The New Bridge Solution: How to Turn Homeowners Into Sellers

The biggest problem for home sales today remains a lack of inventory. So, how do we keep the bounce-back from COVID-19 going? We need more listings!

To create more listings, we need to get homeowners off the sidelines. The problem is that homeowners are nervous to make a move for the same reason everyone else is: a lack of inventory. It's a catch-22, but there's a new, innovative bridge solution for brokerages available through zavvie that's designed to help agents get sellers moving.

A bridge solution removes urgency from the buying and selling process, reduces stress and removes the biggest barrier to selling. Don't confuse a bridge solution with a bridge loan, however. The only people who qualify for bridge loans don't need one.

A bridge solution is available nationwide, unlike an iBuyer option. Bridge solutions are flexible. Sellers love them, and so do agents.

Getting a Homeowner to Become a Seller

Many homeowners today feel like they are locked into their homes. It's a "chicken and the egg" problem: they can't buy until they sell, but can't sell unless they find the right house.

A bridge solves that by giving your clients time to find that right house. Smart agents know you can quickly turn a homeowner who has no plans to sell into a seller if you show them the right place or the right offer. A bridge solution can do both.

Homeowners also don't want to sell right now because they don't want people traipsing through their homes. To them, it's a safety issue. And selling a house on the open market is always daunting. Your clients have to prep until it's perfect, keep everything in shape and interrupt their lives for showings. A bridge solution removes these obstacles to selling.

Two Bridge Solution Approaches

Today, two dominant bridge solutions exist. The first purchases your client's house with an all-cash offer, then leases it back to your clients, giving them the time they need to find a new home. With the second approach, the bridge solution provider buys your client's next house, providing them time to sell their current home.

Homeowners who want to move up and have excellent credit, have growing income and are looking for a more expensive home do well with the bridge solution that buys their next home.

The other approach is a home sale-leaseback model that delivers flexibility. Your client can lease their current home for as long as they like and move whenever they find their dream house. This bridge solution can work with a wide range of credit scores and income types.

Offering All the Options

Homeowners have more options to sell their homes today than ever before—and they need and want the help of an agent. It's why zavvie helps brokerages keep the agent at the center of the transaction. By offering a bridge solution for sellers on the zavvie-powered platforms of our broker partners, zavvie makes sure agents can show homeowners all of their options.

Lane Hornung is CEO and founder of Colorado-based 8z Real Estate, one of the nation's most successful brokerages, and is CEO/co-founder of zavvie, one of the only complete iBuyer solutions for real estate brokerages.

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