Tips for Negotiating a Real Estate Transaction
Whether you’re buying or selling a San Antonio home, negotiating is one of the most critical and difficult tasks that must be done well to ensure a successful transaction.
Choosing to hire a professional is one way that you can reduce your stress when buying or selling your home. As experienced REALTORs®, we have over 30 years of experience negotiating contracts and we can act as third party negotiators to eliminate emotional barriers to success. The following tips will help you during the negotiation process.
Tips For The Seller
1. Price Your Home Right the First Time. San Antonio is a quickly growing and thriving community and considered a buyer’s market. If you are selling your home in San Antonio, remember that there will, most likely, be stiff competition. You will be competing with other homes for sale in your area. New home sales are another source of competition – and builders often offer all sorts of concessions, upgrades and discounts.
Take the emotion out of the price you ask for your home initially and be realistic about your expectations. An over-priced home attracts very low offers, and puts you in a difficult negotiating position.
2. Be Prepared for Low Offers. Do not take it personally if a buyer makes a low offer. Many buyers shop over their price range with the intention of making a low offer. Sometimes they are willing to come up on the price, but always counter back with a realistic number.
3. Be Prepared for Buyers Asking for Concessions. You can expect that a buyer will try to negotiate the price in addition to concessions such closing costs, repairs, improvements, or home service plans. Expect things like this to be included when closing on the sale of your home.
Tips For The Buyer
1. Identify the Market Value of the Home. Before anything else is done, make sure you know the market value of the home you are interested in. Don’t make assumptions based on bad information. For example, the tax-appraised value of a home is usually much less than the home is actually worth. And, it is never wise to base your offer on Internet sites that offer an instant “comparative market analysis”. Those sites usually use tax information to get their results.
The only accurate way to identify market value is to have your REALTOR® do a complete Comparative Market Analysis, or CMA, using information such as the selling price for homes in your area that have recently sold, the average number of days homes are on the market before they are sold, etc.
2. Make Realistic Offers. When buying a San Antonio home, don’t make the mistake of making an extremely low offer. You might think you can negotiate a middle ground, but it rarely works that way. If you make an offer that is more than 10% below the asking price, the seller may be insulted or think that you don’t have the resources to purchase their home. Either way, the seller often will not negotiate with you.
3. Always Get An Option Period. You need adequate time to get inspections and to respond back to the seller if something is wrong with the house. Make sure you get the time you need with an Option Period. An option period is guaranteed by a small fee, usually around $100, that you pay to the seller for the unconditional right to cancel the contract within a predetermined amount of time. The time specified usually ranges from 7-10 days.
4. Get Pre-Approved for a Mortgage. When you have a mortgage pre-approval, it signals to the seller that you are serious and that you have the resources to purchase the home. This greatly enhances your negotiating position.
5. Remember San Antonio’s Buyer’s Real Estate Market. This is a buyer’s market, which means that there are many more homes on the market for sale than there are people to buy them. This will give you a good amount of negotiating strength. If your reasonable offer has been countered or rejected by the seller, be firm. Chances are they have been trying to sell their home for a few months. They may change their mind if they know that the buyer won’t budge. And if they don’t come around, well there are plenty of other available homes to choose from!
Buying or Selling In San Antonio?
If you are buying or selling a home in San Antonio, let us help you. We have the real estate experience, local knowledge and negotiating skills to make sure you don’t pay too much if you’re buying, or settle for too little if you’re selling. Call us at 210-787-1134 or use the form below to send an email.
The Estela Haese Team
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