Closing the Negotiation

At some point, the seller comes back with a more serious price. In this case, let’s say it’s $420,000. He throws in a few other things that were on my want list to sweeten the deal, including the nice rug in the living room that the wife loved. Now we’re at the closing stage of negotiations; we can see the doorway and the deal. The real estate agents are jumping up and down, the kids are getting antsy, the pressure’s on.

Come up with the $20,000? Offer to split the difference?

If you were being realistic when you set your goal of $400,000, no. Your out isn’t to pay more; your out is to find another house.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with reviewing your process and examining your assumptions and rethinking everything . . . as long as you can completely divorce yourself from the emotions of making the deal (and probably the house). Odds are you can’t, which sends us back to the original sheet of paper you drew up. This is the time when you have to have faith in your original process, and your selection of your out. If $400,000 is your limit, that’s the way it is.

But the wife really wants the house, and the rug put her over the edge. (She says it’s worth five grand. I say I saw one at Home Depot last week for $350.)

My response would be to go to the real estate agent and say, “Look, I understand blah-blah-blah and he’s a great guy and that shade of mauve is just so mauve I can’t believe it, but—$400,000 is all I can afford. What can you do for me?”

The result is going to be the seller’s last, best offer. Don’t kid yourself—it’s unlikely after that point that the number is going to come down. It’s at that point you choose to close the deal or take your out.