Bees to the honey pot

If you ask experienced sales agents how to attract a crowd and virtually guarantee a sale over fair market value then they will tell you to market the property as a "deceased estate".  People want a bargain and the promise of one is guaranteed to spark interest, in fact very strong interest! 

The problem is that most bargain hunters are so focused on securing the ‘bargain’ on offer that their ability to rationally and objectively assess a property’s true value in such circumstances often goes out the window in much the same way it does when a home buyer falls in love with a property.  They think that whoever buys the deceased estate will have bought a property below market value (the bargain price) and so their strategy is simply to be the winner by offering or bidding the highest amount rather than basing their negotiation or maximum purchase price on unemotional research.   

This type of behaviour is discussed in many sales based books. To give you a simple everyday example of how it works you only need to take a look at your local supermarket. As you walk around you’ll notice the 'on special signs' which are supermarket language for bargain. When you see these signs it gets you thinking that maybe you should buy them while they’re on sale (even if it wasn't on your list that day). What good marketing/sales people then do to increase your desire to buy is to go one step further and put a little sign on it that says something like “limit 6 per customer” ... For many shoppers this is enough to get them hooked and they decide to buy six as it must be a good deal if you can only buy a limited number right?

So beware of the so called real estate bargain ‘deceased estates’ as they very rarely sell for fair market value let alone bargain prices.