Applied Art in Motion
There are all sorts of negotiation strategies and techniques. They are taught in legal seminars, how to books, and most importantly, real life. For those of you who have lived long enough, played the game hard enough, or had life impose itself upon you, you know that it is a rare day in which you get something by simply asking for it.
I have gray on my head, wrinkles in my skin, and healed wounds in my soul. These are the things of which negotiations are made. There is no substitute for experience. And I do not believe in luck. I believe in methodology. I believe in thinking, gathering and analyzing facts, and thinking some more. I believe in long walks and long kisses….whoops sorry…I think that is from Bull Durham…
I learned early in my legal career that there were some cases you tried to a jury and some you tried to a judge. There were some cases you pounded the table and some cases you soft sold it. There were facts you highlighted, others you diminished, and some you just ignored. I think about what I have in your home. I think about my audience. I think about what motivates a buyer…..and then only then do I develop a marketing strategy.
It is an art. It is art because it mixes human reaction to amenities. It is understanding how your marketing of the home will impact the potential buyer. When THE buyer for your home materializes then the art of gently, without them even sensing what is being done, negotiating them to where you want them is employed. My best friend once used the word lyrical with respect to a home. It is hard to explain, you kind of had to be there. The point is that the home spoke to him. There were things about it that were not readily apparent to the untrained inexperienced eye. It was early in my sales career and it was my first insight to the nuances a home could present and how they interacted with the market. Over the decades, I have paid keen attention to how different amenities play out. Whether it is floor plan, interior colors, first level decorating (sofas, tables, chairs, faucet size, floor coverings), accessory décor (2nd level…lamps, curtains, paintings nick naks, photos), setting on the lot, location within the actual market and in relation to commercial, social, or recreational forums, light patterns in and out of the home, wind patterns, ceiling heights, etc…..
When we get the offer. I have already met the buyers because I thought about who they were in advance and I marketed the home so that they would come. I already know what their other choices are in terms of alternative homes, I know how soon they have to move, I know how old they are, I know whether they have children, I probably know whether they have pets, I know their approximate income, I know their approximate age, and I know their agent and their agents skill sets.
I could go on here, but I think you get the point. It is not whether your home sells, it will. It is how it sells and by whom.