Home Sellers: Be Prepared To Negotiate

In the calmer market that has taken hold, brokers for sellers and buyers say that negotiation is slowly creeping back into the equation.

“We’re certainly not where we were in the irrational, exuberant days,” said JoAnne Kennedy, the chief operating officer of Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy.

“Sellers have become more realistic, and buyers are finding they have more time to select, and they can make an offer that’s not asking price, and it will be considered.”

There are a number of factors that can be part of a negotiation, including the buyer’s qualifications, a mortgage contingency, flexibility on a closing date, a leasing arrangement if the seller cannot move right away, and the furnishings and appliances that stay with the apartment.

Ms. Kennedy said that sellers are often happy to get any bid, but a buyer who submits a very low offer and then engages a seller in several rounds of counteroffers risks losing the apartment.

After apartment hunting for about a year and learning the hard way that their dream two-bedroom for less than $600,000 just did not exist, the Barons shifted their sights and looked at an Upper West Side apartment on the market for $799,000. They decided to make an offer of $725,000, a discount of about 9 percent, even though Ms. Kruglova tried to coax them higher.

“I told them, ‘If you start there, you will never finish it,’” Ms. Kruglova said.

So the sellers countered with $760,000, but the Barons refused to go any higher.

“Then the sellers got offended and stopped talking to us,” Mr. Baron recalled.

With the seller’s demand for a final bid in hand, she persuaded the Barons to raise their bid to $750,000, about 6 percent off the asking price, and they got the apartment. (Read More)

Source: NY Times

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