Tactical Agent - Real Estate Coach In a Box

Creative Solutions in Today's Hot Housing Market-Win Sellers, Sell Buyers

• Scott Ziegler • Episode 1

Share episode

Imagine navigating the complex world of real estate with the wisdom of a seasoned insider. That's exactly what you'll get from Brin Werrett, broker-owner of Coldwell Banker Local Realty in Regina, Saskatchewan, who joins us to share his wealth of knowledge in a fiercely competitive real estate market. Through our discussion, you'll uncover the power of option clause forms, a strategy that provides sellers the freedom to market their homes while giving buyers the time to sell theirs. This episode promises insights into how these clauses can be a game-changer for buyers and sellers alike, especially in a market teeming with multiple offers.

Real estate negotiations can feel like a high-stakes chess match, and we delve into a scenario that tests the mettle of both buyers and sellers. Picture this: a buyer on the brink of bank approval, pressured by competing offers to drop all conditions. How do you balance the scales of offer appeal and security? Brin and I examine strategies for both sides, from targeting longer-listed properties to evaluating the benefits of conditional offers depending on one's risk appetite. We break down these strategies, providing a roadmap for making informed decisions that could mean the difference between a good deal and a great one.

Beyond transactions, strategic planning and creative thinking are at the core of successful real estate ventures. Brin underscores the importance of financial readiness and the creative problem-solving skills that realtors must harness to thrive. We discuss how to use innovative contract tools and embrace mentorship opportunities to elevate your real estate game. Whether you're buying, selling, or simply looking to sharpen your skills, this episode is packed with actionable advice and expert insights to help you navigate the market with confidence. Connect with us for a deeper dive into strategic real estate planning and personalized coaching opportunities.

For more information or to connect directly with Scott visit www.tacticalagent.ca. Also follow and send Scott a Dm on INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK OR LINKEDIN. Scott is also active on TIKTOK and YOUTUBE.

If you're currently stuck in your business and need advice, looking for mentorship or want a FREE coaching session contact Scott at the links above or send him an email at scottzrealtor@gmail.com


Speaker 1:

On today's episode, we're going to get super tactical on how you can get creative in today's hot market, working with buyers, how you can get them off the fence, get rid of the fear that they have about selling their home before they find a new home and actually find a way to get these deals done. Welcome to Tactical Agent, your real estate coach in a box. I'm your host, scott Ziegler, and if you're looking for no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point real estate training, you're in the right place. Each episode, we'll dive into expert interviews and break down step-by-step strategies you can start using right away to level up your real estate game. No fluff, no filler, just real-world advice and practical tools to help you succeed. So get ready.

Speaker 1:

This is where agents come to get tactical. Hello everyone and welcome to Tactical Agent, your real estate coach in a box. I am welcome today, or pleased to welcome our guest, bryn Waret from Regina, saskatchewan. I don't know when you're going to be listening to this podcast, but they just happened to go through a snow apocalypse over the last couple of days, so I'm grateful that Bryn could make it on the show. So, bryn, thanks for joining us.

Speaker 2:

No problem, I picked the wrong day to put my all-wheel drive car in the shop to get a water pump fixed. So I'm driving around in our little office car today but made it through, but there's lots of stuck cars everywhere, so but we absolutely seems like it's actually started snowing again, so we'll see if I have to snow blow when I get home or not, so but thanks for having me.

Speaker 1:

this sounds great appreciate you, appreciate you coming on and just um. You know I want to jump sort of right into today's topic, but before we do um, just to build a little bit of credibility, do Do you want to sort of tell our listeners you know, I know you're a broker owner of Coldwell, banker, local Realty and Regina how long you've been an agent, how long you've been broker owner, and you know? Kind of a little bit about yourself that way.

Speaker 2:

I started in 08. So it's been about 16 years, I guess, as an agent, was at a brokerage in Regina and always been quite involved with running our office meetings and got involved with the Regina Real Estate Board before the amalgamation Been on some currently on the tech committee with CREA for realtorca, and so I was trying to get involved and seeing how things work behind the scenes and with different brokerages and have those conversations. So I've always found that really interesting. So when the time came to kind of okay, what was my next step? I decided to make a jump about three years ago and we started Coldwell.

