Hey, everyone!
Today, I’m going to make an offer on a single family home. The owner is a realtor. What adjustments should I make to my conversation (negotiating) strategies when dealing with a motivated seller who is a realtor?
What I plan on doing today is just listen to her, and give her compliments. I’ll act as a really reluctant buyer and give her my cash/terms discount offer. If she’s as motivated as she made herself out to be over the phone, she’ll accept, and I’ve offered too much. If not, then I’ve still made an offer, which she can always take if there aren’t any better ones. Either way, all I would lose is time.
I guess what I’m really afraid of is revealing my lack of experience. I was taught to fake it till I make it but, I’m almost sure a realtor would guess that I’m a beginner investor.
Here’s the deal. Don’t make it any harder than it needs to be. Keep it simple. I would pursue this deal as you would any other with any other seller. Figure out what it needs, ARV, etc, then make your offer. As far as “fake it till you make it”… to me that is more of an internal way of thinking, not an outward action to people who can see right through you. When I first started I was a big faker and people saw right through it. See some of my early posts… LOL
Be yourself, do your homework and make your offer! Let us know how this turns out! Good luck!!
Thanks for your reply, JaredfromIndiana!
So as it turned out, I really stressed over it more than I should have. The seller/realtor was really nice, which made me feel more at ease. My girlfriend/business partner came with me, which I think was a good idea because she kept it really casual and the seller really warmed up to her. So all this helped to build rapport I think.
In a nutshell, I made an offer that was deeply discounted. Even though the seller wasn’t motivated enough, there were no hard feelings for such a low offer. In fact, I feel that my girlfriend and I really built a strong rapport with her to feel good enough to do business with us again.
So I did what I set out to do by making an offer and determining how motivated the seller was. I found that the owner isn’t as motivated as I had hoped but, because we have built such a strong rapport, she may fall back on my offer if she’s unable to sell after all.
Thanks for your advice, again. I will keep it in mind for the next time I deal with an experienced seller/realtor.
Investors can definitely make things too hard. Whether the owner is an agent or not, it sounds like you could have determined her motivation before making an offer in the first place. You just needed to ask why she’s selling the home, if it’s a residence and she needs to move, move by when, etc.
Your bottom line number is based on how much profit you want to make based on the ARV. If you get them lower by finding out how low they will go, then great.