A few weeks ago on Reality Realty, the weekly real estate talk show that I host on Northumberland 89.7 FM, we did a 5 part series that was quite interesting. The topic of the series was “Today’s Real Estate – Perception, Attitudes, Persuasion and Passion”. A series looking at real estate from the psychological perspective. One of the episodes was focused on psychological tips for the buyer in a real estate transaction. Psychologically you want the Seller to want you to be the Buyer – not the opposite. Here are a few tips that we discussed:
Psychology to help the Buyer starts when viewing the homes:
- Respect the home.
- Take off shoes, don’t bring in dirt from outside.
- Leave home the way it was when you got there.
- Lights off, doors shut and locked, window coverings the way they were.
- Realtor should leave a business card.
- Show up and leave on time.
- Careful what you say outside, what you think is the neighbour, could be the Seller at the neighbours home.
- Neighbour might even relay some overheard conversation to the Seller
- Even think about what’s said inside the home; we live in a world of technology where microphones, cameras, security equipment and baby monitors are not uncommon.
Psychology to help the Buyer in Negotiations:
- Personal letter from the Buyer to the Seller or message from the Buyer, that the Realtor can communicate – helps you to connect to the Seller.
- Terms and conditions of the offer and how the Seller will react to them:
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- Are you insulting the Seller with your initial offer?
- Is the deposit strong?
- Has the Seller been asked what their ideal closing date is?
- Inclusions and exclusions?
- Conditions
- The amount of conditions; on one hand, are there enough conditions to allow you to do your due diligence and on the other hand are there so many conditions that the offer appears too convoluted to the Seller?
- The time requested for conditions
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- Photocopy of the deposit cheque – showing the deposit cheque or photocopy of it lets the Seller know you are ready to move forward on this deal. Or even a document from lender stating you’re good to purchase to a certain dollar value.
- Buyer having a second choice for a home purchase – not pretending but really having one. If you can communicate this to the Seller, they will be more likely to value the fact that you’re putting an offer in on their home first.
