Quick Tip: Two Negotiation Strategies for Tough Sellers

Recently a coaching student come to me and had a question about negotiation because they had a really good cash offer on a higher tier property. They knew the seller wasn't going to be excited necessarily about the offer because it was less than full price.

Here were my two quick strategies:

First look and see how many homes have gone pending in your listings price range last month, it turns out in her case out only four had done so because of the price point. My suggestion was to point that out to the seller, for instance she could say:

"Listen in the entire MLS only four properties in your price range went pending last month. So this is a great opportunity! Very few sellers are even receiving offers - its' great news that we received an offer!"

Second look at the average price that people are receiving in your market - list price vs sales price -- in her case that number was 94.9%. The good news - the offer she received was 95.7% of list price. My suggestion was to point out the seller by saying something like:

"Good news you are beating the competition! Sellers on average are selling for 94.9% of list price in your price band - we got an offer way above that at 95.7%!"

By using these two techniques the seller became more flexible and she was able to put the transaction together, in addition they seller is now a buyer who will soon be purchasing another high end home in the market.