Forgive me if everything reminds me of real estate, even the Christmas Season, but Perhaps you have been wondering which teaching of Jesus will help you sell houses faster this season, next year and beyond.
This was dramatically brought home to me in the last week when I got a call from a gentleman in New Jersey who was interested in one of the homes we had on the Internet.
He was affronted that with owner finance for the home for 30 years that he would wind up paying three times as much money as the house was selling for right now.
Well, I have been to so many closings where the closing agent has the buyer sign a truth in lending statement which points out this same thing, that it was no surprise to me. Over time the interest adds up. In the first many years of a 30-year mortgage most of what you pay is interest and the principal balance goes down slowly until you are years and years into the pay back of the loan.
Question Everything: Everyone Might Learn Something New
If you are experienced in mortgages, you just know this. But, demonstrating one of the teachings of Jesus, the New Jersey gentleman was having none of my answer that “that’s just the way it works with a mortgage.”
He kept saying, “what if.” And I kept saying, “that won’t work” until he came up with a sensational idea for the sale and purchase of a home that I had never considered.
His idea cuts the interest down by about 80 per cent and reduces the time to pay for the house to about five years and totally eliminates the need to get or qualify for a loan or come up with the full amount in cash. Okay, we are still working out details, but it is a great idea that I had never considered in two decades in real estate and doing some pretty creative things.
In Mark 10:15 we are told that “we must become as children if we will enter into the kingdom of heaven. ...” This has nothing to do with age regression. It means rather that we must accept new information with an open mind. A mind that has not already decided what is possible and what is impossible.
Open Minds Lead to Fuller Pockets, but Not for The Bank
I encounter this all the time. And in an age when almost no one can get a bank loan, the need for an open mind and creativity has never been greater.
I have frequently said that the first thing you should do when you receive a real estate contract is to sign it. And perhaps both ideas get at the time result.
If at all possible, when you get an offer on a house you are selling, read it like a little child, looking for what can be done and not looking for and knowing what cannot.
Sign the contract, and then (do not return it signed—not yet) go back and make the changes that will make it acceptable and workable for you. Don’t abandon ideas just because you have never heard of them. And if real estate is not something you are involved in all the time, consult an attorney who is board certified in real estate. Do not misunderstand. The contract may not work now and may never work. But accept it with an attitude of how can we make this work.
If you are trying to sell a home, and nothing has worked, perhaps by displaying the spirit of the season, you will manifest a real estate sale. For a series of articles on selling a house faster, visit The One Great Deal Website
