What's Working Now!

Oftentimes in a negotiation, I’ll get a question from a seller who receives a bad offer. Maybe it’s not high enough or it doesn’t have attractive terms—either way, the seller will ask, “Why bother responding? Let’s just let it go.”

About 30 days ago, I was in this very situation. The property in question was in great condition and we were so excited about its selling potential. We looked at the offer we received, and our eyes popped out of our heads—it was so low!

I tried to convince my client not to pay attention to that and to just keep it alive for the time being. About seven days passed and my client didn’t respond to the offer, so the buyer disappeared.

A couple of weeks later, we received another offer that was a little bit higher than the previous one. Guess what happened then? My client thought and thought about responding, but they just couldn’t do it. So we had a long talk about it where I urged them to keep the negotiations alive; we could counter the offer and attempt to keep the buyer’s interest.

This time, I was able to convince them, and we responded. And we were lucky; the other agent was great. He managed to convince his buyers to bring back a higher offer. Over the period of a few days, I was concerned that the deal was going to fizzle out and die. The other agent and I acted as cheerleaders for our clients, urging them to keep with it.

And it worked! Somehow, we were able to bring the buyer and seller together. Step by step, they kept the negotiations alive.

These kinds of negotiations can be stressful for clients. I think they get so wrapped up in what they want that they become blinded to the steps it will take to make it happen. But these things don’t just happen.

The bottom line is that when you get an offer, you need to respond to it. If you get another response, respond to it again. Keep it alive as long as you can.

If you have any questions about negotiations or about real estate in general, feel free to reach out to me. I’d be glad to help you out.