Handout: Negotiate for the Best Price

Shelley Emmer, New York Association for New Immigrants, New York, NY

Before

Have:

• The selling prices and addresses of houses in the
  neighborhood that are like the house you want to buy
  
  
• The “fair market value” (fair price of the home: highest
  price someone who wants the house, and can afford it,
  will pay; the lowest a seller who wants to sell will accept)
  
  
• A notebook to write down what happens when you and
  the seller make offers back and forth through the realtors
  
  
• A list of things that have to be fixed or will need to be fixed soon
  (make this list on your own—the home inspector goes to work later)
  
  
• Reasons why the house could be hard to sell
  
  
• An exact range of money that you can afford to spend on the house
  (including down payment, mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, repairs)
  
  

If the seller says, “your offer is too low”

Talk about:

• Prices of similar houses in the neighborhood
  (You want the seller to think that the house isn’t so valuable.)
  
  
• Things that need to be fixed
  
  
• Reasons why the house could be difficult to sell
  (on a busy street, at the bottom of a hill)

If the seller says, “your offer is too low”

Don’t talk about:

• Things you don’t like about the decorations inside,
  such as paint, wallpaper (This will insult the seller.)
  
  
• How the house compares to another house you’re
  looking at (The seller could say, “Just buy the other house.”)
  
  
• The fact that you can’t afford it (Do this for only your last offer.)

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