Email Elizabethoffer negotiations sacramento
It is OK for Sacramento Buyers to Pay List Price for a Home
It is OK to pay list price to buy a Sacramento home.
For some reason, it has been drummed into the heads of Sacramento home buyers that it should not be OK to pay list price for a home. Which is the silliest thing I’ve ever heard, and yet I hear it a lot. I heard it back in the 1970s when I started selling real estate. My mentor at that time taught me that owning real estate is the most important thing. Even if I pay list price, it’s OK. There is nothing wrong with paying what a home is worth. Yet, we always want to get a deal . . . when the truth is there are no deals if you don’t buy the home.
Five or 10 years from now, you won’t remember how much you paid. Whether it is $5,000 more or $10,000 less, you won’t recall. It’s immaterial. On the other hand, you’ll certainly remember NOT buying the house. You’ll forever replay those memories of losing the house you really really wanted but could not get past your persistent attitude of thinking you need to pay less. So, you did not buy it.
I’m here to tell ya: You don’t have to pay less. It’s OK to pay list price for a home. I have done it myself. Many times. Granted, this concept seems easier to grasp when you have money than when you do not. But it applies to both ends of the spectrum. Further, in some ways, those with money are often so afraid to part with it that they lose, over and over. They blame their agent. They say if only everybody did what they wanted, the world would be a different place. Ha! Such little-picture thinking.
Worried about overpaying? Overpaying is very unlikely because you’ll get an appraisal. Even if your agent doesn’t know how to properly prepare comparable sales, and many agents do not, it’s all right. An appraiser will pull up the closest viable comps, and an underwriter will double check that work.
You do not need to grind the seller and insist the seller lower her expectations. That causes bad feelings and animosity. In addition, I know what I’m saying goes against your grain. You were probably raised to believe that you need to negotiate the purchase of everything in your life lest you be scorned. You don’t. It is OK to pay list price for a home, especially if the home is worth it to you.
I tell people money provides the means to afford to buy what you want. If you can’t buy what you want, there is something wrong with your approach. Everything has a price. You don’t have to dicker. Don’t get so hung up on giving a seller what the seller wants. The seller has something you want. It’s worth the money. You don’t have to pay less than asking price to buy your dream home. That is fallacy that was handed to you by people who don’t know any better but mean well.
Yeah, it’s outrageous to consider. I know this. You truly do have permission to buy what you want. You hold the power to make it happen.
Do Not Sit on a Seller’s Counter Offer in This Sacramento Market
Buyers who deliberate too long over a seller’s counter offer could lose the house.
Many people selling homes in Sacramento do not want to issue a seller’s counter offer to a buyer. Some of these people think that buyers should instinctively know what they want. I will draw a counter offer over some of the tiniest things that need clarification or correction in a purchase contract, and you know why? Because the tiniest things can mushroom into big honkin’ headaches. Headaches happen due to ambiguity. Want to hear another reason for a seller’s counter offer? It lets me tell the next buyer’s agent who calls that we have a counter offer out but they have a small window to take this home away from that the buyer.
How can they do that when the buyers have a seller’s counter offer? It’s easy, because until the buyers sign the counter offer, the sellers are free to sell to anybody else they choose. The minute the Sacramento listing agent receives the signed seller’s counter offer, all parties are in contract. You know who wants a house so badly it hurts? The buyer who hears there is a counter offer out. Especially when that buyer is a position to swoop in to steal it. Everybody wants what somebody else wants. Law of human nature.
My typical method of operation involves sending out a counter offer to a buyer and giving that buyer 3 days to respond. If the buyer takes the full 3 days, maybe we’ll sell the property to a higher bidder on day #2. Not to mention, buyers don’t like to be pushed. They like to have the appearance of time on their side. No pressure. Their own agent should tell them time is of the essence and urge them to quickly act. Do they? I don’t know.
Often, when we employ this strategy, the buyer’s agent is a bit dismayed when suddenly the seller withdraws the counter offer. They say, what? Hey! My buyers were thinking about signing! Not my problem. The way to withdraw a seller’s counter offer is basically two-fold. First, the listing agent informs the buyer’s agent that the seller has revoked the seller’s counter offer, immediately. I do this via text and email. The next step? Get the Withdrawal of Offer (or the weirdly named WOO) signed by the sellers, followed by delivery to the buyer’s agent.
For example, a buyer’s agent insisted this week that we cooperate with her buyers and make the transaction work, damnit. In her mind, I guess. In my mind I don’t have to cooperate with anybody. If my sellers want to make the transaction work with that buyer, we’ll do it. If not, I’ll do something else. That something else generally involves selling to another buyer who doesn’t need a lot of time to ponder whether to buy the home at list price or better. I have fiduciary to my seller. I’m very clear on that aspect.
Reason #49 Sellers in Sacramento Might Reject Buyers
Sacramento sellers can have odd reasons to reject buyers’ offers.
Believe it or not, but there are real estate agents in this business who unintentionally blow their buyers’ purchase offers out of the water. If you’re a buyer whose offer was not accepted by a seller, you might look more closely at your agent. You probably do anyway because it’s human nature to blame your agent when your offer doesn’t come back signed. It’s not always your agent’s fault, though. Sometimes, it’s your fault for not listening to your agent. And, honestly, sometimes it is your agent’s fault.
I hear agents tell me that their buyer won’t do this, and their buyer won’t do that, and I want to say: Did you ask? Did you ask your buyer? Because I know they probably did not. They might be a white knight agent. They might be a control freak. They might be clueless.
They might be all of those things, I dunno, but I do know that you get further with honey than with vinegar. You can’t push a listing agent, no matter how hard you try. And if you do try, you can alienate yourself and your buyer. Nobody cares about your interpretation of law or real estate practice or anything else you read on the back of a Bazooka gum wrapper. I swear, this is such a simple concept but so few seem to get it.
Once you get past the listing agent, you still need to deal with the home seller. All sellers are different. They bring backgrounds and experiences that may be foreign to you to the table. Get over it. Just when you think you can second guess, you will be wrong. You never know how they might look at something, which is why I like to ask for feedback and input from my sellers.
See, the thing is in a Sacramento seller’s market, sellers are in control. They’re in control from the beginning to the end. It’s their home, they own it, and they make the decisions.
I recall a home I sold several years ago. We had multiple offers from a bunch of buyers clamoring for the home. When we have an even-playing field, I lay out the offers and let the sellers choose with no input from me. Hey, it’s their home. Their right to choose. I do ask why they might prefer one offer over another, and it’s always a different reason.
The reason the seller’s rejected certain buyers for this particular home was the buyers had come over to the house too many times. In the buyers’ minds, they were excited and wanted to show their new home to all of their friends and family. Plus, they wanted to take measurements so they could layout their furniture on a diagram before moving in. But in their excitement, the buyers treated the sellers’ home like a Macy’s display floor. Their offer wasn’t even presented yet.
The sellers felt the buyers repeated visits meant the buyers were indecisive and the sellers rejected their offer. Yet, another example of when you see a home you want to buy, you need to stop what you are doing and buy it.
