Why is my Realtor against me?
I think this is what some of my clients think when I am giving them advice on pricing and negotiation. After all, that is really what you hire me for, ultimately the final decision should be yours. My expertise is derived from working in the Real Estate business every day and dealing with many buyers and sellers that all look at things a different way.
Too often when negotiating, buyers and sellers alike spend more time worrying about what the other side is thinking and doing as opposed to what they are doing. Some times this leads to you actually negotiating against yourself based on how you would approach being on the other end.
Example: Three common ways of looking at going in with a low bid after determining what the house is worth.
- "Let's go a little higher if I go in too low, they will be insulted and won't even respond"
- "Maybe we should go even lower, to get them to counter at what we think it is worth"
- " Let's wait until they get realistic and drop the price closer to where it should be"
My View:
We have been through the house and have determined that based on it's condition and comparable homes sold that it is worth between $xxx and $yyy. (this range should be within 5-8 thousand dollars of each other). As part of my service I have already determined if there are any offers currently in or if any have been made and fallen through for some reason or another. If there is an offer(s) in then put your best foot forward and offer $yyy. If you lose you will at least have peace of mind that you gave it your best shot. If there are no offers in and it's a buyers market you may want to go towards the lower end or go high and ask for money back to pay closing costs. At no point have I thought about what the seller is thinking or how they would respond to the offer.
When a client knows that there are offers in and still wants to go in $35,000 under asking on a home that we feel was close to being priced correctly. I am going to tell you that you are probably wasting your time. You shouldn't hire a Realtor just to tell you what you want to hear. Again, the final decision will be yours but I need to give you the best advice I can based on my knowledge of the market, Don't take it personally.
One Realtor that has been in the business for a long time once told me that when he has someone that likes the property but can't decide what to offer, he tells them "Next month, when you see what this sold for, what is the highest number that will make you kick yourself in the ass for not making an offer?" It can really be that simple.
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