When are Negotiations Over?

When you buy a house, price negotiations is just the beginnings of negotiations; there are so many more opportunities beyond purchase price. In fact, they go all the way to Closing!

Earlier this summer my buyers found a house and paid top dollar for it. Their inspection revealed it needed a new roof. Seller agreed to file an insurance claim for the hail damage and a new roof was installed. This saved my client thousands of dollars in the cost of a new roof and reduced their cost of insurance as well.

Other buyers also had to pay top dollar to obtain a contract on their house and Sellers negotiated tough at every repair request, refusing to give much. So I gently mentioned three times to their agent that the house may not appraise for contract price but she would not discuss their position if it didn’t appraise. And, it did not appraise at Contract Price, but rather was $6,000 lower. This was what I was waiting for! We stood strong on this, giving up $1,200 in requested repairs to obtain $6,000 lower contract price.

In another case, we went to the final walk-thru day before Closing to make sure everything was still working correctly and found that it was 91o in the house. It was that hot outside! So I call the Listing Agent in hopes someone had stopped in and turned the thermostat up. That wasn’t the case so I contacted Cold Air AC (Richard Murtaugh 972-679-4072) and he was able to get it running again with a quote of $420 for repair. This wasn’t the Buyers’ fault; they didn’t even own the house yet. And, it must be in good working condition on the day of Closing for Home Warranty coverage to apply. As I mentioned, this was not the Buyers fault and it must be working prior to Closing and I was able to get this paid for too.

Negotiations is all about knowing your leverage, what is it that’s most important to your client, to the other party? At what point do you walk away? Sometimes having the right house is more important than the small amount of money you’re negotiating.

Home is where your story begins and once you’re in the home, your story begins anew. The most important thing to negotiate is the house itself, making sure you have the right house in the right neighborhood for you. All other negotiations are just bragging rights.