Bonita Springs Fl Real Estate » Seller Tips

Selling Real Estate of the Dearly Departed | Probate

chrisgriffith — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:11:10 +0000

Selling Real Estate With Care After Probate

The only thing certain in life is death and taxes … and probably how emotionally taxing death is when liquidating real estate. Selling real estate is stressful enough for some folks without compounding it with the emotional burden of liquidating the remaining assets of someone dear or even your own assets after losing a spouse and choosing to move on.

Real estate agents are in a unique position when they’re called for basic advice and to find out where to start, what to do. In the last few months I’ve had a few close friends, family members and acquaintances call because they simply didn’t know where to start. My advice is generally to be patient, be brave enough to ask for advice and to hire experts to represent their best interests or those of the estate.

Be patient: Because every circumstance is different, the first thing I tell people is to not act in haste. Don’t sell in a panic just because you feel you need to get rid of the real estate as soon as possible.

There’s a huge difference between deciding to liquidate real estate and selling to purge the horrible feelings and be rid of the state of affairs everyone involved is experiencing. Emotions can easily become the largest hidden expense of selling real estate when grief is involved, whether it’s selling the assets from a death, divorce or unemployment. It can become a business decision clouded by heartache. Many sellers become rushed and don’t take the time to pause and analyze the financial benefits of holding or selling their real estate. Money is thrown away when there’s panic and a decision to sell, as soon as possible, at a price that is below market.

Ask for advice: Besides speaking with attorneys and real estate agents, ask for the advice of trusted family members, close friends, clergy or even a grief counselor. While there are many organizations offering free counsel, making an appointment and paying for private grief counseling to help with important decision making, will pay for itself. Plus, it’s a third party with nothing to gain when there are family dynamics and added stress pulling from different directions.

Find experts to help: There are a few interviews that should take place when you’ve decided to liquidate real estate. If there isn’t an attorney involved, it would be wise to find a great real estate attorney. Also, interview three or more real estate agents to verify the state of the market and qualify the suggested market price and to gauge the experience and ability of the real estate agent. Always write down the suggestions and advice so you can weigh and balance the answers of everyone you’ve interviewed and spoken to.

Last but not least, it is easy to become overwhelmed. If you’re feeling uncomfortable when hiring someone to help settle the estate or hiring someone to sell the real estate, pump the brakes. Remember the old adage to measure twice, cut once. It’s always more costly to make a bad hire than to carefully screen for an experienced, qualified hire and that includes settling the final affairs of liquidating real estate.

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Real Life in Bonita Springs is a project by Chris Griffith dedicated to writing useful blog posts for consumers about the Bonita Springs, Florida area. Find out what it is really like to live in Bonita Springs, Florida by reading about our fair city. You’ll get the latest in local real estate information, Bonita Springs real estate market reports and a little bit of humor. If you have topic ideas, feel free to request a story about the idea, after all, this site is just for you.

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Real Estate Disclosures and Paper Cuts

chrisgriffith — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:21:41 +0000

Why Are There So Many Real Estate Addendums

About a decade ago I faxed (fax machines were once bleeding edge) a contract to a prospective real estate purchaser. She worked in the Pennsylvania school system and gave me a number at work to fax it to. A few hours later she called and said, I had no idea it would be that many pages. Why are there so many pages? At the time it was a mere twelve or thirteen pages, total.

Since then, contracts have gradually expanded from four pages to ten pages. On top of that, there is a disclosure for just about everything except for disclosing the hair color of the buyers placing the offer. I just glanced at my last sales contract which happened to be a modest condo with no bank involvement or legal issues – twenty two brilliant white pages, half of the pages were contract and the other half disclosures.

Since we live in such a litigious society, it only takes one little lawsuit to inspire a new disclosure that will hopefully be a preventative measure to deter a similar situation from happening again. Buyers and sellers of real estate are consumers and the powers that be in the State of Florida want to make sure the consumers are protected and that they’ll enjoy their shopping experience. That is good … and with that protection comes the paperwork.

