Gray, Maine Homes for Sale, Short Sale, Foreclosures

I have been working as a Realtor in Gray Maine for over 11 years representing both buyers and sellers. I like representing both, but they are completely different many ways. Finding the right home is a process that takes a lot of work. Sometimes the houses for sale on the market are not the right home. That is when a good buyers agent will be worth every cent YOU pay them.

Yeah, I said YOU pay them. That's the truth because you are the one paying for the house and you aren't going to get it any cheaper with or without representation, so why wouldn't you want a professional helping you in your searching for homes you might like to buy. In some ways it is like going to court in a law suit, not bringing a lawyer with you, and paying for the other side's attorney to argue against you. Who would do that?

Back to having a good agent.

So you have looked at all the homes for sale on the market and you just haven't found the one you want to purchase. Here is one way I personally stand out from many other brokers. Not only do we have several searches continually looking for new listing that come on the market, I look at listing that have expired or were withdrawn in the past 6 months to a year. Sometimes people change their mind about selling or the house just wasn't marketed correctly and they still would like to sell. So I call or stop at those people's house and see if they still have an interest in selling their home. If they are then I take a few photos and send them to my clients to review. If there is interest, then we set up a private showing.

Now for the best part:

My clients will likely pay less for that home because the commission is only half of what it would be because there is not another realtor involved. Now that is what I call BUYER REPRESENTATION!

Call or email me to discuss how we can work together to take care of your Real Estate needs.

Gray Maine Houses for sale , How not to sell a home?

What to do if the buyer and seller cannot or will not agree on the price? How far apart is too far to bring the two together? Is $5000 too much? What about $10,000? How about $30,000? It obviously depends some on the value of a home, but in this example lets say the price is $430,000. The buyers offer $370,000 and the seller drops to $400,000. The buyers hold firm. Is the deal dead in the water? Perhaps in most instances, but is that the case because the realtors don't work hard enough or get creative enough to keep working and find a way to bring the parties together?

Here is one way to start getting creative? Is there other properties being sold and purchased, the buyer selling a house and the seller buying a new house? There are ways to tie some of the money from those deals into this deal that may or may not help bring the two into agreement. If working with the seller who is stuck at $400,000, and they are buying a home with part of the proceeds, take a good look at the home or homes they are looking at. Can they expect to get a good reduction in price in the area they are going? For instance, if buying in some areas in Florida where the market is taking a bigger hit than homes for sale in Maine, you should be able to show your client a savings on the next transaction of $5000 to $10,000 that they did not expect. So maybe they can accept a little less knowing they can get the new home for less as well.

If I am working the buyer who is holding firm at $370,000, and they have a home to sell (although they don't have to sell in order to buy the new home) then there are a couple of options. Perhaps they rent there old home for a couple years until the market comes back and then sell and get more for their home, or the realtor could offer to sell their home for a big reduction in commission, netting them more on their home and allowing them to pay a little more on the new home.

By using these ideas and some more which I will blog about later, I was able to bring the parties together, at least for a little while (read the next blog to find out what else happens and what lengths a realtor will go for their clients).

Everyone has to remember what the parties goals are, and try to keep a positive attitude about things. The realtor(s) needs to be looking ahead for issues and try to find solutions and have answers incase problems do arise.