Have you noticed that many times, when we try so hard to control things or circumstances around us, they don’t seem to work our way. When I speak to my coaching students, many times they seem more motivated to want to “buy” a house or make a “specific” deal work compared to the seller of the house.
They tend to forget to look for motivated sellers but instead focus on “desperately” looking to get a deal even if that deal is not ideal. My advice to them is to relax. We need to take action and manage that expectation and belief that what we want to accomplish will come to us.
Sometimes we just need to let go of the “exact” outcome we are expecting from a specific deal or situation. If we manage that, we would be pleasantly surprised with an outcome that is better than we could have ever imagined.
That is exactly what happened during my most recent deal. I had the pleasure of meeting a lovely young couple that owned a single-family home located a few minutes from my current residence. When I first spoke to them on the phone, I could not gauge their motivation. But since I knew the area very well, I wanted to go and see the house.
They had their property on the market for almost a month as a “for sale by owner.” When I did my research on the neighborhood comps, they had their house priced just right! That is usually not the case.
The number one reason why a house will not sell is that it is overpriced. So, what is going on in this case? My intention before walking into their house the morning of my appointment was to give the best presentation I could in order to let them know about my findings of the neighborhood, to educate them, and to give them an additional option based on what “we could do if the house met our buying criteria.”
My goal was to perform to the best of my abilities regardless of the outcome. As long as I could accomplish what I was set out to do, I would be happy. Everything went as planned!
The house was in an excellent condition and they had done their homework as far as what the “right” prices would be in that neighborhood. They even did a home inspection to find out any “unknowns” that could potentially come up. I was definitely impressed!
While speaking to them about the services my company could offer them, I walked them through the net equity worksheet with the correct positioning of what they would look to net if with sold by a realtor. They were very surprised!
In fact, they told me that they initially thought that our appointment would be a waste of their time as they were anticipating a “low ball” offer. They said, “This isn’t that bad!” As they would have a net equity of $57,000 if they choose to go with the option that I offered them. So, upon achieving my goal, which was to perform strong while following the process, what happened next?
At that point, I decided to step aside and let them lead the conversation. I ended with the following statement, “Ideally, your best option is to find a traditional buyer who can get bank financing to buy your house. How long might that take? What we can do now, though, is close quickly and allow you to move your family to Tennessee for your job transfer.”
The current plan had been for the wife and their one-year-old daughter to stay back until the house was sold. They had a couple of other “interested” buyers looking at the house in the next couple of days anyway. I told them to keep my number if anything changed and that I would follow up with them in a couple of weeks.t an area to comment on
Two days later, I received a call, “Peggy, we would like to sell our house to you and your company. We do not need the money now and are willing to wait before we receive our equity.” I am closing on this beautiful home in two days and only paying closing costs.
Remember this example and the importance of being a reluctant buyer. These types of scenarios are out there and many more like them. You just have to find them and make the process a win-win for all parties involved.
You do not have to jump through hoops and feel pushed to do deals that may not be ideal for you or that would require you a lot of money. This is a perfect time to find some amazing deals.
To your success,
