4 tips to get the best deal on your new home by negotiating for a good price
We are taught from our earliest years, in our introduction to trade, that prices are prices.
Whether you walk into a clothing store, a supermarket, a gas station, or a coffee shop, published prices are usually non-negotiable. Generally speaking, trying to haggle in cases like these won’t get you too far.
This is because the seller has a perfectly functioning business selling the products that he is selling at their quoted prices, so he does not need to entertain the lowballers, when they can sell the product that he is trying to get cheaper, at the lowest price. under. Final price.
But who is the seller of a house? An individual like you, me or any other human being.
It does not matter what corporate aspect a sign in front of the house has, and how many barriers are put between you and the seller, who is a human being, who still ends up having your offer in their hands, despite going through many other people’s hands. in the process. They have no corporate policies to adhere to; how much they will accept is just a matter of how happy it will make them.
When a seller signs a listing agreement, say, for example, for $ 500,000, he is not saying $ 500,000 because he wants $ 500,000. They are saying $ 500,000 because they want their house to be sold, and they understand that a buyer will see $ 500,000 as a reasonable price, which will cause them to make an offer and then the house is sold. Until then, the home is nothing more than “For Sale”, whether it is listed for $ 5 or $ 500,000.
Once the home is on the market for a month or two, they won’t be quite as set at $ 500,000. Because their house is still “for sale” and they want it SOLD!
Here are 4 tactics you can use to get a better price …
1. How many days on the market?
In hot markets, a home will only need a few days, or in some cases hours, to sell. In these cases, you can forget to make a deal, as there is a lot of competition. A lowball offer will simply be ignored.
However, if the home has been on the market for 45 days and no action has been seen, an offer for less than the asking price is better than no offer.
Look at it this way; If you were trying to sell your bike for $ 200 and ran classified ads in the newspaper week after week with no response, which of the two scenarios would you prefer?
a) An offer of $ 100
gold
b) No offer at all
So that means if a home is listed for $ 329,000 and your budget is $ 300,000, your offer for $ 300,000 suddenly won’t look too bad.
Remember, if the home hasn’t sold yet, that means there have been no good deals, or no deals! An offer that works for you could very well be an offer that works for the seller!
2. What else is on the market?
Why is the $ 5 sandwich you can buy at the food court sold at the airport, sports game, or movie theater for $ 12?
Simple, that’s what everyone else is charging! If a place raised its prices to $ 12 at the food court, no one would go there because other establishments in the same food court only charge $ 5.
In the same way that while an ad can swear from top to bottom that this is the “best deal on the market” and “a great bang for your buck” at $ 450,000, if a similar house on the street costs $ 379,000, no one you’re going to offer on that house for the simple reason that the extra $ 71,000 isn’t worth it.
Is this a sign that you should leave as that house is priced too high? Absolutely not!
It is common knowledge that the house at the end of the street is asking only $ 379,000. Bidding for, say, $ 385,000 on the house listed at $ 450,000, and saying in the offer “The house at the end of the street is listed for only $ 379,000. This is my offer.”
If this shows them that your offer is what the market will support, then you have what you want (the house) and they have what they want (sold!).
3. What happens to the house?
Whether there is something wrong with it or not, find something to complain about.
Is the carpet stained? Are those appliances falling apart? Does that unstable handrail bother you? Say something!
It may be one thing if the house is on the market for a long time, or that other houses in the area have a lower price, but it is another thing if there are defects in the house.
Instead of asking the seller to fix them, bid lower with those flaws in mind.
Now, you’re probably thinking, “But I’ll have to pay to repair those things, right?”
Be that as it may, a little ingenuity can get most problems solved fairly inexpensively.
Carpets: Rent a carpet cleaner from your local home improvement store or place a coffee table over larger stains to make them disappear. You may even have planned to replace them anyway to match your furniture!
Accessories: If the appliances are falling apart, they are probably old. Does your city offer incentives for newer and more energy efficient appliances? This could be the perfect opportunity to not only make your shiny new appliances cheaper, but also get them free!
Parapet: If you know someone who is handy, in most cases all it will take is a couple of small fixes to make a handrail stable again. In the worst case, replacing most interior handrails will only cost a few hundred dollars, so it’s not worth letting you get in the way of a decision worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
4. How much should the seller sell?
One of the reasons people use agents to sell their home is to avoid direct contact with the buyer. If the seller has personal circumstances that could affect the amount a buyer could offer, they will want that to not be blatantly obvious.
However, look for clues when you walk around the house. Personal effects can suggest a few things about the circumstances in the seller’s life that could cause him to sell. A brochure from the Tax Agency of Canada on taxes on a retired person is an indicator that someone in the home (probably the owner) is retiring. Well-kept children’s bedrooms that appear uninhabited for some time may tell you that your children have moved to school and that the house is now too big for them.
Also, look for keywords like “motivated seller” in the listings. Remember, they are motivated to to sell – not to receive your sale price. That is secondary. A sale for less is better than no sale for nothing.
