Deb Espinoza's Real Estate BLOG

I was reading another agent's blog today and it sparked me to write this. The agent was wondering when to tell their seller that they were getting an offer on their house. Seems she had a buyer's agent calling her all weekend asking questions about the listing and the agent kept telling her that her buyers would be making an offer, only to find that the offer never materialized and her sellers were upset that she had told them there would be an offer and then there wasn't one.

My first thought is, tell your sellers they are LUCKY that this buyer didn't submit an offer. If they aren't that into your house the sad fact is that the deal will more than likely fall apart at some point before escrow closes and better now than later. A buyer that's not all too excited about YOUR house will most likely keep looking for better ones and if they find one they will most likely find any reason to cancel on your escrow. The buyer also won't be invested in making ANY kind of concessions if negotiations need to happen for repairs or other items. I also must say that there are plenty of buyer agents that have called me saying that their buyer was going to be making an offer only to have it never materialize. So my motto to self "Talk is cheap.. SHOW ME THE OFFER! Until I have the offer- complete- I do not tell my seller. I think that these days the buyers are stalling in some cases to make sure nothing better comes along.. So you might get the offer but be missing the deposit check and the approval letter.. it may take days to get them.. In my opinion, this buyer is NOT into my listing. If they were, they'd have everything I need, ready to go. But then , it could also be an incompetent buyer agent who didn't get their buyer ready upfront .. I don't know. I put my offers in complete, with cover letter to the listing agent and seller with all the pertinent info about the offer on one page; concise and professional, list the attached items and I call after I send it to say "Please look for our offer, and if you didn't get it, or you can't open it, please let me know and I will take care of it right away". Professionalism, but that's yet another blog- haha. Can't tell you how many offers I get with no follow up phone call- What?? are they afraid of the telephone?? 

My second thought is; "How can you not know your buyers well enough to know that they aren't into the house?" I operate pretty laid back when I am working as a Buyer Rep. I keep my comments to a minimum and just let the buyers look and talk and I LISTEN. This is how I find out what they like and don't like, I hear the excitement or lack thereof in their voices. I can say almost without a fault;that I know when my buyers have walked into "THE ONE". Now granted there are buyers that are more committed to 'the one' when they find it than others are, but generally when your buyers have the offer in on 'the one'- your escrow WILL close. When my buyers have found 'the one'- then I go to work being the agressive 'house crasher'. I point out all the things that don't meet their 'must have list', I show them all the items I see that will need repair or replacement, termite damage, old wiring and low amp electrical, old heating units.. etc etc.  If they are still defending the house to me; then we will go together and work on a plan; if not, then I have saved us both time and frustration and disappointment when a deal falls apart over something that could have been tackled right up front, because yes, there are also buyers that want to buy sooo badly that they will fall for pretty much anything- and that's where I come in and bring them back to reality to guide them to the 'right' house. My fiduciary duty is to my buyer, not to my commission. I have promised to uphold my client's interests above my own. I am working on clients for life and referrals, not the 'deal of the day".

So, I am thinking that some of these buyer agents want a deal so darn bad that they may 'push' the buyers to make an offer on something they really don't like or maybe their 'read' on their clients just isn't quite there?? Or perhaps this is an agent that just ran out on a call from "Joe Blow- come show me this house" and really knows nothing of this buyer, their ability or qualification to purchase the home, nor has spent the time with them getting a buyer agency signed and had a conversation with the buyers; this agent is just so darn excited that s/he just showed a house to a real person and "of course they love it and me and they are going to want to make an offer!"  What do you think?