Deerwood Realty and Friends Podcast
I saw this article on Realtor.com about unsolicited offers to buy your house and I have some thoughts.
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Thoughts:
1. I don’t accept the premise that because the real estate market is historically hot right now, we are seeing an increased number of unsolicited offers. Rather, I think it has to do with technology..and we will look at this a little later.
2. People are always surprised when they get the postcard with the picture of their house and it says so and so wants to buy it. The house picture is coming from google maps 95% of the time. It’s not like someone is standing outside your house snapping a picture of it. Who really has time for that?
3. Who are these letters coming from? Real Estate investors, mainly. The same people who put up I’d like to buy your house on telephone poles. But there is a new twist…the ibuyer. Companies like opendoor and offerpad have begun to “sanitize” the real estate investor business. With tons of wall street money behind them, they can advertise legitimately and usually beat the small time local home flipper to the lead.
4. There are some differences between the ibuyer and the “wholesaler” or “house flipper” model. The ibuyer will buy/repair/sell the home where the flipper might just flip the title to someone else. Does it matter? They are all looking for that one person who is either uninformed on the value of their home or truly desperate.
5. The problem is that they are too aggressive? It’s not the practice of trying to dupe people out of their houses or take advantage of someone desperate?
6. Let’s not overlook how uncomfortable it can be to receive these unsolicited offers. It’s an annoying intrusion and makes some people feel as if they’re being stalked.
“I received a call myself last week, and when I asked how they got my number, they said they found it attached to my parcel information,” says Berkeley, referring to the online databases that show who owns which lot. “I honestly don’t know how to avoid the privacy issue outside of blocking each individual call so they can’t reach out again.” So how is this any different than a letter campaign or a traditional advertising campaign, or door knocking?
7. Technology is driving this. We can now send 1,000 postcards, each with a different picture of the house on it in seconds. I can set up a call center in the Philippines to call people all day long in a city or neighborhood. That usually goes like this
Me: Hello?
Call Center Hello, is this Mrs field?
Me: No
Call Center: I’m sorry…do you own 345 broad street?
Me: No
Call Center: I’m sorry…I am looking for property to buy. Do you have any property available for sale?
There’s also the texts…Text version
“we are looking to buy 345 oregon street”
I don’t own 345 oregon street.
“I’m sorry, we are investors and are looking to buy property…when would be a good time to call?
All of this is being done automatically. There’s no one typing in the text….The only time they actually look at the replies is when someone actually responds with a time…then they get interested.
But, technology has made the practice of unsolicited marketing to buy property so much easier. It’s not about the market….as when the market goes down, these methods will still be used to acquire property as a wholesaler or ibuyer.
Source:
https://www.realtor.com/advice/sell/unsolicited-homebuying-offers-how-to-deal/
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