Speaker 2:

It wasn't here, it was here 25 years ago in Regina. You've got a great Coldwell brokerage in Saskatoon and it was just a brand that was missing here. So we decided to open one up and started with one agent, which was me, three years ago and we're at 38 agents now. So we're growing quite fast and we've got some great people and they're busy. But we're always trying to get creative and I like the idea of your podcast here and being tactical and trying to figure out different ways to help your clients in different ways, and so we have weekly meetings and toss out ideas of hey, has anybody ever tried this on this type of deal and so on? So it gets the creative juices going, I guess.

Speaker 2:

We can think of different creative ways to help your clients out.

Speaker 1:

Good and I can appreciate that, and one of the, we and you are somewhat strangers to each other, but I recently saw a video that you put out that basically said hey, we're looking to grow 10, 15, 20 agents and next thing you knew we were, as you said, at 38, growing quite rapidly, and I've heard nothing but good things about you as a broker and your brand and your company. So that's why I wanted to reach out to you.

Speaker 1:

And I can appreciate your perspective on the trainings and getting tactical. And today we're going to be talking about option clause forms. Which agents are probably going to be thinking option clause form? Why are we talking about that? And I'll let you get into it from your perspective. But I know the market right now, depending on where you are, is tight. It's very difficult to sometimes navigate through a sale and a purchase. Why don't you give us sort of a higher level, you know, overview of the of the option clause, and then we know we'll kind of break it down. You had some tips and tactics, tactics and different ways to use it. Sure.

Speaker 2:

So I know some markets aren't using it that often. This option clause and what an option clause is typically used when a buyer is attempting to purchase another home but it has a condition where they want to sell their current home and the option clause is put in there so a seller can still entertain other offers and try and market their home. It gives the seller the option really to try and find another buyer in the meantime while they're waiting for buyer A to sell their home, and what it does is allows the seller to entertain other offers, continue to show the property and if they do accept another offer, then they give notice to the original buyer saying I want to move ahead with this other buyer unless you can remove your conditions right. So it basically is calling the conditions of buyer A to either firm up or back out, and so it's nice.

Speaker 2:

There was a time that it was really hard to get a seller to do this, especially in a hot market like now where they usually have multiple offers. You're never going to get an option clause condition included in your offer. But there was a time when we would list those listings as conditionally sold with an option clause and so a lot of the showings would slow down. It was almost like taking that listing off the market when you accepted an offer like that. So a lot of sellers were hesitant to do that. That's all changed now. A lot of that listing would stay active. You might not even be able to see it that they have a current offer at the table. They would still entertain an offer. They just have to give the first buyer 48 hours or whatever is negotiated to proceed. So we talk a lot about it, a lot in the office, I guess, and whether it's somebody going from that $300,000 house to the $500,000 house, they just simply can't afford to buy both. But they want to buy that next one. Or maybe they're downsizing from a $800,000 house with no mortgage down to a $300,000 condo and they just we don't really want to go get a new mortgage. We only want to buy this place if our place sells kind of thing, and sometimes it has nothing to do with money. It's just like we really don't want to move until we find the right house. We'll buy your house as long as we sell ours, you know. And so a lot of times it's put in there whether it's preference or risk or just financing. They put a condition in there that I only want to buy your house if I sell mine. So the option clause satisfies that a lot. It allows the buyer to only proceed if they get an offer on their house.

Speaker 2:

Where we've had trouble with it in the past, where it gets a little risky, is buyer A is buying this $500,000 house and about four or five days in they accept an offer on their current house, which is great, everything's moving ahead. But then the seller finds buyer B, writes them an offer a couple of days later and says hey, I've accepted an offer, you've got 48 hours to remove your conditions on your house. They're like I just accepted an offer and I gave that buyer 10 days to do their home inspection. I can't proceed. Yet I don't know for sure that my house is going to be sold. And if I do take the risk and move ahead, what if he backs out? Now I own two houses. Or if I back out of my purchase and I do sell now, I'm going to be homeless. So they end up.

