Sleep On It

We live in a society of instant gratification. Hurry, hurry, hurry! Nothing can happen fast enough. You know how it feels when you have to sit in the drive through for one extra minute to get your cup of coffee… you start to get antsy, some can even get irate at having to wait. We seem to have forgotten the age-old adage that “good things come to those who wait.” Coffee is one thing, but rushing into real estate deals just because we are driven to get it done is not always productive.

The best types of real estate negotiators are the ones who don’t create or are driven by emotion. They just won’t let themselves become emotionally involved. I am by no means saying to cut yourself off and be cold, but I am saying not to run on the high stakes and high energy that can come with the real estate deals. Absolutely be friendly! Be friendly with your clients, friendly with your buyer, friendly with your seller, and of course, yes, you want to win the negotiation. It just doesn’t always have to happen RIGHT NOW.

You want to get the best value for your homebuyer or home-seller, but that doesn’t mean you have to bring emotion into the negotiation. You can’t get upset. You can’t throw daggers. You can’t be insulted. You have to be very consultative and very factual.

“Mr. Buyer wants to offer THIS and THIS is why.”
“Ok, here is the counter offer.”
“Ok, this is our counter offer and THIS is why.”
Now this is the trick: It’s absolutely all right to let the parties “sleep on it.”

Oftentimes, we end up negotiating these deals late in the afternoon or at night. There is nothing wrong with letting people “sleep on it.” Any kind of negotiation that you are up against, if you are working it later in the day, there is nothing wrong with letting both parties mull it all over. Let the seller digest the thoughts of “What if the buyer doesn’t come up?” Give the buyer time to digest, “What if the seller doesn’t come down?” When you all convene and re-visit the components of the deal during normal business hours the next day, you will be surprised the answers and strategies that we have all come up with.

The high emotion of call me, call you, call me back, call her, call him, call me, now call them and so on doesn’t necessarily work and, frankly, it’s not overly productive. Sometimes, we just need to slow down, take the emotion out of it, think about our answers, calculate each direction that we want to go, and then return the phone call. If it’s overnight? That’s perfectly fine. If it’s over a period of several hours? That’s fine, too. This “Hurry Up and Negotiate a Real Estate Deal in the Next Thirty Minutes” mentality is only self-serving. Yes, we want to know the commission is locked up, the buyer wants to know the house is locked up, the seller wants to know the house is locked up, but if we take our time and not rush it through, we always end up with a better process and better results.