Homeowners should not become overconfident in a seller’s market, or they might end up sabotaging their sale. Realtor.com® recently featured common home seller negotiation tactics that can backfire, including:

Starting a bidding war.

“If mishandled, people may assume the worst, and the best offer may walk away,” Sep Niakan, broker-owner at HB Roswell Realty in Miami, told realtor.com®. For example, bidding war problems can surface when failing to clearly explain up front how you intend to handle multiple offers or when you give an offer deadline that is too many days away (some buyers may just move on).

Arguing over repairs.

Buyers may walk if sellers refuse to make repairs that turn up during a home inspection. The seller needs to carefully consider how good the offer is before refusing to make repairs, says Lucas Machado, president of House Heroes in Miami. “When the buyer’s offer is high, and the seller tries to negotiate away from legitimate repairs, the buyer may feel the seller is taking advantage of them,” he says.

Staying adamant about the closing date. 

Sellers may be trying to make the closing date so it perfectly aligns when they move into their new home. But buyers have scheduling issues of their own, too. “Sellers need to understand that they may have to move twice, since buyer and seller schedules seldom work out perfectly,” says John Powell, chief development officer at Help-U-Sell Real Estate in Tucson, Ariz.

Getting greedy over fixtures.

Fixture feuds are common ones. Sellers and their real estate agents need to carefully review before they list their home on what stays and what goes with the home. The buyer might “get so upset that a fixture they fell in love with is now missing that they won’t buy the home,” says Michael Hottman, associate broker at Keller Williams Richmond West in Richmond, Va. Replace anything valuable to sellers that won’t be staying with the house before showing it, or be willing to negotiate a comparable replacement. Read more: Fixture Feuds 

Read more negotiation tactics that could sabotage a deal.

Source: “Hardball Fouls: 6 Home-Selling Negotiation Strategies That Can Backfire,” realtor.com® (Nov. 1, 2017)

Back