With properties in many states having less than 1 month of inventory, buyers need to market more than ever. The market is unhinged due to COVID and the plague’s repercussions, such as moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures. That’s created an environment where prices rise quickly due to an imbalance in supply and demand. That is why we want to discuss how buyers can be more attractive to sellers.

Three ways to be a hot buyer in a seller’s market

This post will be a little bit of marketing and some plain old common sense. By following the three steps below, you make yourself more attractive as a buyer.

1. be prepared

I know that sounds simple, but make sure you have everything ready before making your offer. If you don’t have your pre-approval letter ready along with the team, including your realtor, lawyer, and inspectors, you’re going to struggle because properties come and go quickly. I was with some buyers this weekend, and we were going out looking at a few places, and they mentioned they liked another property. So I called up the realtor to find out if we could do a listing real quick, and she said, “I’m sorry. We just actually signed that property.” That’s how fast things are going. It’s really quick. So be aware that the properties are going really fast, and it is a competitive market for buyers.

2. because you’re prepared, you can move quickly

Often in real estate, the early bird gets the worm because you need to move quickly. When I bought my condo last year with my wife, we were initially the backup offer. However, when the original offer fell flat, we could purchase the property because they wanted to close within 30 days. And we’re like, “Boom; we can move forward on this.” We’d been looking for a long time because even before COVID, it was still competitive. Because we were able to move fast and there wasn’t a lot of friction, it made the deal possible.

3. provide a little extra poof

For example, I recently heard of buyers who give realtors and sellers flowers when they’re submitting their offer to stand out. Talk about cool branding. You’re giving a little poof to what you’re doing, making sure that you stand out and separate yourself from everyone else. Now, you don’t have to necessarily give flowers, but think about what things you could offer that someone else would not.

For example, I worked with a buyer a month or two ago, and instead of lowering the price, we bought at the listing price, but then we just asked for some reductions in closing costs, which made it easier for her to buy. This is a perfect example of a win-win because instead of going below the listing price, we sold at the listing price, which made the seller happy, and then they just gave a concession for just paying for some closing costs made my buyer happy. That’s how you start to do that. You start to think about how to be creative with that. And that’s how you start to get that win-win situation.

Bonus: give a personal touch.

A lot of real estate today is impersonal, and that’s part of the issue. One of the ways you do that is by creating a connection to the seller. Now, if you’re working with a realtor, you’re not going to talk to them directly. You’re going to talk to the other realtor. It makes the process very transactional. You never talked to the other side, you talk to the intermediaries or talk to your intermediary who talks to their intermediary, who talks to the other client.

If you want to be able to create a personal touch, maybe add a personal letter with the sales contract that says, “Look, we loved your house, and we’d love to offer it.” See if that makes a difference. There’s going to be someone who’s going to appreciate the fact that you’re not interested in buying their home and redesigning all the personal touches they made. You want to make this your home and your family’s home. Sellers’ will respect the fact that the house they built for their family will live on to help another family. It’s vital to create that personalized connection if you can, and that will really help you stand out.

Talking about how to compete in a seller’s market, how to market yourself more effectively so you can buy that property.

If you need to know more about how to compete in a seller’s market, please schedule a free consultation with me to talk about how to stand out in your market in a seller’s market.