Posted by Brent_IL on May 23, 2002 at 07:52:08:
My specialty is using “fuzzy math” to lower the costs of RE acquisition, so I can appreciate your concern.
Sellers will accept offers that appear unbelievable to the uninitiated when they feel that your offer gets them where they want to go. Every offer I make includes seller-financing at one percent, or less, interest; payment and pay-off discounts; subordination; substitution of collateral; and a mortgage to secure seller performance. Many times the sellers make their own down payments, and do so happily. A skeptic would say this could never happen, but many posters on this board do this every week of their lives. Make offer that are good for you, and fair to your sellers, and they will be accepted. The final offer needs to be financially viable.
One caveat, don?t use the jargon or buzzwords that we use among CRE investors with sellers or agents. It confuses or frightens them. Describe what you?re speaking about instead.
Realtors®, for the most part, will not take you seriously. They are not trained in CRE techniques and lack the incentive or inclination to become knowledgeable. They have trouble presenting an offer that they don?t understand. RE agents who are least affected by this are the very new, or the very experienced. The way around this is to work with one, or two agents semi-exclusively who you have trained. My primary agent has two functions; light information gathering, and reassuring the listing agent that they will receive a commission regardless of the nature of my offer. I can handle everything else. With experience, so can you.
Unrelated to the question, I thought that if Jim went to the trouble to use the ®, that I should stop being lazy and follow his example.