Negotiation Techniques for Crazy Real Estate Situations

Negotiation techniques in Sacramento real estate might not make every person happy.

Just a quick word this morning about negotiation techniques for crazy real estate situations. Now, for some of us, we might laugh this off and say every single real estate situation in Sacramento today is an unreasonable real estate situation, and that is more fact than fiction. This is not a normal real estate market. Strange things are happening, and sellers have never before been in such a unique situation to negotiate issues in their favor. Reasoning with unreasonable people is an uncomfortable task for some Sacramento Realtors, but it’s second nature to me. Especially if one arrives at that premise believing every person is somewhat unreasonable, if given the chance.

An agent and I were talking about the market yesterday. The agent asked if I had a moment to discuss an unusual escrow. That agent’s buyer wanted a really big credit, but the amount of the credit exceeded her closing costs. This meant they had to also reduce the price to take full advantage of the negotiations. To get that credit, they needed strong bids. In this agent’s situation, which is not a transaction I’m working on, btw, the buyer’s agent had a seller on the other side who was willing to provide the credit, with a stipulation. The seller demanded a particular clause — doesn’t matter what the clause is — be inserted into the contacting bids for the work. The buyer planned to complete the work after closing.

The inherent problem was none of the contractors who had submitted bids would provide that clause in the bid. The agent asked if there was some way to negotiate with the seller to remove the demand for that clause. The seller was unreasonable. It was an odd request. A peculiar demand. Not common or everyday. It would seem to most people the best cause of action would be to get the seller to drop that demand.

However, good negotiation techniques for crazy real estate situations are best snatched from the days of short sales. You remember Sacramento short sales, right? When banks would make the most idiotic demands? And we’d have to work within the confines of those demands. So often people look in the wrong places for the solution.

In this agent’s situation, the solution between all of the parties involved was simple. Make the contractor insert the language the contractor did not want to insert into the bid. That’s the solution. Explain that if the language is not in the contract, the seller won’t pay the buyer and the buyer won’t pay the contractor. The contractor can insert additional language defining the phrase if needed, but bottom line, either it goes into the bid or the contractor doesn’t do the work. Stop putting pressure on the seller and put it where it belongs, even though the demand is unreasonable.

The outcome was the contractor inserted the language into the bid. Now everybody is happy. Well, maybe the contractor isn’t as pleased as he could be but on the bright side, he got the job. And that’s worth quite a bit in today’s world. Negotiation techniques for crazy real estate situations involve finding the path with the least resistance that can be most easily altered. There you have it in a nutshell.