The best part of negotiations in the real estate industry is that every negotiation is unique. Clients’ preferences, sellers, budget, and choice of properties are different in different deals. A sharp realtor is always ready for what lies ahead of him. In any transaction we do in life, negotiation skills, play an important role. It is one of the key skills that are required to be a successful realtor. That’s why we are bringing a list of To-Dos to polish your real estate negotiation skills. Either you are a newbie in this industry or an experienced realtor; you still need to brush up your skills because it’s an ever changing world.

1. Keep Track of Local Knowledge

This includes knowledge about real estate facts and figures of the neighbourhood, trends in the local real estate market, and recent deals that happened. These are the backbones of your talk. It gives your opinion a strong foundation and makes it credible. People will prefer you before anyone if you are familiar with the local market. Local information is power. Earn as much as you can to complement your point of view of the transaction. Use it in your favour.

2. Plan and Organize in Advance

A well-prepared realtor is confident and always has his foot in front in the real estate negotiations. Your chances of locking the deal if you come well prepared with your plan of Action. Experienced Realtors kill the amateur negotiators in planning and organizing. Their experience teaches them about the points where the seller or the buyer will ask questions or offer to change so the realtors always come with Plan B and Plan C from which the seller or the buyer cannot back out. Seller or buyer, everyone wants to pick the best for them. So, be their best for them.

3. Honesty

A mark of dishonesty really breaks a realtor’s career. There’s an old saying “one happy customer will tell his friends about you, but one bad customer will tell the whole world.” And it’s true too. Negative and bad publicity spread like fire. By being true and honest, you can lay out exactly what the buyer or seller can expect. If you raise their expectations to the limit that you can’t reach, you’ll end up as a lair for your clients.

4. Network

Good communication builds your network. A good realtor not only has buyer and sellers as his connections but also works with other realtors. A situation may arise that you might need another realtor’s reference or work with him to close the deal faster. In such cases, if you have good connections with other realtors, things can go smoothly. But, it depends on your comfort level with the realtor that which information you share with him. Having a good network prepares you for any new situation in the dealings, which ultimately increases your confidence and improves your real estate negotiation skills.

5. Common Benefits

It is suggested to discuss the terms and conditions that are favorable to both the parties. Let us put our cards on the table, you try to reduce the margin in the price expectation of the both the parties to close the deal. We know the price expectation margin point is going to stay in the discussion so stop honing it. Discuss the major benefits in the deal for both the parties. Follow the Win-Win Principle. Make both the parties feel like winners.

6. Walk in Your Client’s Shoes

This doesn’t mean you literally ask for your client’s shoes! Try to put yourself in their position and see the situation from their point of view, then you can understand better what they want and what are the alternatives that can work. If your methods failing to convince your client, maybe empathizing your client will make you understand him/her better and allow you to deliver your message clearly.

7. Be a Good Listener

Most of the realtors make the error of just speaking what they prepared, and don’t listen to what their clients have to say. Well, be a good listener guys! Listening to your client will let you know what exactly the clients want.

Imagine a scenario when you pitch something and your client says “Hey, I just told you not to pitch me this, I don’t want this, how many times do I have to tell you?” Now what you did wrong there? You did not listen to your client. You should have changed your pitching once he said no. Not listening to your client makes you a pushy realtor.

Listening also shows that you respect his/her opinion and clients also appreciate that. A Quick Tip here is that you let your client speak first.

8. Business and Emotions Don’t Go Well

Stay objective in the situation and don’t act emotionally. Keep your ego and aggression at the door. Keep yourself clam emotionally. Stay on the subject of discussion, facts and figures you have, client’s demands and possible outcomes. Emotional aggression blocks your way of clear thinking and you lose focus.

9. Noting Down the Salient Points

Write the highlighted points of discussion which you think more clarification or focus. This also shows your client that you are concerned about what he/she is saying. This will also help you come back on the points in a later part of the discussion. If you have solutions in your bag of tricks (because you planed and organized for such outcomes) you can offer the solutions to the particular problems on the spot and strike-through it on the page. Seeing the problem getting solved on the spot will increase client’s confidence in you.

10. Learn from your Experiences

We all have our good days and bad days, it’s part of life. A good realtor leverages from the bad days by learning from the mistakes and experiences. Now, you will have good days and learning days. A realtor who doesn’t learn from his real life experiences won’t have much success.

Following these 10 tips will get you ready for any negotiation transaction. Be it real estate negotiation or any negotiation in any business.

Are you interested in negotiations more, let’s chat? Let me help you start a successful career as a KW agent! I am always open to help the enthusiast realtors.

How to Polish Your Real Estate Negotiation Skills