“Some Day, Son, This Will All Be Yours” It’s a given that, in a market of some 20,000-plus Twin Cities home sellers at the moment, some are more motivated than others. Which ones? You can usually tell by how well each home is priced, staged, marketed, etc. But there’s another, surefire way to know that a...Read More
“The Plausibility Test” One of the biggest questions for Buyers interested in making an offer on a particular home is, “who else is interested?” (i.e., “do I have competition?”). Of course, the ultimate expression of interest is an actual, written offer; if the listing agent has received one (or more) — believe me, you’ll know. See, “Is...Read More
Corollary: “Would Your Client Accept $X for Their Home?” I don’t know about other agents, but lately I’ve been seeing an evolution in showing feedback questions regarding price opinions. The forms used to ask whether the Buyer thought the home was priced at market, and if not, what price they thought was right. Now, I’m receiving forms (and emails...Read More
Role Reversal [Editor’s Note: Thanks to Edina Realty colleague Kathy Dick for her contribution to the following post.] Wait a second — don’t Realtors try to get home sellers to reduce their price? And don’t most home sellers stubbornly resist, no matter how compelling the Realtor’s market data (or underwhelming Buyers’ interest)? Well . . ....Read More
Padded List Prices What do you do if you’re a Seller in a Buyer’s market who’s worried about lowball offers? At least a few succumb to the temptation to pad their asking (“list”) price. Their logic? The higher their initial price, “the more room they have to negotiate.” Flawed Logic Well, yes. But that presumes...Read More
Realtor-Speak for “No Go, Try Again” Personally, I’ve never understood the logic of “countering full price.” That’s what most listing agents advise their clients to do when they receive an offer that’s disappointing — or worse. Supposedly, that conveys to the Buyer that the offer is too low to begin negotiating in earnest, and that they...Read More
