There are literally dozens of arguments that can be used to motivate sellers to:
- List now
- Price reduce
- Successfully negotiate an offer to purchase
As discussed in yesterday’s Cup o’ Joe, the proper presentation of strong seller arguments involves four steps:
The Fact, or issue, the impact on the seller, the key question to ask, and finally, the proof that the issue should be a concern for the sellers.
Questions can be very powerful closing tools. When a seller answers a question that reinforces your points, it is far more impactful than when you make the point by telling the seller. One golden rule to follow:
When the seller says it, they believe it! When you say it, they don’t!
Listed below are some of the best questions you can ask your sellers to make strong closing points.
- Fact (issue): Supply or inventory remains stubbornly high.
- Closing Question: Is it possible that it could be many months before the number of homes for sale drop in your price range? And, it’s unlikely prices will stabilize until inventory levels return to normal, isn’t it?
- Fact (issue): Demand is flat
- Closing Question: Sales activity since last year has not increased. If sales remain flat in the future, isn’t it unlikely that we will see prices rebound?
- Fact (issue): Month’s supply of inventory is still higher than normal.
- Closing Question: Despite an increase in sales, the month’s supply of homes for sale has not returned to normal. With all the economic uncertainty, is it possible it could take 1-2 years before we reach normal levels? And, aren’t prices likely to remain flat until that happens?
- Fact (issue): Prices have not increased in the past 12 months.
- Closing Question: with no increase in prices since last year, isn’t it possible that with all the economic uncertainty, that prices will remain unchanged for another year or so?
- Fact (issue): Elections are still causing a great deal of uncertainty, impacting consumer confidence
- Closing Question: Is it possible that things could get a lot worse after the elections? And if they do get worse and impact prices, doesn’t it make sense to take advantage of the window of opportunity we have right now?
There are a dozen more seller considerations that will be presented next week that you can share with sellers to help them manage the risks associated with selling their property later.