QUOTE (drew @ Mar 4 2008, 12:05 PM) Hello,
I would love to hear some opinions and real life experiences about marketing to motivated sellers. This would be in regards to properties not listed. In the ACRE system, much of the focus is on sorting through listed properties. Would it be more profitable to focus on finding properties not listed? What are the pros and cons?
Sincerely,
Andrew
Pros:
1. You may get a better price or have more of an opportunity to get the terms you need to make a deal work.
2. The sellers don`t have a professional working for them to validate your claims and have to trust their own judgement.. hence they may make mistakes in negotiating with you
3. You generally won`t be competing with as many other buyers out there... Most buyers will use an agent because there is no direct cost to them to do so.
Cons:
1. People selling FSBO 100% always look on MLS to see what things are selling for and then take their best guess and set their list price accordingly. looking at list price FSBO vs. MLS I seldom see a huge spread. They also know their assessed value for taxes.
2. You are dealing with an unprofessional party that doesn`t have a contractual obligation to an agent to sell their property or abide by the rules of the Alberta Real Estate Association listing contract - they may do any of the following:
a. Flake on you and decide not to sell even after you have a deal in place
b. Not tell you they already have an offer and waste your time trying to get a better price
c. Tell you they have a competing offer when they don`t
d. Not disclose any material defects
There are others and yes there are shady agents out there that do these things but we have a governing body that doesn`t hesitate to revoke licenses and hand out lawsuits to bad apples.
3. Marketing to motivated sellers is time consuming and expensive... flyers, signs, bandit boards etc are not cheap and you have to be quick to follow up.
4. There are lots of tire kickers that will just pull your chain to see what their house is worth and have no real interest in selling unless they got a smokin price
Finally - motivated seller does not mean `motivated to give my house away`. It often means `motivated to sell for my price`.
