Hi folks,

I’ve had an interesting week real estate wise! I’ve dealt with 4 different property negotiations, 3 of which were successful. By that I mean negotiations were completed and sales have been agreed but certainly 2 of them were touch and go as emotions were fried and the deals nearly lost. This led me to ponder about how much of my work is emotive and how easy it is lose track of the ultimate goal of purchasing a home.

You are in a stronger position if you keep your feelings under control or at least hidden from the other party in the negotiation.

Even if you are desperate to buy or sell the property, it is better to play a waiting game and not go higher (or lower!) just because the other party is taking too long to get back to you. If you are a buyer, this technique works very well when there aren’t many buyers. It is harder to do when there are more buyers than properties and the market is going up in leaps and bounds.

The opposite is true for sellers. If you are a seller, let your agent guide you as to when to hold out for a high price and when to come down. Professional agents understand the market and are in touch with buyers. Be sure you have some market knowledge yourself as this makes it easier to know what the agent is talking about and helps with issues of trust. Sometimes lack of faith in your agent can lose sales too. The agent is working for and paid by the seller.

If you are a buyer, offset emotion by arming yourself with as much knowledge as possible. Get to know recent sales in the area and keep the negatives as well as the positives of the property in your mind to help you keep things in perspective. Remember who the agent is working for when they try to create urgency by saying things like: ‘There are other buyers interested’, (although in my experience this is a futile method of negotiation, I believe agents should only talk of “interest” if an offer is in writing) Most buyers know the market well enough to know if it is likely to be true or not, remembering that the licensee is trained to create pressure.