{"id":45,"date":"2018-07-11T19:50:20","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T19:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/agent-resources\/?p=45"},"modified":"2018-10-18T04:20:26","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T04:20:26","slug":"8-ways-to-be-an-amazing-negotiator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/agent-resources\/8-ways-to-be-an-amazing-negotiator\/","title":{"rendered":"8 ways to be an Amazing Negotiator"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>You have to be armed with a pretty diverse skills set in order to be successful as a real estate agent. Not only must you be highly knowledgeable about your local market and its current trends, but you also need to be able to effectively communicate the buying and selling process to your clients.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>These skills, however, are just the beginning. When selling a home, you need to be an expert marketer, able to make your listing stand out from the competition. When working with buyers, you need to be quick to react to hot new listings. And no matter which side of the deal you\u2019re on, you need to be an amazing negotiator.<\/div>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h4><strong>The Importance of Strong Negotiation Skills<\/strong><\/h4>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Nearly everyone negotiates in one capacity or another during the course of their regular, everyday lives. Whether it\u2019s negotiating with your significant other over where to go for dinner, or allowing your kids some extra time on computer for completing their homework first, you negotiate all of the time \u2013 probably without even realizing it.<\/div>\n<div>But when it comes to the being an effective real estate negotiator, these casual interactions aren\u2019t enough experience to get you by.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>According to successful broker and popular blogger Sean Carpenter, \u201cNegotiating isn\u2019t easy to learn. The North American culture doesn\u2019t exactly support the idea compared to many of the other world cultures. Yet in an industry like real estate, the ability to negotiate is an important skill and one that many Buyers and Sellers count on and expect from their agents.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>According to research from the National Association of Realtors, 12% of all buyers consider negotiation skills at the top of the list of services they\u2019re looking for from a real estate agent. If you don\u2019t have the skills to properly negotiate on behalf of your clients, you\u2019re not providing them with the level of service that they deserve. Over time, this can damage your reputation and make it difficult to grow your business.<\/div>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<p><strong>Negotiate on More than Just the Price<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>Too frequently, buyers, sellers, and real estate professionals alike all get so caught up on negotiating a property\u2019s sale price that they forget that there are plenty of other terms that they can negotiate on. According to the time-tested real estate adage, everything is negotiable.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>While a good deal ultimately boils down to dollars and cents, it\u2019s not the only thing you should be focusing on. Some other sections of a contract that you can negotiate include:<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Money Deposit \u2013 Most areas have set standards for how much an money deposit should be. Contracts with a larger-than-normal money deposit provide extra security for the seller and show a greater level of commitment from the buyer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Major Milestones \u2013 There are a number of different major milestones throughout the buying and selling process. From the length of the inspection period to the date that the buyer must have firm financing in place, these milestones give both buyers and sellers room to negotiate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Which Items Convey \u2013 In most cases, fixtures \u2013 items that are permanently attached to a home \u2013 convey from one owner to the next. This includes things like ceiling fans, custom blinds, and hard-wired security systems. Other personal property, things such as kitchen and laundry appliances, is generally not included, but can be a great negotiation point from either end of the deal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Seller Concessions \u2013 In certain situations, seller concessions are a great way to negotiate agreeable terms without reducing the total purchase price. This is especially true when buyers are looking for creative ways to cover closing or renovation costs because it gives them cash back at the closing table without shortchanging the seller.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Closing Date \u2013 With real estate, time is of the essence. Most sellers, whether they\u2019re owner-occupants or investors, want to close as quickly as possible. In a sellers\u2019 market, offering a close closing date is a great trick to give buyers a leg up on the other offers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Strategies for Becoming an Amazing Negotiator<\/strong><\/h4>\n<div>Improving your negotiation skills takes more than just knowing which areas of a contract you can bargain with. It also requires that you implement a variety of different strategies and techniques that will aid during the negotiation process.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>1. Understand the Market<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>When negotiating a real estate deal, few factors will have more of an impact on your strategy than the current market conditions. In a seller\u2019s market, the optimal negotiating techniques may be vastly different than the ones you\u2019d want to use in a buyer\u2019s market. For example, in a seller\u2019s market, homeowners can be much more aggressive with their counteroffers than when buyers have plenty of other options to choose from.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>2. Research the Other Party<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Perhaps the second (or maybe even the first) most important way to improve negotiations is to do your research on the other party. Do they need to buy or sell right away? Have they been looking or had their home on the market for a while? How much can they afford to pay or how much do they need to net from their home\u2019s sale?