Negotiating a good fair deal on your next real estate purchase.

As you may know, most of the country is experiencing a real estate buyers market. What does this mean for buyers? Better deals!

 For the most part, in a buyer's market, the buyer has the negotiating power, especially if the home has been on the market for a while and you know a few things about the sellers motivations. These days most sellers are selling because they need to sell. They got a new job, not able to afford their mortgage, lost job, etc. The thing you dont want to do is assume you know why they are selling. Have your agent find out as much as they can by asking questions like....

• What's the reason for the move/Why are they selling?
• Where are the sellers moving to?
• When do they need to be there?
• Have they made a purchase on another home?
• Are they motivated to sell?
• How quickly do they need to sell?
• Are the sellers flexible?

I always start with the first question on this list. Many times the listing agent will tell you way more than you need to know your negotiating power position. When asking these questions try and keep them open ended (a non yes or no question). Many agents will not give up this info very easily. Your agent  might have to rephrase these questions to make it not so obvious what you are after. I have found that about 4 out of 5 agents will answer any question.

  What do you do when you get the answers for these Q's. The answers will tell you what your offer should be. When you make your initial offer be aggressive. Chances are they will counter back but you would be surprised how often your offer will be excepted. If the sellers counter back, this is your opportunity to counter that counter. I would say 8 times out of 10 you will get very close to your original offer. It's best to make the sellers feel like they have won something in the negotiations. When you find out that the needs of the sellers you can ask for things that are not that important to your buyers like closing date, escrow company, inspection time lines, maybe appliances etc. These are things that you can agree to let the sellers have.  After you get mutual agreement on the offer the negotiations are not over. I will try and find out more about the seller and their motivations after mutual. Why? After mutual the agent or the sellers might open up and tell you more. Many times I have asked and got things like lawn mowers, tools, ladders, appliances, furniture etc. Many times they wont want to move these items. The key to being successful asking for items after mutual is making sure you didn't piss off or make the sellers feel like they lost in the original offer. You Also have the inspection. I recommend that you be fair and ask for the items that are most important to you.

Don't be afraid to ask!!!

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 Greg R Benson Real Estate Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond WA