Belle Oberbrunner Negotiating a Successful Deal: The Real Explanation A few days later, Madeline, their agent, called to say she had found the trouble. The Loves, who were buying Sondra and Dana’s house, had a problem. The Loves’ house had not passed a termite inspection. Some work needed to be done, which the Loves had agreed to … Read more
Negotiating a Successful Deal: At Last! Two days later, Madeline called to say that all escrows had closed. They needed to move immediately into their new home. Once the escrows closed, everything moved like clockwork. Dana and Sondra moved into their new four-acre home. The Loves moved into their old one. And, presumably, the buyers … Read more
Negotiating a Successful Deal: More Complications Sondra and Dana waited to hear that title had transferred. They waited a day, two days, three days, five days. Finally, Madeline called and said something had delayed the Loves’ getting financing. But now it was all straightened out. Sondra and Dana had to go down to escrow and … Read more
Negotiating a Successful Deal: The New Sale Madeline called a week later and said that the Loves, the buyers of Dana and Sondra’s home, had already found their own buyer, a non contingent buyer. She was trying to hurry the sale and, hopefully, within a few weeks the Love’s new buyer would have a new … Read more
Negotiating a Successful Deal: Complications Sondra and Dana immediately put their home up for sale. They listed it with Madeline, who said she would give them a break on the commission since she was getting two deals out of it. They compared five other homes very similar to theirs that had sold in the past … Read more
Negotiating a Successful Deal: Pushing the Time Line Madeline presented the offer and reported back that the sellers understood it, but weren’t too happy about it. They said they wanted to take a few days to think about it. She said she was worried, how ever, because the seller’s agent, Max, said that other brokers … Read more
Negotiating a Successful Deal: The Contingent Offer Madeline explained that a “contingent” offer was one in which the buyers said they would purchase the home, provided they could sell their existing home. The new purchase was contingent on the sale of the old property. If Sondra and Dana couldn’t sell their existing home, then they … Read more
Negotiating a Successful Deal: Making the Initial Offer There was virtually no discussion over whether they should buy the place. They both knew they wanted it. The only concern was if they could buy it. The asking price was $350,000 for the home. Dana and Sondra saw a mortgage broker who said they could afford … Read more
Negotiating a Successful Deal: Finding the Property Sondra and Dana owned a home they had purchased a few years earlier in Sacramento, California. The home was only a couple of years old, but it was small (only three bedrooms) for their expanding fam ily. (They had one child, were anticipating a second, and Sondra needed … Read more
Negotiating a Successful Deal Everything in real estate is negotiable. That includes the price, the terms, the appliances, the commission, the light fixtures and, in some strange cases, even the pets! However, the word negotiable is not magic. It doesn’t mean you’ll always get what you want. If you’re a buyer who wants a 15 … Read more
