subject: Tips For Fsbo Sellers How To Negotiate [print this page] When you are buying or selling a home, it can be intimidating to think about having to negotiate. There are a lot of people who didn't know they have negotiating skills even though every day, they would skillfully negotiate. Besides, who goes out to pick up lunch, prepares the report, walks the dog, takes the kids to school, and so on? Let's debunk some myths about negotiating, shall we?
This is Non-Negotiable
Sellers often say to themselves, "This is the deal I'm willing to make. It's not negotiable." Having no room to negotiate is not what this really means. The simple result of anxiety about negotiating is what this is.
You may be chasing away otherwise good potential buyers if you take this approach. When the buyers get into huff about the seller's inflexibility, then everything will go downhill from there. There's no need for this happen. Just remember that they can say no at any point along the way towards working out a deal and that sellers should also be willing to enter into reasonable negotiations. However, they need to ask themselves when each subject comes up, "Am I willing to lose this deal over this point?"
What the buyer needs to have is a similar mindset. The stage is set for successful negotiations when the seller and the buyer are thinking along the lines outlined above, and each acknowledges the possibility of working out a deal in which both buyer and seller come away feeling like winners. Unfortunately, there are many people do not think along these lines.
It's also helpful that buyers and sellers are not always focused on the same things to the same degree. To one person, price may be more important and the time of the sale's completion may be more important to another. Sometimes negotiations are just a matter of balancing things out.
The Typical Pattern
Successful negotiations don't usually drag on for a long period of time. Most of the time there is an offer and a counter-offer that is accepted. There have been many cases when the first offer is actually accepted if it is the result of a conversation between buyer and seller where subtle negotiations took place. At most, successful negotiations are usually concluded with an offer, a counter offer, and a counter-counter offer. It's usually a sign that the deal is not going to work out if negotiations continue much beyond that.
Of course, there are exceptions to everything and the minuet of negotiations where two people who love to negotiate are involved can go on for quite some time. But most of it also tends to be verbal with the written sales contract changed very few times even those cases.
In this article, the biggest point is don't get intimidated. You will be able to get what you need from your home if you stay objective.
