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cmist,
A nugget of truth to what you say, but...
Too many preapproved relo's come to town with the express intent of leaving Sunday evening with a signed contract. Every weekend. Very high level of interest.
An offer that is held over the weekend, meaning likely until Monday night, is not workable for those buyers who must buy SOMETHING. There is enough inventory, unless the desire is for something unique, that holding off can cost the seller the deal.
So, one can say, "Well, they just weren't that interested." Or one can be pro-active, know what is an acceptable offer, and grab it when it is presented.
That is a good point too...
Part of being a good agent is knowing when its beneficial & possible to stretch out the response time, and when you have to act fast...
I don't say an agent should vanish on the weekends, but that its not always the best thing for a seller to respond so quickly. Quick responses on BAD offers usually shows a little desperation and generally creates MORE time to barter back & forth ending up in a lower overall price.
Again...its not MY CALL to "stretch out the response time".
My job is to get that offer to my sellers asap and even if its on a weekend...I'll do it. If the seller wants to think it over, thats fine but its not me making that decision!
I know my sellers and I know my buyers. If an offer comes in on Saturday, I'm going to present it to my sellers. I'm not going to hold it and hope that more showings happen as thats not "my call". That sounds like you are playing games and I do not do that with my sellers or my buyers.
But I do like the idea of taking a few days off! And I do that. However, if I have my out of town clients, I'll happily work with them on Sat. or Sun. and take Tues. and Wed. off. I haven't been called "a basket case Realtor"...YET!
However...the day isn't over and I AM negotiating an offer with a builder and leaving shortly for a dinner with a friend and some Christmas shopping so maybe I'll be a "basket case" tomorrow!!!
Vicki
Sorry, I wasn't calling YOU a basket case!
I think what I said was taken a little wrong...
I know that when my friends sold their house, they were having a really busy weekend with showings and they got an offer Sat at noon, but 3 other agents were coming the next day with showings.
They asked their realtor to buy them some time but the agent advised against waiting, so instead, they spent the better part of Saturday having their agent negotiating with a pushy buyers agent and wrapped it up after countless hours of back & forth faxes.
Then mid day Sunday before they could indicate it was now pending, they recieved an offer for 10K more and were PISSED off at their agent. The agent did what they thought was right, but ended up pissing them off anyhow... To them it looked like their agent was inexperienced and in a rush to lock them into "anything" so they could secure their commission.
A more experienced person would have known how to play that situation a little better. Basically, the buyers agent did all the game playing. They knew it was a hot property & they bullied the listing agent around, wore them down and won. Ask your clients if they would want YOU to engage in a little game playing back if it means they would get 10k MORE... see what they say then...
I guess the lesson here is that if the property is HOT and getting tons of interest, better to let the offers pile up... If the house is stagnating for months, better you run over there while the offer is HOT OFF THE FAX!
Thats my only point, I don't recommend holding offers and not letting your sellers know about it, but I think sometimes hasty, frenzied negotiating doesn't always turn out to be the best approach either.
I know there are alot of realtors on this site but in the above scenario a "hot" property "with multiple offers" the sellers should be upset with only themselves....
Number 1, the seller is in charge, not the realtor, if you know you have multiple showings scheduled for the next day have your realtor let the buyer know that...and then wait for the other showings....just because the potential buyer puts a 24 hour expiration on the deal doesn't mean you're obligated to negotiate
Number 2, if you are in that hot of a market, why even use a realtor? It takes work on your part but anyone can sell their own house if they really want to...the information you need is out there, with the web, access to MLS for a small fee....ability to look up recent sales and price your house accordingly...
My wife and I sold our house this summer FSBO, we spent weeks fixing it up, researching the market and coming up with what we felt was the right price.( Confirmed by the few realtors we did interview who actually suggested we market our house for less than what we ended up listing it for)
Our house sold in a week and we had competing offers the first weekend of showings with the offer we accepted being 5K over our asking price.
I know the market is slowing in many areas and sometimes you need the assistance of a good realtor to market your home. But if you are willing to do the work it really isn't that hard in the few "sellers" markets that remain.
I know there are many good realtors out there, unfortunately my wife and I had been burned too many times in the past by incompetent realtors making large commissions off our 4 previous home sales...
I know there are alot of realtors on this site but in the above scenario a "hot" property "with multiple offers" the sellers should be upset with only themselves....
Number 1, the seller is in charge, not the realtor, if you know you have multiple showings scheduled for the next day have your realtor let the buyer know that...and then wait for the other showings....just because the potential buyer puts a 24 hour expiration on the deal doesn't mean you're obligated to negotiate
Number 2, if you are in that hot of a market, why even use a realtor? It takes work on your part but anyone can sell their own house if they really want to...the information you need is out there, with the web, access to MLS for a small fee....ability to look up recent sales and price your house accordingly...
My wife and I sold our house this summer FSBO, we spent weeks fixing it up, researching the market and coming up with what we felt was the right price.( Confirmed by the few realtors we did interview who actually suggested we market our house for less than what we ended up listing it for)
Our house sold in a week and we had competing offers the first weekend of showings with the offer we accepted being 5K over our asking price.
I know the market is slowing in many areas and sometimes you need the assistance of a good realtor to market your home. But if you are willing to do the work it really isn't that hard in the few "sellers" markets that remain.
