Sometimes, it takes more than a down payment and mortgage financing to secure a home purchase. In fact, in some cases, buyers and sellers come up with some pretty strange incentives to nudge the other party in the right direction to close the deal.
For example, here is a condo for sale in San Francisco. It’s biggest downside is that it lacks a parking space. The seller’s creative solution? Include a year of unlimited rides from the ride sharing service, Uber. Sure, it’s a catchy idea… however, the condo hasn’t been snatched up, so this unconventional thinking clearly hasn’t worked yet.
Then there was that home that garnered plenty of media attention for offering Super Bowl tickets to the right buyer. However, this also didn’t work for the sellers as the home is collecting dust and still awaiting a sale.
On a personal note, I recently experienced an offer from a buyer that was well below asking, but they attempted to sweeten the deal by including a brand new car. This was also unsuccessful.
Are we seeing a trend taking root here? Maybe some bonus closing incentives are just too off the wall for serious buyers and sellers to consider, and merely serve as a distraction from the end goal: buying and selling real estate.
What are your experiences with strange closing incentives? Which ones worked and which ones were too unorthodox to succeed? Share your experiences in the comments below.
I agree with what Paul said. Give buyers something that they really value and they will often bite. This is just further proof that you can’t overprice a property for the current market and try to “trick” a buyer into buying it by throwing in an unusual incentive.
what i saw help to close were allowances for what the buyer wanted. carpet, paint, anything. and in reverse taking house AS IS to induce seller.