The Key to Negotiations

We’ve worked with a few buyers recently who want to test a seller’s resolve via the negotiations process. Sounds normal, right? The issue is that we’re seeing many buyers not willing to take the process to its conclusion. They begin bidding, receive one or two counters and then stop and pull out altogether, assuming that the seller will never accept their final offer. What’s the point of that?

You will never know what that seller will actually accept for the apartment until you get to the tail end of the process. (The same goes for sellers, by the way: don’t assume a buyer won’t accept a price that’s reasonable to you based on their starting offer or their negotiations strategy.) That’s why it’s called the art of negotiation, is it not? Because it’s not as straightforward as splitting it down the middle.

The key to negotiations is to keep both parties talking. Once a line is drawn in the sand egos get involved and nothing good cam come of it.