5 Things Home Buyers Do That Turn Sellers Off (and Kill Deals)

5 Things Home Buyers Do That Turn Sellers Off (and Kill Deals)

On today’s market, every savvy seller wants to know what turns buyers off, so they can get their homes sold as quickly as possible, for as much as possible. But buyers, take note – there is a minefield of seller turn-offs you can trigger that hold the potential to keep you from getting the home you want at the best price and terms, or to unnecessarily complicate dealings with your home’s seller.

Lest you think all of today’s sellers are under the gun and will just put up with whatever behavior buyers dish out, be aware that there are still many multiple offer situations in which buyers have to compete with each other to get a home – buyers who trigger these turnoffs tend to lose in those scenarios. Also, avoiding these seller turnoffs can create a transactional environment of cooperation and avoid things turning adversarial. That, in turn, can empower you to score a better price, get extra items you want thrown into the deal, and even negotiate more flexibility around your escrow and move-in timelines – all perks that can make your life easier and your budget go further.

For sellers, these turnoffs pose the potential of irritating you out of an otherwise good deal – maybe even the only deal you have!

Here’s a few of the most common buyer-perpetuated seller turnoffs, with tips for sellers on how to keep an emotional (and economic) even keel, even if your home’s buyer makes some of these waves:

1. Trash-talking. Trash-talkers are the home buyers who think they’re going to negotiate the list price down by slamming the house, telling the sellers how little it is really worth, how the house across the street sold for nothing, why the school on the corner should make them desperate to give the place away, etc. This strategy never works; in fact, when you attack a seller and their home, you only cause them to be defensive, and think up all the reasons that (a) their home is not what you say it is, and (b) they shouldn’t sell their home to you!

Sometimes this happens with buyers who actually love a house and just walk around it fantasizing about all the ways they would customize it to their tastes while a seller is there. Sellers: avoid being at home while your home is being shown. Buyers: save your commentary for your agent; if you do encounter the seller in person keep your conversation respectful and avoid critiquing the house or the list price.

2. Being unqualified for mortgage financing. When a seller signs a buyer’s offer, most often the seller agrees to effectively pull the home off the market, forgoing other buyers who might be interested. As such, the only thing worse than getting no offers on your home is getting an offer, getting into contract, then having the whole thing fall apart when the buyer’s loan falls through – especially if that could have been predicted or avoided up front.

Sellers: Work with your agent to vet your home’s buyers’ qualifications, including their loan approval, down payment and earnest money deposit – before you sign a contract. It’s not overkill for your agent to call the buyers’ mortgage pro before you sign the contract and get a level of comfort for how robust their qualifications are. Buyers: Get pre-approved. Seriously. And make sure that you don’t buy a car, quit your job, deposit lottery winnings or do any other financial twitchery between the time you get loan approval and the time you close escrow on your home.

3. Making unjustified lowball offers. No one likes to feel like they are being taken advantage of. And sellers generally know the ballpark amount that their home is worth, as well as what they need to sell it for to get their mortgage paid off. Yes – the price you pay for a home should be driven by its fair market value, rather than the seller’s financial needs, and deals are more available in a market like the current one, in which supply so vastly outpaces demand. But just throwing uber-lowball offers out at sellers hoping one will hit the spot is not generally a successful strategy, especially if you really, really want a given property.

Sellers: Don’t get overly emotional about receiving a lowball offer; counter at the price you and your agent decide makes sense based on the total circumstances, including your motivation level, recent comps and the interest/activity level your listing is receiving. Buyers: Work through the similar, nearby homes that have recently sold (a/k/a comparables) before you make an offer to factor the home’s fair market value into your offer price – also factor in how much you want the place, too. Don’t be amazed if you make an offer far below asking, and don’t get a response.

