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No matter if you´re buying a piece of prime Sarasota FL real estate or if you´re looking to buy a large block of ice in Antarctica, all buyers want the same thing: the best deal possible. While this may not be possible in every situation, you can push the odds in your favour by finding out one important piece of information. If you can find out why the seller of the home you´re looking to buy is selling, it can shed a lot of light on how motivated of a seller they are, which can save you a bundle over the long haul.
People sell their homes for all sorts of reasons, and as a buyer, you can use this information to your advantage. Let´s take a look at some of the most popular reasons why people move and how it effects their motivation.
One of the most popular reasons that people move is likely the reason that you, yourself are looking to move. Your family is growing and you simply need a bigger place to live. In these situations, it really depends how far along the seller is in buying their next home. If the process is moving along smoothly and it looks like they might even close on their new home before they have sold their old one, you could be ready to get a fantastic bargain on a sweet Sarasota home. The seller will most likely need the money they would have coming in from selling their old home to close on their new one, so a seller might go from mildly interested in your offer to extremely interested almost overnight. While submitting a low-ball offer is always risky, you´re better off submitting one under these circumstances then in any other.
Another popular reason why people sell is because of a divorce or separation. While these circumstances are unfortunate, they can lead to a buyer doing very well for themselves. In most of these situations, the sellers simply want to move on with their lives and start fresh so they will most likely be very motivated to sell their shared home. By talking to your real estate agent, you can find out some inside information on the motivations of the sellers and that will help you figure out what your bid price should be.
If it appears that the major reason why a seller has decided to sell is because of a lost job or because of tough financial times, a buyer can easily take advantage of the situation to get a great deal on a home. In these cases, probably more than any other, the seller likely has many debts and needs to close as quickly as humanly possible. The only big danger here for the buyer is that if you know that this seller is so motivated, chances are, others know, too and it could drive the home into a bidding war where a low-ball offer would get rejected immediately. The only way you could submit a real low-ball offer on a home in this situation would be if you knew you were the only person with intimate knowledge of the seller´s motivation.
There are other reasons why people choose to sell which don´t lead to a highly motivated seller. If the seller is well-off financially, they can sit and wait for just the right offer to come and reject any attempts for a low-ball offer. If the person who is selling has moved into a retirement community, they can take as long as they need to sell their home, especially if the local real estate market is hot and they can just sit back and watch their home increase in value on a daily basis. The key is to simply keep asking questions of those that are "in the know" like the lawyer you hire, your real estate agent and the appraiser who takes a look at their home. They have personal contact with the seller and they might know how to get you the best deal possible.
A seller´s motivations for selling can really help a buyer get a great deal. It may feel like you´re taking advantage of a persons´ bad luck, but when you´re talking about saving thousands of dollars or tens of thousands of dollars, you need to do what´s best for you and your family. | 