Know your Negotiation Strategy

In this video, I discuss why it is important to have a negotiation strategy in place as you get ready to sell your home. Whenever I get an offer from a buyers agent I always get as much information I can about the buyer. I do this so I have a clear snapshot and profile of the buyer and as I begin to understand the buyer, this information will become valuable as the deal gets finalized. For example, if I know the buyer has a deadline in place to purchase a home and that the home he is making an offer on fits perfectly for him and his family and I know they have been looking for 1 year, I can get a good sense of how serious of a buyer he is versus someone who is just throwing offers around and has no emotional attachment to the outcome. I usually try and find out what the buyers family dynamic looks like, what they intend to use the house for, do they have children, what are there hobbies, where is their primary residence, what is their occupation?

When I do receive an offer and present to my clients (the seller) I usually see what recent activity has taken place in the market. What has recently sold? What is new to the market? Etc. I do this to give my clients a snapshot of the recent trades and activity taking place and help them to validate or adjust their counter offer if they decide to counter the buyer. If in fact they decide to counter offer, I review more than just price and I make sure we determine what contingencies are not acceptable or that need to be adjusted. Negotiating a deal is more than just negotiating the price, it is about putting together a deal that makes sense for your both the buyer and seller.

When I finally present a counter offer to the buyer's agent, I usually provide details of the counter with an explanation of due diligence. Depending on the agent and their experience level, this is not always necessary. If I am dealing with a newer agent, I provide this information so the agent can then relay this information back to their client and validate that indeed they are getting a great house for the money.

With all negotiations, the method I described above is not always the best. Proper people management skills combined with highlighted expectations to all parties is crucial to a successful negotiation and every negotiation will have its own strategy.