The mark of a good agent is adaptability. What works to get one buyer a great home may not work in another sale—and a smart agent knows when and how to pivot on behalf of a client.
Case in point: I recently represented first-time homeowners in the purchase one of the Sunnyvale’s largest townhouses in the highly desirable The Gardens tract in Sunnyvale located near W. California and Mary Avenue. This Sunnyvale townhouse was listed at $699,000, and my clients submitted an offer for $685,000. By the time my clients’ offer was to be presented, there were two other offers, so my clients increased their offer to $705,000.
I asked the listing agent if I could present my clients’ offer last. That way, the sellers would be ready to make a decision, and I could probe for information about the other offers so I’d know whether to recommend that my clients adjust their offer.
We arrived to the appointment before the first presentation—but nothing happened. As we sat in the parking lot, no agents came or went. Maybe there weren’t really three offers. Or maybe the listing agent was presenting my client’s offer first.
Time to pivot. I called the listing agent, who told me the other agents were “running late,” I asked her to call me after the other two offers had been presented. An hour later, we got the call. Another pivot. I asked the listing agent if my clients could sit in on the presentation. That turned out to be a blessing. Small talk revealed that one of my buyers worked at the same major high-tech company as one of the
sellers, and the techies bonded. My buyers’ offer (which was not the highest) was accepted—and the sellers even shaved $1,000 off the buyers’ offer as a courtesy.
The moral is that a great real estate agent always think of ways to give their clients a leg up. By having my clients come to the presentation and by scoping out the parking lot to be sure we would be last to present, we were able to outsmart two agents with solid offers. Make sure you choose an experience agent who knows when to pivot on your behalf.
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