subject: Want Real Estate Success Selling? Know Your Buyers! [print this page] As you know, aside from food and clothing, shelter is a fundamental need. People need a roof over their heads, a place they can call home.
Now, this may seem like obvious information and not important for us to think about, but really, it is a very important thing to be aware of as you sell your real estate. Why?
Because this awareness points to one essential fact that should give you an enormous amount of confidence, especially if this is going to be your very first of many! real estate sales transactions. There will always be people looking for houses, regardless of whether we live in good times or bad. Knowing the types of buyers in the market will help your position as a seller!
The Buyer Pool
So who are these buyers that are poised to do business with you? They are people in your buyer pool. The phrase 'buyer pool' refers to those people who are interested in buying a certain piece of property in a certain location at a certain price. This is the group that you, as a seller, should focus on. The buyer pool is different from the bunch of mere onlookers or 'prowlers' who like to spend Sunday afternoons looking into the homes of other people.
As you gain experience in this field, you'll almost instantly be able to tell the genuine buyers from the speculators (or the people who are just bored and like looking at real estate and yes, there are some of them out there).
The profile of a buyer pool will change constantly, some buyers may decide eventually to purchase a home elsewhere, some get frustrated and leave the pool; still others decide they want to buy and therefore stay in the pool.
The buyer pool is made up of different types of buyers bear in mind that some buyers are looking for homes not to live in, but to invest in. You will typically encounter a mix of the following types of buyers.
End buyers buyers who will live in the home.
Professional buyers these include real estate brokers, builders who want to develop real estate in your location, speculators (quick cash wheelers and dealers) and developers looking to buy strictly for the land value. If circumstances warrant, they could offer the best price for your house, given their cash reserves.
Cash buyers this is the group to whom you can consider giving a discount because you do away with the lending and mortgage nitty gritty that could take weeks, even months. Cash is king, so flexibility in negotiating price is not a bad idea.
Mortgage buyers since majority of people can't buy homes for cash, they borrow the funds from a lender to acquire possession of a piece of property. They fall into two groups:
The pre-qualified ones those who have started the process and have discussed preliminary details with the bank.
Pre-approved mortgage buyers the bank has made a commitment to lend them a specific amount of money under certain terms and conditions.