<\/div>\n<div>No matter whether you\u2019re representing the buyer or the seller, knowing the other party\u2019s motivation can give you the leverage you need to negotiate the best deal possible.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>3. Always Make a Counteroffer<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>One common mistake that sellers make \u2013 and their agents let them \u2013 is to simple ignore or decline offers from buyers that aren\u2019t quite what they\u2019re looking for. Anytime that an offer comes in for one of your listings, even if you know your sellers won\u2019t accept it, encourage them to make a counteroffer that\u2019s more in line with their goals. At worst, you and your sellers have wasted a few minutes of time. But if you\u2019re lucky, you may wind up pleasantly with an accepted contract.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>4. Position Your Clients for Success<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>When you\u2019re working with buyers \u2013 especially in a competitive seller\u2019s market \u2013 you need to be positioning them for success from the very beginning. This can include things like making sure they\u2019ve been pre-approved for a loan, relaying new listings to them immediately, and even including a photograph and hand-written letter from them with each of their offers. The stronger your client\u2019s position, the more likely you are to come out ahead in negotiations.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>5. Use Factual Evidence to Support Your Side<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>When trying to negotiate the specifics of a real estate deal, make sure that you\u2019re using solid factual evidence to support your side. For example, if you\u2019re representing a buyer that\u2019s trying to get a seller to offer a credit for repairs, don\u2019t just putting down arbitrary an arbitrary estimate of cost. Instead, include an actual quote from an experienced contractor or local vendor.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>6. Don\u2019t Draw Things Out<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>While you should always be trying to negotiate the best deal for your clients, you need to make sure that you\u2019re doing so as quickly as possible. Avoid negotiating separate points individually \u2013 a practice which requires a lot of back-and-forth communication. For sellers, spending too much time negotiating means pushing closing back further and further. With buyers, drawing out the negotiating process gives other interested parties a chance to swoop in and snatch up the opportunity.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>7. Don\u2019t Make It Personal<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>For real estate agents who are truly passionate about what they do, it\u2019s easy to let negotiations become personal. You want to deliver the best results to your clients, and you\u2019re set on doing whatever it takes to make that happen. But sometimes, being so personally vested in winning can let emotions make their way to the bargaining table \u2013 so much so that your clients miss out on the perfect opportunity over basically insignificant details.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>8. Be Honest with Your Clients<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Negotiation isn\u2019t about getting everything you want. When you\u2019re negotiating, you\u2019re trying to bridge the gap between two separate parties and allow everyone to walk away feeling satisfied with their end of the deal. If you\u2019re building up unrealistic expectations by encouraging your clients to stand firm and be unwilling to budge, you\u2019re not actually negotiating at all \u2013 you\u2019re making demands.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong>Improve Your Negotiation Skills and Upgrade Your Business<\/strong><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>By working to improve your negotiation techniques, you\u2019re not just preparing yourself to better serve your clients \u2013 you\u2019re also equipping yourself with the skills you\u2019ll need to expand and grow your real estate business.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In today\u2019s digitally connected world, word of mouth spreads faster than ever, whether through popular social media platforms or via Agent review sites. As a real estate professional, this uninhibited sharing of information is great news when you\u2019re keeping your buyers and sellers happy, but potentially damaging if your negotiation skills aren\u2019t up to par.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Learning how to be an amazing negotiator is not a one-time process. Instead, it\u2019s a skill that you should always be working on and looking for new ways to enhance your effectiveness and technique. By staying committed to improving your negotiation skills, you\u2019re also committing to improving your personal brand, reputation, and future.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You have to be armed with a pretty diverse skills set in order to be successful as a real estate agent. Not only must you be highly knowledgeable about your local market and its current trends, but you also need to be able to effectively communicate the buying and selling process to your clients. These skills, however, are just the beginning. When selling a home, you need to be an expert marketer, able to make your listing stand out from the competition. When working with buyers, you need to be quick to react to hot new listings. And no matter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[32,22,33],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learning-centre","tag-negotiation","tag-real-estate","tag-tips","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/agent-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/agent-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/agent-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/agent-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/agent-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/agent-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/agent-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/64"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/agent-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/agent-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/agent-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/agent-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}