Negotiating an Offer is
Not Rocket Science

How can you be successful while negotiating an offer with a buyer without lowering the price?

It's possible, depending on the buyer's priorities, and whether or not they're fair minded.

If they're determined to buy your home at an unfair rock bottom price, then there's not much you can do about it. So, unless you're under duress, you can simply reject their offer.

Or capitulate, and agree to their demands.

Or maybe the buyer will ultimately agree to your terms, and were only playing tough. They may really, really want your home. Remember that given the right circumstances, it's sometimes possible to get the best terms of sale by being prepared to walk away from the negotiation table. However, you may lose them too.

It's a gamble

Your REALTOR®, if they possess the requisite skills, can ask strategic questions of the buyer's agent and interpret their body language and voice intonations in order to effectively advise you.

Or maybe, another buyer will come along who values your home more, and pay your price.

Or not.

Your attempts to sell your home may prove unsuccessful. Maybe, your expectations are unrealistic. You may need to objectively re-evaluate your property. And if the market fails to give you your price, don't blame your REALTOR®. All they can do is offer knowledgeable, honest advice, and expose your home to the open market. And if the market disagrees with your lofty estimate of value, you must accept that ...

The Market Never Lies

You might actually have to adjust your expectations, and reduce your asking price. Click here to learn more about when it's time to reduce your price.

When negotiating an offer on behalf of a seller, I ask the buyer's REALTOR® about their client's real estate offer priorities. I explain that my seller wants to be fair, and realistic. Since the most important terms of real estate negotiation are typically ...

Price, Closing Date and Conditions

... I ask which single term is most important to their client.

If they say price, then I recommend my seller counter the offer with my client's preferred closing date, and give a little on price. Conversely, if the buyer must have a particular possession date, maybe because their own home is sold firm with an inflexible closing date, or they've already given notice of vacating their rental apartment, then I advise my seller to agree (if possible) to the buyer's demand for that particular date. In exchange, we ask that the buyer agree to the seller's price, provided, of course, that it's fair and reasonable.

If the buyer refuses to accept this price, then I suggest to the buyer's REALTOR® that their client improve their offer in some other manner. It could be by removing one or more conditions, increasing the deposit, removing a requirement of the seller, or deleting chattels or fixtures from the contract. Maybe, the buyer would agree to exclude the major appliances, hot tub, expensive light fixtures or maybe a gas fireplace insert.

In other words, there's often options for negotiating an offer without lowering the price.

In the end, and all else fails, maybe that buyer just isn't the next owner of your home. Or maybe you're just not motivated or realistic enough. Unless you're in a strong seller's market, making unreasonable demands usually proves unsuccessful. During normal balanced market conditions, it's give and take. That's how to successfully negotiate a real estate offer.

The key word is not demand, but negotiate.

To learn more about negotiating an offer, including information about the real estate contract and real estate negotiation from a buyer's perspective, feel free to visit other pages on my website by clicking these links. After you're digested all this information, you'll see that negotiating an offer really isn't that complicated, provided you have good guidance along the way.

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