Negotiating - and the Ugly!

The Ugly surely has to be the Closing Date!

Sometimes you think that you are on to a winner with a one to one negotiation with the seller only for some clown to come in with another note of interest. Terribly infuriating when the estate agent comes back to say that they will now go to a Closing Date to give everyone a fair chance - estate agent speak for hitting the jackpot as the only person to win out of this scenario is the seller and by implication the agent who will get a better fee as final offers are likely to be based on the Home Report values and not the personal circumstances of the seller.

Negotiating is all about getting as much information about the personal circumstances of the seller. This is the life blood of any good negotiation. The more information that you can glean from a seller the better insight you will get as to their reasons for selling. This information comes not necessarily from the seller but many's a time from the estate agent themselves as they give crucial information about their client. It pays to listen and let the estate agent do the talking. I always try enforced silence and get the agent to fill in the silence. No-one likes dead air but when you are controlling the conversation for your own end it's alot easier.

Once a Closing Date has been set then that is the end of the negotiation. It does not however mean that it is the end of the information gathering process. Even at a Closing Date, the more information we can get about the seller's circumstances and more importantly the competition then the better that I can advise my clients.

So as ever it is all about using your listening ears as your nursery teacher always told you to do!