4. Renegotiating mid-stream. Sellers plan their finances, moves and - to some extent – their lives around the purchase price a buyer agrees to pay for their home. If you get into contract to buy a home, find out during inspections that costly repairs need to be made, then propose a lower sale price, repair credit or even actual repairs to the seller, that’s sensible and fair. But if you were aware that the property needed a lot of work before you made an offer on it, then you come back asking for beaucoup bucks’ worth of credit or price reductions midstream, expect the seller to cry foul. And holding the seller up two weeks into the transaction because you caught a case of buyer's remorse? Not cool, and not likely to foster the spirit of cooperation you may need to get your deal closed.

Sellers: avoid mid-stream price renegotiations by having a full set of inspection reports and repair bids at hand when you list your home. Buyers: try to avoid renegotiating the entire deal unless you get some major surprises at your inspections or inflating small repairs to try to justify a major price cut.

5. Misleading or setting the seller up. Remember when we talked about buyer turn-offs? Being misled by listing photos or very fluffy property descriptions was high on the list. The same goes for sellers.Offering way over asking with the plan to hammer the seller for a reduction when the house doesn’t appraise at the purchase price? #LAME Making an as-is offer planning the whole time to come back and ask for every penny ante repair called out by the inspectors? Lame squared.

Sellers: If you get multiple offers and are tempted to take a sky-high one or one that claims to be all cash, consider requesting proof that the buyer has sufficient funds to make up the difference between what you think the home will appraise for and the actual sale price, and statements showing the cash truly exists. Buyers: Don’t be lame. I’m not saying you have to tell the seller exactly what your top dollar is, but making offers with terms designed to intentionally mislead is really, really bad form – and can result in losing the home entirely if and when your bluff gets called.

REPOSTED FROM TRULIA

The right way to take advantage of low downpayment loans.

An FHA loan is a great way for a home buyer to get into a property with a low down payment of only 3.5%. Although the initial fees are high, most of the costs can be covered by the seller at closing. This program allows many first time homebuyers who do not have a large down payment(10%-20%) to get into a home sooner. However, with any low down payment program, there are a few simple things that the homeowner should be aware of and be prepared for to ensure that they don’t run into financial problems later on when they sell since the cost of sale in MA can be anywhere from 5-7% of the sale price.

First, buying a home with a low down payment should be a long term commitment. If you are planning to stay only a few years and then selling, you should not be putting such a low down payment. I recommend buyers who put less than 5% down to stay a minimum of 5 years. This allows you time to build some equity in the home so when you are ready to sell, you are not bringing additional money to the closing table. Building equity in the home also opens you up to additional financing options which can decrease your monthly payments.

Second, when buying a home, you should never assume your property value will appreciate. It is true that real estate values go up over time, but that is calculated over 10-20 years. Based on today’s market, it is safe to assume that short term, real estate values will remain stable or decrease slightly. If you plan on moving in less than 5 years, plan your financials accordingly.

To properly plan your financials, you should pretend like you are saving to put 10% down. Open another savings account and put some extra money away each month such that when it comes time to sell, you have effectively 10% equity. For example, you buy a home today for $400,000 with 5% down. You plan on moving in 5 years. This means that you should set aside approximately $300/month to ensure there is 10% equity at the end of 5 years. The good news is that this forces you to save money and if you end up not needing these funds to sell, you are well on your way to saving for your next home or have extra money for emergencies.

Lastly, remember that low down payment loan programs are a great way to help buyers get into homes sooner and in many cases, owning is better than renting. However, owning a home does come with additional financial responsibilities and being financially prepared will help you make the transition much easier.

If you know anyone thinking of buying a home while interest rates are low and property values are low, please contact me and I will be happy to help.

More Condo Auctions in Natick

The new construction luxury condos located at 20 South Ave, Natick will be coming up for auction. Thirteen condominium units will be auctioned off on Thursday November 19th at 7:00pm. 11 of the units will be auctioned off with minimum bids of approximately 60% of recent List Price. 2 of the units will be auctioned on absolute basis where the highest bidder wins the unit regardless of how low the bid is!

