Home Buying Negotiation 101!
Posted by Admirals Cove Homes on Feb 28, 2014 in Home, Real Estate | 0 comments
Purchasing a home is one of the if not the most important decisions and investments that you will make during your lifetime. The negotiation is a very integral aspect to this experience and needs to be prepared for and handled correctly. Once you have spent all the time and effort to find the perfect home that satisfies all of your needs and wants you would be devastated to lose it due to poor negotiating. The key is to take the emotion out of it and go into it reasonably and sensibly. Follow these great tips and tricks and you are sure to have a smooth and successful negotiation.
1.) Do Your Homework: It is imperative for you to be informed going into the negotiating process so be sure that you do your homework. It is important to discuss the process with your realtor and any friends and family members that have recently gone through this experience. You should also know as much as you can about the local real estate market like recent comparable sales and property tax rates.
2.) Know Who’s Selling The Home: It is a great idea to try and find out as much as you can about the seller and their situation. This doesn’t mean snoop around or hire a private investigator it just means know who is selling the home and what their motivations for selling are. It is also good to know how long they have lived in the home and how much it has appreciated in value.
3.) Connect With The Seller: This may sound a little uncomfortable, but it can actually be a great tool for you. If you can get the seller to see you as a person and not just a couple dollar signs the negotiating process will be much less stressful and you may even be able to negotiate a better price. Try to build a healthy relationship with the seller from the start and it will benefit you come negotiating time.
4.) Don’t Lowball: You can put in an offer that is lower than what the seller is asking but don’t make one that is too far off the fair market value. If you start of negotiations with a severely lowball offer you can offend the seller and you might loose out on the home all together. It is important to make a reasonable offer that is fair to both parties.
5.) Respond Quickly: It is important that you respond quickly to the sellers counter offer. Be sure to consider it thoroughly and develop a reasonable response but do it as quickly as you can. You don’t want the seller to be waiting for you to respond and have another potential buyer walk into the picture messing things all up for you.