Seller declined my offer

[lulu]

Just gotta say, fairly new to Piggington, love it. All the useful input has convinced my husband and I to be a little more patient about buying our first home and wait the market out a little longer.

Thanks all.

[Anonymous]

an, military jobs are not 100% safe: in the early ’90s, in the post Cold War downsizing, folks were forced out of the military, and there was the strange phenomena of folks graduating from the service academies and not being offered commissions (i.e., being pushed out to civilian life).

I agree with ps; no government jobs will be sacrosanct during the downturn.

[farbet]

Please do post the vebiage Stan. I am not as sophisticated as the rest on this forum. Thanks a lot

[an]

jg, I’m not sure if you’re referring to active military or civilian engineers working directly for the military. I’m talking about civilian engineers working directly for the military. My dad is an engineer working for the Navy. He started working for the Navy in the mid 80s so he went through the early 90s you were referring to. He specifically told me that people like him don’t get fire. If the base is closed, he will be the first in line for jobs at other bases that he want to apply to. If he doesn’t mind, they can find him a job and relocate our family to where ever that is. That’s why I feel civilians working for the military are secure.

[Anonymous]

Remember back during the buying frenzy when buyers would submit an offer and the seller would notify those who “qualify” to resubmit a higher offer? Well, it’s a reversal……

Something along these lines:

“This offer is tendered as part of a Multiple Purchase Offer. The buyers named above are making simultaneous offers on one or more additional properties. This offer and all of the other offers tendered are conditioned upon and subject to the final approval of the buyers, which will be delivered in writing within 3 days of sellers’ acceptance of this Purchase Offer, unless deadlines are extended by written agreement of the affected parties. Immediately upon transmittal of the buyers’ final approval of one of the sellers’ acceptance of the offer tendered to those sellers, all other offers in this Multiple Purchase Offer will be unilaterally withdrawn by the buyers.”

It’s putting the screws to the seller so they have to compete with other properties….whether you actually submit another offer on a house is up to you…how will they know? BWG

You retain the option to withdraw the offer at any time and reserve the right of final acceptance.

All in all, it’s not for use with every case but it’s about as strong a tactic as you will find.

Anyone who uses it should have an attorney look it over and word correctly for their state.

Hope this helps

[SD Realtor]

Holding todays sellers personally responsible for the events of the past doesn’t seem to intelligent to me. As a realtor who represents many buyers looking to get the best deal possible right now, I would never submit an offer in the manner that you proposed. It reeks of insincerity and of a high probability that even if the seller and buyer do get into escrow, that the buyer will eventually back out. Thus by accepting it, the seller would lose market time because they would not be active on the market during the escrow period, however short it may be.

There are much more effective ways to present aggressive offers that not only will save you the buyer money, but will also portray your sincere interest in the home you really want to buy.

If you look at the majority of homes that have not sold over this past year, most of them have received an offer or two, yet they were simply not accepted. I strongly fault the sellers for this behavior but to each his own. However your line of reasoning that this multiple offer strategy will enhance the probability of getting what you want in my opinion is incorrect.

Buying a home is a major decision that involves AT LEAST several hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you really would go through with a purchase of “any one of a few homes” that you submitted multiple offers on, then I guess that is your choice.

Personally, I advice my clients to only put an offer on a home they really love. I have definitely talked more people OUT of making offers then into making offers.

SD Realtor

[powayseller]

SD Realtor, what do you think of this approach: find 3 houses you like, but don’t fall in love with one particular house. If you take the emotion out of it, you’re more able to walk away from a stubborn seller who won’t meet your price. So if you find 3 houses you really like, make an offer on #1 with a 24 hour expiration. If the offer is accepted, and/or compromises are reached, great. If not, make an offer on house #2 with 24 hour expiration, and so on. If you get caught in a multiple-bidder situation on any of your offers, withdraw. Wouldn’t a buyer get a better deal if he can be a bit more detached? So find 3 houses you love, instead of just one house you love.

I finally get what you’ve been saying all along about all the expired/cancelled/withdrawn. It measures the degree to which sellers are giving up. I think that next year, when the foreclosures keep rising, sellers won’t be able to give up. They’ll either need to sell or end up in foreclosure. I’m now seeing more bankruptcies, foreclosures, and tax liens, in the most prime areas of Poway.

[Anonymous]

SD Realtor,

1) Nobody is holding a seller responsible for the past. When you hold the strongest hand, you dictate the terms.

2) There’s more to it than just typing up the verbiage and submitting it….figured you would know that.

3) I’d love to hear your tactics.

BTW, I’ve used it and it works; and if you read what I posted, I said specifically it’s not for every case.

Regards

[SD Realtor]

Powayseller your strategy is not bad. The basic tenet is that you are committing to only dealing with 1 seller at a time. Usually the most successful people in real estate, or any business for that matter are the ones who walk away from deals that do not suit them 100%. Alot of the most basic problems I see are that people feel that they “have to” do something and in reality I do not think that is true.

It really is just all about patience and the willingness to look and look and look and make offers over and over and over again. I know some people who are doing that right now, in fact a couple of posters here on the website.

Stan –

I absolutely agree when you hold the strongest hand you do dictate the terms. However (and other realtors can comment here) if you were a listing agent and an offer came in with someone saying they have multiple offers to other clients, how would you view that offer? Obviously my advice to my seller would be well, you can take it, but don’t be surprised if it crashes and burns.

