For most of home owners, selling a home is probably one of the most important financial transactions they will ever make. Keeping this in mind, it’s interesting to know that most people still end up making some grave mistakes. Mostly, these mistakes are the result of failure to prepare and losing control of their emotions during the negotiation process.
The good news is that you can use a few solid negotiation tactics to sell your home fast without any hassle. Let’s take a look at them.
Be open to the buyers
The first step in the negotiation process is to let the potential buyers know what you need, and it should be done in a clear and reasonable way. For most buyers, the price of a property is the No.1 factor to consider during a purchase decision.
What you need to do is evaluate the buyer’s offer based on your market analysis and other factors, which will give you a pretty good idea of what a good offer looks like.
Apart from the price, make sure you give some thought to other things as well.
- What do you want from the deal?
- Do you want to sell at the highest price?
- Do you want the closing to satisfy your work, school or travel time-frame?
- Do you want to resolve some repair or maintenance issues?
These are a few things you need to pay heed to. Be open to the buyer so you can take it to the next level.
Use the Option Period
One negotiation tactic is to benefit from the option period. Options period provides a security for buyers, thus allowing them to terminate the contract without any reason. However, in this case, the seller will keep the option fee.
For sellers like you, the option is a type of protection over the long haul. Once this period is over, you have a sigh of relief that the deal is almost confirmed.
The buyers use these days to inspect the property and ask questions that they may have. Once the ball starts rolling, buyers will find it easier to stay on the track.
Adopt a cooperative approach
In the process of negotiation, things like conflict and opposition has no place. Make sure you don’t use the adversarial approach. You may want to try your level best to keep good relationship with buyers. Remember: your goal is to sell your house at your desired price, not to create a conflict.
At times, a buyer may write a note spelling out why your property is not their cup of tea. In the note, they may list some deficiencies in your property. While responding to the buyer, you should never be defensive.
Be sure to act in a way that will arouse their interest in your house. Here it’s important to note that the process of negotiation usually starts with some distrust between both the parties. But your goal, as a seller, is to behave and react in a way that will develop trust between you and the buyer. Without trust, it may not be feasible to keep moving.
Keep your cool when dealing with an adversarial buyer
You may not be adversarial, but you may come across a buyer who is adversarial. They might make snide remarks, emotional statements, and give you threats to terminate. In this case, creative solutions may not work.
When dealing with an aggressive negotiator, you need to keep your cool and avoid giving emotional responses. Being angry or defensive may lead to a no-win battle.
While talking to the buyer, listen to their argument without accepting or rejecting whatever they may be saying.
Your tactic should be to compare factors, such as pricing to outside data. The idea is to let the buyer know that your proposal is reasonable. Your counteroffer should be as appealing to the buyer as possible. You have to find ways to present your house in a way that it will interest them.
Build Trust With The Buyer
It’s important to gain the buyer’s trust if you want to make them more cooperative and take it to the next level. How can you do it? Below are some tips that may help:
- If the buyer has something to say, you should pay attention.
- Answer their questions as soon as you can.
- Appreciate them for taking interest in your property.
- Respond to the offers in time.
- Explain each property condition in an easy to understand manner.
- Tell them how fun it is to stay in your house.
- If you want to sell some of the items in your house, ask them if they want to buy any of them.
Respond to each offer
You may get some unreasonably low offers from some buyers. Most sellers don’t respond to such offers, which may not be a good approach. There could be other possible reasons why they made such a low offer. For instance, the buyer probably is not familiar with the property prices in your area.
It’s better to give them the benefit of the doubt and provide sales data. This may build their confidence and they may develop some interest in your offer.
Another scenario is also possible: the buyer may start off low moving up gradually after a bit of negotiation. So, it’s better to respond to each offer that you get while your house is on the market.
If your house has good curb appeal, you may get a lot of offers. Be sure to present each offer fairly. One tactic is to let all the parties know that you have received more than one offer. Ideally, it’s better to let all the parties know that you have got many offers as this may help you get the best price for your house.
In short, if you are going to negotiate the sale of your house, know that the process requires a lot of patience. But if you know the tactics explained in this article, you may find it easier to negotiate effectively with each buyer, thus selling your house for the top dollar.