How to Encourage a Counteroffer from Homeowners?

[Alvin Grier]

As investors, we know that sometimes we have to make offers to homeowners that they might feel is way too low, right?

Well, in our business, we put a lot of pride and effort into developing a rapport with our prospective sellers, and like anything else in life, this "rapport" has it's positives and negatives.

The negative, is that we've found that some of these people like us so much that they're afraid to tell us that our offer is too low.

Instead, they might tell us via email (instead of calling us back) to tell us that our offer is too low...  sometimes, we never hear from them again.

Our goal, is for them to at least reply with a counter offer, instead of them just saying that our offer "won't work," and leaving it at that.

When it comes to dealing with fellow investors, we all know that there's usually some "wiggle room" for negotiations, thus getting a counteroffer from another investor happens all the time.

Homeowners aren't always willing to counter, so therein lies the challenge.

So my question:

How do you go about encouraging homeowners to reply with a counter-offer if they don't like your initial offer?