3 Tips for Negotiating When Buying A Home

Buying a home can be an exciting and overwhelming experience. This is likely going to be one of the biggest purchases you make in your lifetime, so you want to make sure you’re absolutely happy with the end result. Generally, homebuyers are happy when they are able to get the home they want at a price that works for them. But in order to do this, you’ve got to understand how to make the negotiation process work for you. To help with this, here are three tips for negotiating the best price when buying a home.

Don’t Start Too Low

Although getting a home for the least amount of money possible would be ideal for almost any homebuyer, this isn’t likely to be the safest bet for you if you have your heart set on a specific home. Constance Brinkley-Badgett, a contributor to Credit.com, shares that if you’re too unrealistic with your initial offer, it could make it impossible for you to get the home you want. When an offer comes in too low, many sellers get offended and are unwilling to work with you any further. To ensure you don’t get in this situation, make sure you check the comparable houses in the area and speak to your real estate agent about your proposed offer before you submit it.

All Communication Goes Through Your Agent

While many people love the idea of cutting out the middleman, when it comes to buying a home, you’re going to want to use your middleman all you can. And in this case, the middleman is your real estate agent. Hiring an agent could be essential as they can help in getting the contact details of the sellers by taking the help of a seller lead generation firm or software. They can also play a crucial role in negotiating the price for you as well. Tara-Nicholle Nelson, a contributor to HGTV.com, shares that all communication should go through your real estate agent and not directly between you as the buyer and the seller. Because this process can get dicey legally, you want to best protect yourself from any missteps by only speaking to your real estate agent regarding any matters surrounding the sale of the home or the home itself. This could save you some major trouble during the negotiations and settlements.

Ask For What You Want

When you’re considering buying a home but you have a few things you’d like to negotiate on, you may be tempted to just bite your tongue and take what you can get. However, Teresa Mears, a contributor to U.S. News and World Report, reminds buyers that you’ll never get what you don’t ask for. While you may not get all the repairs or requests that you bring up, you definitely won’t get anything done if you don’t ask for it, so make sure you express all your concerns if you want to have any real hope of getting them addressed before you buy the home.

If you’re considering buying a home soon, use the tips mentioned above to get the negotiation process done right.