at a moment's notice "This only makes since, make sure you use a board approved box also". That way we can keep track of who, what, when and where."
4) Offer at or ABOVE market co-broke commission and /or help with the buyers closing costs. "I suggest both options, especially since the buyer is the one providing the bounty to pay the co-broker anyway. I also recommend nothing less than and EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO SELL Listing agreement. With no exceptions and no variables. Whether the listing agent is a flat fee, discounter or what have you makes no difference as long as the SELLING FEE can outperform the competition. I might ad this other little tid bit, don't require the selling agent to kickback any fee to the listing agent sometimes considered a gratuity. Some will cop a plea and attempt to claim it's an MLS fee but we all know that is as bogus as 3 dollar bills.
In our area, THIS is what a seller must do, whether he is a pre-foreclosure, short sale, REO, builder or average homeowner, to get the property sold. If the seller CAN'T or WON'T do ALL of this, then get off the market."
This is a great frame work to get a ready willing and able sellers to cooperate with current market conditions PERIOD! Why, because most buyers today are not owner occupied according to the record, most of today's buyers are of the opinion they are Real Estate Investors, with the hopes of flipping the property just like they do on TV! Or going into some form of Property Management, for God only knows why!!!!!
The problem is when your market attitude is on the decline the property that sells today will be worth less tomorrow until the attitude changes. I here this prevailing opinion that a "Buyer's Market" is the time to get a good buy. That's only true if the market is going to change attitudes and the property values move in the opposite direction. Unfortunately the buyers of today fail to realize that they control that attitude. So therefore the bargains of yester year that sold through 100% financing are worth less today and more short sales become the norm, deep builder discounts are realized, and sellers that have to sell get real with this prevailing buyer attitude. Why, because the buyer's attitude is to buy it for less according to their non-cooperating agent who works in the guise of a cooperating agent. Sellers don't control the market they control the inventory, it's the buyers who control the market. And as long as we have buyer's agents representing the "buyer's attitude" the next comparable will always sell for less in value because of the attitude of the buyer and their professional representative. Which brings me back to the, age old question, what does a buyer's agent offer for representation to a buyer? Give me one thing other than being nice, informed, capable of filling in the blanks on a contract form, carting them around all day long in their vehicle, or simply responding to their email or sending them to your IDX website before somebody else does, so they can roam through the MLS in the comfort of their underwear. So I've named a few things can ANYBODY tell me anything else an Exclusive Buyer's Agent provides? Oh... excuse me, I forgot the most important thing, the buyer provides the bounty necessary for all of us to get paid through the seller. Wouldn't want to forget that. But I bet most buyers were not aware of that little fact, I'm sure they are under the impression the seller pays for it. Sh-shuu... wouldn't want that trade secret to get out. And I'm sure that most buyer's agents fail to disclose that minor fundamental.
Robert King
Broker/Consultant
Charles Rutenberg Realtors
Clearwater Florida
PS Please no more emails my assistant is about to loose her mind.
Dag-nab-it, Robert, quit it!"Bounty" this and "bounty" that, super slick talk, but "Bounty" is not well-suited to real estate... irritating word.And NO!, you hear me? NO! When the buyer buys a house his money is SPENT, the money is no longer HIS, ergo, he cannot be paying the commission. To follow that premise, you could just as easily say that HIS boss, from whom he rec'd that money was paying the commission, and so on up the ladder.
You saying "the Buyer pays the Bounty twenty times, does not make it so.And also quit the gender asides (ie, him/her, wouldn't want to offend the fairer sex, or words to that effect)... gender does not matter in real estate... but when you say that stuff condescendingly, it is not endearing, it is like we are too stupid to figure it out with our mushy female brains but benevolent ol' Robert wants to show that he's a gentleman. ("Thou dost protest too much.."?) Has reverse effect.
Now, don't get me wrong, I truly believe you've made some valid and very good points in many of your posts. Also, I admire your enthusiasm, which is preferable to someone that doesn't care at all (many of those). If only we could tame you a little bit!
My not-so-humbly submitted suggestions:1) Long posts don't bother me at all... but you really need break it up into paragraphs. (I did the same thing when I first started posting here, and Rich or John at IC admonished me, and I've been using smaller paragraphs ever since.) 2) Cut down on the sarcasm. A little goes a long way. When a posting is dripping with sarcasm, it is again like you think we are all a bunch of dummies. I know you probably don't mean it that way, but that's how it comes across.
You seem to have boundless energy... and a passion for real estate... and willing to share your knowledge. That's really terrific. Just remember though we aren't all newbies, sometimes we just need to bounce thoughts/ideas/questions off someone.I'm not humorless, and don't mean to rain on your parade (see, that's MY weakness: cliches... well, that, and cussing, which I can't do on here, and it's hard not to... ), but I'd just love to see your postings look a little more "normal".
Sent with best intentions, no response needed... just hit Delete.
Lindy in Houston
Copyright © 2008 InternetCrusade®. All Rights Reserved.
- RealTown Login
Join RealTown
Single Sign-On
Request Password
- Community
Rules of the Road
Posting Tips
Help
- Site Feeds
RealTown RSS Feed
