Real Estate Dirty Tricks. When is your potential buyer asking innocent questions and when are you being played? It’s sometimes hard to know. Don’t underestimate buyer sophistication when big money is at stake.
When we use the term ‘strategic buyer’, we are speaking euphemistically. The kind of buyer actions we are alluding to in real estate deals are not so benign and forthright. In fact, they are downright unethical. What we are really talking about here are real estate dirty tricks utilized by buyers.
Let’s talk about some of the pitfalls of such Buyer-Seller interactions and what to keep a lookout for as you list your property and seek your hard earned profits.
Buyers and Sellers have obligations to each other under the law, under individual purchase & sale contracts…and yes, in interpersonal dealings.
Most of us would agree with this. (The Golden Rule after all). But some folks will ‘fade’ when it comes to that last one about interpersonal dealings.
They feel whatever you can get to, is fine – even if based on manipulation. The only qualifier guiding them is the letter of the law, not it’s spirit. They would argue that life is a gamble, and you take what you can get, when you can get it.
So what are we concerned with here? Namely, the DISCOUNTING of our investment property (or personal home) sale price that would NOT otherwise OCCUR were it not for effective UNDERHANDED strategies by a BUYER.
Note, we are NOT talking about market forces in these scenarios. We are instead talking about discounting, sometimes of a steep nature, that are the result of specific buyer actions.
Many of these buyer strategies prey on either the good will or naivety of sellers. They sometimes leverage seller desperation, but that in my opinion, is less likely.
The simple reason is if a seller is truly desperate to sell the home, it has most likely been sitting for a long time. In that case, market forces are probably at play (location, condition, or competition). A buyer who gets a ‘steal’ in such instances may very well just be paying market.
This brings up an important caveat. There are PLENTY of SELLER REAL ESTATE DIRTY TRICKS. Are there ever. But there has been quite a bit of ink spent discussing those, and so we are not particularly concerned with covering them again here. Suffice it to say we are NOT suggesting that it is only the Buyer who could be guilty of some dirty deeds.
So what should you watch out for in these real estate dirty tricks? Attempts to engender an emotional connection to you, the Seller.
This is a substantial one. Does it seem the buyer is either playing on your heartstrings or seeking to connect with you on a level that has little to do with the sale of your property? Watch out.
Remember, this deal is a transaction – there is no reason for emotion to have any place in it. Like stock purchases, leave your feelings at the door.
How about Seller effort? This is another catchall in real estate dirty tricks.
What we are talking about here is a variation of emotional investing which our hapless seller can fall into. But in these instances it is based on physical efforts not emotional ones.
An astute buyer willing to go this route can get such a seller counting on the deal happening because of the effort our seller has expended. This changes the power dynamics of the deal in favor of the buyer.
In these instances, the Seller is trading financial gain for something that will assuage their stress and anxiety over a property sale. They are seeking to GUARANTEE a sale in their mind.
The only way to achieve the desired guarantee of a sale in these circumstances is to provide a discount to the buyer or meet some otherwise ‘non-market based’ requirement of that party to move forward a deal that generated the STRESS and ANXIETY in the first place!
There are multiple ways to reduce the risk of being a victim of these seller tactics. The first is to simply know the playbook.
What are these techniques? How do I identify them, and ideally, how do I counter them?
We detail 13 of what we believe are the most common ploys by buyers in Real Estate Dirty Tricks.
A Closing Thought. Remember, many buyers are decent and honest. We don’t have to be paranoid, just informed. It is in your own best interests to balance caution with a realistic appraisal of exactly who you are dealing with in a specific real estate transaction.
We recognize the problematic actions of a minority of potential buyers is exactly that…a small subset of the pool. The reason we give it such weight, despite the small numbers, is the impact can be grave.
This is after all, many people’s most significant financial holding. We hope all your dealings are positive ones, that Dirty Tricks never come your way…but if they do, that you are prepared.
Read more or Buy Here .
Importantly, many of these approaches are not adversarial. If anything, they are friendly and complimentary. It admittedly complicates things if you don’t know what they are in advance…
A Closing Thought. Remember, many buyers are decent and honest. We don’t have to be paranoid, just informed. It is in your own best interests to balance caution with a realistic appraisal of exactly who you are dealing with in a specific real estate transaction.
We recognize the problematic actions of a minority of potential buyers is exactly that…a small subset of the pool. The reason we give it such weight, despite the small numbers, is the impact can be grave.
This is after all, many people’s most significant financial holding. We hope all your dealings are positive ones, that Dirty Tricks never come your way…but if they do, that you are prepared.
Read more or Buy Here .
Importantly, many of these approaches are not adversarial. If anything, they are friendly and complimentary. It admittedly complicates things if you don’t know what they are in advance…
A Closing Thought. Remember, many buyers are decent and honest. We don’t have to be paranoid, just informed. It is in your own best interests to balance caution with a realistic appraisal of exactly who you are dealing with in a specific real estate transaction.
We recognize the problematic actions of a minority of potential buyers is exactly that…a small subset of the pool. The reason we give it such weight, despite the small numbers, is the impact can be grave.
This is after all, many people’s most significant financial holding. We hope all your dealings are positive ones, that Dirty Tricks never come your way…but if they do, that you are prepared.