As soon as I saw the listing yesterday morning, I knew this was the house for them.
We scheduled a tour to go through it in the afternoon, and already I knew that might not be quick enough.
When we saw the home, it had been on the market for about 7 hours, and we had to wait outside while a showing finished up, and we had another group waiting behind us to go in next.
Needless to say, this was a hot house.
We walked in, and within a moment – D called it the 11 Second Rule – they both knew this was the house they were going to make their home.
We were through the home in a few minutes, and quickly went to write up an offer. I wanted to be able to present that evening – to avoid competition with another group of buyers (or three).
After drafting the offer and speaking with the seller’s Realtor, a friend of mine I used to work with, it became apparent we weren’t going to be able to present right away – it was going to have to wait until morning.
Of course, by the time this morning came, there was another offer in.
Losing the property was not an option. This was the home they wanted, and I was determined to help them get it.
Here’s what we did
1) R and D wrote a lovely letter to the owners, telling them a bit about themselves, how excited they are to raise a family in the home etc. We also included a picture of their dog Parker, a picture from their wedding, and a picture of R riding her horse at their wedding. Cute stuff!
2) We were able to make a ‘cash’ offer – a clean offer with no conditions of the buyer selling their home, financing approval etc. – because we had done our legwork to ensure we were able to act when the right home came along.
3) We determined what price point they would be comfortable with someone else buying it, and at what price would they want to buy it. In this case, the price we came up with was slightly above list price.
3.5 ) Have your buyers outside while you present (you are presenting in person…. of course). I was able to tell the owners that my clients were so serious, they were outside in the car, in minus 5 weather (Yes, it really gets that cold in Canada!)
Moral of the story is my clients got the home, and are elated.
What strategies have you used in the past to help clients get a home in a multiple offer situation ?
Benjamin Bach is a REALTOR with Keller Williams Realty in Kitchener Waterloo, Canada (home of the Blackberry) and shows people how they can avoid a mediocre retirement by building wealth through smart Real Estate Investments. You can find out more at Kitchener-Waterloo-Real-Estate-Investments.com
Mariana
January 19, 2008 at 12:56 am
Wow. That is a great idea. We are not in that position much anymore but I look forward to trying this when I have the next opportunity! Thanks!
Benjamin Bach
January 19, 2008 at 9:40 am
Thanks Mariana
I have used the cover letter technique to great effect in the past; In the summer we went into an offer @ 340K, it was listed at 420K. Now, this place needed six figures worth of rehab. We wrote a loevly letter, hitting all the seller’s hot spots (religion, family, restoring the old home), and my clients got it @ 370K.
Chalk up another one for the Cover Letter
Darryl
January 19, 2008 at 9:58 am
I am the D in Benjamin’s post above, and I can definitely say the combination of his 3 tips won us the house. I couldn’t agree more with the use of the cover letter, highlighting the strengths of your offer, while complimenting the vendors on their home, not house, so they have piece of mind that someone is going to buy their home and make it their own. Thanks to Benjamin, and his professional advice, Robin and I have the home we were looking for. Thanks again Benjamin. I have no problem with you sharing our cover letter to help others win the home they want.
Benn Rosales
January 19, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Darryl, great on you! Congrats, and thanks for contributing here at agentgenius.com…
Vicki Moore
January 19, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Agents in my area don’t allow in-person presentations anymore. But the cover letter still works amazingly well. I’ve used wedding, baby and dog pics. In one situation my buyer client worked for a large gaming company and offered the seller videos that hadn’t been released to the public yet (they got the house).
Roger Bintner
January 19, 2008 at 10:09 pm
It does work. Same outcome a little different story. I had shown over 50 homes over 2 months to a couple buying there first new home. We were looking in a specific location. Home came on the market and we made an offer along with 6 others on day 1 of listing. The listing agent called and told us they were going to counter all 7 (all qualified with letters) at the same time, the winner would be the first to respond with a signed off contract. I called the listing agent and asked if we (clients included) could sit in their conference room and be handed the contract instead of faxing the counter to us, she paused but agreed. We did just that..she handed it to us..we signed and handed in the earnest money check while she was faxing the other offers. We got the house!! Through referrals I have done over 5 million in sales with friends and family and still counting.
Benjamin Bach
January 21, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Great story Roger, thanks for sharing !