Negotiations in real estate are extremely important. Nearly every transaction involves some type of negotiations and working with someone with experience on both ends is extremely important. Here are a few things to consider when entering into a real estate negotiation.
Selling
When selling your home the true leverage comes when you have multiple offers. With only one offer on the table you may need to negotiate down or stay firm and wait for the price that you want, but as soon as you get 2 or more offers on property the control is now in your hands. Negotiating in multiple offers takes experience, confidence and knowledge. As with many things, knowledge is power. As a seller, if you know that the buyer is willing to come up in price or if you know that this is their final number it will drastically influence how you proceed.
Knowing if they need to be into a home by a certain date may also influence how you go through the negotiations. Having more than one option and being able to play them off each other definitely has its advantages.
As soon as you have 2 offers you may decide to accept one, counter both, counter one, or tell both that they need to come up. Keep in mind by doing this you may lose an offer. The last thing you want to do is counter both offers and end up with nothing on the table. Again, this is why knowing who you are working with is imperative. Being too greedy can come back to bite you if you do not have a good grasp on the offers at play. In the current Vancouver real estate market it is common to receive multiple offers and sellers have become the drivers. Lately they have been able to dictate what they want and play offers off each other. This has been a major factor in the prices that we are seeing.
Buying
As a buyer or as a buyers agent it is also important to know what is important for the seller. Are closing dates important? Possession dates? How about a larger deposit? Every little bit matters and that is why getting as much information before submitting your offer is important. As a buyers agent it is our job to find out this information and get as much external info as possible. We likely won’t know what the highest offer is but hopefully we can get an idea of how many offers there are and how we can go about making our offer as appealing as possible. It’s also important to know what the home is worth to the buyer and not to let the whirlpool of multiple offers sweep your buyers past a price that they are comfortable with.
Finding a Realtor that you trust is imperative. Working through this process can be a whirlwind of emotions. You want someone leading you through the process that you can rely on and one that you know is looking out for your best interests.
At East Van Townhouses we pride ourselves in putting our clients best interests at the forefront of everything we do. If you need any advice on how to handle a transaction we are happy to lend a hand…
