The art of negotiation - a real life story…..

I recently represented a buyer on the purchase of a property in a nearby local community.

This property had been on the market for some time and my buyers' intitial offer was significantly below list price.

When I arrived at the listing agent's office, I was told that another offer had just come in.

I called my clients and we increased our offer slightly.

After I presented the revised offer, I was excused from the conference room and waited for the seller and his agent to discuss the offers. The listing agent came out and said "the other offer is higher but we have concerns about this buyers' ability to perform financially - if your client will match the price, we will sell it to your client".

I called my client and we decided to stick to our guns and not increase the price and to remain at our offer price.

I informed seller and listing agent.

After about an hour, I got another call from the seller agent and he told me seller would take even less from my buyer than the other buyer offered.

I discussed this with my client and my client agreed to raise their offer to the price suggested by seller agent - still below the other offer - and my client's offer was accepted - at the price we decided going into the negotiation was going to be their top offer.

My clients are very happy with the purchase and felt they made a good buy.

By handling the negotiations properly and by knowing the realities of the current market - all gained after 31 years in the local real estate market, my client was able to make a very good buy at the price they wanted to pay BELOW another competing offer.