Selling your home is probably more work than you ever could’ve imagined.
It starts from the jump. As soon as you decide to list, there are so many things that you have to get sorted, from hiring a home stager to finding a realtor that you believe in. There’s no rest for the wicked and if you expect to get anywhere near the asking price for your house, you have to be prepared to work for it.
Part of that work includes negotiating a selling price for your home. Once you start holding open houses and fielding offers from prospective buyers, you’ll realize that negotiating is a huge part of this process. Today, we’re going to give you 6 negotiation tips so you can get the best price possible for your home.
The more realistic you are about your home’s worth, the faster this whole thing will go. It’s time to buckle down and sell that house.
1. Don’t Get Too Emotional
First, it’s really important to understand that this is a two-way process. Of course, you want to get the best price possible for your home, but be empathetic to the fact that buyers are going to try and get the best deal on your house. Unless you’re in a dream scenario, you’re going to have lowball offers, so you’re going to have to negotiate.
Being stubborn about the house price isn’t likely to get you anywhere. Remember, the longer your house is on the market, the less appealing it is to buyers, and the more likely you’ll be forced to lower your listing price anyway.
So, if you’re going to set the best price for your home, you need to have a good agent that can fill you in on the details of the housing market you’ve found yourself in.
2. Know Your Market
For most, the topic of the housing market is a mundane one. However, an understanding of it is crucial to setting an appropriate price for your home. It’s advisable to hire an experienced agent to lend you their expertise on the market and give you a hand with pricing the home.
The majority of sellers get wrapped up in the numbers that have directly affected them. They look at how much they purchased their home for and how much money they’ve put into the home to determine the selling price which they should set the house at.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the value of your home is mostly dictated by the state of the market. There are plenty of benefits of selling your house in a seller’s market, but it’s important to do your research.
If you’ve owned your house for a long time, for example, you’ll likely be selling for significantly more than you bought. In some places, the housing market will have shrunk due to numerous possible causes, so you can’t expect to get something far above market price.
3. Create a Bidding War
The key to winning in negotiation is creating the sense that your house is in high demand. If buyers believe that they’re in competition with each other, then you’re more likely to be able to drive up the price of the house. So, how do you do this?
Using your open house as your main tool for meeting prospective buyers, you can create a sense of competition by refusing to field any offers until after the open house. The fear of the unknown will help instill a sense of urgency in the buyers and you may get higher offers as a result.
Even if you’ve only gotten one offer, you’ve got a psychological advantage because the buyer doesn’t know that.
4. Expiration Date on Your Counter Offer
Fostering this sense of competition, you can really start to utilize negotiation tactics to your advantage. For instance, when you get an offer from someone, you’d typically go through a back and forth where you counteroffer, wait for their subsequent counteroffer, and so on. Instead of doing that, display your confidence by putting an expiration date on your initial counteroffer.
To do this properly, you’ve got to have a bottom-line price that you and your realtor know that you won’t go under and a price that’s lower than your listing price but still acceptable for you. When you give the buyer this counteroffer with a deadline, you’re putting the pressure on them. If the pressure is on, they’re far more likely to make a snap decision.
5. Pay for Closing Costs
Another good negotiation tactic is offering to pay for the closing costs on the house in return for a higher offer on the house. Closing costs are expensive and a bit of a hassle to have to pay after you’ve bought a house. Most buyers expect the seller to pay for these, but you’re not obligated to.
By giving the buyer the cash that they need to settle the closing costs, you’re helping them out while securing the sale of your home. Although coming up with closing cost money is difficult, it’s not difficult for them to borrow a bit more from their lender to pay a higher price on the house.
6. Playing Hardball
Sometimes you’ve got to play hardball with buyers if you’re going to get the right price for your house. You can go back and forth with counteroffers for ages without getting anywhere, which can be mentally taxing for everyone involved. If you want to get a bit edgier, you can start rejecting the proposals that you don’t like with no counteroffer.
By refusing to negotiate altogether, you’re leaving the buyers to think about whether or not they really want the house. If they do and they can afford it, they’ll likely come back up to your listing price. Of course, you have to be confident in the market and the quality of your home to do things this way.
The Best Areas In NYC For Property Selling
According to an NYC real estate report, it takes a while to sell apartments in Manhattan, NYC these days. In Queens and Brooklyn, properties clear in about half the time. It’s a different story when talking about real estate in the outer boroughs. The median marketing time in the Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn was 57 days, whereas Borough Park properties were listed for 61 days.
The Sunnyside neighborhood in Queens saw houses clear the market in 63 days. Across the boroughs, Woodhaven had the fastest rate with 47 days. But is it possible to sell your house faster than these projected data? Well, it is if you sell your house as-is to home-buying companies like Leave The Key Homebuyers. These companies are direct buyers that can offer you a price in as fast as 24 hours.
NEGOTIATING A SELLING PRICE TO GET YOUR HOUSE SOLD FAST
If you’re planning to move across the country or interstate, whether you’re rushing or not, it’s important to negotiate when selling your old house. Don’t hesitate to ask questions from cash investors and keep in mind the best selling points of your property. If you’re planning to list your property or hire a real estate agent, make sure to be active during the negotiation process.
If you can gain a good understanding of how negotiating a selling price for your house should go, then you can sell your house fast and for a good price. Use these tactics and don’t forget to put yourself in the buyer’s shoes and you’ll be out of your house in no time.
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