How to negotiate like a professional

Negotiate every offer you receive into a deal with these top tips. 

A good real estate agent is one who negotiates well for both parties. You want both sides to feel that they have made the right decision with the offer on the table. Every offer that you receive will need your negotiation skills to reach an agreement. Negotiating comes with experience, however we have made it easy for you with this simple guide.

1. Keep up communication with both parties.

Regardless of whatever stage of the process it is important to keep communications up with both parties. This keeps them both informed of the situation and engaged as to how hard you are working for them. Even if your enquiry has not offered but you have a feeling that they might do, let your client know in case he has interest from another party unrelated to you. This also shows how proactive you. Likewise, if your client has other viewings lined up be sure to let your enquiry know so that they don’t lose out. This will also speed up the negotiating process.

2. Provide a market update.

Both parties need to know exactly what is going on in the market in order to make an informed decision. It is your job to tell them what is happening. How active the market is, whether people are making offers on or below asking price, and how serious enquiries are being. Provide this market update to both parties in order to gauge how realistic their expectations are. If an owner is insisting that they want an asking price offer but 90 percent of deals are getting agreed at 15 percent lower than the marketing value, then pass this information on. This is how you manage their expectations to quickly close the offer.

3. Gather comparable evidence.

One concrete way to prove the state of the market is to provide comparable evidence. This is no better testament as to what is happening in the market. It is particularly helpful if you can get these for units in the building or a similar units. It is your job to get both parties to come to an agreement that they are both happy with so providing comparable evidence will prove the strength or weakness of an offer.

4. Do the maths.

It is easy to look at an offer at face value. It is likely that a low offer will quickly be discounted if you do not back up why a low offer has been made. For example, if a tenant has offered lower than asking price but can move in immediately do some sums. Calculate the difference in rent over the term of the tenancy for the lower offer versus a full asking price offer. Then with this amount see how many weeks rent this would equate to at the full asking price. It is likely that it will not to add up to that many weeks. So you need to ask your client if they are willing to accept a lower rent versus risk leaving their property empty until they receive another offer. Your client may be surprised at the result particularly if it means that they no longer have to keep shelling out for their mortgage.