Oct 10
15
Sellers That Don’t Actually Want to Sell
by Julie Broad
I was convinced that an alien had snatched September because it seemed like we went straight from August to October. September was barely a blip on my screen, and it doesn’t help that we didn’t put a single deal together in September.
Looking over my property book (where I make notes on every single property we view), we looked at 13 properties despite being on a road trip to Alberta for 9 days. We also made a handful of offers, and revisited a couple of the offers we’d made in the summer.
In a normal month we probably look at 30 properties and make upwards of a dozen offers, so we didn’t try as hard in September but it wasn’t from a total lack of effort that we didn’t get a deal done in September. It was simply that seller after seller held their ground on the price.
After following up on some homes that are still for sale after months and months of being listed, taken off the market and listed again, I was once again reminded of this fact:
No – folks – for many sellers, time alone is just not a motivating factor.
So let me tell you about a few of the sellers we’ve met recently:
Mr. & Mrs. We’ll Be Having None of That Here!
This one was quite funny. The home was decently priced for it’s location and condition. We felt that if we could get it for about $10,000 less than they were asking our numbers would look good. Since we weren’t far off from their asking price we figured this deal would be an easy one to do.
It turns out price WAS a sticking point. They wanted their asking price. Period.
The price was the price.
PLUS – they were horrified that we had asked permission to put up our “Lease to Own” sign 14 days before closing. We like to do this to build interest in the home for our rent to own program plus it’s just good advertising. This home is right by a school and would get plenty of views on school days.
The mention of the sign TOTALLY freaked them out. They were convinced that people would be knocking on their door asking to see the house. I wondered if people had been knocking on their door asking to see their house with the for sale sign out front but all this communication was between realtors so I had no say.
The End Result: Not only was there no deal for us, the next day the home was pulled off the market. One week later the house came back on at a price $10,000 higher than their previous list price. Needless to say that was nearly 60 days ago and the home is still for sale.
The M&M’s
Ok this was actually a deal we struck in late August. The home was on a quiet cul de sac in a decent area. The home lacked curb appeal in a big way but otherwise seemed like a decent home. It’s price point in the $270,000 range made it a great fit for many of our tenant buyers. But the sellers made us work for the deal. They pushed back on dates, price and even the time they had to accept or refute the deal. We settled at the top end of what we were willing to pay. They were tough deal makers but we had a deal.
Then we did the inspection. Problem after problem arose. The biggest issue was a shower had been leaking behind the wall. There was also some evidence of other issues being covered up by fresh coats of paint and work that hadn’t been done to code. We didn’t expect any of these issues and decided to push to have $4,500 knocked off the price to cover the costs of the surprise repairs.
The End Result: We braced ourselves for battle. After the tough time we had getting the sellers to agree to the deal we wanted in the first place we figured this would be a pushing match but they surprisingly responded quickly in agreement. They were hard on the outside and very soft and easy to melt on the inside, just like an M&M candy.
We already had cold feet because of all the surprise issues which led us to wonder what else was waiting for us in that home but their softness at this point made us further question the deal. Suddenly they’d become anxious to sell. We walked away and felt darn good about it.
The Dreamers
We meet all kinds of dreamers. Some of them are just totally out to lunch and others have had their pipe dreams filled by a realtor (or two or three) trying to get their listing with lofty promises. Last week we met with a couple who had held onto our Yellow Letter from last year. Their home was in our target area so immediately we were very interested. We own three houses within a few blocks from this home and would happily add another one to our portfolio at the right price.
These two people are some of the nicest folks we’ve ever met and they had done their research. They’d been watching the market and had three realtors come through and give them a price estimate. The realtors suggested their home would fetch anywhere from $349,000 to $389,000. They didn’t tell us who told them $349,000 but that realtor was the only one that was being honest.
We know all the houses that have sold and at what price in that area. That is our ‘hood!
We also know WHY they fetched the price they did.
Their house should sell for $340,000 to $350,000. We offered them $330,000. When you factor in the fact that we would give them the EXACT date they wanted to close on to make their move smooth AND that there are no realtor commissions involved, it is a fair price.
The end result: They turned us down and put it on the market. I wouldn’t actually call them dreamers because they listed at $359,000. They were reasonable. But so many other sellers hold on tight to the dream that their home will fetch $20,000, $30,000 or even $50,000 more than it’s market value. Even when realtors, buyers and passers by tell them they are dreamers.
Most of these folks try for months and months to sell, and then eventually pull their home off the market. Sometimes they re-list with a new realtor at a more sensible price and the home sells. Other times they just carry on living in the home dreaming of the day when the magical white knight buyer will show up on their door and offer them their pie in the sky price.
In the case of our couple above … we are hoping they sell for $350,000 or more. It will help boost the value of the properties we already own in that area. 
In the event they don’t, we know they will come back to us. Unfortunately, our first offer is almost always our best. Not because we’re mean but because most of the time when we lose a deal we console ourselves with all the reasons the house would have been a problem anyway.
It makes us feel better to think that we didn’t get the deal because it was a troublesome one anyway. As we dwell and discuss all the issues (and EVERY house has things that aren’t ideal!) those issues become more expensive in our minds and we usually want a better price for the home when the seller comes back to us 6 weeks or 3 months later. Not always – but usually.
Mr. Buy My House and Ms. It’s Not For Sale
Months and months ago, during the yellow letter campaign, my Dad received a handful of calls from a guy we’ve lovingly called Crazy Willy. Crazy Willy received our yellow letter and told my Dad he wanted to sell his house. His home is located on a cul de sac in an area we buy in and it has a suite. My Dad had quite a few conversations with Willy and was pretty sure we’d be able to make a deal with him. We drove buy his house and confirmed that it’s one that we would negotiate on. We were started to get excited about the deal.
Then Willy’s daughter phoned and said “His house is NOT for sale”. She went on to explain that her Dad is not of sound mind and was not going to make the decisions about his home, she was.
The end result: We still heard from Crazy Willy a few times after that and his daughter would always follow up after wards to let us know that any deal we struck with her father was not going to happen.Willy clearly wanted to sell but his daughter wasn’t having any of it.
Then, last month, Grant at 1-800 Got Junk, was removing renovation debri from our 70′s house and mentioned that he may have a lead for us on a home that will be going up for sale. He had been there cleaning a bunch of junk out from the suite because the tenant had moved out. Turns out – it was Crazy Willy’s house! (SIDE NOTE: We tell everyone we work with that we’re always interested in hearing about seller leads – this means plumbers, electricians, painters, junk removal and even our lawn mowing company all become bird dogs for us.)
We followed up with the daughter because that was who Grant had been working with, and she let us know the home is not for sale just yet but the time is coming. She asked us to follow up again in six months.
There are also always sellers like Mr. No More Monkey Offers who Shae Bynes has been dealing with for OVER A YEAR!! You have to check that story out.
There is no real point of my post today except perhaps entertainment and the desire to hear about other investors crazy seller stories. And on the bright side, we actually have an accepted offer as of Monday on a home near the hospital in Nanaimo. We also have another deal that just might come back to us. Our realtor texted me Monday morning and said that she heard from the listing agent on a home we offered on a few weeks ago. They had come within $2,000 of our offer price. Normally that would be close enough, but with the other accepted offer already on our plates we pushed back and said, our price or nothing right now. We haven’t heard back yet but I imagine that, unless an offer comes in soon, it will be our price.
These are sellers that actually want to sell … the others … I’m not so sure! Please tell me your crazy seller stories … I would love to hear ‘em.
