Strategies to Make Your Buyer’s Offer Stand Out in the Seattle Real Estate Market

A few insights to share, fresh from The Pit clock hour class held earlier this week at the Learning Lab in SODO. Multiple-offer strategies were a big talking point in class & this post will highlight a few insights and give specific suggestions to help you create a buyer’s offer that will stand out in the stack.

It’s already a tough real estate market here in Seattle, so anything a broker can do for her buyers to help their offer stand out in excellence is critical, right?

When there are multiple offers on a property, as a buyer’s agent, what would compel the seller to give more attention to an offer?

• Follow the offer instructions. Read through the listing…all the way through the listing.
  Slow down and really process the offer in accordance with the directions provided. If you want your offer to be chosen, at minimum you’ll want to do what the listing agent has requested and avoid asking questions that are already answered in the listing.
  Surprised at how many agents don’t do this – Rosemary Pham, Keller Williams
• Develop rapport with the listing agent.
  Hey, coffee cards & bribes work well too….just kidding… right Aaron Janus of Remax? 😉
• Ask the listing agent: How can I write this offer so your clients will want to choose my client’s offer?

Or maybe is there anything not in the listing that I should know that would help me write the perfect offer for your seller?
No one asks this. But be sure to follow the offer instructions, first!

• Ask: What is the seller looking for?  
  And then ask: What else is the seller looking for?
  • What else is going on in the seller’s life?
  • Are they starting a business?
  • Are they relocating? Do they need cash (earnest money released) faster?
  • What else could be a valuable proposition to the seller?

Think about what the listing agent is going through

Consider providing a detailed summary of the offer, especially for those multiple offer situations.

We had a listing come through Metropolist earlier in the month, a rambler located in the Green Lake area you may have heard about, which garnered 40 – count ‘em 40! – offers.

Barely a handful of the buyer’s brokers took the time to share a detailed summary of their offer. Every broker had full knowledge that the transaction involved multiple offers.

While exciting, 40 loaded-with-details offers were also extremely stressful for the listing broker to coordinate and organize. With that many offers, more care and attention must be paid to coordinate prior to presenting them all to the seller.

Take a second and really think about it.

A seller isn’t going to know how to process, or choose well, between 40 offers without some sort of preliminary organization of all of the information. The volume alone could short-circuit a seller’s brain and emotions, making for a long day — or night — for everyone.

We actually make up a small pool of brokers in Seattle, after all (90% of the business is written by 10% of brokers).

Chances are good that we’ll all be working together in some capacity sooner or later.

Rosemary Pham of Keller Williams made a fantastic point: “You need to have tenacity in this business, but you also have to listen.”

Certainly true we need to listen to our clients, be they sellers or buyers, but we also need to listen to each other.

We’d like to thank each of our panelists again for a great clock hour class:

• Albert Clark, NWG Real Estate
  
• Aaron Janus, Remax
• Kelly Zuger, Keller Williams
• Rosemary Pham, Keller Williams
• David Warren, Metropolist

Each of the participants, as well as the panelists, had great insights that added to our collaborative mix & made the 3 hour class

1. A rich conversation, rather than a “same old” lecture, plus,
2. It made the time go by quick, plus,
3. We laughed a lot.

Warm thanks also goes to Mitzi Verlinde of Caliber Home Loans for the delicious lunch!

No recap is a substitute for being part of the process, so come on down to our next class!

We actually have 2 coming quick & you’re invited to both:

Wed., May 31
Real Estate Inspections: What You Need to Know
Guest Instructor, William Robson of Clyde’s Residential Inspections
10am – 1pm with Lunch Provided
3 clock hours for $30

Register now

Wed. June 15
Make Money at Open Houses
Instructor: Jennifer Nelson, co-founder of Metropolist
10am – 1pm with Lunch Provided
3 clock hours for $30

Register now