This market is strong
With multiple tech IPO’s expected this year, it’s safe to say that buyer competition for Bay Area Real Estate is still on the rise! We’re going to cover a few simple ways that top producing Listing Agents take control of the offer process. We’ll go over some of the current challenges with managing the offers process, and of course, the new tactics and tools that top agents and teams use to expedite the busy work, monitor diligence behavior, and keep sellers educated on each offer submission and the history of the interested buyers.
The stakes are high
Offers are undoubtedly the most sensitive part of a real estate transaction. When time-to-close can be the difference between your ability to manage another 1-3 sales each year, every detail matters.
Our Research
We’ve worked with and studied thousands of top agents who have honed an offer process that decreases the time it takes to get serious offers while at the same time increasing the number of non-contingent offers received.
It’s actually pretty simple.
This process works so well that we built a tool, Offers by Disclosures.io, to help thousands of other agents more easily adopt this proven and efficient practice for receiving and accepting offers.
The offer process we’ll be outlining is how high-volume Listing Agents ensure that all offers are made at the same time, allowing listing agents to draw the best offers for their clients.
Our data shows that coordinating with buyer parties to submit offers on a single date and time, actually reduces the amount of time that it takes to accept the right offer. Additionally, because this unique practice drives competition, more of the incoming offers are of non-contingent terms.
the Process
To follow this guide it is best to have a free Disclosures.io Account. If you do not have one you can set that up here. Disclosures.io/signup - It will take you about 60 seconds to get your account in order, then come back here to follow the step-by-step.
1) Set Expectations in a Coversheet
As a Listing Agent, it’s critical to set clear expectations with all of the interested Buyer parties. Make sure to address these three questions:
When are you accepting offers?
What information and documents should be included with each offer?
How do you want to receive the offers?
Use the Coversheet Editor to communicate exactly how you want to receive offers. In the simple example below, you’ll see how the Listing Agent included a link to our How To Submit Offers video, which is helpful for Buyer’s Agents who are new to Disclosures.io.
2) Broadcast Your Message
Once you have interested Buyer Parties reviewing your disclosure package, you’ll want to let them know when you will be receiving offers. Listing Agents can use the Broadcast Message feature, in Disclosures.io, to easily send a message to all of the buyer agents who have access to the disclosure package.
In the example below, the Listing Agent is sending out a reminder to submit offers. The Message feature in Disclosures.io is perfect for this because you can broadcast your message out to everyone bcc, so no one knows who else is interested in the listing.
3) The Big Day. Get Ready for the Instant Notifications
As soon as an offer is submitted through Disclosures.io, you’ll receive an email and text message notifying you of the new offer. The notification will take you to your Offers Dashboard, where each offer will be displayed and the terms can be compared side-by-side. For every agent who’s tired of digging through attached PDFs in email to find the terms of each offer, this feature is for you!
The Offers Dashboard is best used as an aid in the conversation that you have with your Seller about the merits of each offer. It’s a simple visual tool that will help you to explain why one offer is strong and another, less so. The best part is that it’s all automatic when you use Disclosures.io, no longer do you have to create a spreadsheet to compare the terms of each offer.
You may ask, what if an agent chooses not to submit offers through Disclosures.io and ends up emailing the offer? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. You can easily upload their offer manually. That way, you can still use the Offer Dashboard to compare all of the offers side-by-side.
4) Final Step: Review Offer Details and Documents
Offers in Disclosures.io, don’t just have the high-level terms, they include the offer letter and all of the offer documents (Purchase Agreement and signed disclosures). This allows you to fully evaluate each offer and get into contract all within one organized platform.
From Offer Accepted to the Signing Table, Faster.
Once you’ve accepted an offer and are in-contract, you can easily push the contract documents and disclosures from Disclosures.io into your preferred Transaction Management software.
It’s that simple. When you set clear expectations with the buyer agents that you work with, you’ll be able to better organize your offers process and provide the white-glove experience that your clients have come to know you for.
-Mahalo
If you aren’t using Disclosures.io yet, you can start with a free account by going to our home page, and clicking signup in the top right corner. If you need help getting started, check out this video. If you want to bring the consistency, compliance and efficiency of Disclosures.io to your brokerage, hit us up at sales@disclosures.io.