Speaker 2:

So we've been getting creative on some of these and putting in. I've seen this on some other offers from other brokers and stuff, but the last two years we've been using something we refer to it as the homeless clause. I just don't want to be homeless, so we put a term in the original offer saying, if I accept an offer on my property, you can't give me a 48 hour notice for at least 10 days, to kind of give me time to make sure that I can sell my place without being bumped, right? Yeah, I've seen that a couple of times myself, yeah, and sometimes a seller gets a little bit. You know, maybe they don't want 48 hours. That feels like a long time. You can either do it or you can't, right?

Speaker 2:

So we've gotten really creative and said you know what, what?

Speaker 2:

If it's four hours, I can either do it or I can't.

Speaker 2:

Like, just give me a little bit of notice so I can decide if I want to move ahead. And sometimes what's nice about a four hour or an eight hour clause is, if I'm the seller and I get an offer on the table and it's left open for 24 hours or 12 hours, be like, I really like this offer, let's move ahead with this offer, let's just give the buyer a notice and in four hours I'll know that I could accept this offer and I don't have to worry about weird terms and clauses, about making sure I can get out of the first deal and stuff Right. So for it doesn't have to be 48. It could be four, it could be two, it could be um, it could be 100 hours, it could be four. You know, it could be a long time down the road so you can get really creative with that stuff. And if you're familiar with the option clause form and the x hour notice, the x hour form is basically given notice as part of the option clause and just just to interject for a second.

Speaker 1:

Is the the option clause form basically says that if the seller wants to accept another offer, they need to put it in writing to the buyer. Is the X-hour notice the official form that we use to put it in writing?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's to give the official notice. So the option clause is just everybody agreeing that we have the option to find another buyer and when we do, when we do we'll give you notice. X hour notice form is essentially just that written notice says hey, we've officially accepted another offer.

Speaker 1:

This is your official notice to remove all of your conditions and proceed and a text message or an email or that, that that's not considered written notice. You have to use the x hour that's my understanding.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you have to use the x hour and um, I think the only reason it's called an x hour is because that is a flexible. You can agree to any type of period, right. So it's just how many hours? What some situations we've run into.

Speaker 2:

There is, um, let's say you're a couple that you're about three days away from getting your bank approval. Uh, you've sold your house and it's three days away from the buyer doing their home inspection and all of a sudden you get a two-day notice from the seller saying hey, we can't wait, we've got this other buyer, we want to proceed. No, sorry, I got to back up. So, as a buyer, I'm buying your house and I just need a couple more days on my financing, a couple of days more on my home inspection. I I did put a condition on there to sell my house, but I know I've had lots of interest in it, or or maybe it was only a preference, maybe I can carry both, but I just didn't want to right. So now you've gone and accepted another buyer, another offer on your property because you didn't want to wait for me, and uh, um, and you're giving me 48 hours notice.

Speaker 2:

The problem is that all those, all all that paperwork says I have to remove all of my conditions, not just the one condition of selling my house, right, right? So now I have to take a leap and decide not to do a home inspection, proceed without my bank approval. I was willing to remove my condition of selling my house, but now I have to remove them all because that's what the form says. So we have started the conversation around the office and we'd love to move this forward to maybe some committees and stuff for consideration. But maybe we should be able to specify that the option clause only pertains to this one offer If the buyer and seller agree to that. Why not? Right, but the form is a little bit restrictive now. It should just say I'm just calling your one condition or all of your conditions, you know.

Speaker 2:

Right, that makes sense, because, as a seller, why would you want to start over with a new buyer that needs another 10 days to do a home inspection, and all that when you could just give me two or three days, right. But you're just trying to get rid of my sale, of my condo condition, right, or whatever. So we're starting to get a little. You know, we're just having these conversations and and there's so many different scenarios of somebody trying to buy and sell at once that how can you use these tools that we have in different ways to make everybody happy?

Speaker 1:

right, so right. So what would you say then if you look at it from the buyer's perspective? What are some of the pros and you've mentioned a few of them already, but you know, maybe just bullet point, like what are some of the pros if you're a buyer in this market and maybe some of the cons if you're a buyer in this market, to you know, using this form, I think traditionally it's always been I'll wait for you, but it better be a good offer, right, it's always been.