For example, they want to make sure you don’t wake up and suddenly realize that with your home purchase you ended up belonging to a homeowner association that you didn’t know you were going to belong to … and it’s mandatory. (Insert ominous, echo.) It obviously happened to someone, somewhere or the proper fee wasn’t disclosed to the buyers and that’s how that disclosure was born.

Any legal measure generally boils down to money and consumer safety. As a consumer they’re trying to make sure your money is safe, there are no hidden expenses or fees and, after you move in, your family lives in an environment free from toxins or hazardous materials.

There are disclosures, such as the defective drywall disclosure and a mold disclosure that are meant to protect your money and safety and disclose that a buyer is permitted to obtain those inspections at their own expense, of course. Certainly consumers from outside of the area may not know about or understand defective drywall so it brings it to their attention, or a new level of worry. It’s currently a mandatory disclosure by many real estate brokerages in the Southwest Florida area, whether the home was built in 2004 or 1973.

There’s a mountain of disclosures that accompany real estate transactions these days. It’s not going away any time soon. Hopefully, your agent will be joining the paperless movement so you can sign documents electronically and if you’re fortunate the lender involved will recognize and accept electronic signatures on the contract. They didn’t like fax machines once, either.

Before electronic signatures are mainstream consumers will still be printing, signing, and scanning a couple dozen pages just to make sure everyone is properly informed and that all material facts and defects are disclosed to all parties. The paper cuts and spent ink cartridges are the cost of doing business.

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Twinkle Lights and Hurricane Tape

chrisgriffith — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:37:23 +0000

Selling Your Bonita Springs Home – Remove Dated Decor

There isn’t a more magical time of the year than Christmas, uh, “the holidays”. A good portion of the masses deck their halls and don their lights with gay apparel as early as, well, before Thanksgiving now. I think it was a little about two weeks before Thanksgiving that I forever deprogrammed a radio station in my car which made the mistake of trying to make me choke down “rum pum pum pum” before I had even guilted my children into buying the turkey and pulling out the pilgrim salt and pepper shakers.

With the festivities weeks behind us I’ve notice while, showing properties in the area, twinkle lights hanging lifelessly from the eaves of homes, blowing in the wind. Just to be clear, I have nothing against Christmas or twinkle lights, I’m not profiling. It’s just that there is a time and place for everything and the time for 2011 twinkle lights has passed; rest their tiny, lifeless souls.

Post-holiday twinkle lights represent the passing of the season and all the commercial possibilities promised to the American consumer such as the toys that blessed children asked Santa for, which then came without batteries to run them and the gifts of mediocrity, guaranteed to be re-gifted next year.

I’d reckon that if the proper tests and surveys were performed, twinkle lights should legitimately have about the same decorative shelf life as hurricane window tape; counting the days from installation a few days before the event, the day of the event, seven to ten days after the event, then removal.

Partly, I’m joking about the hurricane tape on windows. Tape never looks good in season or out of season. The twinkle lights quite possibly brought joy to children at least once. The magical storm resistant tape had no business being used to begin with and it does not work.

At the risk of upsetting a late-tape-taker-downer, I’m sorry but you wasted tape and you’re probably lucky to be alive and now your windows look like crap. You would have been wise to have field tested your windstorm safety plan by taking a roll of the tape of your choice, scotch, masking or duct tape and tape a big X across your chest and stand in the middle of flying debris to measure out how well the tape protected your person from flying roof tiles and lawn chairs.

Tape doesn’t work. Your homeowner’s insurance company would offer you a hurricane tape discount if it did and 3M would be crushing the Florida market in tape sales.

The Coup de grâce of expired exterior home décor would be the twofer of expired twinkle lights and tape window X’s but that leprechaun probably doesn’t exist. Probably. Send pictures if you’ve seen it.

All in fun and just a way to remind some of you folks know that if you listed your home or condo for sale sometime around Thanksgiving or after and you’ve not sold your real estate, you may now take down your lights and ask your agent for new marketing pictures to be taken … and probably reconsider that price reduction.

