Michael Roberts' Blog -San Jose Homes, Real Estate and Houses for Sale

Any Realtor who has a marginal level of experience has figured out they were thrown under the bus a time or two.  Remember trust begets trust?  Never were three words more important than they are in a Real Estate Agency relationships (when a client hires an agent).

Buying a home is still the single, most scary financial decision one will make in their lives.  It better be the most rewarding one as well.  If you add the trust ingredient it will be.

When you need milk and eggs what do you do?  You probably check the weekend ads and decide where you are going to get the best price.  When you are shopping for a home you do the same thing you shop the ads i.e. the internet, newspaper and visit open houses.  Why do you do this?  To get an idea what the market price is, of course.  After shopping you find eggs are expensive at one grocery and the milk expensive at another however, the eggs are priced well where the milk is expensive.  What do you do?

You compromise the price of one for the convenience of having both.  You already knew this, I know.  My point is your Realtor needs to know your points of compromise.  Be honest and tell them if it is price, features or location and how they relate to your interest.

This fundamental mistake is made far too often and will, ultimately, cost you if you only commit to price X.   Remember Home prices always have a range X-Y.  You are going to get the ‘deer in headlights look’ when you hear your offer was not accepted at X.

Your Realtor, the one you hired because you trust them, is NOT the guy on Craigslist.  When negotiating your offer with the Seller’s agent your Realtor will be successful when they know where to exact leverage.    The Seller’s motivation and triggers must be identified to secure the home you want at or sometimes below market price.  This is done through your Realtor’s ability to draw scenarios, ask questions and offer possible alternatives to the seller.

Without your compromise points and alternatives the necessary leverage cannot be gained.  Think about it; don’t you use the same fundamentals when buying milk and eggs?

Dan Goldberg, an internationally renowned sales consultant says….“Show me what you have and tell me how much it is”….“let me show you how and why you’re going to want to sell me what you have and how good you’re going to feel once you’ve sold it to me for what I want to pay for it”.

There is a better chance of paying what you want, when you know what they want.   The grocery store tells you in their ad.    Learning what the seller wants for their home is another question.   It starts with trusting your Realtor!