March Real Estate Madness part I

I am asked often by potential clients how we negotiate the Offer to Purchase on their behalf.  The question is typically asked as we are getting to know one another over a cup of coffee.  This very question was raised in three potential client meetings this week.  I use this “coffee time” as an informal means to listen to the prospective clients housing wants, needs and goals and answer their real estate related questions.

Because Homebuyer Associates approaches home buying differently than traditional real estate companies – we only work for one side of the transaction – the buyer.  It is natural for people interested in our unique services to want to know a little something about how we do things.

It’s March.  That means basketball to many.  While bicycling outside on one of our recent balmy Wisconsin days, I thought about basketball and real estate.  For me, my style of negotiating is similar to my style of play when I played college basketball as well as my coaching style.  (I played only briefly and then suffered a knee injury.  Lest anyone think otherwise, what I learned during my brief playing career was how good I wasn’t.)

So how is my negotiating style similar to basketball?  Most coaches I know coach a particular way and we will win or lose that “particular way.”  My approach is to pose the question, how must I play in order to win no matter what style I play?   In real estate I use the same approach as my negotiating starting point.

People call someone “coach” and then all involved think of the person as a “coach.”  That may not be the case.  There are good, bad and average coaches all with the name “coach” attached to their names.

To be a good coach you have to know the game, be able to teach the game, be able to coach the game (they are different) and be able to mentor/motivate.  If you lack one of these four attributes you are less of a coach.  The same can be said of real estate agents (and probably all professions).

To be successful in real estate negotiation you have to know real estate and teach/explain the concept of value and the good and bad about the home.  You then have to be able to take the information at hand and negotiate (coach) for the benefit of the client.  And finally you have to mentor them in the art of the counter offer or the art of walking away from the deal if it is not favorable to them.

It is best to follow the advice of Sun Tzu to succeed in real estate negotiation and basketball.

It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.

We know our clients and we know the price at which they want to purchase.  We know this because one of the questions on our questionnaire is, “What do you want to spend monthly and still lead a normal life?”  With our market analysis we know the value of the home, not the anchor price, but the value.  (I’ll write more on anchoring in April or May.)

The seller is not our “enemy” but for sake of metaphor let’s continue.  We know our “enemy.”  We know what they paid for the home and we know the market value because we prepared a market value analysis for our client and our scouting report allows us to hypothesize about why they are selling.

Like basketball, we don’t win them all, but we win far more than we lose and in most cases when our clients “lose” it just means they were smart enough not to pay the price some other buyer did.  They didn’t get the home but they didn’t overpay either.  My style calls that a win.

P.S. You can see homes on market by visiting my website.  All the homes available online at the big boy and girl companies are available at www.homebuyerassociates.com for your perusal – located in the Quick Search Property link on the top right of the page.

Thanks for reading.