Typically negotiations take place before signing the initial offer and during the buyer's contingency period after inspections take place. However negotiations can potentially take place anytime before and up to closing and just about everything in a real estate transaction is negotiable - not just price.

Good negotiation is based on the “win-win” concept. Everyone in the transaction gets what they really want and need, not necessarily absolutely everything they’d like. It’s based on conscious compromise, give and take. And it’s the most effective way to end up with the best price and most favorable terms for your home in the shortest amount of time!

My Roll in Negotiations

At its core, negotiation is communication. It's important to listen and ask questions, seeking to really understand all parties to the transaction. We will collaborate together and set goals, prioritizing your needs and desires for the sale of your home. It may also be beneficial to discuss possible areas of compromise before your home hits the market.

When offers come in, I take time to understand each buyer's motivations and priorities by discussing them with the buyer's agent. When a conflict arises, I will work with the Buyer's agent to come up with creative options and solutions that work for everyone while making sure that your most important priorities are honored. I help my clients to keep perspective and stay open to compromising on small issues that allow an otherwise great deal to go through. It is extremely important to stay as calm as possible and to resist over-reacting to unreasonable demands or high emotion from the other side. As your advocate, your best interests, goals and objectives are my first priority.

The Seller's Roll In Negotiations

s the seller, you do not need to be an expert negotiator, but your do play a roll in the negotiation process. Here is a list of items to do during this process:

Remember your priorities: During negotiations and within the contracts, you’ll be

making decisions on hundreds of issues. Some of them matter and some really don’t. But it’s easy to get caught up in all of it and lose sight of what you’re really trying to accomplish by selling your home. Be sure and keep your priorities front and center so that when the inevitable kerfluffle happens, you won’t lose your way.

Stay calm and think it through: Selling a home is an emotional process. It's your home! It's important to stay calm. Take a deep breath. Respond, don’t react. Avoid a knee-jerk reaction and think it through. And if you need time to get into a better place emotionally, sleep on it before making a decision.

Listen and ask questions: As your agent, I will be here to guide and advise you through issue that arrises. This ain't my first rodeo, so please listen. If you don’t agree or understand something, ask questions. Open communication is extremely important to make sure we can find a win-win solution. Together we can collaborate on different solutions to the issue at hand and possible consequences if you don’t agree to the compromise. At the end of the day, you do have the final say in any decision. Let's just be sure to get all the information you need to make a good one.

Be clear: As your agent, I will be negotiating on your behalf. Communication is essential in this process to do my job well. Be as clear as you can with your desires and if you don't like how negotiations are going or have an idea for a better solution, let me know. When you do make a decision or compromise, make sure you are sure enough about it to honor it. Giving your agent clear marching orders will help me represent you to the best of my ability.

Make Sure Your Agent Has the Skills and Knowledge to Protect Your Best Interests

The sale or purchase of a home requires many negotiations. So when you decide to sell your home, make sure you hire someone really good at negotiating. Make sure your listing agent is an expert at their game so that they can negotiate on your behalf to the best of their ability. Your agent should have the skill and knowledge to proactively plan your real estate negotiations for success. As a Certified Real Estate Negotiation Expert and having extensive experience in real estate negotiations, I am well equipped to be your advocate and negotiate the terms of your contract to the very best of my ability.

REAL ESTATE NEGOTIATION EXPERT (RENE) The first and only negotiation credential recognized by the National Association of REALTORS®, the Real Estate Negotiation Expert (RENE) certification is designed to elevate and enhance negotiating skills so that today’s real estate professionals can play the game to win.

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You’ve put the house up for sale and the offers have started to come in. How do you go about choosing the best offer and how do you know which offer is the best? What can you do to make sure a good deal doesn’t slip right through your fingers? Believe it or not, price isn’t the only factor to consider when choosing an offer for your home for sale. There are many more factors to consider like timing, terms, contingencies and financing. Any one of these factors could cost you time and money if you are not careful. So when you are deciding on the right offer, you have to hedge against various risks. And in the event that you receive multiple offers, a seller’s dream, you will want to make sure you and your real estate agent have a strategy to use that leverage to get the highest price with the best terms for your home.

1. Communicate your priorities to your agent.

Do you need to close by a certain date? or do you need a little extra time to move out of your home after closing? Before you list your house, we will discuss your priorities and timeline, which will help determine the right offer depending on the factors that are most important to you and your individual situation. For example, If you need to close quickly because of a job relocation or divorce, speed might be a top priority.

