Negotiating and communicating with agents and parties is a crucial skill for any real estate professional. Whether you are buying, selling, renting, or leasing, you need to know how to present your offer, handle objections, and close the deal. In this article, we will share some tips and strategies to help you negotiate and communicate effectively in different scenarios.
Before you enter any negotiation, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and what you are willing to compromise on. For example, if you are buying a property, you need to know your budget, your preferred location, your must-haves, and your deal-breakers. If you are selling a property, you need to know your asking price, your lowest acceptable offer, and your timeline. Having these goals and limits in mind will help you avoid wasting time on unrealistic offers or losing sight of your priorities.
I believe utilizing multiple forms of communication are crucial in this fast paced world. It is important to talk things through and then following up in writing, or vice versa, to make sure your thoughts are clearly expressed and you have it in writing to back up any questions in the future. When handling multiple offers, I use the BCC feature in email so all agents get the same note at the same time. I believe counseling clients AHEAD of negotiations is key. I spend time at my listing appointments explaining an overview of the buyer negotiation step of their sale. It helps to explain it at a time with less emotion. By the time offers are pouring in, the sellers could feel pressure, doubt, anxiety, etc. so that is why an explanation helps.
Another key to successful negotiation and communication is to do your homework and prepare well. This means gathering as much information as possible about the market, the property, the agent, and the other party. For example, you can research the comparable sales, the average days on market, the agent's track record, and the other party's motivation and situation. This will help you understand the value of the property, the level of competition, and the potential leverage points. You can also prepare a list of questions, objections, and counteroffers that you anticipate and practice how to respond to them.
Creating a positive and cooperative atmosphere is essential for successful negotiation and communication, and building rapport and trust with the agent and the other party can help you achieve this. To build rapport and trust, make sure to use their name respectfully, express interest and empathy for their needs and concerns, compliment them on their property or offer, use open-ended questions and active listening, avoid criticizing, blaming, or lying, and maintain politeness and professionalism throughout.
Building sincere rapport is one of the very most important, and first steps to even having a chance to do business, and trust is built once rapport is healthy and you show they can trust you/or due diligence has happened. Charlatans are a large part of real estate and given where the global relations are and societal climates, we all have to be good at building rapport and showing we can be trusted, not just with our city, or state, but with anyone. The old school style of arrogance, “my way or the highway”, and you lose because we are only winning attitudes are getting cancelled in our current cancel culture, although if you focused on integrity and character, those things have never been in your business.
Building rapport and trust with other agents is crucial.....gone are the days of glorifying the "Wolf of Wallstreet" attitudes and ways of doing business and closing transactions. Agents who build a reputation of integrity and a have a high acumen on effective communication are the ones whose listings are sought after by fellow agents. These are the agents that others want to engage and enter into negotiations and transactions with.
Negotiation and communication are not about winning or losing, but about finding a mutually beneficial solution. As such, you should be flexible and creative in your approach, considering different options and scenarios. For instance, you could offer or ask for contingencies such as inspection or appraisal, concessions such as closing costs or furniture, incentives such as cash or gift cards, alternative terms such as closing date or earnest money, and even a split-the-difference or multiple-counter strategy.
I start with trying to understand what your client or customer needs by calling the agent and then what does my client or customer need, so we can write the best offer we can to start with, for example. If we are not able to come to an agreement after writing/countering, I’ll go back to the other agent on the phone or in person and see if we can share where the real hold up is, and if we can fix it, we will, and try again. The majority of the time we are experiencing roadblocks, we haven’t said “Ok, what about this?, Ok, What about this?, at least three to five times to come up with solutions. We keep the goal of successfully closing for clients, and never letting a transaction fail because of agents.
The final step of negotiation and communication is to follow up and confirm the agreement. This means sending a written confirmation of the offer or the acceptance, reviewing the contract and the disclosures, and signing the documents. You should also keep in touch with the agent and the other party until the closing date and address any issues or questions that may arise. You should also thank them for their cooperation and congratulate them on the deal.