You must be capable of guiding clients through the offer and negotiation process.
All “dos and don’ts” should be taken with a grain of salt, but you’d be well served to use these eight tips as a starting point when it comes to helping your clients work through offers, counteroffers, and the options they have to explore during negotiations.
DO:
- Assist your clients in weighting the offer appropriately: persuade them to base the offer on their desire to sell/buy, on the property in question, and the time the house has been on the market.
- Encourage your sellers to allow buyers move in quickly.
- Encourage sellers to help with financing.
- Encourage sellers to pay closing costs traditionally paid by the buyers.
DON’T:
- Don’t let a buyer/seller squabble over a small thing take away from the value of a solid, well-priced offer.
- Encourage clients to work with their sellers/buyers to look for acceptable options to unacceptable contingency clauses.
- Help your clients protect against a dangerous holdover from days gone by, negotiating fever. Many clients believe that going back with a counteroffer is what’s expected, even necessary. But if the initial offer is reasonable, encourage your clients to consider it as is.
- Help your clients see that a lower offer may sound better than it actually is. On a $325,000 home, an offer of $318,000 is only a 2.15 percent reduction.