So if the seller is in deep trouble, they will probably accept your offer correct? The question is, would this work in a short sale? Maybe but maybe not as there are other parties that need to accept an offer on a short sale besides the seller. However, the problem is that this is not the case. If it was the case then why were cancelled, expireds, and withdrawns so high rather then sellers repricing agressively or accepting very low low offers through 2006? It is because the psychology of most sellers is still in the denial phase. Lots of stages of grief and we are still in the very early stages here. Also many a desperate listing agent who wants to retain that listing next spring most likely told the seller to not worry and relist in the spring.

I am not saying your tactics do not work, nor am I saying there is nothing complex about it. Indeed you can write up a purchase agreement any way you want to, and inform the listing agent of your intent. You can write letters to owners and go for unsolicited offers.

My method is not any different then what any experienced realtor would do. That is contact the listing agent and let them know you are submitting an offer. As a courtesy I would let them know the offer is going to be a low offer significantly under the asking price. In all probability they will most likely tell me not to even submit the offer. This has pretty much been the case this past year. If my buyer instructs me to do so, then I track the property, as time progresses it will most likely reprice, expire, or cancel. Again, if the buyer instructs, I can contact the listing agent regularly to let them know we are still out there. When the listing does expire or cancel, (again if the buyer wants) send a letter or an unsolicited offer via personal mail to the owner of the home.

There is nothing unique here. All I am saying is you play the hand the same way, utilizing the leverage in the changing market, yet you do it in a way that portrays your unique interest in this home. Contrary to what many people think, the majority of Realtors do want to try to get all deals done, so a lowball offer that is sincere and portrays undivided interests, verses a lowball offer that comes as a “hey here is an offer but there are 3 others I have made so I may bail at any time” is more likely to be taken seriously from the listing agent.

SD Realtor

[powayseller]

Stan, do you have any examples of how your negotiating method worked, and how you were able to get a seller to accept an offer that was presented in this way?

[sdrealtor]

SD R,
You pretty much covered it all. An offer written like Stan said would most likely be viewed as an offer that has less than a 10% chance of going together and staying together. All his nonsense about the offers being unilaterally acceptable is completely unecessary as well. the buyer can cancel anytime during the contingency period w/o a reason whether they are in escrow on one property of 10 properties. My advice is to find the the property you are most interested in and to negotiate firmly to what you are willing to do. If you cant get there, you walk to your next best alternative.

SDR

[Anonymous]

powayseller,

Yes I do. However, my experience was using it to purchase a group of restaurants. Buying/Selling is just that; regardless of whether it’s a house/business/car…fill in the blank.

What is obvious, in successful negotiations, is that you’ve properly setup the scenerio by doing all your homework prior to making an offer. It’s just the last card you play. In my case, I gave the seller(s) less than 24 hours so there’s no “let me sleep on it”; which is another way of saying they want to call everybody they can to get THEM to make the decision for them.

I’ve yet to hear anything about tactics, especially from SDR, that rises past the point of passing paper. I find it interesting how many agents say how they “negotiate for you” when, if fact, they simply fill in blanks on a sheet of paper.

So…..I’ll ask the question again…..what tactics do you use? Are you a successful negotiator or a paper passer?

[NeetaT]

Don’t forget about property tax and insurance.

[SD Realtor]

Stan –

I have already told you what I do in my previous posts. For ALL of my clients I negotiate and obtain the very best deal I can for them.

Your strategy is great yet you have never utilized it for residential real estate here in San Diego. I would bet you could not even find an agent who would write up a purchase offer in the manner you suggested.

My strategy is that I do what I feel is best for my clients. 100% of the time it is not in my clients best interest to ALIENATE the seller or the listing agent of the seller. Thus I would never submit to a strategy that you proposed. Please reread what I said that I do. Someone called me today and asked me to check into a listing with a lowball offer. So I did just that. They were coming in close to 30% below the list price. So I politely asked the selling party if they would entertain that offer. Of course they scoffed but I was very kind about it so I can call them in 6 months and see if they feel the same way. So there is no “secret” to my strategy. Simple interpretation of what I wrote would reveal that my strategy is a simple approach of offer, then wait, then reoffer, then wait. Right now sellers do not comprehend what is going on.

Why don’t you try your strategy out on real estate down here? You seem quite confident? There are several buyers who post on this site, why don’t you ask them to adopt your strategy?

You can go to my website and I can give you my clients contact information and you can ask them if they were happy about my service and the way I handled thier negotiations.

http://www.1800grrealty.com

[sdrealtor]

Stan
I like to think that I am a very very good negotiater. To learn all my tactics you need to hire me but I am a big believer in what you said about doing all your homework prior to making an offer and learning as much as you can about the sellers motivation. Knowledge is power and understanding how to use it is creates real negotiating power. I spend several hours researching the sellers and tend to choreograph the negotiations in advance. I explain to my clients exactly what I am trying to do, how the seller is likely to respond and how we will handle their response. Understanding the residential purchase contract and how to exploit it regarding timing is also key. I negotiated $20,000 credits for my buyers on the day of contingency removal from sellers that were sweating out losing the deal at the 11th hour in 2 occassions during 2005. It didn’t take strong arm tactics, just an understanding of seller psychology and their personal circumstances.

Here’s the proof I use to defend my ability. While I represented nearly all sellers in 2006, I have several clients that listened to my advice while purchasing in 2005. Most people who purchased in 2005 are well underwater today. The prices my clients paid still hold up extremely well with the current comps while the properties we walked from or those I directed them away from have not.

[Author]

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