Have you ever had your heart set on a house, and lost the bid to a higher offer? It’s not fun being outcompeted for something you want. You don’t always have the option to increase the size of your offer, which can lead to feeling like there is nothing you can do. What if I told you that you could improve your odds without experiencing a windfall?
What if you could simply tell your story, and win the bidding war? By the end of this article, you could find yourself asking, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Use this strategy to get your offer accepted. First, let’s talk about value.
Monetary Value Isn’t Everything
Sometimes, people say, “it’s just business.” Is it, though? Experience often tells a different story. For example: Have you ever heard of a time when someone other than the most qualified candidate was hired? It happens all the time. Do you choose friends based on their technical skill, or decide whether or not to help someone based entirely on what’s in it for you? Probably not.
Business Is Personal
Business is nothing more than an exchange between persons. At its core, business is personal, and is fueled by personal passions and choices. Keep this in mind. You are potentially the participant in the exchange of someone else’s home for money. A home that could be your new home!
Fulfillment Comes From Helping Others
A key metric of happiness is investing in others. Put another way, it feels good to do good. When you try to buy a home, you may not know the seller’s motives for selling. It could be to trade-up, downsize, move for work, or any number of other reasons. If accepting your bid feels to them like helping you out, it could be the key element that makes the house your future home. You just have to make them want to help you. We will get to that.
Meaning As Value
Meaning can be more valuable than tangible benefits. They say the best things in life are free. Relationships, connections, and feeling like what you do matters is what gives meaning to life. Sure, selling a house can mean a number of different things for the seller. If you can tell your story well, you can make it mean even more to them.
If you get caught in a bidding war, play this card.
Help Them Empathize
When writing your story, try to remember that people can always find common ground. Include details and emotions to help the seller relate to you. Describe worries, stresses, fears, and uncertainty. People can sympathize when they know that someone feels or felt a certain way. They empathize when they personally identify with the experience. When you are writing your story, make them empathize to boost the value of your offer.
Make Them The Hero
Good stories often follow a pattern. A very basic pattern found in many stories is Problem (what happened?) -> Reaction (how did this effect you?) -> Solution (what did it take to fix this?). If accepting your offer makes the seller the hero in your story, you might gain the upper hand.
You owe it to yourself to create the opportunity to tell your story, especially if it frames the seller as your story’s hero. You can ask your real estate agent for help getting your story to the seller.
Example Story As Proof
This is a real story that helps to prove that storytelling works!
“The house we wanted to buy was in a town we wanted to move to to be closer to family. We decided to write a letter to the seller to share our story with our offer. When the seller received our offer, they read our letter! It turns out, that they were selling the house so they could move to be closer to their own family. That gave us a huge advantage when making our offer. Our offer was accepted, and we bought our home!”
– Lexie N.
If Your Offer Still Wasn’t Accepted, Try Again!
Did you tell your story and still lose the bid? Don’t worry! It’s possible that the seller really did need the cold cash, or the speed and stability of a cash offer. Whatever the reason, don’t give up!
Go back to your story to make edits. Add details, and work to improve its effectiveness. You can work with your real estate agent to find the next home to make an offer on. Who knows? The next one could be even better than the one that got away.
If you need to get pre-approved so you can make an offer on your next home, get in touch. Let’s give your story the happy ending it deserves.
Benchmark brings you home.