Digital holiday cheer is the gift that keeps on giving the whole year through and there’s nothing that screams “my real estate has been on the market since Christmas” more than a Christmas décor rolling through the visuals. Don’t let your home become a senseless casualty of the twinkle lights.

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Selling Your Soul for Real Estate Data

chrisgriffith — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:20:25 +0000

Real Estate Lead Capture

Maybe you’re curious about what your home is worth or you’re a serious buyer prowling the web for the latest new listings or price reductions in the area you want to buy a home in, sooner or later a pop up window will ask for more information. Whether you’re a buyer or a seller, getting free information online is probably one of the newest exercises in tolerance.

A home seller called me out of the blue to ask for information about selling their real estate, what the level of standing inventory was and what the probability of selling their condo was. The next question was why it is so hard to get info without “selling their soul” because so many websites require registration before consumers can get to the data or the balance of the restricted data.

Whether you’re buying an airline ticket, real estate or a custom Paul Jr. Designs chopper, there’s someone out there gaming the internet trying to make sure you click their web link first. As a consumer, it may have never occurred to you that there are web placement gamers who pay to be in ads and some pay to have better ranking websites which show up for the search terms specific to what you’ve searched for.

With the great advances of technology and searching for information on the internet comes the opportunity of generating information to make a little scratch, especially when it comes to real estate.

The field is wide open for “lead capture” when it comes to real estate. Yes, a good portion of the websites out there have now sized you, the consumer, up as a lead and not a person. Odds are that you can perform a search for “your city real estate” and the majority of the query shown in the top ten search engine results are mostly “helpful” websites that will ask you for more info so they can sell your information.

It’s not that difficult a task. A middle school student in Boise could create a mediocre website or pay per click ad campaign that focuses on Bonita Springs real estate or Naples real estate and either make money off of ad clicks or collect data to sell later. It’s all about the Benjamins.

What’s more is that there are the recognizable, so called “helpful” brand named real estate websites that appear to selflessly offer their assistance to consumers for a free home valuation only to gather your data to sell to the premium, subscribing real estate agents. Those same websites market to real estate agents with the promise of $X per month for the leads in a city or zip code. You, the consumer, are the lead and thought of with about the same regard as cattle in a herd.

It’s a challenge to get information out there unless you carefully search for a site that doesn’t need to know your blood type before you proceed. There are websites offering information which don’t always require registration or if registration is required, it’s disclosed that your data isn’t being mined and that your email address is simply a means to for automated updates on the saved searches you’ve created.

So if Jo Blow from Kokomo calls or emails you after you registered on a random website, now you know how they got your info.

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Real Estate Buyer’s Remorse & Failed Contracts

chrisgriffith — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:35:17 +0000

And Sometimes Real Estate Buyers Back Out

There you are minding your own bees wax. You’ve tended your real estate, preparing it for sale the way a dutiful seller should, shining it sparkling clean, pricing it right, listing it for sale and before you know it, an offer comes in.

The bantering counter offers go back and forth and finally there is an agreement on price, terms and conditions. Passing a few due diligence periods, such as home inspections and condo document review and such you anticipate be on your way to a closed sale in almost no time flat.

What sometimes happens next almost sounds like screeching tires: Buyer’s cold feet.

Occasionally, there are inklings up front, the paperwork is slow to come back, tons of questions which are refuted with documentation, budgets and such and then … then the call comes in that the buyer wants out. It’s not always malice on the part of a buyer, sometimes its circumstance.

We all know that any random day can be met with change when circumstances intervene. During the transaction, somewhere between contract and closing, the buyers lose their job, lose their spouse, lose their money, lose the contract on the home they were selling to be able to purchase the next home (domino effect) or made the fatal mistake of financing something else while they were trying to close their home affecting their credit. The list of incidences can go on and on.

