How to Negotiate as a Home Buyer

Northeast Florida Real Estate Tips for Buyers and Sellers by Chris Snow

As a home buyer, there are a few things you can do when you make an offer to get the price that you want. I will go over my top three tips today.

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When you make an offer on a home, there are a few tricks you can use to get the price that you want.

First of all, put a face with the offer. In real estate, things can get very cut and dry sometimes, and people forget about the human element. In order to put a face with the offer, I recommend writing a letter to the seller explaining who you are, what your situation is, how many people are in your family, and what you love about the house.

There should be an emotional connection between you and the home and between you and the seller. The more the seller knows about you, the better off your offer will be. While considering your offer, the seller will see you as a human being rather than just focusing on the number that is being presented.

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Establish an emotional connection
with the seller.

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My second tip is to make sure you write a clean offer to the seller. Make sure to dot your i’s and cross your t’s. The last thing we want is an error in the contract that we have to go back and scratch out or initial. We don’t want to give the seller any reason to pause when looking at your offer.

The cleaner your offer is, the easier we make it for the seller to sign off on it and send it back to us. Remember, time is of the essence in real estate. Any delay gives someone else the opportunity to sneak in and make a competing offer on the home.

Finally, make sure you detail the credentials of the buyer’s agent that you are working with. Listing agents often receive offers from buyer’s agents that are part-time or inexperienced, which creates more work for the listing agent. Make sure that your buyer’s agent has a lot of experience and writes many offers, and let the listing agent know that’s the case. That way, they know your agent will make the transaction as easy as possible and will do their fair share of work to get everyone to the closing table on time.

If you follow these tips, your offer is sure to stand out. If you have any other questions about buying a home or about real estate in general, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!