Sellers offering perks to buy, but do they work?

Janna Scharf, GRI, CSP, CLHMS Coeur d'Alene Home Sellers Motivated to Offer Incentives to Buy

The other day I got a call from a reporter at The Coeur d'Alene Press. He was working on a story about the climate of our local real estate market. He asked me what it was that was motivating my sellers to sell, and some of the buyer's incentives that were being offered.

I quickly went down a mental list of my sellers. A woman is getting married, and a man is getting divorced. A retiree on 11 acres has bones that hurt and can't keep up the property any longer. A builder has a spec home to sell. One seller has a tax bill to pay in April and needs to sell an investment property. I have a fellow who sells a parcel of land when he needs a cash infusion, and he's there. Three of my listings are investment properties that went south, and are now in short sale situations. And then, there's a nice family who is answering God's call to Oregon.

Wth the exception of that family, and my builder, these sellers are all in high stress situations. Some days I feel like a therapist. I advise them on things that they can and should be doing to increase their odds of selling success, but some things are simply out of our control. Like the absence of active buyers in certain price ranges.

As for incentives offered to buyers, all frustrated sellers are trying to come up with SOMETHING to attract one of the few qualified buyers in their price range. My personal experience is that incentives don't work in the way they are intended. People base their purchasing decision on the property they find that best suits their needs and desires. With the exception of financial incentives that may make the difference in whether or not they can make a purchase, the incentives tend to become a nice bonus on a purchase they would have made anyway.

Some of the incentives that sellers of mine have offered, that were never collected, were ownership in a week's timeshare at the ski mountain; 6 months mortgage payments; an extra % of the purchase price to the buyer's agent; installation of a dock; Kroc Center annual membership; and the more typical appliances, furnature, closing costs and points paid.

The story came out in the paper today. I enjoyed seeing myself quoted, and for the most part, correctly. I wish I had a crystal ball to know what our market would look like a year from now. All I can do is listen to the forecasters and study the stats. The positive numbers we are seeing the past couple of months are encouraging, but my instincts tell me we still have a long way to go.