As a real estate agent, I’ve seen it before and it never gets any easier to tell a seller. As a home seller, it can be like a kick in the gut when the buyer backs out or when a buyer’s mortgage doesn’t get approved.

Any number of things can happen and prevent a sale from going through. Sometimes there is an escrow deposit on the table for a seller to recoup and sometimes there isn’t. So how do you, as a seller, shore up a deal and try to get it as close to the closing table as possible?

· What a buyer and seller do or do not agree upon is disputable unless it’s in writing. While negotiating a contract, initial and date every single change on a contract, any little thing, even the bottom corner of every single page just to document what you have agreed upon and witnessed.

· Narrow the dates for inspections and financing approvals.

· Push for a comprehensive “mortgage approval” when there is a mortgage contingency.

· If you’re selling a condo, ask for condo association documents, budgets, rules and regulations, frequently asked questions and the application for the buyer to join the association to be delivered ASAP. There is time period for buyer to review the condo documents by law and a receipt should be received for the delivery of the information.

· If your home is located in a Homeowner Association; disclose the fee and documentation to the buyer and execute a “Homeowner Association Disclosure”.

· Follow up on deposits; Initial escrow deposits and secondary deposits. Ask your agent which exact dates items are due, especially contingency dates, and record them for future follow up.

· Make sure your real estate is active in the MLS until it is actually pending sale.

· Run the entire contract by a brilliant real estate attorney for a thorough review.

· Trust your gut. If you think the transaction is getting wobbly address the issues immediately and either get busy closing the transaction you have in progress or get busy looking for a new buyer.

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How to Market Your Bonita Springs Home For Sale

chrisgriffith — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 02:09:54 +0000

Homes For Sale In Bonita Springs | Online or Out of Touch

Never could anyone have imagined just a few short years ago that social media would be such an important way to advertise and sell real estate. With the technological advances that have developed over the last decade we’re well beyond a real estate agent needing a website. We’ve now also crossed the threshold of a real estate agent needing several key social media platform accounts.

If you’re one of the consumers out there that just don’t “get” computers, the internet or email I realize not everyone has embraced technology. You do not, however, need to list your home without asking some important pivotal questions regarding where your real estate will be found online when you list it for sale.

When you’re interviewing real estate agents to list and sell your home their listing presentation should include aspects of how they market real state online. Some presentations are delivered on tablet PC’s or iPads, as well as in booklet form. One way or another you should be able to collect some information regarding where your home’s listing info will be syndicated.

Websites and social media platforms you should be expecting to see in a listing agent’s presentation are:

· A blog – Not just a website. At the very least your home and your neighborhood deserve an information packed post for consumers to find when they Google your neighborhood or your address if there is a yard sign for example.

· Facebook – A link to their personal Facebook profile and their Facebook business page. Your listing can and should be syndicated and published to subscribers of the business page.

· Twitter – Perhaps the real estate agent’s Twitter ID

· YouTube – YouTube is a video channel which is both popular and high ranking in search engines. Your home and your neighborhood should now have a video produced for marketing purposes by your listing agent.

· Google+ – Google’s social aspect of the brand.

· LinkedIn – A business/professional social networking platform.

· Craigslist – A free yet powerful online classifieds website.

· A host of other lesser known yet powerful platforms – Flickr, Picasa, Live SkyDrive, Vimeo, Animoto.

Once your real estate is placed online in the MLS – Multiple Listing Service it will also be syndicated to a variety of powerful websites such as Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com. These websites position little icons on individual pages of properties; a blue square for Facebook, +1 for Google, a birdie symbol for Twitter, the list goes on. When other consumers find your home listing on the internet they can easily click the icons to either bookmark the property for future reference or to share it so that their friends or family can see it, too.

It’s sort of 21^st century version of a flyer on the bulletin board at the grocery with the little tear off phone number tabs. Instead tearing a paper tab off, people electronically click tabs and either save it for reading later or send the tab to someone else for them to read, like their own real estate agent or family and friends.

