How a Good Negotiator Should Work

I border on nagging when I advise home sellers to trust only the best negotiators they can find to sell their properties. Studying negotiation is something that most salespeople do not much bother with, as is evidenced by the number of real estate salespeople who have never read a book on the subject.

The real estate industry has a huge ‘turnover rate’ of salespeople. It is among the highest in any industry that employs salespeople. Think about this for a minute: if all of these people were competent, would they have left the industry? Incompetence is the same as not trained.

Time in the industry is does not necessarily denote competence either. An agent that has been in the industry for ten years may have repeated the one mediocre year ten times. Professionals study and grow their skills. Their results should get better with time.

How can you spot a good negotiator?

• He or she should give you an accurate truthful price estimate.
• You and the agent should agree on a first asking price, which should be high enough to guarantee that you do not sell the property too cheaply, but not so high that it ‘scares away’ the best buyers.
• You and the agent should have a Weekly Price Review. If there has been little interest in the property in the past week, you should lower the price for the coming week.

This is what great negotiators recommend – start high and then come down.

• Negotiation with all buyers should be done by way of the Buyers’ Price Declaration. This greatly increases your chance of obtaining the highest price possible.

Good luck with your selection of an agent. I do hope that these hints are of some assistance to you.

Gary Pittard