Sellers Make a Deal: April 2025

In this episode, Julie and David dive into the evolving real estate market and share insights on pricing strategy and negotiating offers. Tune in for practical tips and real talk on making deals happen.

Key Highlights:

• 📉 Why every buyer expects a discount in today’s market
• 🚪 No showings = overpriced: how to read the signs
• 💸 What happens after a price reduction—and how it sparks activity
• 🤝 Managing discounted offers and realistic expectations
• 🔁 The realtor’s role: facilitating, not dictating negotiations
• ⏳ Why timing and market conditions matter more than ever
• 🧠 Seller mindset: focusing on offers in hand, not emotional expectations
• 📊 Importance of pricing right from the start to avoid repeated reductions
• 💬 Final advice: Stay flexible, informed, and market-aware

Whether you're selling or buying, this episode gives you the tools to confidently navigate offers and close the deal.

Want to work with us? David Vann can be found here, and Julie Jones can be found here! Reach out! We're nice, and we'd love to hear from you!

Transcript

0:00

There's a lot of changes in today's marketplace, and so we felt like today would be a great day to do a segment on pricing discounts and navigating the offer process. Good idea. I think so too. So just to introduce. I'm Julie Jones with Smith and Associates Real Estate. And I'm David Van with Re Max Metro and we are the Real Property St. Pete Podcast. Glad to have you with us today. Hope this subject is interesting to you as we're navigating this real estate market that's ever changing and people have questions about how to make a deal happen, we think that this information will be super helpful. I agree. Alright, well, let's dive right into the most crucial aspects of real estate. And that's pricing. How it directly affects the activity you see on a listing is something every seller struggles with and every buyer expects the discount. But David, how do you handle this in a way that works for both sides? Well, let's break it down. The price indicator. First things first. Every buyer today expects a discount. That's just the reality of the market right now. When you're not getting showings, it's the clearest sign that your list price is too high. If no one's coming to see your property, you're priced out of the market. It's an easy indicator. No activity means your price is too high. Do you agree? I agree. So once you've made the price adjustments, you've had a price reduction, you can find that you get a flurry of activity. You have open houses, multiple buyers will be coming through. That's when you know you're starting to hit the sweet spot. You're priced within the market. I've seen it many times after lowering the price once or maybe even twice, you can have 10 groups come through an open house. Two of them seriously discussing offers, but probably only one will make an offer. And guess what? It's almost always a discounted offer. And so at that point it becomes about negotiating. That's right. Buyers wanna see the seller reduce their price. It proves that they're motivated to negotiate and make a deal. It doesn't matter the buyer or the seller mindset. It's when it comes to the offers themselves, where things get tricky. Buyers are nationally going to make lower offers. That's part of the game. You have to balance the buyer and seller needs. When I'm talking to sellers, there's no guarantee that the next offer will be higher. I. It could be the same. It could be lower, and sometimes it could be better. Here's what we have. Here's the offer. We don't know what the next buyer will bring. It's all about making the best decision with what you have at that moment. That's right. Timing's everything It is. And. It helps you read the market because this is a buyer who is actually writing down an offer. They're qualified, they have a pre-approval letter, and they have sent you an offer that you could accept. You could counter or you can reject. It's funny because people sometimes don't understand what our role as the realtor is. Right. As a realtor, I'm here to facilitate, not dictate. My job is to present the offer, provide counsel on the market dynamics, and let the buyer and seller make their decisions. I'm not in the business of steering them towards a specific number. I advise based on market knowledge, not only what I want to happen. I tell the seller, this is the buyer you have now. If you're comfortable with their offer, let's make a deal. If the seller's mindset is to wait for the market to go up, they can always pass on the offer and wait for another one. That's where understanding the market conditions becomes very important, crucial, and that's a huge factor in making the decision. If the market's going up, maybe waiting for a better offer makes sense. But if the market's on the decline and you've got a solid buyer ready to negotiate a fair deal, taking that deal could be the right move. So when we're guiding our clients through the process, what are the keys? The key takeaway here is to remain flexible and knowledgeable about both sides of the deal. Pricing your property right from the start can save a lot of time and potentially attract higher offers. At the initial listing. Otherwise, you're going to be reducing your price once or twice until you see the amount of activity and the flurry that will indicate that you're going to attract enough buyers and you're going to get an offer. But once you're negotiating, you've got to be comfortable with the where the buyer and the seller stand. It's a balancing act, and as the realtor, I'm here to make sure both parties feel informed and confident about their decisions. And why do we want both parties to feel confident about their decision? Because if they're not, then they might cancel while they're under contract. Right? And you might spend 10 days on the market going through inspections and the buyer's really not that comfortable or committed to. And buyers can be pretty fickle in this market, wouldn't you agree? They sure can. So they might walk away 10 days in and you'll have lost 10 days on the market. Yeah. So any final advice, David? Whether you're a buyer looking for a deal or a seller trying to maximize your return, the most important thing is to stay realistic about where the market is and the offers you're receiving. Remember, as your realtor, I'm here to help you navigate those decisions no matter what side you're on. So that's it for today's episode. We wanted this to be short and sweet, just some good direction for negotiating a deal. Yeah, and how to read the market and how the market affects how you wanna negotiate the market is probably a bigger factor. It's a better factor in how to negotiate. I think about what are the other things that sellers sometimes think are important in the negotiation. How about their net takeaway? You always stump me with your questions. Well, I mean, you think about it. That's a lot of times what sellers think about. They're like, well, I feel like I should definitely get this much, or I feel like that I need to have this much because I'm going to buy a house that's this expensive. I mean, a lot of times, what is their personal opinion about the offer? I. May begin to get in the way of this negotiation. Right? And you're negotiating with the offer. You have, what you're making on the property or not making on the property has very little to do with what the buyer's opinion is of the value of your property. That's really good insight. Very good insight. I I, I think so too. When the market's tough and it's flat or maybe declining or whatever, and you've been out there for a while, I. You have to think like a buyer thinks. Well, hopefully today you're leaving with some more insight on pricing a negotiation process. Yes, it was fun. It was a good idea. Don't forget to subscribe for more tips on how to make the most out of your real estate journey. Until next time, happy house hunting or selling. See you soon.