Negotiating The Best Deals
It is not common to have negotiations go exactly how you imagine them. If you have an initial offer get accepted, then you are probably paying more than you should for a property or there is something that you simply aren’t seeing. In mot instances, there will usually be a number of counter offers, rebuttals and times when the two parties go back and forth and this is expected of all transactions. The way in which you handle exchanges like these is going to define how many of your offers get accepted and whether or not you are happy with the outcomes. By pushing too hard, you can wind up losing deals. By pushing too little, however, you may wind up leaving something on the table.
One of the most important things to keep in mind when making offers and negotiating is that you are trying to secure a property, rather than simply negotiating the best deals. While getting a great deal is obviously a benefit that you will welcome, this isn’t going to be your primary goal. By constantly low-balling and remaining unwilling to reach a compromise in order to close deals, you lower your likelihood of having an offer accepted, especially if there are other people submitting offers. You have to identify the strengths of your offer and then use these to your advantage.
By keeping the big picture in mind and knowing the goals of the seller, you will invariably start closing more deals. Far too often, we are only thinking about what we want and what we can do to get it. By changing our way of thinking to the seller’s way of thinking, we increase the likelihood of success. In the ideal instance it will be possible to determine what the seller hopes to gain from this transaction and then play on this. If this isn’t a possibility, you should make a few small concessions to what the seller wants during the process of negotiating. Even choosing to waive a contingency is a sign of good faith and could help you to close a deal. If you remain stubborn about the price or about keeping the contract exactly as it is, you can frustrate the seller and stagnate the process. Should other offers come through, you can trust that the seller is going to choose these offers over yours.
The perfect negotiation is when both parties leave the table feeling happy with the outcome. If you make an offer and refuse to budge, sellers only have the option of either accepting your offer or turning it down. Because sellers won’t feel like you are showing them respect, even if they have dire circumstances to contend with, they might not be willing to sell to you at all. This is why a lowball offer can have a very negative impact on people who are simply looking for good deals. Instead of starting the negotiations off properly, people are seen as insulting and often get ignored because of it. This is all the more true when dealing with lenders. They will not even issue responses to offers that fall below their perceived threshold. If you had chosen to make a higher offer that was closer to being representative of the actual value while being a bit lower than this, your chances of having your offer accepted would have been much higher. You ruined this chance by choosing to shoot for the moon.
To be successful in real estate negotiations, you have to learn when to push and when to lean. A lot of deals are lost and gained each day due to the approach that people take in negotiations. Try to focus on the goals of the seller and look at the bigger picture. You want to acquire property, now win in negotiations.