Submitting your offer for the property for the first time.
Some work should be done before you start the price negotiation. First of all, ignore the asking, that’s probably a wild-ass guess anyway compared to what you and your trusted Buyers Agent can tell you. Ask your Buyers Agent to pull up ALL the sold units in the area whether they compare or not. From this list you can start to take some averages to establish the fair market value of the property.
Don’t believe anyone, go back to the numbers.
After your initial offer, maybe you get a yes but if you don’t maybe you get a counter offer. In either case its time to go back to the numbers. Keep in mind that after that first offer and counter, everyone has an “opinion” as well as an agenda. The listing agent thinks one price, the seller another. If I add our side, that’s 4 opinions. Throw them all out and come back to the sold units.
Come Back To The Numbers
This is where you find objectivity and no one has to be wrong.
During a negotiation egos start to get involved and no one wants to be “wrong” and by simply scrutinizing numbers we shouldn’t make anyone wrong. Mission critical here is not that you get the property but that you get it without overpaying.
If you take more averages you and your Buyers Agent can come at the valuation in a few different ways. Every time you do this during a negotiation you and the seller get a clearer idea of what the property is worth.
Numbers Dont Lie
Personal opinion and conjecture disappear in the face of quantitative analysis.
After you have all the solds in the neighborhood, you and your Buyers Agent can find at least 3 different ways to take meaningful averages from these. Each time you do you are automatically reassured because you have seen enough price points to intuitively know what the property is really worth.
You may or may not get agreement on price and terms but you will be assured that you will not overpay for the property. As hard as it is to see that “perfect” property go, at least you won’t spend the next 5 years trying to figure out how to get your money back out of the property.
Written By RE/MAX Destiny Accredited Buyers Agent Jeff Persons 617.512.3443
Your comments will be appreciated!
More reading by Jeff Persons ABR:
How to Get the Lowest Prices on Real Estate by Buying in the Winter
What is the Stock Market Telling Us About the Real Estate Market?
Free Real Estate Commissions! Sound Too Good To Be True? It Is.
Buying Boston Real Estate Without a Buyers Agent is Like Going Into Court Without An Attorney
Return To WeSellBoston.Net
Negotiating The Price of Your Boston Home – Stick To The Numbers
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