The Mark Gunning Team: March 2016

In a seller’s market, the seller typically has the upper-hand when it comes to things like price, closing costs (who pays what), and home warranties.

In a normal real estate market, being the buyer of a home, you have quite a bit of negotiating power and here are a few tips to help you and your agent get the best deal possible.

Price negotiation:

After you have determined your purchasing power, or how much you can afford and what you are comfortable with as a monthly payment, you should have a good idea of the maximum amount you can spend.

With this thought in mind, it pays to start a little on the low side with your offer based on the comparable home sales in the area. You can always come up a little, but never down…

Financing contingencies:

One of the smartest ways to approach buying a home with financing, and assuming you might be going up against all cash offers, is to make sure your loan is preapproved and everything is in order.

There are mortgage companies out there that can literally close a loan in 2 weeks, maybe even less.

Having this in place, gives you a decent amount of leverage at the negotiating table.

As an example, maybe you increase your offer price a little & also mention that you can close quickly, so if the buyer is getting cash offers, waiting a few extra days will net them a higher sales price.

Closing negotiating:

There is a lot to buying a home and getting it to close.

In most real estate transactions there are closing costs, home warranty costs, home inspection costs and even repair costs.

This gives you a ton of room to either absorb more of these costs as the buyer, or try and get the seller to chip in more.

If the home needs a ton of repairs, then you might be able to ask the seller to pay for some of the repairs, especially if it is a loan approval requirement, or lower the price.

There are home loans you can get where they will include extra funds for repairs.

This could work out well for you as the home should increase in value after repairs are made, of course that depends on the type and amount of repairs needed.

Our best advice is to take a few minutes and familiarize yourself with the different components of a real estate transaction.

Smart buyers tend to get better deals and enjoy their homes more knowing they negotiated everything they possibly could.

Plus, to be honest, it is kind of fun!

We are always happy to help you learn more about how real estate transactions work.

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