Just submitted an offer, all cash, no contingencies, 15 day close on a $3 million condo in San Francisco for a client and the sellers will not respond to them because the offer’s not full price.  The property has been on the market for a month with no offers.  Have you heard of anything so silly? 

I guess the sellers are not motivated or they are just delusional.  I am choosing to believe the former.

Which really drives home the point that we all need to be working with motivated sellers. 

Many of us will take a listing when you know in your gut that the sellers are not motivated, they are just testing the waters or are in fact delusional. 

I have enough delusional people in my life to have to put with them being sellers as well.

Of course, the best way to qualify sellers is to ask them questions.  And lots of them.

Questions about why they are moving, where they are moving, what happens if the house doesn’t sell, etc.

And then here is the key. 

Listen to what they say!  Really hear them.  Don’t delude yourself into thinking they have to sell when you know in your heart of hearts they don’t.

One of my favorite quotes is, “When we believe our own bullshit, we’re dead”. 

So make sure you spend time qualifying your sellers before you take listings.

Otherwise, you will waste too much time and money on sellers that are blocking the road to your goals.