2. Understand contingencies in the contract and determine their risks.

Real estate contingencies in a home purchase contract are "walk-away" clauses that allow the buyer to back out of the contract and get their earnest money back if certain conditions aren't met. Buyer’s have lots of ways they can get out of a deal, but sellers have very few. So when you’re deciding on the best offer for your house, take a close look at the contingencies that the buyers penciled in, meaning all the steps that have to occur before a seller can get paid.

The most common contingencies include the home inspection, buyer financing, and property appraisal—which all protect a buyer in the event that major defects with the home come to light or the house doesn’t appraise during closing. Some contingencies, however, are riskier for sellers, such as an offer that is contingent upon the buyer selling their existing home. If you receive an offer that has too many contingencies, look at it as a way to help you narrow down your pile. Because the fewer hurdles you have to tackle when it comes to an offer, the better for you, the seller—even if the listed dollar amount is a good one.

3. Should you take the first offer that comes in?

Determining whether the first offer will be your best offer can be tricky, especially in a hot and competitive market. If you get an offer right away, you might feel like the home wasn’t on the market long enough and that you could get a better deal. Typically, I do recommend that you home have at least 3 days on the market before you accept an offer. However this is not a hard fast rule. I have had sellers “wait for something better” and they have been disappointed. The first 2 weeks that you home is on the market is the time your home will get the most traction from potential buyers, after that, your home will begin to get less and less attention and may become “stale” on the market. Buyer’s may take this as an opportunity to send in a “low ball” offer as they now know they will have an upper hand in negotiations since you as the seller don’t have any other options. So don’t get cocky and opt to wait around for something better, simply for the sake of testing the market to see what you can get. You should weigh every offer seriously, and the ones that come in early may have very motivated buyers behind them who are ready to go. I'm not saying you should take the first offer that comes your way, just make sure you don't turn down a good thing.

4. Keep your emotions in check

When it comes to any business transaction, like accepting, rejecting, or negotiating an offer for your home, it’s critical that you do your best as a seller to keep your emotions out of the process; otherwise, the consequences could be costly to you. Do your best to look at the home, market, neighborhood inventory, and offers with clear eyes, and avoid letting a great offer go because of your emotional attachment to the home.

5. Know what you are looking for in a strong offer.

Besides taking that first offer seriously, how can you gauge the quality of other offers you get?

Look at the buyer’s financial strength. Di they have a mortgage pre-approval? Are they offering a large down payment? Or are they paying cash for the home? The buyer’s financial strength is a very important factor when reviewing offers,. I always make sure there is a letter of qualification from the financial institution and mortgage lender and take note if the buyer is pre-approved or just pre-qualified as there is a big difference! Many times I will even call the financial institution directly to make sure it is a dependable offer.

Are there any buyer’s concessions? Is the buyer requesting that the seller pay for their closing costs or requiring repairs to be completed before closing?

Some buyers will waive the inspection period. This is great because that is one less hurdle overcome before closing. Others might ask the seller to pay a chunk of their closing costs, this money comes right out of the seller's pocket and reveals may not be in a great financial position and might not have the funds to pay closing costs.

What is theTimeline and Flexibility of the buyer? Can they be flexible with the move in date and date of closing? Are they able to work around your needs as the seller?

Securing a buyer who is willing to be flexible on a closing date can be important particularly for sellers who haven’t yet secured a new home. This gives you more security that you will not have to close before you have somewhere to go! Some buyers will also allow you to do a rent back which means you get to live in the home for a certain amount of time after closing to have time to pack and move.

7. Larger deposits = stronger offer

If you’ve narrowed down your stack by now and all offers remaining are fairly equal in price, concessions, flexibility, and scope—another factor you can use to determine the best offer is the earnest money deposit. If everything else is equal and one offer gave a $2K deposit and the other one gave a $10K deposit, to me the latter is a lot better because it shows their commitment to buying the home and it's also harder for a buyer to walk away from the deal.

8. Leverage a bidding war to get the highest price and best terms

A bidding war will give the seller additional leverage to negotiate price and terms. Make sure you have an agent who knows how to negotiate with interested buyers to get you the best deal. As a Certified Real Estate Negotiator and an experienced agent I have "been there done that", so whatever your reason for selling and your needs for the future, you can find comfort knowing the agent has your best interests at heart—and rest assured you won’t let the best offer slip away, or settle for a deal you’re not happy with.

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