1. Submit your offer. If the seller counters wait a full day and a half to respond. You might take a risk of another buyer moving in for the kill, but not likely. Counter back at the same price you offered originally. You are under no unwritten rule or obligation to come up or "meet in the middle" as they say. Some sellers assume it's a matter of common practice to counter, counter and counter again.
2. Don't threaten to walk away from a deal, just do it. At least provide the illusion. What you don't say is way louder then what you do say. Agents run their mouth for a living on behalf of their clients. Not responding to the other agent for a little while will drive them crazy. That's okay. Let the seller stew/marinate and think until they bite all their fingernails off. The seller will call their agent asking... "what did you hear? What did they say?" They'll try to act like it doesn't bother them that the buyer and buyer's agent are being distant with correspondence. But it does. The more time that goes by, the more the seller will doubt their counteroffer.
3. Wait until the last minute possible to negotiate repairs and hold inspections. The longer the better. Each day that passes is a day the seller is rubbing their hands together as they fantasize about moving, buying and getting on with their life. When you come at them 9.5 days later during your 10 option period they'll feel pressured to negotiate more. You can also submit a cancellation of contract with your repair requests. Let the Listing Agent know that if the seller isn't willing to concede with the repair request to go ahead and sign the Termination of Contract & Release of Earnest Money. That sends a strong message. You can always chg your mind.
4. Remember that nobody usually kills a deal over 2 grand. So don't be the one to concede over it. Make the other party bend, drop to their knees and give you the two K you asked for. Odds are they'll be more willing to give it than not. no reason to be nice. You're not being rude by demanding $1,000.00 off the price.
5. Go after the appliances and other incidentals by offering to pay almost nothing for them, especially if the house is vacant. It's highly unlikely any seller will come pick up their 8 year old fridge if you don't pay them the $500 they asked. Do you really think they're going to hire a guy, get a truck and come get it? Offer them the lowest possible amount. Sure they could sell it on Craig's List. So go on Craig's List and offer them their price and tell them your coming to pick it up 10 days later. Never show up. You'll now get the fridge. Better yet, have a friend call them. JUST kidding. I just want to make sure you're reading.
6. You can negotiate a seller to death with repairs in many ways. The best way is to pick your own vendors and obtain 3 bids on every single solitary big ticket item. The threat of this should be overwhelming to a savvy Listing Agent. Roofers, HVAC technicians, plumbers and pool guys have one word in their head. REPLACE. They love to REPLACE things. It's smarter for a seller to come to an agreement and offer a dollar amount "in lieu of" versus rolling the dice with the a technician or a Roofer. Roofers are typically discussing "replacement" before they even get on the roof in most cases. Sometimes when you call them they tell you.. "it's just better to replace."
7. Show the property your buyer want's like 500 times. Let them know an offer is coming about 400 times. Drag that sucker out as long as possible. The seller will be anxious. They'll also start thinking about where they're moving. They might even start fighting about "how they're not gonna give their home away" with their agent. They will certainly do this. Sellers LOVE to call their agent and discuss "possible offers" when an agent drops that.... "OFFER COMING" on the showing feedback.
8. If the home is overpriced ask the Listing Agent to point to the comps they used to justify the price of the home.
9. Submit your offer one page at a time. Each page should be in a jpeg format. It will take the listing agent 22 hours to download the files. Or fax it to them from a gas station with pages missing.
Don't do number 9. that's totally annoying and will just bring you bad karma.
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