Home Buying Negotiation

It is an art to have the ability to negotiate in buying a New York condominium. You must have a keen understanding of the process before you begin making offers on homes. When it comes to real estate matters the three most important aspects of an effective negotiation are information, preparation, and realism. Once you have found a New York condominium that you are prepared to buy, the first step in your process of negotiation is to determine a fair value of the home. Real estate agents have access to the information that you need with a comparable market analysis. These analyses comprise of fact rather than opinion and are highly valuable providing you with home information such as the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, listing price and sold price. It is important that the CMA focus on houses similar to the one you have selected. To have a good CMA you must have all of the similar sales in the neighborhood in the last year. Obviously, the more New York condominiums houses sold in the last few months, the better the CMA.
Once you have all the information it is important to drive by all of the properties to see their conditions, which partly determine the ultimate selling price of a house. Does the New York condominium home in which you are interested shine above, or fall below, the others that have sold. Size, number of rooms, and lot size tell a lot about a property. An effective negotiator will gather as much information as is available on the house and the sellers. Obviously, one of the most important pieces of information you can have is the seller's reason for selling. Is it a case of having to sell or wanting to sell? If your agent represents you in the transaction as a buyer's agent, they may or may not be able to secure this information. A friendly discussion with one of the neighbors may give you a feel for the situation and supply you with important facts.

Just having the right information is not enough. You must prepare yourself in order to use it effectively. The most important factor in your preparation is your emotional frame of mind. It is not unusual to be excited, in fact it is normal, but you must keep your excitement in check or you will lose the value of all the information you have gathered. In addition to your emotional frame of mind, your financial frame of mind should be in order. An offer to purchase will carry a lot more weight if there are no dangling financial problems and if you have been pre-qualified for a mortgage. Finally, plan your work and work your plan. Organize your information and have it quickly available. When it comes time to make an offer to buy your New York condominium, you do not want your information scattered on scraps of paper in the back seat of your car. Again, familiarize yourself with offers and contracts, since this is how you will be negotiating.