Bring Me An Offer, I Want To Sell My Home
Back in the old days, when bread wasn't pre-sliced and dinosaurs roamed the earth, somebody who was serious about getting a home sold would advertise "Bring Me An Offer!"
You can still see this habit practiced today in many industries, almost always when an amateur (think e-bay or Craigslist) is trying to sell something on his or her own.
But the way that people buy a home today make this outdated method useless, and it is time to say goodbye to the old standby.
Why They Won't Bring Me An Offer
When you hire me to sell your home, I know what I have to do to get other real estate agents to bring me an offer on your home.
We spend a lot of time and effort driving the "right traffic" to our real estate listings, focusing on the significant changes in the way that buyers go about the home selection process.
This change means that they won't bring me an offer on the wrong home, and they view such requests as ludicrous if they are asked.
When you exclaim "bring me an offer," you are really saying:
I know my asking price is not in line with what the market will bear. I know I will have to take a lower price, so why don't you float an offer my way and I will then start the negotiation process with you to come to a price we can both live with.
While this might have made sense in the days before computers, the internet, and instant communication, today it just means that you are clueless about selling a home.
The best way to explain this is with an example.
How Most People Find A Home To Buy
Remember, buyers who are ready to make an offer have been searching homes online for months (94% of buyers are using the internet during their home search).
They have continuously refined their search criteria in the past few weeks and months so that the property search tool delivers them the best deals in their price range.
Let's say somebody is looking at all homes priced between $300,000 and $325,000. They have been watching this "price range" for weeks, lurking, just waiting for the home that is going to pull them actively into the market.
And let's say you are somebody with a home that is worth $275,000, but you have it being marketed at $300,000. Your real estate agent has suggested that you lower the price to $275,000, but you say "bring me an offer and I will consider it."
There is no offer to bring. People are comparing your $275,000 home online with nicer $300,000 homes and they don't like yours. It's not as nice a home. And they plan on spending $300,000, not $275,000.
In my experience, people will spend all of what they plan on paying ... meaning they want the "most home" they can get for their budget. Somebody who can afford a $300,000 home does not want your $275,000 home, so they won't bring me an offer (thus I cannot bring you an offer).
Simply put, your $275,000 home is not looking very good because it is competing against $300,000 homes. Go compete with homes more like yours, and your home will look awesome!
The Days Of "Bring Me An Offer" Are Over
If you really want to sell your home for it's top dollar value, you have to invest some time learning how today's homebuyer is going to find your home.
There are countless articles that you could read (like my top 51 articles on how to sell a house), and the small amount of time you will invest should return tens of thousands of dollars to you when it comes time to sell your home.
If you are ready to meet with an agent for the job of selling your home, just drop me a note and I'll schedule some time to show you how we'll get at least one agent to bring me an offer on your home (in 4 to 14 days!).
*Joe Manausa Real Estate is a brokerage company headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida. Its unique business model provides specialists to both home sellers and home buyers, and the results speak for themselves. JMRE has significantly more 5-star reviews on google than any other local competitor. Joe Manausa Real Estate is a leader in internet marketing and utilizes search engine optimization, email marketing, social media and data analytics to get their clients’ home sold faster and for more money than any other Tallahassee brokerage firm. For more information, visit www.manausa.com or call us at (850) 366-8917.
Discussion
Thanks Tni, and that's great advice. When sellers look through the eyes of buyers, they "get it."
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