I'm sure you've heard of 9-9-9. Herman Cain's catchy name for his tax proposal.
It inspired me to come up with a catchy name for what I've been doing for the 12 years I've been a buyer's agent.
I call my system the "12-12-3 Buyer Plan"
Quite simply, I want you to see 12 homes in three hours on day one. Then see another 12 homes in three hours on day 2. Then make 3 offers on your top three at the same time and let the sellers compete for your business.
It's Bold. It allows you to be Decisive. It brings Clarity to your decision.
You might start with a pool of maybe 50 possible homes. But through satellite views and pictures you can narrow it down to 24 homes. Send me your list and we'll set up two efficient home tours where we'll see 12 homes in three hours on day one and then see the other 12 homes in three hours on day 2. At ten minutes per home and a 5 minute travel time between homes, you can easily see 4 homes per hour which translates into 12 homes in 3 hours. Some homes will be eliminated in just 2 minutes, some will require 15 minutes. During our transit from one home to the next we'll talk through the pros and cons and rank it compared to the others we have seen. If needed, we'll go back to see your top three at the end of day two.
Don't kid yourself. Pictures help a lot but they don't provide some important details that might be key to your decision. You have to go see the homes in person.
- Pictures don't tell you how moldy the basement smells.
- Pictures don't tell you how much privacy you have on the deck
- Pictures don't tell you how dark and dreary it might be in the middle of the day
- Pictures don't tell you the size of the garage
- Pictures don't tell you the details of the floor plan
- Pictures don't tell you the size of the rooms
When in doubt, let's just put it on the list and let's go see it. If it's not "The One", we'll just turn right around and move on to the next. It's not a big deal.
Also, don't rely on the tax records for accurate square feet numbers. I've seen many times where the size is way off.
I suggest you make three offers at the same time for a few reasons.
- You don't want your #2 and #3 choices to be gone if your #1 choice doesn't work out.
- It might make the sellers more motivated to get to their bottom line quicker
- It positions you as someone who knows the market and has other options
- It's an easy way to find out who's most negotiable in the shortest amount of time
The quickest and most direct way to find out who is most negotiable is to put an offer in front of them and see how they counter. Then, the best way to see if that is really their bottom line is to be ready to walk away. Having three legitimate possibilities puts you in the driver's seat.
Maybe the first home that we see will actually be "The One". But do you want to be second guessing yourself forever? There's really no harm is playing it out and seeing the other 23 homes. If nothing else, you'll feel more confident that you are making the right choice. You'll be more educated on the market. We're only talking about spending 6 hours looking at homes.
Some agents will say that I'm crazy. They'll say that they are trained professionals who can listen to your needs and therefore can show you just a few homes that are right for you. I've worked with hundreds of buyers and I just don't see it happening that quickly. What I see when buyers see just three or four homes before deciding is fear and doubt. I also talk with buyers who are moving up to their second home who say that they wish they would have seen more homes in order to get what they really wanted. Instead, they were rushed and made a poor buying decision.
Maybe even after seeing 24 homes we still won't find "The One". No problem. We'll set up a listing alert for new listings coming on the market. You'll already have done your homework and probably will realize a good deal when you see it. Sometimes the screaming deals require you to offer full price, or more. If a home worth $200,000 comes on the market for $150,000, getting it for $155,000 would still be a really good deal. But would you be prepared to do that if that was the only home you saw? I don't think so. So educate yourself on the market and don't put blind faith in your agent. You are the one who will be living there for a long time so don't let any agent rush you into making a decision.
If you want to work with an agent who isn't afraid to show you as many homes as it takes, an agent who isn't afraid to submit a few extra offers, then give me a call. I'd love to get started with you.
You have ambition, I like that! Especially if you work with more than one buyer at once this could get tricky. In Louisiana you can only write one offer (or how every many they can afford) at a time.
Tim - Hmmm.....think I'm going to park for awhile and see what kind of responses you get.
It's a good plan, Tim, but has some flaws.
Three hours isn't enough to see 12 homes, no way. Not even in my little city. Atlanta? No way. Traffic, the distance between homes, time to actually explore the home in detail, clients may want to walk around again.
If you can write more than one offer at a time in Georgia, leagally. then go for it. I'd have to ask my broker about that one where I'm from.
Doug, If I get busy, I can usually handle two buyers like this in a weekend. I take one couple out from 9am to noon. I allow a two hour buffer and then show another couple from 2pm -5pm.
Donne, Be bold. Tell me what you think. Who cares how others respond.
William, I guess I've been doing the impossible :) I don't push my buyers when they look at homes. But over the years of setting up home tours, I've found that I only need to allow 15 minutes per home. Now if they are all over town, then I need to add a little more travel time. There might be one or two out of the twelve where they spend 20 minutes but then there's usually several where they only spend five minutes. Many times I have to force them to look at the entire home for the sake of using it for comparative purposes later.
I had been working with an investor couple and they had sent me 25 homes that they wanted to see. Usually 5 would be not avaiable anymore so we'd end up with a list of 20. It was usually taking us about 4 hours on Sundays to see those 20. And we covered quite a bit of distance. I like Sundays because there isn't much traffic. Also, vacant homes are quick shows. So usually I can fit in 15 homes in three hours but that tends to scare people so I've toned it down to 12 homes in three hours. Again, I do it all of the time. Now when I'm showing big million dollar homes I usually allow 20 to 30 minutes per home.
In Georgia, we have gone to a option type contract with our due diligence period. There's a place to disclose whether you are currently under contract with another home and also a place where you can state whether or not you retain the right to go under contract with another home at the same time. So nothing is deceptive and everything is disclosed right there on the contract. And I don't suggest that a buyer be under contract with more than one home at a time, but there really wouldn't be anything wrong with that if it's all disclosed.
Tim - Ok, since you asked, I too agree with William that 3hrs isn't enough for a Los Angeles or Ventura county Realtor to show 12 properties. However, I do like your suggestion that on a tour of homes (regardless of how many properties are on the tour), a Realtor needs to be getting their buyers to rank the houses. This will not only eliminate a lot of undesireable features and properties but it will also start to narrow down the desireable features and properties!
Don't even get me started on writing up offers for more than one property. That is not an acceptable practice here in CA even though a lot of Realtors do it. Furthermore, I think it weakens the offers because it seems to me akin to throwing $#^! against a wall and seeing what sticks. JMHO (since you asked).
Love the idea of 12 homes in 3 hours. I think that would help give the buyers a better idea of the homes available, and the various levels of condition. I agree with you that it will help the buyers recognize a good deal when they see it, and realize when a property is underpriced or overpirced.
I think buyers need to see a lot of homes, so they can be confident they are buying the right one for them.