What do you do when you receive a full-price cash offer with a noon deadline on Saturday morning?
You take the deal and cancel the open houses.
Consider the evidence:
- I’m watching the lockbox notifications and the agent had been there three times.
- Twice I spoke on the phone with her, and also bumped into her at the property too.
- The agent is known to be a competent, trustworthy high-producing agent in north county.
- The buyers flew here yesterday from out-of-state just to see this property.
- There might be two in the bush.
Solid buyers working with great agents know that they should move fast if they see a hot new listing. But there’s more to it than just moving quickly – anybody can do that.
Buyers need to know the comps, and feel comfortable about the values. They need to review the data again under duress, knowing they have a specific property they are trying to evaluate. Then their agent needs to be crafty and know how to present a case that makes it irresistible for the sellers to sign.
That’s why you want to Get Good Help.
Good agents want to work with other good agents who they can count on.
Sure, I was drooling at the idea of my open-house extravaganza at the beach all weekend. I probably would have had 100+ people attend each day. Why not do the open houses anyway? Because I don’t want to buyers thinking I’m shopping their deal, plus I’ll always remember doing open house after accepting an offer that morning, and a potential buyer making the point that pretending to have a property for sale only to squash the possibility of buying it once he got inside was disingenuous and unethical in his mind.
Besides, with the stock market bouncing around like a yo-yo and a pandemic threatening our very existence, are you going to take the chance of blowing this deal for the two in the bush who might pay a little over list? Risk it all for an extra what, $25,000? $50,000?
No way, not when you have a bird in the hand.
This is where common sense prevails over greed. Like the tale of the dog carrying a bone in it’s mouth and how he looks in the river and sees another dog with a bone. And in trying to take the other dog’s bone, loses his the bone he already had and ends up with nothing.
Wise choice!
Thanks Eddie89!
Congratulations, JtR! I love the way you do business. Common sense always prevails. I never doubt you have your clients’ best interests at the forefront.
Thanks Anonymous!
Was there a bidding war waiting to happen on this one? Maybe.
But the negatives had to be considered:
1. HOA fee is $700 per month.
2. There’s never been a sale this high in the building.
3. There’s going to be a lot of negative news over the next few weeks.
If you take a financed deal, there’s no telling if the appraiser will agree. If you take a deal with a less-experienced agent, you risk that they can’t get across the finish line, which is a very real possibility with the quality of buyers’ agents dropping steadily. Or what if the buyer – who is already miffed that they got caught up in a bidding war – bails out at the first sign of trouble mostly because they didn’t like how they got to this price.
Make the deal.