I just opened an escrow for clients that I've been working with for a few months.  After an initial meeting to establish their needs and financial situation, we began our search by looking at many REO and short sale properties.  The buyers comments always seemed to be "let's make a low offer and see if we can make a deal."  As you may know, this strategy just doesn't work in this market with slim inventories, REOs and unresponsive short sales.

It finally dawned on me that this buyer really wanted "a deal" first and the house that came along with it was a bonus.  Some clients are just not fulfilled unless they are in a toe-to-toe negotiation from start to finish.  Well, I changed my search parameters and started looking at homes $25,000 over their limit (which all happened to be equity sellers) and we made two offers immediately.  I'm glad to say that we are now in escrow on one of those homes after we negotiated the price down into their comfort range.

Sometimes, you just have to step back and look at your clients from a different perspective.  We think we know exactly what in the client's head but are often on the wrong track!