Welcome back to another edition of Mike Ferry TV. My name is Tony Smith, a coach and speaker for the Mike Ferry Organization. Happy to be here with you this week. Okay, let’s talk about a topic that doesn’t come up that often, but is very important in what we do negotiating contracts. Okay, so one thing we know when a market is going straight up everything’s selling multiple offers, all kinds of buyer activity. The truth is our ability to negotiate with the seller is a little less required than when a market starts to level out, maybe flatten out, or maybe even decline. So, if you really think about it, right. If I have lots of buyers and they’re coming at my seller all the time, how strong of a negotiator do I have to be? Mr. Seller, would you like to accept this offer? No. Okay. Another buyer will be along shortly. Right. And the truth is, many parts of the country are not like that today. Now we have a reduction in in the number of buyers we have. Multiple offers are gone in many parts of the country. And so, when you have a buyer today, if you don’t successfully negotiate that contract with your seller, your seller might be in trouble. They may not get another buyer for a while, and it could be a real challenge all the way around. So, what does that do? That puts a little bit of heat on our ability to negotiate contracts. So, from Mike Ferry, I wrote down a few thoughts for you about how you could negotiate better. Okay.

1) Spend time working on your sales skills

The first thing Mike wanted to point out was virtually every agent believes they’re a great negotiator. And the truth is, many are not. Because negotiating is another sales skill. And if you’re if you’re not spending a lot of your time working on your sales skills, there’s a good chance you’re not spending a lot of time working on your negotiating skills either. Okay, so how much time are you spending working on any of your sales skills? Negotiating should be at the top of the list these days. Okay.

2) Recognize that emotion and drama kill the negotiating process

The second point I wrote down is if you want to become a great negotiator, you have to recognize that emotion and drama kill the negotiating process. Okay, now we know our sellers are emotional. Buyers are very emotional. We certainly can’t add emotion and drama into the mix. So, it’s very important for us. You know, we get an offer for our listing. And the agent says, well, my buyer wrote this offer because they don’t think it was worth what you were asking. Oh, do we get emotional about that? Do we bring drama back to our seller? Right. Do we get mad internally about that dialog? We can’t bring emotion and drama to the table. We’re supposed to be the calming force at all times.

3) Remember you are not the buyer. Keep your emotions out of it

Okay, look at three. Remember, you are not the buyer. You are not the seller of this home. Keep your emotions out of it. The transaction is not about you. It’s about them. Okay, now I understand. There’s times where we need to get a sale closed, and. And we’re here to make money and all those things, but it’s not our house, okay? So, we shouldn’t be offended by the process, the offer, the negotiating terms. We have to keep our emotions out of this whole thing. It’s hard to do, but it’s required. How about this? Remember, you are not part of the negotiation, so keep your commission out of it, okay? If you want to become a good negotiator, you have to not allow your commission to be dragged into every negotiation you do. Well, if we’re going to if we’re going to drop the price down to that, we want you to cut the commission. I’m sorry. No, but do you have any other questions? Right? We don’t get involved with that.

4) Don’t be afraid to ask them to accept the transaction as it’s written

Look, at this point. Don’t be afraid to ask them to accept the transaction as it’s written, okay, this is a strong one. This is where we get, we become strong as an agent, right? Um, you know, when you have a good offer on a property, I’m assuming that you’re not the type of agent that that would tell a seller to take an unrealistic offer, something that’s not going to happen. You know, when you have the right situation, do you have the courage to look yourself in the eye and say, I suggest that you accept this offer the way it’s written? Okay. Um, there may not be another buyer come running behind it right away. Let’s think about it. How about this point? Both agents should have the same goal in mind a signed contract, right? The goal of the agents should be the same. Okay, let’s have a signed contract. In the old days, they used to say that if you’re a good negotiator, somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. Okay. We should look at both sides of the transaction. Our goal should be to get a contract signed. Are you communicating with the other agent? Are you asking all the questions you can possibly ask of the other agent, so that the two of you can work together to put the transaction together? Sometimes it’s just about communicating and asking the right questions. How about this point?

5) When negotiating, look closely at both sides of the transaction to get the perspective

When negotiating, look closely at both sides of the transaction to get the perspective you know. You have a listing. An agent brings you the offer. So, tell me, how many homes has the as your buyer looked at? Have they written offers on other properties? What about our property was your buyer most excited about? What challenges are you facing with your buyer in putting a transaction together? What do you what is the driving force? What’s their real motivation to buy a home today? If you see both sides of the transaction, you can help with your seller.

6) Refer to the buyer and the seller’s motivation

Okay. Um, how about this point? Refer to the buyer and or the seller’s motivation. Often, if you want to be a great negotiator. Bob and Mary, I understand, and I’m very clear that when we met, you said that you wanted to sell this home so you could be closer to the grandkids who live in another state. Is that correct? So based on the offer, we’re one step closer to getting you to near the grandkids. Is that important to you? Right. If we refer to their motivation often, then we’re going to help through the negotiation process.

7) Keep your ego out of the transaction

How about this point? Remember keep your ego out of the transaction. You know buyers and sellers are very emotional. They can say and do things that are not quite in their character at times during negotiating. And they might say things that get under your skin that bother you, right? Well, you know, you haven’t brought us any other offers yet. If you did your job, we would have probably gotten other offers. We have to keep our ego out of it. Okay. Negotiating is nothing more than asking the questions at times that you may not want the answer to. And sometimes questions that you know, and the seller already knows the answer. How long have we been on the market? How many offers have we received so far? What do you know about being on the market for a long period of time, and how much the showings decrease over time? Right? It’s nothing more than asking the questions that you may not want the answers to. You have to be willing to.

8) Have your staff do some of the negotiating for you

Okay, how about this one? If you have staff to be a good negotiator, at times, you might have your staff do some of the negotiating for you. Okay. One thing I know about a licensed staff person, if they really understand the process, they’re unattached. And sometimes they’ll just ask the direct questions of the client. They’re pretty good at it if you let them.

9) Don’t burn your bridges with a buyer

All right, how about this? Don’t burn your bridges with a buyer. Okay. In today’s world, like I said, they’re not lined up one after the other. We shouldn’t do or say things in this process that burns a bridge. I don’t know if you’ve been around for any length of time and have been through market cycles. Sometimes a buyer comes in front of us. We present do our best job. The deal doesn’t go together. Sometimes that buyer comes back around in front of us in a week or two, and the deal gets put together. We have to be careful not to burn our bridges. Communicate regularly with everyone. Keep your ego in check. Ask questions, put a big smile on your face and the possibility of a deal is still there.

10) We can’t win every transaction we’re involved in

And then the last one. We can’t win every transaction we’re involved in. Okay, Mike has said this for years. We can’t win all of the time, right? I know we’re used to on the seller side, winning practically every time we step into the batter’s box. And we got used to it for many, many, many years. We can’t win all the time. Don’t be attached to the outcome, okay? Be attached to your effort. Be attached to your skill. Work on your ability to improve at negotiating, but don’t get too attached to the outcome. All right, so we’re in this space in time where we probably all need to spend a little more time working on our negotiating skills, working on our ability to ask questions of the buyers and sellers that we come across. Because when we need to put a transaction together, they’re coming a little bit further apart these days. So, your negotiating skills mean a lot for you to keep your production moving forward. Thanks for your time.