More silly negotiating tactics

February 27, 2007

The last article is bringing up lots of memories about silly things agents do for their clients (or is it for themselves?). Here's another short story (about a year ago):

We have a full price offer of $389,000 but the buyer wants a $15,000 seller subsidy. Seller is willing to compromise and we counter with a $5,000 subsidy (willing to go a little more). Buyer agent says "this kills the deal, my clients won't go there. We won't respond to your counter." About 10 days later, the agent is back with a counter at $12,000 in subsidy. We counter that at $7,500 subsidy, eventually settle for $8,500 and ratify the contract. Go to close. Everybody is happy.

What was there to be gained by shutting off the discussion? In this case, nothing. Were we disappointed that they seemingly "walked away?" Sure. Were we surprised they came back? Yes. Was my client now skeptical of anything this agent represented? You bet. So was I. We were then prepared for this contract to fall through for some other reason.

An element of distrust was created by the tactic used. In the end, this one worked fine. But, as an agent, I need to trust the other side. My client needs to trust the other side too. Trust in this case was created when she got her money at closing.

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