Speaker 2:

I'll wait for you, but it better be a good offer, right. And so the buyer. Usually the con is you have to probably come in fairly strong and write a decent offer, and if it's a pretty new listing, sure you might be the only offer today, but if it's a good listing you're probably going to get booted in a few days, right? So I tell buyers, if that's the intention that we're going to be trying asking somebody to wait for us to sell, maybe we should focus on houses that have been on the market for a couple weeks or make sure that we're coming in fairly strong with an offer and they're willing to wait for us.

Speaker 2:

I think anybody that's taken the risk, like the seller, has taken more risk in that situation. They're going to benefit from price, but if the buyer can proceed without having that clause in there, they can probably write a more aggressive offer and not have that condition and the seller's like okay, let's proceed. This is more of a for sure thing than waiting on the sale. So there's certainly the buyer is at a disadvantage on that because they're not willing to move ahead without it. They feel more comfortable. They're paying for their comfort level and risk level, and that right.

Speaker 2:

So but it does allow some people to maybe proceed and see what the market is for their house. They don't know until they put it on the market. So it does give them, it does alleviate some of the concerns and stuff they have of I don't want to own two houses or I only want to move if I buy this house, and so they're buying that comfort level. So they're buying those pros with those cons, I guess, and the seller. The way it's set up now and you're still active, there's very little. You can take that offer, toss it in your back pocket and still see what's available for you out there. And who knows, maybe that buyer's house, maybe because they're selling a $300,000 house and there's a lot more buyers in that price range than $800,000. Maybe that $300,000 house will sell a lot faster than you finding another buyer.

Speaker 1:

So what you're saying is that from a buyer's perspective the cons might be it's tough to lowball and have them also accept your subject to the sale clause and you're obviously kind of putting yourself out there that you know, hey, we might get booted, we might get our heart broken. And then the pros for a buyer would be comfort level for them to be able to put their house on the market knowing that they have something sort of locked down and, you know, something that they can move forward for. And then on the seller side, maybe some pros and cons from a seller's perspective.

Speaker 2:

I know you've kind of touched on them, but you know I'd rather have an offer than no offer, right? So you have that buyer that's interested. They love your house, they just got to sell theirs. You know, as long as I can still continue to show it and consider other offers, why not give them time to get it ready, toss it on the market on Tuesday? And that buyer they might not need to have it at firm sale, depending on their risk comfort level. They might say, geez, we've got 20 showings and already two are talking offers. Like, we can proceed, somebody's going to buy this place, you know. So an offer on the property is better than no offer, especially with the the low risk of being able to accept the second one. Yeah, yeah, you could always entertain another one and uh, and tell these guys you want to proceed and what's? What do you have to lose, right? So right it.

Speaker 2:

Um, it kind of makes it a little bit easier for everyone to kind of just come to the table and give it a shot. Then, if that didn't exist, it'd be a little trickier to get that buyer to take that jump and say, okay, let's, they would probably sell first, right, and then we'd be doing it backwards. But um, sometimes, you know, we've all been there. We put listings up and you're like this thing's gonna sell tomorrow and three months from now you're still sitting there, right story of our lives. And uh, or the other way around. You think it's going to take a while and it goes really quickly, and sometimes you just don't know what buyers are out there until the listing hits the hot sheets. So, right, right, it's uh, it's great to test the market and once at least we know where we're at right so when you're, you know if you're working for.

Speaker 1:

you know, if we flip back to the buyer side and you're an agent out there that has a buyer that's thinking that this is a strategy they might want to employ, what type of conversations do you have ahead of time? Like obviously you've touched on it a couple of times like maybe get your, maybe ask the bank, can you own two at once, so that you have that knowledge in your back pocket? And so what are some of the strategies, maybe, or conversations, I guess maybe that an agent would have with their buyer? You know ahead. You know ahead of entering the market in this situation.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know, especially past clients that come for level, but even if it's somebody you haven't met yet, they call on your listing and say hey, I'd like to come look at this. Like we ask a lot of those questions like where are you living now and all that stuff. And it's pretty easy to come out Well, we've got another house we you could sell first, but then what if you don't find something? You know, I don't want you to move again and just take something because it's available. And so we start to say, well, you know, we have some of these tools available, but these are the disadvantages and you could get booted and you probably have to come in with a strong offer.

