I got a phone call this week from a homeowner who was the trustee on a property currently on the market. They were already in escrow with an investor, but something didn’t feel right.
The buyer had them under contract for $1.3M—and then suddenly came back asking for an $80,000 price reduction.
From the beginning, the seller told me that his agent warned him: “We don’t want to play games. We want a legit investor who can perform.”
But here they were—right in the middle of the escrow period—feeling jerked around.
The trustee was frustrated. The agent was frustrated. So he asked, “Would you mind calling my agent and going to take a look?”
I called the agent, drove down the same day, walked the property, and made an offer. My number was $1.1M—about $100K less than what the current buyer supposedly had on the table.
And yet… they were strongly considering it.
Why? Because at some point, it stops being about the money.
Here’s something I’ve learned after buying hundreds of homes directly from sellers and agents:
There’s a moment in every transaction where price takes a back seat to trust.
When a homeowner or agent has a clear conversation upfront— “We don’t want games. We want certainty.”
…and then the buyer comes back mid-escrow with a massive price reduction, the money becomes secondary. People don’t want to feel taken advantage of. They don’t want to be trapped in a renegotiation strategy they never signed up for.
The math is the math — and the honest offers usually cluster together.
As the agent and I talked, she mentioned something important:
They had brought in multiple investors early on, and three or four of them were all around $1.1M. Then there were one or two who came in way higher.
After nearly 20 years doing this, I’ve seen this pattern over and over:
- When several solid investors are all around the same number…
- …and they have strong terms, tight contingencies, and a track record of closing…
Those offers are almost always the best offers — even when they aren’t the highest.
Why? Because investors generally analyze deals the same way. If one offer is way out of line with the others, it typically signals a strategy of:
Get it under contract first, renegotiate later.
And that works great… until it doesn’t.
Will we get this deal? I honestly don’t know.
We may buy it. We may not. That’s the reality of real estate.
But here’s the part I do know:
I walked away from that appointment with a new relationship — an agent who said she appreciated:
- how fast we showed up
- how straightforward our approach was
- and how we framed everything through the lens of The Perfect Cash Offer.
Deals come and go. But relationships built on trust? Those are the things that compound.
And because of that, whether we get this property or not…
We’ve already won.
About the Author
Paul Baird is the co-founder of 1-800-BUY-HOUSES® and the author of The Perfect Cash Offer, a step-by-step guide that helps homeowners navigate the cash-offer process with clarity and confidence.
Paul has personally bought and sold over $500 million in real estate, flipped more than 500 homes, and built a rental portfolio of 100+ single-family homes and duplexes.
With nearly two decades of experience working directly with homeowners, agents, and investors, Paul is dedicated to redefining the cash-offer experience through transparency, education, and trust
