Comments on: Presenting Your Offer

By: Jim Minkey

Jim Minkey — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 00:54:26 +0000

Just in this week alone, I had a Pest inspection, a pre approval letter and an offer e-mailed to my bulk mail file inadvertantly. When that happens the attached PDF get’s lost and if I wasn’t checking bulk mail for these types of accidents I wouldn’t know they came through. In each case the parties ended up faxing me their documents. How can we possibly say that e-mailing and faxing is better than presenting in person?

By: Laurie Randazzo

Laurie Randazzo — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:04:42 +0000

Real estate is emotional – for the buyers and sellers. I always present in person when its possible. I can think of many presentations I’ve made and won in a multiple offer situation because the sellers felt a connection to my buyers. I agree that email is a great venue for documenting the dialog. After my presentation, I always follow up with and email to the listing broker – we then keep a running dialog via email so every point is documented.

By: Jim Minkey

Jim Minkey — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:02:45 +0000

I presented an offer on a foreclosure last week…needless to say I e-mailed it. There’s certainly other times when I would do the same, but maybe it’s just a function of how strong our market has been over the years with multiple offers but I can’t imagine why I would not want to present in person. Because I’d have to get dressed up? Because it’s too time consuming? Why chase some agent to see if they got your fax or e-mail when you can present it in person to the seller and agent? If they have any questions you can answer them. Maybe I’m just used to doing it this way and I’m blind too, but if you know a disadvantage of presenting in person please let me know it. Thanks

By: Debra Kukulski

Debra Kukulski — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:06:28 +0000

Hi Jim:-) I have had the same thing happen…an offer gets faxed or emailed to me with no call at all from the buyer’s agent. I can’t even imagine doing that with one of my valued buyer’s offers. I prefer to email offers now. It is more secure and private and I definitely discuss all of the positives of the offer with the listing agent. Emailing also keeps it more legible for the lender and attorneys, too.

By: Chad Baird

Chad Baird — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:04:48 +0000

One of the reasons people hire agents is so they do not have to go through the whole process of negotiating. Agent to agent takes the emotion out it for the buyer and seller. I’ve had the owners present during showings that ended up in the wife of the buyer getting into a political argument with the husband of the seller. That deal did no work out.

Faxing is fine with me, I prefer to scan and email though. In the end though once the deal is negotiated I generally write up a new final version of the contract to make it a cleaner version and deliver it to the LA to try and preserve the quality of the contract. They get pretty blurry after to many faxings.

By: Jon Wnoroski

Jon Wnoroski — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:02:33 +0000

I recently had a discussion with my broker about this topic. He commented that in “times past” they used to present offers “face-to-face” and build working relationships at the table that he felt offered a smoother road to close. He felt that all the technology today takes away the “human” touch to working a deal.

I’m not sure what the “pitfalls” were to that approach but I’ve always preferred to build working relationships with my fellow agents so we could work together to get over the hurdles. And it always seems that there is a hurdle to get over at some point in every transaction. I’m still looking for that smooth close.

I do make use of the technology that is available today and find that it works for me. I will not only fax the offer to the other agent but I will also send them an email with a PDF file of the contract so they have an electronic record. All of this is followed up with a phone call and eventually an opportunity to meet them at some point in time.

By: Perrin Cornell

Perrin Cornell — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:00:14 +0000

Always present in person IF YOU CAN. IMHO you are not serving your client well otherwise. There is soo much you can learn and explain. Also what if the listing agent is trying to present their own offer? As to faxing vs e-mail vs handing it to the agent… check what your documentation says… in Washington St E-mail does NOT constitute delivery.

By: Jim Minkey

Jim Minkey — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:12:06 +0000

Honest folks, I’m not trying to start a fight…but whether you fax or e-mail the offer your buyers are getting short changed…in my opinion. Randy, I’d love to hear about the negative experiences you’ve had because I honestly don’t remember any representing sellers. No question, it can be a pain to orchestrate a presentation with everybody present but at the end of the day I think it’s worth it. I’ve had many deals happen because I was present and I’ve seen many others fail when an agent wasn’t present and their competition was.

By: Mary Bowen

Mary Bowen — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:10:24 +0000

I have had the exact same thing happen. You must follow up with phone calls, emails, drums, whatever it takes to get a confirmation of receipt.

By: Josh & Kathy Schmidt

Josh & Kathy Schmidt — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:08:51 +0000

I like to scan and email them. So much easier!