Speaker 2:

And then, like you talked about it, it'd be great to talk to the bank and say, look like, do I have enough equity in my current house that I can put enough down on the second house to carry both, even just worst case scenario, for a couple of months? You know, or are mom and dad available to co-sign if they worst case had to, if we don't sell by possession date and all that kind of stuff? So you start to look at some of those because even if you successfully get an offer accepted, with that condition. You have to be ready to move ahead If you love that house and you're going to be heartbroken, what's the backup plan when they tell us we've got 48 hours to proceed, or not, right? So I think you're right on the bank. You need to be having those conversations with the bank and it might not be ideal. Of course no one wants to own two houses, but if you have a long possession, you know like let's ask for yeah, or five months possession.

Speaker 1:

We'll bump it up if we have to, you know, and whatever you need to do. So, basically, in a nutshell, what you're saying is, as a buyer's agent, just do your proper pre-qualification, ask those questions, you know, try and cross as many bridges, if you will, ahead of time, so that you know when you get into these situations that you're not. You're not. There's no lingering questions that you have to answer. And then, from a seller's perspective, if I'm a listing agent and I'm having this conversation with my seller and saying, hey, like we could expect to receive this type of offer, and again I think you've kind of touched it on it already, but just weighing the pros and cons of of that offer and, um, you know, each each on their own merit, yeah, yeah, and just on the on the buyers, just briefly, you're right, like it's sometimes not just about the numbers and all that stuff is just hey, what's your comfort level, type or type of personality Are you?

Speaker 2:

are you a risk taker or like everything has to be set in stone before you proceed? Right, and sometimes those are difficult conversations and just asking about comfort levels and risk, if they're adverse or not. But you're right, as a seller, we're going to put this on the market. We could have there's all types of buyers out there right now and we're going to see some that potentially have houses to sell. There are tools here that we can still entertain that without taking you off the market, and give these guys a chance.

Speaker 2:

And chances are, if they're willing to put their house in the market and go through all this work, that means that they really like your house, right, and is that the type of buyer you want? Maybe that is what we want. So we have to be willing to look at all options, but at the same time, we're not going to wait for somebody when we have other people. Cash really roll right. So it's just prepping both the buyer and the seller, both ways. And and um, you know it's uh, it's just one more tool in your pocket that you can really. Is this what this whole job is just having tough conversations with people about what their comfort level is and how much they love a property and exactly which order do they want to do these things in. And you know we're psychologists more than we're negotiating sale prices and that's what people think we do.

Speaker 1:

But no, you're absolutely right.

Speaker 1:

I mean, basically we're we're problem solvers, and I mean they might not be big problems all the time, but, uh, you know, I like what you said about just having using it as another tool in your, your toolkit.

Speaker 1:

I think that, as realtors, you know our job is sometimes to get creative, to find ways to, to get deals done. Of course, you know still, you know following agency and ethics and all that kind of stuff. But just having those conversations and saying, what can we do to get you into this home or or or on the seller side, what can we do to get this home sold for you, when we have to get creative, and I think that you know the use of this form in this tighter market is actually a really good idea. And I think that agents should, again, if prepped, if their buyers are prepped properly or their sellers are prepped properly, not be afraid to use it. And I think, if you set those expectations that hey, you know there is a good chance you could get bumped, but we'll just, you know, we'll keep moving forward. I think it's an excellent tool to have and I would encourage agents to, you know, to to use it, because you just never know until you try.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know, with, without, an alternative is, you know, listing your house, getting it sold, potentially not finding one. You know, if that doesn't feel like comfort to you, then let's try this, and you're going to get your heart broken a couple times and, and. But if you're in multiple offers and you got a house to sell anyway, you're probably going to lose out. You know so, um, you know so it's. It's a tricky market. Even when it we get a lot of listings come up, it flips the other way. All of a sudden it's yeah, well, the seller will entertain your offer, just bring it. We're excited to have any offer. But then it's, but then it's really hard to sell your house too, right, so it goes both ways. But you're right, there's so many tools out there and get creative.

Speaker 2:

And every time we've used this in the office, every situation is different, whether they're going up or down or or why they want to use it, and every every deal is is quite different. And I've I've I've had people come to me, you know, I've heard uh friends in the past come and say can you help us? We uh sold their house privately. Uh, it's conditional on my co-workers house selling. Okay, well, when you know when's the deadline that they have to sell their house? And and, uh, what kind of option clause did you put in there? And and what does that look like? And they're like well, we accepted an offer. It just said it's conditional on the sale of his house, and he's been two months. He hasn't even put it on the market yet, and so you could be tied into that for years if you don't do it right. So that's why these are here to protect buyers and sellers and, if used properly, they can help each other out.

