Sniffing Out Motivated Home Sellers;
4 Clues — & a Red Herring
Black Friday isn’t just when retailers offer their best deals of the year.
It’s also the time of year when home Buyers can score deep discounts (at least in the Twin Cities; I don’t know about milder markets like Phoenix or Miami).
How do Buyers (or their agents) spot a motivated Seller and potential bargain?
Here are my top four signs.
“Wait ‘Till Next Year”
One. The home is on the market.
Duh, right?
Not necessarily.
Around Thanksgiving each year, plenty of less motivated Sellers opt to pull their homes off the market until after the holidays (the preferred way to do that is to switch the home’s MLS status to Temporarily Not Available for Showing, or “TNAS”).
By default, home sellers who keep their homes on the market are more motivated.
Just like home Buyers who are active over the holidays.
Two. The home is vacant (next best: a house full of partially packed moving boxes).
To a Seller who’s already moved out (and possibly relocated to another city), a vacant home represents just one thing: a financial drain.
Not only do such owners need to pay expensive, winter-time utility bills, but they also have to make sure the walk gets shoveled, the furnace doesn’t go out, ice dams don’t form, etc.
All while continuing to insure the home and pay property taxes (ughh).
Three. Market time. Assuming an average-priced home, the ideal is 80-100 days.
The rationale?
Less than that, Sellers may not be realistic yet; more . . . they may never be (note: for more expensive homes, it can easily take 4-6 months of market time for Sellers to become realistic).
Four. A fresh price reduction from an already attractive list price (it doesn’t count if the price reduction simply makes an egregiously overpriced home less so).
A good local agent who’s familiar with the Comp’s (“Comparable Sold Properties”) will know the difference.
“Motivated Seller Will Look at All Reasonable Offers”
So, what’s not a sign of a motivated home Seller?
A Seller who screams that they’re motivated — or a listing agent who does.
At least in my experience, such “language of desperation” is simply a marketing ploy, and is often instead of doing the things truly motivated Sellers do (like market and price well).
See also, “How Do You Tell if a Home Seller is Motivated? (Hint: It’s Not Because They Tell You They’re Motivated)”; and “The Right ” and Wrong ” Way to Telegraph Seller Motivation.”
And these: “Christmas ” and TNAS ” Season”; “TNAS Over the Holidays: How Prevalent?“; “Does TNAS Tweak Buyers’ Interest?“; and “What’s the Opposite of On the Market, But Not For Sale?”
