If you’re a real estate agent reading this article, you’re already familiar with what an offer is. When your client is interested in purchasing a property, you send the offer to the seller on behalf of your client, expressing their interest in buying the property and stating the proposed purchase amount and other pertinent details.
Typically, agents send an offer through email. If only one buyer makes an offer, and the seller is content with the price and all the information included, the offer is accepted, and the deal closes – the end. In a competitive market, you may need to send a counter offer. In any case, you first have to send the seller an offer presentation.
Definition of an Offer Presentation
An offer presentation is what it sounds like – it’s a presentation that showcases a buyer’s offer to a seller.
In some cases, especially in hot property markets, multiple buyers are making an offer on a single property. When this happens, the offer presentation becomes critical. For a buyer’s agent, the offer presentation is an opportunity to showcase your client, their offer, and your professional knowledge and experience in an easy-to-understand manner.
To catch the seller’s attention, an agent must ensure that their offer presentation stands out. If a seller receives dozens of offers, you must ensure that your buyer’s offer is the most attractive and appealing among everyone else’s.
A typical offer presentation includes the following sections:
- Summary: A quick overview of the offer highlights.
- Listing Highlights: This includes what a buyer liked about the house or property, such as the updated kitchen, expansive garden, or beautiful curb appeal. There’s no need to overshare, but just include a few lines about why the buyer wants to buy the property. You can also include what you, as an agent, liked about the property-beautiful staging or excellent value for the location-which showcases your professional expertise.
- Signed Purchase Agreement
- Proof of Funds – This demonstrates how your buyer will pay for the property. Proof of funds assures the seller that your buyer is serious about buying and can pay for the property.
- The lender or Mortgage Broker overview letter includes the lender qualification, how many years it’s been in business and its proven track record of closing.
- Loan Approval Letter
Of course, you can add more than just the above sections to ensure your offer presentation stands out. You can also include testimonials from previous happy clients and a short video of yourself talking about your bio and professional experience.
Some buyers and agents also include a pre-inspection letter, an offer to pay all the seller’s fees or an automatic escalation clause that buyers are willing to pay X percent over the top offer they receive.
While all these aren’t required, they demonstrate a high level of commitment from the buyer and their agent to purchase the property. They also give more than enough information so the buyer or listing agent has everything they need to know. These extra sections might just be the tipping point that convinces the seller to accept your buyer’s offer.
Whatever you and your client decide to include in the offer, ensure that your offer presentation is professional, organized, and attractive.
Benefits of Presenting Your Offer in Real Estate
Creating an elevated and well-crafted offer presentation demonstrates your buyer’s high interest in the seller’s property. It also helps you continuously build your relationship with the listing agent who you will most likely meet again in the future. While people may think an offer always boils down to price, it’s often not the only determining factor for sellers.
“Having the highest price is not everything,” shared Mark Choey, founder of Highnote. He explains that having a great relationship with the listing agent and establishing your reputation in the industry matters more and pays off during an offer presentation.
“When you present your offer presentation, you want to put your best foot forward, and you want to paint a picture of your client as being a fantastic buyer,” he also said.
Your offer presentation is an excellent opportunity for an agent to show that their client is well-qualified to buy a home and fully committed to purchasing that property.
Here are a few more tips on how to make your offer presentation effective and win more offers:
- Build your relationship with the listing agent – This is crucial in making your offer stand out among the rest if you’ve worked with the listing agent before, even better! They’ll be familiar with your reputation and will be more comfortable working with you. Additional tip: Your professional network of agents plays an essential role in winning deals, so make sure you’re always working on growing your network.
- Be creative – Some agents send flowers, some buyers include an offer letter, while others get even more creative. For example, agent Clayton Connolly actually wrote and sang a song to convince the listing agent and seller to choose his client as the buyer.
Test the waters – When sending your offer presentation, one way to test if your initial offer is acceptable or high enough is to email the offer presentation with a summary of the offer. For example, “Our buyer’s offer is $1,000,000, and we can close in 7 days.”
Below, include a link to your Highnote presentation containing the rest of the offer documents and details. If the listing agent or seller clicks on your link and takes time to study the rest of the offer presentation, you know they are interested!
Highnote will send you real-time notifications that tell you how many times your potential client has opened the presentation and how long they spent looking at it. If they don’t click on the link at all, you’ll know the initial amount wasn’t attractive enough.
Don’t wait for the seller to get back to you. If your buyer wants to, and can, change your offer immediately and resubmit an offer presentation. There’s no need to wait for them to start negotiating. Michelle Balog, founder of San Francisco’s Bay Real Estate Group has done this many times and closed countless deals in the process.
Elevate Your Offer Presentations with Highnote
One way to easily elevate your offer presentation is by using Highnote. With Highnote, you can create clean and compelling presentations that are sure to stand out. Our website has hundreds of templates and assets to help you create offer presentations that catch your client’s attention.
Highnote also gives you real-time notifications at your fingertips, letting you know when a client views your presentation and how often they open it. So you’ll also have much-needed insights into potential clients’ interest levels. These analytics also help improve your presentations, letting you know what works and what needs improvement.
Ready to elevate your offer presentations? Start your free trial of Highnote.
