Ultimately anything can happen in real estate. Even the best instincts and prepartion can leave you unprepared for the unexpected.
As a buyer in Edmonton today you are pretty much in the driver’s seat unless the seller has marketed their property and priced it extremely well. For the most part that can be a pretty confident place to negotiate from if you are a buyer.
Low and behold things are not always as they seem. A few times this past year we’ve had buyers tried to renogotiate with our sellers over some pretty petty stuff and for the deal to go together someone has to suck it up. In recent history the buyers had to suck it up or the sellers sold to someone else. Now more often than not it’s the sellers taking care of those petty little items.
One exception can be where the sellers actually hope the deal comes unglued. In two such cases we had second buyer ready, willing and excited to buy our property. In one such case an overconfident buyer/buyer’s agent assumed we’d be their whipping post. We kept reaffirming to them that the deal was fair but to no avail. On our side we were hoping they would get lost so we could sell to the second buyer. Well they huffed and they puffed. “You’re going to lose this deal”, yada yada, I think you get the gist.
The point is, if someone isn’t willing to budge, there may be a good reason for it – don’t just assume they are stubborn.
The trick to negotiating for me has always been my willingness to walk away from a deal. Especially with downward pressure on prices in the market, I will most likely save money by continuing to wait.
This post kind of reads like “buy now or you’ll be priced out of the market”. With 10,000 homes for sale, buyers have options. It’s foolish to let emotions decide your purchase. Whether it’s trying to haggle another 5000 off of the asking price even though you can afford the home, or paying too much for fear of another buyer out bidding you.
nate did you say 10,000, theres another 3,000 on comfree
Regardless of the number of listings. A seller is not competing with 13000 listings.
Depending on circumstance the seller may have none or very little competition.
Not every situation is text book.
p.s. This is not a buy now piece. That’s not my style but some people will read into whatever I say based on their own perspectives.
What I mean is that both parties are in the drivers seat. Unless someone HAS to sell in order to avoid financial ruin or the buyer will lose their job if they don’t relocate and find a home for their family.
Otherwise both parties have the power to walk away from the deal. If you haggle until someone else comes in and buys the house, you clearly weren’t that desperate to purchase in the first place. There are a lot of other options out there like building a new home or renting.
The bottom line is: Know what you consider “fair market value” for the property you are trying to buy or sell. That assumes you have done your homework, and/or you trust your agent.
If the deal seems to come together close to that fair market value and you REALLY want to buy or sell that property, haggling for the last little bit seems to be more about bragging rights and might not be worth losing the deal altogether.