Mastering the Art of Negotiation: 5 Effective Strategies When Selling Your Home

Selling your home could be the biggest financial transaction you are undertaking in your lifetime. And it involves agreements with the buyer and the real estate brokers you’ll pay on commissions.

Therefore, what you’ll be taking home depends on your agreement with the buyer and the real estate agent. Your negotiation skills can put you ahead by helping you get top dollar in any market.

But how do you master the art of negotiation when selling your home? The following pro tips will help you make the most of your home selling. Also, we buy houses. Land O Lakes FL experts will help you make viable negotiations to increase the chances of getting more.

Counter At your List Price

As a seller, you probably won’t want to accept a potential buyer’s initial bid on your home if it’s below your asking price. Buyers usually expect a back-and-forth negotiation, so their initial offer will often be lower than your list price—but it may also be lower than what they’re actually willing to pay.(1)

Your negotiation skill will determine the far your deal can go.

In most cases, sellers will make a counteroffer which is often lower than their list price but higher than what the buyer offered. They want to retain their potential buyer, especially if their offers are reasonable.

It is important to be flexible and demonstrate a willingness to negotiate and close the deal. While this approach works, particularly in selling the property, more proven ways exist to get top dollar.

Rather than lowering your price, counter the buyer’s offer by sticking to your listed purchase price. In that case, the serious potential we buy houses Holiday FL agents will respond by making a higher offer. If you fairly priced your property at the beginning, it shows that you understand its worth and that you deserve to get its value.

In addition to getting the true worth of your home, sticking to your listed purchase price will scare buyers offering lowballs.

Reject the Offer

Gutsy home sellers can attempt a negotiating technique other than sticking to your listed purchasing price. Reject the offer without countering at all. Again, you want to keep them vibrant in the game. This is where you regain your power by asking them to make a new offer.

Also, you want to tell whether the potential buyers are serious or not. Since you are yet to turn them away, serious buyers should make new offers.

The tactic not only reaffirms your knowledge of your property’s worth, but it also allows potential buyers to make new offers, but this time, higher than the first one. Also, if the potential buyer is interested in getting the property, rejecting the offer and allowing them to make a new one gives pressures them fearing that another potential buyer might submit a competitive offer.

Thus, they’re prompted to offer more competitive offers and demonstrate a willingness to close the deal.

While this tactic works, it’s ideal for properties in the market for a shorter period, and time still needs to be critical to the home seller.

Attempt Creating a Bidding War

This strategy is best with open houses. Try to make your open house an integral part of the selling process. After you have listed the home on the market, and made it available, enlist an open house for some days later. Decline any offers until after the open house.

This will cause a competitive environment with potential buyers making competitive offers. After receiving offers, look for the highest offers and ask the bidders regarding their best and highest offers.

Although the open house may yield only one offer, the prospect offering it may not know. At this point, you’ll gain a psychological advantage moving forward with the counteroffers.

Although yielding multiple offers on a home from numerous buyers simultaneously is possible, accepting a better offer from a new buyer while negotiating with any other buyer is considered unethical but NOT illegal.

Agree to Pay Closing Costs 

It is becoming increasingly natural for home buyers to ask sellers to settle closing costs. Typically, these costs are valued at about 3% of the purchase price. Mostly, these fees settle frivolous costs.

Most buyers cannot pay for the closing costs because they are cash-strapped, especially after meeting the moving expenses, down payments, redecorating, and, more likely, the closing costs of the recently sold houses.

When the buyer presents an offer, asking you to pay for the closing costs, demonstrate the willingness to pay but counter with a higher purchase price. You can go above your listed price. Home buyers often don’t notice that they diminish the home’s sale value when they ask the sellers to settle the closing fees.

You can offset by asking for a higher purchasing value to cater to the closing costs you paid for.

Put An Expiration Date on Your Counteroffer 

If you want to sell your property quickly, be sure to put an expiration date on your counteroffers. The tactic will inspire your potential buyer to decide, enabling you to move on or get a contract with your home. When making your deadline, don’t make it too short to turn off your potential buyer. Similarly, make it shorter than the default one.

Lowering the expiration date on your counteroffer also enables you to ensure that your property stays in the market for a short time. When your property stays in the market for a long, its value depreciates, so you’ll have to lower your asking price.

Also, negotiating with a potential buyer means many potential buyers will not be able to submit their offers.

Conclusion

Being able to offer a superior product is the key to successfully executing the above negotiating tactics. Your home should score well in the market by having what others lack to set it apart in the competitive market. Your hardball techniques are only impactful if your home has what buyers are looking for in the market.