I know there are many good realtors out there, unfortunately my wife and I had been burned too many times in the past by incompetent realtors making large commissions off our 4 previous home sales...
Well in this case, there were NOT multiple offers, just more showings happening the next day, and they didn't know it was going to get an offer for 10K more...
They could have waited for the other showings that would have possibly yielded nothing, and then lost the current offer on top of that.
Unless you or your realtor are psychic, there is no way to truly KNOW whats going to happen. No matter what kind of a "sellers market" it is... A realtor is likely to have dealt with hundreds of deals & game playing in a year, where you will have only dealt with one or two... a good realtor will know how to get you thru MUCH better than you would typically be able to do yourself. And I'm not a realtor in NC... just telling you a laymans perspective.
Well in this case, there were NOT multiple offers, just more showings happening the next day, and they didn't know it was going to get an offer for 10K more...
They could have waited for the other showings that yielded nothing, and lost the current offer while waiting for nothing too.
Unless you or your realtor are psychic, there is no way to truly KNOW whats going on, but I don't care what kind of a "sellers market" it is... A realtor can deal with hundreds of deals in a year, where you will have only dealt with one or two... a good realtor will know how to get you thru MUCH better than you would typically be able to do yourself. And I'm not a realtor in NC... just telling you a laymans perspective.
A GOOD realtor might get you the best deal...but there is the rub....
Selling a home is not rocket science, and while the "typical" homeowner may only do 1 or 2 deals, they are much more invested in getting the right deal.
I know for a fact we got more than a realtor would have gotten us, because I know what they were telling us to list our house for and we not only sold it for 20K more than any realtor advised us to ask, we also saved over 20 K in commissions...
The biggest headache of our whole sale was dealing with the buyers agent, a realtor with one of the biggest firms in town, who had NO idea what she was doing.....
WE had to explain to HER how to write up the offer correctly (so many errors it was comical) we had to explain the term "convey" to her, she constantly called us asking for info that she should have been getting on her own.....
I also know for a fact that one of the highest volume realtors in our former neighborhood would purposely low ball asking prices to get a quick sale and increase her stats on sales....
A GOOD realtor might get you the best deal...but there is the rub....
Selling a home is not rocket science, and while the "typical" homeowner may only do 1 or 2 deals, they are much more invested in getting the right deal.
I know for a fact we got more than a realtor would have gotten us, because I know what they were telling us to list our house for and we not only sold it for 20K more than any realtor advised us to ask, we also saved over 20 K in commissions...
The biggest headache of our whole sale was dealing with the buyers agent, a realtor with one of the biggest firms in town, who had NO idea what she was doing.....
WE had to explain to HER how to write up the offer correctly (so many errors it was comical) we had to explain the term "convey" to her, she constantly called us asking for info that she should have been getting on her own.....
I also know for a fact that one of the highest volume realtors in our former neighborhood would purposely low ball asking prices to get a quick sale and increase her stats on sales....
Yes there are those types of realtors too...
Some FSBO people have what it takes to get it done right, while others just THINK they do and will probably get burned trying...
A normal deal can be easy, but again, you don't know if you are going to have a normal deal until you start it up and find out halfway into something messy...
To each his own... Go with a good realtor, or go as an educated FSBO prepared for any crap that may develop...
I get great listings from FSBO's.
Many folks have tremendous skills, but many cannot count sales and people skills among them. We live in an area of hugely talented and sometimes single-minded professionals who are usually smart enough to know their skills and limitations.
Some people are between moves/jobs and distracted.
Some elderly folks feel vulnerable.
Some people are absentee owners.
I can show the house while the folks go to the ballet, to the nursing home, ball game, on vacation, to seek a new home in their new hometown.
Sickness, infirmity, divorce, death in the family, other tragedy prompt folks to request professional services..
Some people work arduous hours, travel, etc., and aren't available to work the home to sell it.
Some people just do not want to bother with "lookie loos."
I've seen FSBO's fail to close as many as 4 contracts on a property.
The list goes on and on as to why Sellers find value in Realtor services.
Like you say...there are "few remaining hot markets."
I'm a believer in the statistics that indicate that on average a Realtor benefits the Client. Realtors bring up to 75% of buyers. Buyers have the money/credit to drive the deal. Better exposure to greater market.
I also NEVER try to impress a homeowner/prospective client with those statistics. Many FSBO's work out well for the Seller. I think it is insulting to someone to tell them they are too inept to sell their home.
I just offer my services, if desired. Often my services ARE desired.
[quote=cmist;224335]
They could have waited for the other showings that would have possibly yielded nothing, and then lost the current offer on top of that.
[quote]
They could have waited. No one was forcing them to sign an offer that day. Most offers have at least a 24 expiration meaning they very well could have waited until the next morning or afternoon to make a decision. Sure, buyers try to rush the seller's decision with 24, 36, 48 hour time limits but the seller needs to be aware of their own wants, needs, desires for the transaction and not allow their realtor or the buyer's realtor to bully, coerce or rush them into making a decision. The seller doesn't need to pick up the phone if they see it is their "pushy" agent on the phone for the 4th time that afternoon wanting to see if they've accepted.
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