Telegraphing Tepid Interest From Buyers Through the grapevine, I heard about a colleague who is currently representing a Buyer in a condo deal where almost half of the Seller’s Disclosure is either incomplete or filled out incorrectly. Besides slowing down the deal, the Seller is unwittingly telegraphing another message to Buyers — one that isn’t...Read More
Knowing (Maybe) What the Buyer Can Afford: How Relevant for Sellers? As a listing agent (representing Sellers), one of the lamer Buyer pitches you occasionally hear is some variant of the following: “I know the house is listed at (and worth close to) $500k, but I can only afford $400k . . . so that’s...Read More
Negotiating 101 Here’s a thought: your negotiating leverage is only as good as your “or else.” As in, “if you don’t accept my last offer, I’m going to . . . ” Or, “if $3,000 towards your list of repairs isn’t sufficient, I’m going to . . .” Two Scenarios At one extreme, if your...Read More
Negotiating 101 I don’t play poker (or do international diplomacy), but my day job — selling residential real estate — does involve a fair amount of negotiating. So, I think I can say with some confidence that good negotiators don’t usually announce, “I don’t bluff,” as President Obama reportedly just said about dealing with Iran’s...Read More
The Many Forms of Showing Feedback How interested is a prospective Buyer in a given home? It’s not exactly high tech, but the best measurement tool I’ve come up with in almost a decade selling real estate is . . . a stopwatch. So, the longer a prospective Buyer lingers in a particular home, the...Read More
Firmer Lines in the Sand? “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” –“Cool Hand Luke” A couple years ago, when you heard a Buyer’s agent characterize their client’s position as “final,” it almost never was. Today, it seems like the opposite is more common, i.e., Buyers’ agents — especially agents representing first-time Buyers...Read More