You’ve heard of the phrase “viral video”, a video so popular and seen by so many people that Kathie Lee and Hoda end up putting it on their Good Morning America show, too? It all started with someone thinking a video was cute or hilarious or ridiculous and clicking a tab to send it to a friend or share on a social media website. That’s sort of how marketing real estate with social media works, too.

Now go forth and ask questions and if you’re really confused about social media hire some kid in the neighborhood for an hour to help you compare listing presentations and check up on the prospective listing agents and their tech savvy abilities.

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All information is deem accurate, not guaranteed and subject to change. Check the date on this report for freshness. If you have questions regarding your particular neighborhood, your street or your home specifically you’re welcome to contact us for a current market report. Real estate consumers that read this website are urged to seek independent, professional legal, real estate and financial advice before engaging in any transaction. All information is deemed, accurate, subject to change and not guaranteed.

Real Estate Home Inspection Question & Answers

chrisgriffith — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:00:55 +0000

Condo Inspections, AS-IS Contracts and Nit Pickery

It’s mail day! There have been a variety of question regarding home inspections from both buyers and sellers. Here’s the latest and greatest from the mail bag that I’m able to squeeze into six-hundred-ish words or less:

Question: The home we’re interested in is offered as-is with the right to inspect? Are they trying to dump their can of worms on us?

Well I’m not sure who the “they” is but the “they” is usually giving you the opportunity to inspect the real estate thoroughly and decide whether or not you’d like to move forward with the purchase based upon those results. There are a variety of reasons why real estate can be for sale as-is. For example, it could be bank involved, either a short sale or foreclosure or part of an estate liquidation where the heirs have no knowledge of the condition.

As-Is with the right to inspect isn’t necessarily a hostage situation. It’s simply a situation where the sellers are willing to negotiate a sale price with you, you’re offered a period for inspections and due diligence and if the defects are too much for you to repair or undertake, you may exercise the right to excuse yourself from continuing with the purchase. If you have concerns you really should hire a real estate attorney to walk you through the process and explain your rights as a home buyer.

Question: The home inspection report for the home we are selling literally had a couple dozen items on it. Some of it seemed like the buyers are nit picking. Are we seriously expected to fix all of this?

First and foremost, even homes in the most pristine condition will have a few items on the inspection report. Some home sellers feel personally attacked because even the tiniest items end up in the report; discolored areas of walls, stains, torn screens, cracked tile, you name it. It doesn’t mean that the seller is responsible to remedy each item. The contract delineates which items are cosmetic and which items are actually considered a “defect” and warrant a repair or replacement.

Simply put, the buyers have hired a professional to inspect a property they may have only physically been inside of for a brief visit or two. The buyers are expecting and paying for a comprehensive report on the condition of the home. They didn’t personally type up the list to hurt anyone’s feelings.

Items like “cigarette smoke odor” or “several cracked tile which runs across the room” will be put on a on a report. Items that seem out of the ordinary get reported for the buyers benefit even if it isn’t something that is ordinarily covered as a seller’s responsibility to correct on template contracts.

Question: Should we get a home inspection on a condo?

Yes. Even a condo in the best condition can have issues that a buyer needs to know about. During an inspection all systems are checked, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, appliances, etc. Often times, inspectors will also recommend radon testing, air quality (mold) if they see reasons to do so. Most importantly, many inspectors now offer thermal imaging which can indicate moisture intrusion and wiring issues. It’s an absolutely lifesaving technology that can nearly see through walls for defects invisible to the naked human eye.

If you elect to not have an inspection you will likely be asked to sign a release for liability.

Until next week … that’s it, Fort Pitt.

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Real Estate Contracts | Hold The Emotion & Perform

chrisgriffith — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:23:32 +0000

Save The Drama For Your Mama

There’s no crying in real estate. At least there really shouldn’t be. Typically, all parties involved in the transaction have a common goal for real estate to change hands so what is it that makes it all go haywire?

