Last week, I shared a 5 minute video all about multiple offers and what to do as an agent when you receive them.  In the process of sharing it, I mentioned that we ended up paying $30k more for our house in a bidding war and you guys about lost your shorts.  I'll try to keep the story of how this came to be short, but I can't make any guarantees.

Every home as a story...here's ours.

We had been looking to move for quite some time.  By we, I mean I had been looking to move for quite some time.  Scot wasn't quite on board yet.  I was licensed and active, which made it easy to look at homes, but I hadn't done any resale transactions heading into this.

Buying a new home is a process and what we were looking for definitely evolved over time.  First, we were going to stay close to home, then we were going to buy something older closer to where I grew up, then we ended up buying practically new.  

My mom knew I was in the market and made a casual comment that her friend was going to sell her house, we'll call her Jane.  Jane and her husband had downsized into this home, they made careful and thoughtful choices throughout.  Upgraded carpets and insulation, built out closets and garage storage, custom island and trim work throughout, not to mention the backyard.  They really were planning to stay for a bit of time, until they weren't.  I grew up with Jane's daughters and when my mom mentioned that to me, I happened to be on my way to my friend's new house...that happened to be in the same neighborhood.

I told my mom I was going over to Jane's house right then to see it.  She begged me not to, but I did it anyway.

I walked the house and liked 85% of it.  I was still in the phase of looking where I thought I would get 100% of what I wanted.  ;)

The finishes were just right, the lot was big, but there was enough I thought I'd want to change that I didn't push too hard on it.  I did mention it to Scot and a few weeks later he came to look at it as well. 

And then we didn't do anything.  Jane hadn't put her house on the market yet, so we didn't feel a ton of urgency and in all honesty, we were acting like spoiled brats.  We convinced ourselves that the floorplan didn't work quite like we wanted it to (it didn't, so we recently added 200 sq ft) and we wished the pool was set up just a tad differently.  By tad, I mean it was off by 1%.  

A few months passed and as we had looked at more, I remember laying in bed one night telling Scot, "You know the house we are going to regret not buying is Jane's."

He still wasn't convinced, on Jane's house or moving at all.  

We looked at more houses here and there.  We had some lousy experiences where we were currently living and finally Scot was on board.  We needed to move and we needed to move now.

We discussed it over dinner and the conversation came back to Jane's house.  He wanted to walk it again, so I texted her at 7:30 on a Saturday night and asked her if we could walk it again.  We were over there 30 minutes later.

The next day was Sunday, and he was heading out of town for work that evening.  Prior to him leaving we loaded up the kids (8, 6 and 3 at this point) and walked a few more floorplans.  We then headed to the airport to drop him off. 

As I'm dropping him off, he tells me to text Jane and tell her we want her house, we'll pay full price.

Then he gets out of the car and leaves for the week.

I sat there in stunned silence for a minute.  I wasn't sure I wanted Jane's house, but I WAS sure that I wasn't going to get in Scot's way.  I was so ready to leave where I was at.  So I texted Jane. 

She hadn't put it on the market yet, so I was sure it would be ours.  I was giddy and anxious all at the same time.

Little did I know, that within 30 minutes of each other, Jane had received 2 texts from 2 different people she knew, offering her full price.

We were now part of a multiple offer situation, without the home even being listed...

TO BE CONTINUED.

The number 1 question I receive is this, "Hey Amy, I'm just getting started in real estate, how do I land my first client?" Good news. I'm just the person to ask. I began my real estate career when I was 3 months pregnant with my 4th baby and I closed over $3.5M my first year...yes, I had a baby in there too and I haven't paid for a lead yet.

A feat few agents can claim.

So how do you land your first deal? It's simple. Go to Zillow, search for every For Sale By Owner property that is currently listed. Choose 15 of them in the area you'd like to work, then write down the address & familiarize yourself a bit with the neighborhood. What is the average days on market for that area? What does the house comp out at? Have those number in your head.

Now, here's where it gets hard. Remember, I said it was simple, not easy.

Go knock on the door & give them an offer they can't refuse. Offer to list for a flat rate of $3,000 or whatever is competitive in your market & tell them every bit of value you are going to bring to them. Professional cleaners, photos, open houses, etc. Make it so good, they can't tell you no...even though 80% of them will. Your goal is to convert 5 of those into listings. If you have to go back in 10 days to get to your 5, go back.

This is what I call your season of 'interning' in real estate. If you're just getting started and do not have any experience to bring to the table, you must be willing to intern for a season. Once you have 5 listings, your goal is to leverage those into your next 10. Post each listing to your social media profiles, hold an open house on every single one, meet buyers that are looking in the area and neighbors that are thinking about selling. These are your next deals, so offer each person you meet value, then serve them, no strings attached.

Your pipeline will begin to take shape and as such, you're now able to command a 3% commission because you have a track record to refer to. Use this formula anytime you hit a slump to get yourself back in the game. Imperfect action is always what makes things happen. You must behave yourself into success.

I've got a goal to help 100 moms reach $100k in real estate next year, do you want to be one of them?  Sign up here to get weekly training to help you reach that goal.  

Good luck! Be sure to come follow along in my adventures in real estate @amygregory on Instagram.