Employ a Strong Negotiator

Negotiation

It's so important.
So so important.
Too important to overlook.

It can mean the difference between selling and not selling and the difference between gaining or losing thousands of dollars.

When we choose real estate agents we sometimes forget why we should be picking one over the other. We can get wrapped up in cheap commissions, flashy presentations or the fact that he seems like a "good bloke".

Alot of the time we don't even stop to consider how good the agents we talk to are at negotiating.

Watch your agent negotiate with you when they're trying to convince you to list your home for sale with them. Sure, most agents offer the same stuff but only a few can negotiate well.

For example: is an agent who has the lowest commission really negotiating with you? Initially you may say yes because their fee is lowest, but look at it a bit closer.
The cheapest agent isn't really negotiating with you on fees... they are just buying you with the lowest fee because they're frightened of confrontation. They don't want the hassle of negotiating for your business, they just want your listing.

Do you really want an agent who is too timid to negotiate with you? At the very least you know that if they can't negotiate with you on fees there's no way on earth they're going to negotiate with any buyers who come to see your home.
The most frightening thing is that if one of their buyers does put in a low-ball offer the agent isn't really going to try too hard to negotiate on getting them up are they. Hell, they didn't even try very hard to negotiate their own fee with you.

If the cheapest agent in town doesn't fight hard for his/her own money what chance do you think you have of them fighting hard for yours??? Somewhere between buckleys and none I'd say.

Make sure you employ a skilled negotiator. Sure, they may cost a little more but they'll save you in the end on the sale price. And you never know, you may even be able to negotiate a deal on the fee anyway.

There's a couple of old sayings out there that illustrate this messasge beautifully:

"Pay peanuts, get monkeys" or the classic "You get what you pay for"


For real estate advice - Halliwell First National real Estate

Alan Halliwell - Director