These luxury 2 bed+ 2 bath+ 1500sqft-2000sqft condominiums are currently about 50% sold out and the developer has decided to auction off the remainder of the units for a quick sale. These units should sell for between $300k-$450k depending on size and unit placement.

If you are interested in taking a look at these, please contact me before the auction so we can go preview the property before auction day.

Also, I believe there will be more luxury condominium auctions coming up in Natick in the next year. Another project located at 93 E Central St(Castle Courtyard) currently has unrealistic expectations of their price and zero units have sold since they started market it over a year ago. I think this condo project will be the next one to go to auction so stay tuned!

Natick Mall Condo Auction Results

Here are the results for the condo auction. Moving forward, the remainder of the condos will be for sale at auction prices with minor price adjustments according to view and floor.

If you know anyone interested in buying or selling a home, please let me know! I'd be glad to help. Also, if you know anyone who might be interested in purchasing one of these condos in Natick, I can arrange for that as well.

Paul Shao
Keller Williams Realty
508-960-4095

Note: The S stands for Study.

Unit #	Bed/Bath	SQFT	Last Asking	Sale Price	% Discount	$/sqft
902	2/2	1068	$679,900	$335,000	51%	$314
1002	2/2	1068	$699,900	$365,000	48%	$342
626	2/2	1212	$829,900	$394,000	53%	$325
632	2/2	1212	$839,900	$391,000	53%	$323
1006	2/2	1168	$695,900	$367,000	47%	$314
906	2/2	1168	$639,900	$348,000	46%	$298
806	2/2	1168	$644,900	$353,000	45%	$302
948	2/2	1236	$649,900	$411,000	37%	$333
848	2/2	1236	$624,900	$402,000	36%	$325
748	2/2	1236	$599,900	$385,000	36%	$311
943	2/2	1310	$839,900	$413,000	51%	$315
843	2/2	1310	$819,900	$417,000	49%	$318
722	2/2	1330	$614,900	$380,000	38%	$286
622	2/2	1330	$698,900	$388,000	44%	$292
701	2/2	1167	$649,900	$333,000	49%	$285
601	2/2	1167	$634,900	$335,000	47%	$287
926	2/2	1212	$645,900	$346,000	46%	$285
826	2/2	1212	$784,900	$347,000	56%	$286
932	2/2	1212	$659,900	$350,000	47%	$289
1004	1+S/2	1078	$734,900	$327,000	56%	$303
904	1+S/2	1078	$699,900	$315,000	55%	$292
704	1+S/2	1078	$739,900	$364,000	51%	$338
924	1+S/2	1041	$509,900	$312,000	39%	$300
824	1+S/2	1041	$604,900	$310,000	49%	$298
624	1+S/2	1041	$579,900	$308,000	47%	$296
1003	1/1.5	875	$509,900	$266,000	48%	$304
903	1/1.5	875	$489,900	$260,000	47%	$297
603	1/1.5	875	$449,900	$255,000	43%	$291
944	1/1.5	922	$559,900	$290,000	48%	$315
844	1/1.5	922	$534,900	$285,000	47%	$309
744	1/1.5	922	$514,900	$281,000	45%	$305
942	1/1.5	796	$504,900	$249,000	51%	$313
842	1/1.5	796	$479,900	$249,000	48%	$313
1013	3/2	1774	$1,114,900	$510,000	54%	$287
913	3/2	1774	$1,114,900	$501,000	55%	$282
813	3/2	1774	$1,114,900	$489,000	56%	$276
1205	3/3	2110	$1,684,900	$626,000	63%	$297
1105	3/3	2210	$1,584,900	$604,000	62%	$273
1209	3/3	2056	$1,599,900	$570,000	64%	$277
1204	2/2.5	1596	$1,284,900	$470,000	63%	$294
923	2+S/2	1495	$949,900	$399,000	58%	$267
927	2+S/2	1591	$984,900	$447,000	55%	$281
929	2+S/2	1495	$964,900	$395,000	59%	$264