Tips and Traps When Negotiating Real Estate: What Is Personal Property?

How to Bargain for Personal Property: What Is Personal Property? It’s important to understand the technical distinction between real and personal property. Real properly refers to the land and anything attached to the land, including the house, fences, separate garage, sheds, and so forth. Personal property generally refers to anything that you can take with … Read more

Tips and Traps When Negotiating Real Estate: Complications

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

Tips and Traps When Negotiating Real Estate: Pushing the Time Line

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

Tips and Traps When Negotiating Real Estate: The Contingent Offer

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

Tips and Traps When Negotiating Real Estate: Making the Initial Offer

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

Tips and Traps When Negotiating Real Estate: Finding the Property

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

Tips and Traps When Negotiating Real Estate: Negotiating a Successful Deal

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