GINA HANSON
AUTHOR,
SELF CONSTRUCTED
Keynote Speaker Workshop Facilitator
Real Estate Trainer
Pricing Scripts
BUYER WANTS TO LOWBALL THE OFFER
Do you want to be a professional offer-writer, or do you want to be a homeowner?
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If you insult the seller by offering too low of a price for the property, they may choose to not ever do business with you, and that means not only no counter back, but an actual refusal to even look at other offers from you. However, if you offer them something that is workable, hopefully they will at least counter back, and you can get this new home.
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I know that you’re looking at the price of this home and it's slightly outside of your range. However if you take the (X amount - say $30,000) extra, and divide up over the 30 years of the loan, that's out works out to be $1000 a year. $1000 a year works out to be, what, $80 a month? $80 a month is $20 a week, which is approximately $3 a day. Isn't that less than a cup of coffee? Here, let me pay your first day. Give them $3.
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(Name), I need you think like a seller. If the seller has three offers and one of them is cash and the other has no contingencies and yours is seriously underpriced, which would you take?
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Will it hurt if you lose this house? Then let's write up an offer that will get accepted.
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Would you sell your house for $400k if you knew it was worth $450k? That’s exactly why we need to come up in price.
BUYER WANTS TO WRITE A CONTINGENT OFFER UNDER ASKING PRICE
(Name), I need you to think like a seller. If I have to wait for you to sell your property first, and you don't even have it on the market yet (or an offer on it yet) why would I risk taking my house off the market for a deal that might not happen? If you were the seller, what kind of offer would you want to see? (non-contingent, or higher-priced). Exactly, That is why we need to come way up in price.
Seller Script
ASKING FOR A PRICE ADJUSTMENT
(Set the stage on the listing appointment for a future price adjustment)
Here is what the activity looks like when we put your property on the market. The first few days after we go live, buyers will see it online. A few days later they tell their agents and a few days after that they come by and see it. Which means the greatest activity will be 1-2 weeks after we go live. Then showings dwindle down until just after week 3 and your property goes into a listing coma. The only way to get your property out of a listing coma is to reduce the price. That starts the cycle all over again. Which means that I am going to be over here every month with a price adjustment until we get your property sold.
(After it's listed)
(Name), may I share an NAR statistic with you? The National Association of Realtors say that even when the market was really bad, a correctly priced property sells in approximately 15 days . The other rule of thumb is two weeks no showings, or 10 showings no offers, means your house is overpriced. We are now at X days and X showings, we have to adjust the price of your property.
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If you see a home that has been on the market a long time (refer to the average days on market on their CMA), what do you think about the house? Right, something's wrong. That's why we can't allow your property to sit here at this price, people will think that something is wrong with your property, and there's not. If you did make an offer on a property that has sat for a long time, what kind of an offer would you make? Full price, or much lower? Exactly, that's why we need to price your property correctly, so we don't get really lowball offers from people who think there is something really wrong with your property.
I'M NOT GIVING MY HOUSE AWAY
Actually, in this market, you are. And you are getting a screaming deal on the other side as well. It's just how it works.
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What is more important to you, _______ (being closer to your family, being closer to your new job, being in a smaller house, buying your dream home...whatever) or not having to give the home away?
I WANT YOU TO JUST ADVERTISE MORE
Let's say you go to the grocery store and there are 3 gallons of milk for sale and one is priced at $1.99 the other one is $2.50 and the third one is priced at $5.99. Now, the milk is exactly the same - which milk are you going to buy? Correct. Now, what if I advertised the $5.99 milk and told everybody about it, which milk would you buy? Right. Now, what if I put sign spinners all around the $5.99 milk and bring in a marching band telling us about what a great gallon of milk it is - would you buy it then? Exactly! It’s supply and demand economics and it is the exact same with houses. If the buyers find the same property in the same neighborhood and it is priced much less than yours, it doesn't matter if we have a marching band and sign spinners, everything is online now, and all the marching bands in the world aren't going to change the fact that your milk is overpriced.
MY HOUSE IS WAY NICER
I have pictures with me here of examples of what sold in your neighborhood and I divided it into low, medium, and high price. Based upon these pictures, which one is your house (where does your house fit in... what is comparable to your property)? I'd rather you be the most beautiful property in your price range, than the ugliest one in the higher range. That’s why we need to price in this range. It's a price war and a beauty contest, and we need to win both.
NOT SURE IF THEY WANT TO SELL
At what price do you become a seller?
THEY WANT TO OVERPRICE THE PROPERTY
Here’s how we can tell that we are in the right price range. Within the first 3 weeks:
If your property is 15% or more over market price you are in a listing coma.
If your property is within 10-15% over market price, we will have Internet traffic, but no offers.
If your property is within 5-8% over market price, we will get drive-bys and showings.
If your property is 3-5% over market price, you will get showings and low offers.
If your property is within 1-2% of the market price, you will have showings and viable offers.
If we start it at a price that puts it in a listing coma, we will have to adjust the property by 10% or more to get it out of the coma. I'd rather price correctly and not have to do a drastic drop just 3 weeks after going live.
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I need you to think like a buyer. You’re probably doing that already. You’re probably online looking for your new home, and you are searching in a certain price range, say from 650 to 700. And you’re scrolling through looking at picture/price, picture/price, picture/price, and you’re saying, ' no, no, no, maybe, yes'. Swipe your finger left for no and right for yes. Most people don't know this, but in today's day and age, your first showing is online. That’s why we need to price your property correctly - I need to get you into that 'yes' pile. Without your property priced in the correct price bracket people will never even see it. Price brackets are the first place people start. The second thing people see are the pictures. It's picture/price/, picture/price, picture/price. That's why we have to the price it right AND have the best picture - to keep you out of the 'no' pile. You do want to keep your property out of the 'no' pile, don't you?
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(Name), I need you to think like a buyer right now. As you can see from the CMA here, on average five properties sell in this neighborhood every single month. Currently we have eight listed in your area, and yours will be number nine. If you are a buyer and there are nine properties in a neighborhood that are all fairly similar, and one is priced at 595, three at 600, four at 625, and yours is 695, which one are you going to buy? Exactly, because everything is online, and they can see it all. If we price at 695, all you are doing is selling your neighbors house. My job is not to sell your neighbors house. My job is to sell your house.