one week before the Fall market is supposed to start and you guessed it, i'm in a bidding war. which was no surprise considering the low list price was designed to attract many...many buyers.
and last night was no exception.
so i got my skiis shined up and grabbed a stick of juicy fruit...oh wait that's a gum commercial...but i did suit up and got my game face on for a friendly night of competition.
competition is not new to me, i grew up playing sports and unlike todays kid, i don't want a ribbon for participation.
so how do i gain the competive edge, when i literally have no idea what i'm up against? well for starters i set realistic expectations for my clients, because i've been through this more times than they have and its my job to know and understand every possible outcome. i then i make a point of knowing as much as possible about the sellers and any intimate details of the house being sold. is there something special in the home that i noticed that will give me the upper hand when presenting? and how can i win over the sellers, making them want to sell to us?
the house we offered on last night was in east york, owned by the same lovely Greek owners for the past 36 years.
so i pulled out the perfect blue and white dress, packed up all the necessary documents and gased up to trek across the city for a 7pm presentation.
after presenting the first price and then being asked to come back with a second price, we all thought for sure we were a shoe in, until i got another call from the listing agent.
"amy can you come back in again, we have a bit of a dilemma".
so i went back into the house as requested, greated with a big hug from the home owner followed by a buffet of nuts, grapes and what i think was metaxa? the agent stated that there was another offer a bit higher than ours, but the dilemma was; the sellers wanted to sell the house to my clients, because they liked me the best.
they even wanted the listing agent to tell me what the other offer was, so i could ask my clients to offer $500 more hoping that my clients would move into their very loved home.
well in case you didn't know, you cannot divulge details of another clients offer to the competion...i mean i would have loved to know, but if the tables were reversed my clients would have been pretty sour about that.
i took this information to my clients and we offered our third and final price.
but it just wasn't enough to take the baklava and the house went to another happy couple.
so we move on to the next house and as the search continues I might have to brush up on my Italian or Polish...never the less, i will continue to dazzle sellers and knock back the odd shot if need be :)
does your agent have the upper hand?
Oppa!
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