Negotiating Offers in a Hot Austin Real Estate Market

The other day I found a home my buyers loved and for which they wanted to write an immediate offer. I called the listing agent to inquire about the status of the listing and to ask questions about any particular needs the Seller might have. The agent said to me, and I quote exactly, “I’m sorry, we’ve already accepted an offer”.

Question: What is the next thing I should say as the Buyer agent?

1) “Darn! Oh well, congratulations on the quick sale, I guess we’ll keep looking. Bye”
or
2) “Has the offer been signed?”

Read more

Dumb Things Austin Realtors Write in Listing Comments

In the past week I’ve encountered two listings which, in the listing comments section, state a future date that offers will be presented to the Seller. Specifically, a recent listing that one of our Buyers was interested in said: “Hurry! All offers will be presented 4/16”. I can’t think of anything dumber to write in the listing comments sections of a new listing.

Steve’s literal translation of the comment: “Hurry! Wait, don’t bring me an offer yet.”

This doesn’t make any sense, but that’s exactly what the comment says to me. Not a very good marketing message to be sending other agents about your listing. The comment essentially removes urgency from the purchasing process. Urgency is a Seller’s best friend in a hot market. As a Seller in a hot area, you want a sense of urgency to set in immediately upon your home being viewed by the interested Buyer. You want the Buyer to think she better hustle up and submit an offer before someone else beats her to it. You don’t accomplish that by announcing that you’ll be sitting on the offer for several days.

Let’s take a look at this particular listing and how the “offers will be presented Monday” comment caused the Seller to NOT receive an offer from our Buyer, even though this particular home was chosen as our Buyer’s favorite home and they wanted to buy it.

Read more