[quote=urbanrealtor]
Again, not to be dense but there are only a few strategies to get people to come down in price. [/quote]
We might be arguing over what we mean by strategies, but in negotiations, there are often a number of strategies that can be used. First and foremost, try to find out what is important to the seller. Price might not be the only thing. They might be strongly in need of a short escrow, or maybe that doesn’t matter much. Maybe they want no fix ups, or contingencies. Finding out what they want and trying to trade those items for a lower price is always a first step.
Second, if you want to drive a low price you need to think about how low you want to go in at. If you go too low, you can insult them, not go low enough and you won’t get as good a deal as you might have. Trying to get a sense of how motivated they are can be helpful. Another consideration on this path, is how long to let the offer stand. I made an offer years ago, just when the market was starting to have bidding wars, that was good for only 2 hours. It was a good offer, but it didn’t allow the sellers time to get other offers to compare. They had to take mine or know that I might be gone. (They took it btw and the sale went through)
A third thing that comes to mind whenever negotiating is to show some of your cards to build trust and rapport. But which cards? Therein lies the strategy.
A fourth technique used in business negotiations, is to try and establish multiple fronts. Good cop/Bad cop being the most well known one. But there are other ways to set up multiple fronts.
Another thing that I’ve seen done is for the offer to be “presented”. In this case, the offer was not merely faxed from one agent to the other. The buyer’s agent put together a variety of printouts, comps, market overview, and then details of the offer and asked to make a presentation to the sellers themselves, (with the seller’s agent present) Think of it as a marketing presentation. While this might not always be that helpful, in a market with lots of offers it helps to distinguish your offer. (Maybe not relevant now, but would have been several years ago)
Okay, so those are just a few strategies that come off the top of my head spur of the moment. There are more to be sure. And each negotiation presents and opportunity to develop its own strategies.
The tough part here is that most agents aren’t familiar enough with negotiation techniques, and are afraid of them. Consequently, they do everything they can to keep you from sellers and to let you know nothing for fear of giving you some kind of advantage that you will manipulate them with. It’s too bad, because while there is some info that should be kept confidential or close to the chest, there is other info that when shared can help a seller get an offer that is more attractive to them. I guess my experience (albeit mostly non-real estate business negotiations) has shown me that the best deals involve a good bit of strategy and a good bit of information sharing.
So, sorry, but I disagree. There is lots to negotiating, and despite the reluctance of agents to allow negotiating, there are definitely strategies that can and should be employed in any negotiation. And in my book, any buyer’s agent who thinks the only strategy is to make a full price offer and hope they’ll accept it isn’t doing their job.
Just my two cents though,
XBoxBoy
ps. not aware of any of the REO formula strategies you mention so can’t comment on them.