Speaker 1:

Good. Well, I think it was excellent information and I, and, like you said, I think that, uh, you know, people just need to use them, learn the forms and, uh, you know, take a bit of uh, take a bit of a risk with them. I I appreciate, you know, the time that you made for us today, brin. Um, if people wanted to know a little bit more about you or your company um, I know your company's on instagram and stuff like that where would people find you if they wanted to know a bit more about you?

Speaker 2:

I'm at brin, the broker on instagram, and I usually post everything to facebook and instagram too, but um, and then the brokerage is coldwell banker local realty just that's our instagram handle. And um, I've written some stuff for real estate magazine about different ideas and stuff too, so happy to share some of those. I think some of them are blogs on our website and um, but no, this is great anytime. Uh come up with other ideas and stuff too, so happy to share some of those. I think some of them are blogs on our website and um, but no, this is great Anytime. Uh, come up with other ideas and stuff. Love to hear what you guys are having on the podcast next. So cool.

Speaker 1:

I appreciate it. And just before we go, go, bryn. Um, you know I really wanted the podcast and I think today was an excellent example of it to be, you know, very tactical and very practical. You know, is there one sort of final piece of advice or one final nugget of wisdom? And we're heading into the end of the year, you know, potentially the beginning of next year, depending on when people are listening Is there anything that you want to leave our listeners with? Is sort of a final tactical piece of advice?

Speaker 2:

Sure, and you're right, because a lot of this tactical stuff, will you know, maybe they don't have option clauses in other provinces. Right, we're in Saskatchewan, so the tactical stuff might not apply to everybody, but but I think, as I have new agents coming to me, or even as we go to conferences in Toronto and stuff, they're like man, I'd love to be in Regina. You only have 250,000 people and and should be easy to just market yourself. And or I have new agents come to me and they just don't know how to build a client base and all that. But you start asking questions and I really believe agents, if they want to build their business, find your circle of where your people are. Go, find your people. You know, and I have a lot of guys. They're soccer moms or hockey dads and I'm like, well, where do you spend all your time? Like that's the people that you should be getting to know, and just you don't have to walk around with business cards and sell it to everybody. But if they know what you do and they like you and they're in your circle, that's where you're going to build your business, right. And so if you're in Toronto and it feels like the market's just too big to make an impact.

Speaker 2:

Well, what are the three condo buildings that you?

Speaker 2:

You know, near where you live, that if you knew every unit that was for sale and what they sold for on each floor and and all that, and handed coffee out for free outside on the, or it had different stuff going on just for those buildings, you could just own those buildings. You know, try and find these people. I've got a great agent with me. He's just a very personal, that personable guy, but he knows he's not fancy suits and mercedes and and they're the realtor image that's out there, but he loves comic books and Pokemon and all that stuff and he's got a whole community of people that. He's got Instagram accounts just for that stuff, like his personal stuff. I said how come you're not telling them what you do? Because those guys don't want to call those fancy suited people. They want to call you. Find your people. And this is an intimidating industry to get into, especially brand new agent. Just do your thing and be yourself and find your circle and you'll be fine and that's where you should focus your market.

Speaker 1:

Perfect. No, I love it. Well, brent, I appreciate you coming on. I think that the advice was tactical. I think it's very practical for the market we're in and thank you for leaving me with that last piece of advice and for those of you that are listening, definitely check out Bryn online, check out his brokerage and, if you're in the area, pop in for a tour. They got a nice facility. So, bryn appreciate the time, thanks for sharing. And we'll catch you next time you bet.

Speaker 2:

Thanks guy.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for tuning in to Tactical Agent, your real estate coach in a box. I hope you're leaving with some actionable steps to take your real estate business to the next level. If you're ready to go even deeper and want personalized mentorship, accountability or coaching, head over to tacticalagentca or slide into my DMs to schedule a free coaching session with me and let's build your success step-by-step. Until next time, keep it tactical and keep pushing your business forward, because I believe in you.