How does an agent kill a deal? How does the Home Buyer lose their initial enthusiasm of buying the house?
Incompetence, neglect, unresponsive or how about just procrastination?
Most would agree that buying a house is a very emotional decision. That is the difference between residential and commercial real estate. Commercial or investment properties are by definition black and white, what can it be rented for and will it make money?
A residential purchase on the other hand is much spontaneous and exciting.
Initially, that is. Unless you have to deal with a real estate agent who has no clue that his attempt to drive the price up for his seller is slowly making the buyers question the decision and the price they are paying to buy the house.
Mr. Clever Agent has decided to wait three days to respond to the buyers offer, despite telling them that an answer was forthcoming. Forget the fact that the buyer had contractually ask for an answer within 24 hours.
Was he waiting for another offer? Maybe he could not get a response. Nothing was communicated to the agent. No news is not necessarily good news.
People can deal with a response, either positive or negative, but what most have a problem with is uncertainty. The indifference of not knowing can produce many emotions, almost all negative.
Three days can seem like an eternity without a response and a Buyers momentum and eagerness can easily be lost. They will start looking at other houses and they begin to develop a dislike for the agent on the other side. They feel something is telling them it wasn’t meant to be.
Additional offers are made with no agreement and now the transaction is in its 5th day. The Buyers are tired and emotionally drawn out. If an agreement is reached, the celebration and excitement are muted, and the possibility to walk away in a few days is now increased.
Talkin or Walkin?
In a negotiation, common practice says as long as you’re talking, the parties are still at the table and an agreement can still be reached.
To a certain degree, yes.
But at some point, someone has to make a final offer and either you move forward or walk away. Despite the fact that you try and remained focus on the end result, personalities do come into play as the back and forth, offer counter offer process continues.
Momentum easily moves back and forth between Buyer and Seller in a real estate transaction. In a Seller’s market when most home buyers will accept a sellers terms, it’s still important to understand you are dealing with feelings, emotions and people.
It is not the ticket counter at the airport.