So there everyone is, minding their own business when “exhibit A” rears its ugly head. We’ll call this generality “exhibit A” because most of the time these are legal matters and when a home owner or a home buyer is “not seeing things clearly” during the course of a transaction they’re fiddling with not performing to the terms of the contract. You know that contact, the legal, binding pile of paper that all parties have signed in an agreement to sell or purchase a home?

This so-called “exhibit A” can be anything from the buyers failing to apply for a mortgage in a timely fashion, failing to complete due diligence and inspections within the specified time line or not depositing earnest money in escrow. There are legal obligations on the seller’s side, too. They’re usually required to keep the property in condition in which the buyer previously viewed the property, keep the utilities on plus allow access for inspections and appraisals and close sale on a specific date.

Some folks simply thrive on drama. Maybe they live very dramatic lives because they just don’t feel alive unless there is a craptastic storm swirling around them. Sometimes when there is a breakdown in listening and communicating the reality of the contract doesn’t mesh with what’s going on in their mind’s eye and the difficulties begin.

When things start to get dicey, it’s important to not get emotional and to recognize the constants when dealing with the real estate transaction, especially when one of the participants starts to get dramatic.

What is the constant? The constant is the contract. It’s the instrument that dictates the who, what and when all things will take place. It’s the time frames and deadlines, the drop dead dates.

Even the most average transaction can get pulled into the circus of the dramatic buyer or seller. What generally compounds the issue is when others in the transaction start reacting to what is going on. That whole “you push me and I’ll push back” theory is counterproductive when trying to close a real estate transaction.

Recently, I overheard a disgruntled home owner say, “You’re making me do xyz.” The reality of the situation is that nobody is making anyone do anything; there is a contract that all parties agreed to and signed. The contract is telling all of us what to do and the timeframes in which to do it. The home owner looked at everything as a personal attack because they didn’t understand what they had signed.

The best reaction to most dramatic situations is to continue to perform under the terms of the executed contract and to always proceed to close. It might be beneficial for your real estate agent to go over the terms of the contract with the other party just to make sure there wasn’t a (finger quotes) misunderstanding and to help steward everyone back to the same page.

The overwhelming majority of the time emotionally charged transactions can and will work themselves out. Don’t become legally responsible for delays or for the transaction not closing because you allowed yourself to become distracted by drama and did not perform your portions contractual obligations.

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Reevaluate Real Estate to Sell This Tourist Season

chrisgriffith — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:35:11 +0000

Price, Condition, Location & Value in Real Estate

The snow birds are on their way. This year, like many of the other years, the first signs of their return are the transport trucks delivering their automobiles. To that end, let it be known that a winner of the Facebook “car hauler bingo 2011” contest is officially declared. Vivian M. of Bonita Springs spotted the first car hauler offloading a four door sedan with Ohio plates a few weeks ago.

Fall brings with it the early snow birds, slightly cooler weather plus new hope for the seasonally stressed businesses … and home owners yearning to sell their real estate over the next winter season.

If you’re about to list your home or your home sat unsold over the summer it’s time to measure and compare with current market statistics and conditions so you can prepare for the winter season. After all, you’ll never know the progress of the real estate market without measuring periodically to check the results … or figuring out why there was a lack of results.

Why fix what isn’t broken? Take, for instance, the big three valuation and measurement tools in real estate; price, condition and location.

Price – The value of real estate is determined by collecting recent closed sale comparable data. Those closed sales should be as recent as possible and not more than six months old when listing the property to make sure that your real estate is priced within market range.

If your real estate was listed before summer, the comparable sales that were used to determine your old list price are as stale as yesterday’s doughnuts and you’re overdue for a fresh comparative market analysis.

You should also ask your real estate agent or the agent you’re interviewing to list your real estate for an absorption rate. You’ll want to find out how much inventory your home is competing with neighborhood wide or even in your home’s price range. Ideally, you should know how many months or years of inventory you’re competing with before you list and periodically throughout the listing period.

