The Right Time, Place & Price for Your Offer

By Bernard Hale Zick
(Copyright, with right of publishing to MSI.)

By now, you know that real estate investing is not easy. Too often the "get-rich-quick experts" try to tell you it is easy. But, nothing in life that is worthwhile is easy! It is possible to make yourself financially independent, or, at least improve your financial situation, by investing in real estate. That is a worthwhile goal.

Why is all of the hard work necessary? Because finding a good deal is part of a search process and it takes time to search for anything. Assuming you've decided that you are going to buy and settled on the price and type of property you want, it is now time to go look for it.

You pass out business cards and fliers, attend financial lectures and circulate among the attendees. You run ads, put up signs and do anything you can think of that will cause real estate deals to pass before you for your review!

Now, you screen these possible investments and choose the ones worthy of your time. Here's where a little talent or a lot of experience will save you hours and hours of time. Once the desirable property is spotted and the motivated seller is identified, you make your first offer. If you have done a good job of drawing out the seller's needs and wants, then your offer should be on target. Now, it is just a matter of negotiating any differences.

However, it is an imperfect world and no matter how hard you try to be on target with your offer, you might miss. Even if you hit the target as described, sellers have been known to change their mind mid-stream. So, an impasse is reached. The deal is over and it's time to start over again. Right? WRONG!

My grandma was a young widow when she raised seven kids on a farm during the "Great Depression." When she killed a chicken, the necks and heart were saved for soup. The chicken was fried and the drippings made the gravy. Leftover gravy was used over biscuits in the morning. (Remember, this was before all the talk about cholesterol.) The point is, NOTHING WAS WASTED!

As a real estate investor, why would you go through all the steps to get to the point when you could write an offer, only to walk away if it is rejected? Ask any broker if he or she recalls ever being rejected by a seller at a certain price only to have the same seller accept a lower offer at a later date. Why would this happen? People are only able to operate in the here and now. However, things change.

When a seller puts a property on the market for the first time, he has wild hopes and masked fears. He expects the best and tries not to think about the possible "worst." When your "low-ball" offer comes in, especially if it is early in the game, it likely will be rejected. If your offer is realistic for a needy seller who hasn't yet realized his price is way out of line, no matter how right and reasonable your offer is, it will probably be rejected.

So, time passes and perhaps no new offers come in. The seller may panic. Finally, someone makes an offer at a buck or two below yours, but, it is now a totally different point in time. The seller has experienced an attitude adjustment! Where are you when this happens? Your offer would pay him more now than the current offer, but do you expect the seller to search you out when you went away mad two months ago? He tossed your offer out the day you left. You never contacted the seller again.

What should you do? Well…if it was worth your time to make one offer on the property, isn't it worth a follow-up offer? If you don't want to appear anxious, wait a week. Then, either call to see how the seller is doing, or, be more direct. Send a postcard or an email to keep your name in front of the seller. THE KEY IS TO REMAIN INVOLVED SO WHEN THE SELLER HAS AN ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT AND HE OR SHE DECIDES TO TAKE THE NEXT OFFER THEY RECEIVE, IT IS YOUR OFFER!