The Art of Negotiation: How to Negotiate for a House

You’re ready to take the plunge on buying a house. You have the perfect place chosen and you’re about to take the next, and arguably the most important step, negotiations to actually buy the house. Here’s the question... how the hell do you 1. Negotiate or 2. Negotiate something as big, expensive, and important as a house?

First, know the conditions under which you are buying the house. If at all possible get to know the seller. If you can’t get to know the seller themselves ask the listing agent, get as much information as you can. Why are they selling the house? When do they want to be out of the house? Does the seller already have a new place? It’s super important to figure out the level of urgency involved for the seller. You’re not here to make friends your here to put together strategy. The more you know the more you can tailor your offer.

Next, develop your game plan. What is your game plan?  If you paid attention to the first step you’ve already started your research. Make sure you ask your realtor if the asking price is fair and what wiggle room there might be in the price. I’m assuming you’ve seen the house, you know what you’re working with. You know what the property has that you want and the things that you’re missing and thus, what you’re budget will accommodate. You need to be realistic about what you’re going to pay for the house. Be prepared to sell yourself. In business deals, you need to prepare to do a little bit of acting. You also need to be prepared to read people. How does the seller feel about selling the house? You need to be able to read that attitude and show the right amount of enthusiasm. Not so much that the seller thinks you’re overeager and try to drive up the price but not so stoically business like that an emotional seller will think that you don’t appreciate their home enough and be reluctant to sell it to you.

Finally, the best thing you can do for yourself is to stay flexible and prepare to compromise.  Compromise is an intrinsic part of the negotiation and if you think your going to go in and bulldoze and bully everyone else in the room into giving you everything exactly the way you want it for the price you want it at with zero concessions from you, then you’re unreasonable and insane and your walking away with hurt feelings, a bruised ego, and broken dreams. Be prepared to be creative. The seller might be really attached to the price that they want to sell the house for so you might want to just... work around that. There are other ways to get your money's worth without getting the seller to lower the price. In short, if they don’t want to change the price, change what you get for the price. As the buyer, you can kind of negotiate for anything. I mean don’t get crazy but you can legit ask them to leave you furniture because you like it, ask for certain repairs, some specific landscaping alterations. You can ask for a lot of things within reason.

With these tips in mind and a good realtor, you are well on your way into your new house. Now you just need to tackle the steps that come after. Like signing the contract, inspections, getting various kinds of insurance, doing paperwork you didn’t even know existed, etc. You can check out some of our other articles on home buying for more advise and tricks for home buying and the home buying process. 

Home Buyer Time Table

The home buying process can be a mystery to the uninitiated. If you’ve never bought a house before or if you’ve never have been around while someone else has gone through the process it’s likely that you don’t know what’s going on, what to do, the order to do it in, nor how long it’s going to take you. Well I’m going to demystify the home buying process for you in one simple chart.

Home Buyer Time Table
1 to 2 weeks	Research: This step is important for expectation management. This is when you figure out what you want, what you need, and whether you can actually afford those things? This may be when you realize that you’re not ready to buy a house yet.
1 week	Get a Realtor:  As a homebuyer there is no reason not to have a Realtor (check out our other article about finding the right realtor). This person will be your advocate throughout the homebuying process so don’t feel rushed if it takes you longer.
2 week ( 1 and a half weeks business days)	Get Pre-approved for Loan: This shows that you’re a serious buyer and sellers might pass you over for a different buyer if you don’t have this in hand when you make an offer.
Completely variable (I don’t know, you don’t know, it depends on what you’re looking for)	Shop: This was what the research was preparing you for. Now it’s time to go out into the world, talk to your realtor, search the internet, and visit open houses, etc. The difficulty of finding your new home is actually a pretty simple equation: (what you need: what available and matches those needs) – what you can’t afford= choices or simplicity of process.
1 week	Make first Offer, Negotiate, & Sign: Come into this prepared. Talk to your realtor and get a plan together. Your realtor should be able to Shepard you through this part of the process.
Up to 3 weeks	Final Mortgage Approval: Now it’s time to see if your pre-approval was worth more than a foot in the door during the buying process. This is the point where you’re going to need to start working on several of these steps all at once. Now that you have a contract getting the loan is going to be contingent on several things, such as inspection and approval. While you’re getting those done, you’re going to want to look into starting the process of getting insurance..
Up to a week	Inspection: This is an important step, don’t try to skip this step, nobody is going to let you and if they do there’s a bigger problem! The inspection itself will be over in several hours and the report could get back to you on the same day. Inspections happen fast, getting an inspector out to the property could take around a week. Go ahead and already have an inspector chosen before you sign the contract so you can call to make an appointment as soon as humanly possible. Your realtor may be able to recommend someone. The inspector may find problems. Depending on the problem this may take several days to several weeks to resolve. However, it’s best on your end that these problems are found now before they go from something you need to negotiate with the seller to your problem.
Up to a week	Appraisal: You need this to get your mortgage. This is one of the steps that your lender will order. It should be done right after your inspection is completed. The report for this step goes directly to the lender instead of you and may take longer due to the work involved. This step may lead you to having to renegotiate your contract.
2 Weeks	Get Insurance: This step includes both Title and Homeowners insurance. Your title company will need to make sure that the property doesn’t have any lingering policies attached to the property while you need to check your state's insurance department published comparison of premiums for homeowners insurance. The insurance company may send someone out to assess the property for potential risks, which can take several days. And your mortgage lender may require other types of coverage depending on the area or region your moving to.
1 day (enough time to run errands)	Closing Payment: You need to prepare your payment to go through. Ask your realtor if you need a cashiers, a certified check, or you need to transfer the funds digitally. Be aware of scammers if you get any calls or emails about payment from an unfamiliar source, always check in with your realtor and your closing attorney. Speak to to your realtor face to face or call using a number previously known to you so you can hear your personal realtors voice.
An hour or so	Final Walkthrough: This step is simply to make sure that everything is as it should be the day before closing. While some people do this the day or night before, it’s highly recommended to do this on the way to the closing office.
30-45 days	Closing: The closing process is technically everything that’s happened after signing the contract to receiving your keys. On average with with the Cotton Home Team, this takes 30 days, depending on your loan type and down payment assistance programs used, if any. Prior to the closing day, your closing Attorney’s office will let you know what forms of ID you should bring. Once all of the paperwork is completed and your loan is funded with your mortgage company, you’ll walk away with keys and copies of your paperwork.