Best Spring Clearwater Real Estate Sales Since 2006

Keeping a Negotiation Alive Until We Succeeded

During the last 6 months I’ve done a lot of studying in the subject of negotiations and closing and had a real opportunity to put this new knowledge to good use.

A client contacted me a couple of weeks ago about seeing some condos on Sand Key.  These were high-end condos in a very nice complex right on the beach.  We went right away to see them and one of the ones we saw was exactly right for them.

We put in an offer the next day for the condo and everything in it based on what we could see would be the market value and that the owner had been trying unsuccessfully to sell it for about 6 years.  My clients were wonderful people and their offer price was set so that what they felt would be fair was about halfway between their offer price and the list price, with the assumption that this was about where the negotiations would end up.

Unfortunately the seller was very difficult to work with and was even very hard on his Realtor who I’ve worked with before and is a very good Realtor.  Not only was the seller being difficult about the price negotiations, he also wanted us to add wording in the contract to ‘protect’ him in various ways but would conflict with my client’s right as stated elsewhere in the contract.

At one point along the way, the seller even told his agent ‘we’re done’ and it looked like he wasn’t willing to negotiate any further.  I utilized what I had learned and helped the other Realtor with suggestions on how to approach her client to keep things going and we were able to get past that point.

My clients got quite frustrated with how things were going at several points along the way but they really did want this condo and I worked with them to help keep them in the negotiations, but always willing to let them end it if they really wanted to.

After 4 days of frustrating negotiations and notification of another buyer about to put in an offer, I convinced my clients to change the strategy on the purchase and we submitted an offer for the condo without any furnishings at a price that we knew the seller would accept.  Then we just had to deal with the additional wording he wanted in the contract.  I was able to put the wording together in a way that would handle his concerns while still protecting my clients’ rights in the contract and then we ran into difficulties in coordination of schedules since the seller was traveling for a vacation and couldn’t be reached as easily.  We had one day left before my clients would withdraw from the deal and so I got the seller’s Realtor to agree to have a conference call with her, the seller and me that next morning.

We had the call and I was able to handle her client’s concerns and he was satisfied with the wording I worked out.  He wanted one more document from his Realtor which she got to him shortly after our call and he then signed the contract.  Everyone else had given up on this at some point or another but I had to do everything I could to get my client the condo they really wanted and was willing to work through all the issues that were coming up and knew that if I found a way to somehow get everyone what they wanted and could help the other Realtor with her client that we could get it done – and we did.

After we had a final signed contract I told my brother he can start calling me Harvey.  (If you have no clue what that means, I recommend you watch the first 2 seasons of the one the best shows on television – Suits.)