With sellers anxiousness over trying to sell their homes qucikly (then finding the reality of the market), I've found one of the best ways to get a buyer off the fence is to offer incentives.

I know it might sound like something out of the used car salesman's playbook, but I've found it to be very effective- and it can be done in a way to make someone serious about stepping up to the plate and making the offer.

Recently, for example, I was selling a home in Costa Mesa, CA and it had been on the market for a little over 4 months. We received a real, real low ball offer which the sellers turned down ($200k under asking price of $750k).  Open houses had produce somewhat interested buyers, and I went back to many of them with an offer from the seller to buy down the buyer's interest rate, effectively producing an interest rate of approximately 4.875 %!!!

It was a win-win situation; the sellers did not have to lower their price too drastically and the buyers saved almost $400/month from what they would have paid otherwise.  I've found these type of marketing incentives, when explained throughly to the buyers, seem to get them moving off of the fence.

I know there are others out there, and I would love to hear any other great ideas- I've got more listings to sell!!

Thanks!
Colin Delaney

Realtor, Veranda Homes

Costa Mesa Real Estate

Well, regionally, you gotta love those new mortgage limits increasing locally here in Southern California. Affordability has been a problem in a big way for the last 4 years, and we're finally back to prices that are around levels we saw in 2004.

We shoule start seeing savings of $3-500 a month on mortgages, which should be a good shot in the arm for our local market.