Condition – Home buyers are shopping long and hard for real estate before putting ink to paper. They have the benefit of comparing all of the competing real estate in a day or two. They hack through the field of available properties with a machete and get to the best of the best quickly. There is little opportunity for a second chance to get them back through the door once they’ve been turned off by something negative. It’s a downright shame if it was a correctable negative condition like cleanliness or neatness that turned them away.

Of course it’s a no-brainer that homes in better condition sell faster and closer to list price than the homes needing TLC. Sometimes, home owners are a little too close to the forest to see the trees or their idea of clean is, well, different from what others may consider clean. Reevaluate the condition by taking a fresh look or get an outside, second opinion of the home’s cleanliness and readiness to show to perspective buyers.

Location – Whether it’s the actual neighborhood itself or where the home is located geographically within the neighborhood, the location can influence buyers positively or negatively. Compare apples to apples and be prepared to adjust the price to correct the differences. For example, two nearly identical homes, one on a lake and one backing up to a sound wall next I-75, sport very different values.

A busy road or any other unattractive nuisance that can’t be remedied or removed is a form obsolescence which often can’t be corrected with anything but a price adjustment.

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Low Ball Offers on Real Estate

chrisgriffith — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:01:17 +0000

Sucker Punches & Low Ball Offers on Your Real Estate

So there you are minding your business and your agent calls with the great news that you’ve received an offer for your real estate. Hopefully, the offer price isn’t going to sting and leave a mark. If it’s a “low ball offer” bone up on your patience and count to ten before reacting.

A home owner recently asked me, “Where do these buyers get the nerve to come down here and sucker punch home owners with low ball offers? My answer probably wasn’t exactly comforting but an account of what we’ve been dealing with over the last few years.

The economy and real estate continue to be big media’s darling, go-to headline or sound bite. Add to that, the fact that we’re in Florida and one of the crisis states where huge amounts of building and followed by record mortgage defaults occurred. Consumers have no other choice but to think we’re flopping fish on the shore.

While that could have summed up the market a few years ago, it’s not remotely that dire in Southwest Florida these days.

There’s no doubt that there are savvy buyers with the quote of Baron Rothschild echoing in their head, "Buy when blood is running in the streets." There is also the mentality of getting the best possible deal in a market when it’s great to be a buyer and why shouldn’t there be? There’s no crime in buying low or selling high if you have the means or opportunity to do so.

Most sellers, as painful as it is for them to look at the other side of the coin when they’re addressing a low offer, would agree that if they were a buyer they’d be negotiating a hard bargain and making their money going in, too.

The difference between a potential buyer trying to negotiate a good deal and the dreaded low ball offer is motivation and merit. Are the buyers really motivated to buy or are they just throwing out offers to see what the response is? Is there merit to the offer, a complete contract, proof of funds, market analysis that supports their offer price?

We get our fair share of buyers who visit the area and make last ditch, low ball, my plane is leaving in three hours, offers. The offer actually feels odd. Sometimes those offers have to be taken with the seriousness in which it’s delivered. A halfhearted offer gets a halfhearted presentation and a seller who wants to most-heartedly tell a buyer to go pound salt.

A weak offer, including any verbal offer, can be vetted by the listing agent and seller by simply insisting that the proper documentation, addendums, proof of funds or financing to accompany the offer before it’s even presented to the sellers. If it’s too much effort for the buyers or their agent to produce, they’ll bail.

Offers with merit usually have a sense of vitality and are delivered with some sort of presentation, proof of means of payment, thorough paperwork and a glimmer of hope that the buyer is willing to engage in some form of negotiation.

If you’re a seller faced with a low offer, toe the line and ask for all of the proper documentation and make sure the buyer is committed and qualified up front. Why waste time or get bent out of shape over a lackluster offer with an unqualified or uncommitted buyer?

Remember also that not all offers result in an executed contract. Sometimes it’s appropriate to simply thank a buyer and their agent for their interest and invite them to come back with a more robust offer so that you can engage in negotiation.

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