When sellers consider offers made to purchase their home, their Real Estate Agent often makes a point of explaining the terms that go along with the dollar amount. Two offers at a similar dollar amount can be viewed very differently for a seller who is looking to solve a specific problem.

Let Me Share A Story With You

You’re an elderly vendor selling your family home in Newcastle because your kids are eager to have you living closer to them in Sydney. You’ve lived in this house for 40+ years and you’re quite literally petrified of the stress involved in selling your home, finding another home to purchase and move all your belongings to the new home within a standard 6 week settlement period. The Real Estate Agent says that you might be able to convince a buyer to offer you a 10-12 week settlement, just to give you some breathing room, and so you list your property for sale.

Two weeks go by and the negotiations come to a head. There are multiple offers although two stand out. The highest offer is nearly $30,000 higher than the second highest. The second offer however, has a 6 month settlement condition attached.

You think, wow I could do a lot with $30,000, but I’m getting towards the end of my life and I have the money I need to live comfortably. Six months to find another home and move my belongings though, that is incredibly important to me! And so you accept the second highest offer and forego the $30,000.

This is exactly what happened to one of our clients after we uncovered the sellers concern about the standard settlement period. Our clients could offer the seller what they needed, and in return managed to save just under $30,000.

How to Uncover The Vendors Motivations

There are a number of things that you can do to uncover the vendors motivations for selling, and they all begin with having an open mind and a candid conversation with the Real Estate Agent. Here are a few questions you could use to keep the conversation going:

What’s the reason for the sale?
What’re the vendors planning to do after they sell?
Is there anything that’s important to them with the sale?
Do they mind what type of purchaser buys the property?
Do they have a timeframe they’re trying to work towards with the sale?

The Secret

Most Real Estate Agents keep their cards close to their chest as they know that sharing this kind of information could put their vendors in a precarious position. That’s why rely heavily on the professional relationships that we develop with Agents in our local areas to uncover more information than the average purchaser. If you’d like to know more about how we get better results for our clients through uncovering more, inquire now.