How to Negotiate The Best Possible Real Estate Deal
As we talk more and more about the current state of the market I want to help you understand how to negotiate the best possible deal for yourself. Here are some of my top tips you wouldn’t expect to hear but that are greatly impactful in the process:
1. Practice what you preach – a lot of customers like to puff out their chest. If you’re a seller you say I won’t sell below that number or a buyer, I won’t pay that number. Well, when the buyer or seller comes to you with a number that doesn’t work for you and your model then don’t cave. We find clients are often surprised to learn that their counterpart hasn’t folded right away so have the fortitude and stay in your lane.
2. Detach yourself emotionally from the process and the property – The sooner you can accept that this is a transaction, albeit deeply important, the quicker you can detach yourself from the idea that the buyer or seller is your enemy or against you when in fact we are all working towards the same goal. But more importantly, if you can separate emotion from the process it becomes a lot easier to fight for the best deal. My hands are tied when a client tells me to get them the best possible deal but don’t lose the apartment. Well, which is it? Do you want me to be a bulldog, because I absolutely will. But you as the client have to know that this comes with the risk of losing it. So if you are committed to getting the best terms then you have to commit to not being emotional about the process and not being afraid of losing it.
3. Stay patient my friends – Yes, I preach patience in so many facets of the process but perhaps patience is most important in a negotiation. Time + someone’s mind where they are wired to play out worst-case scenarios in their head over and over again can equal the single best tool to negotiate. Patience usually causes the scale to tip on one side of the transaction and you want to be on the right side. Like I said earlier, stay in your lane and stay patient and you will get what you want more often than not.
It’s as simple as that! Clients think that the art of negotiation is some complex Jedi mind trick but at the end of the day, it’s about guiding your clients through a steadfast strategy and sticking to that strategy.
Drop a comment and let me know what you think!