Ways to "sweeten the deal"

[Collette Petersen]

I've been talking to a seller concerning his triplex, which I found by direct mail. Only myself and another gentleman know about this deal and the tricky thing is, this other buyer has bought from this seller in the past, he's done seller financing with him. The seller has been so open and honest with me about the whole process, (he told me he has offered $10k more). 

Basically my question to any of you is when you know you are buying in a competitive market, and in my case, you know what the competition is paying, what are other ways to "tilt the scale" in your favor so that your offer looks more appealing? Even if my offer price is less.

Seller isn't interested in seller finance on this one, even when he owns outright. 

Any thoughts? 

[Jonathan Greene]

As others have said, you need to know what the seller plans to do with the money. He obviously likes you or is using the other offer as leverage against you to sweeten the deal on price, but it always comes down to the relationship. He probably does not need that extra 10k so what have you learned about him and how can you help him in some way that the other investor (likely just transactional) can't. You would be surprised by how many old-time sellers care way more about who they are selling to than for. how much.