If you’re looking into selling your home, you might be unaware of some tactics and techniques you can use to help secure the price that your home is worth. One of the most major techniques you must know about is how to negotiate price as a home seller.

When it comes to learning how to negotiate a house offer, you might not think you’re aware of how much your home is worth, or what you can do to get the price you want. That’s why it’s important to know how to counter pricing and know the best ways of negotiating a home sale.

Read on to learn the five best negotiating strategies to use when it comes to negotiating a house offer.

1. Counter Your Offers With Your List Price

A true power move is countering your offers… by not budging an inch on your list price. When you counter an offer with your list price, it’s a great idea for negotiating a home sale.

As a seller, it’s unlikely that you’ll want to accept the initial offer you receive. This is because most buyers will try to lowball you, expecting that you’ll negotiate a price higher than their offer. See this Making An Offer article

That’s just negotiation 101, and if you’re learning how to negotiate prices as a home seller, you’ll want to avoid accepting the first offer you receive. However, you can also take it a step further by – rather than negotiating a slightly higher price than the buyer offered (but still under the list price) – you can counter with your list price.

When it comes to negotiations, most sellers will negotiate because they want to seem flexible and because they’re also dealing with a fear of not making the sale. Although true negotiation will likely result in a successful sale, you won’t get the maximum amount of money you want.

When you counter with your listing price, you’re telling the buyer that you know what your home is worth and that you’re not going to waste your time with lowball offers.

2. Reject the Offer Outright

Very similar to countering with your list price, another option is to reject the offer outright. This is an extreme negotiation tactic that might fail. When you use this tactic, you’ll be telling potential buyers (again) that you’re aware of what your property is worth and you’re not willing to let your property go for anything less than it’s worth.

With this strategy, when you receive an offer from a buyer, you will reject it outright and then ask them to submit a new offer. This is because, when you reject an offer outright (and don’t start negotiations), you are not ethically committed to that buyer, which means that you can accept a higher offer if one comes along that is more attractive to you.

Because you’re not locked into negotiation with a buyer using this method, the buyer is aware that you can accept another price at any moment. This puts pressure on them to submit a higher amount.

3. Bidding Wars

This is a great tactic, especially if you have had (or will have) an open house. Once you list the home on the market, have an open house. Until you hold the open house, refuse any offers that come your way.

This will inform potential buyers that they will compete with other buyers. The knowledge that they’ll be against other buyers will convince them to increase their potential offers. This is another great tactic for getting more money than you might get in a normal negotiation.

4. Put a Timer on Your Counteroffer

Although it’s not illegal to start a negotiation with one buyer and then accept an offer from another buyer during negotiations, it’s considered bad form to do that. You can have multiple negotiations going on at once, but only if you inform all the parties that this is the situation.

If you have multiple offers/counteroffers you’re considering at one time, you should put a timer on your counteroffers. Tell potential buyers that they have until X date to decide if they agree with whatever counteroffer you’re discussing, and it’ll put pressure on the buyer to decide if they want to buy or pass on the property.

This also can help close the deal quicker.

5. Pay Closing Cost

A negotiation strategy that is becoming more commonplace when you’re trying to figure out how to negotiate price as a home seller is paying the closing costs of the house. This typically amounts to about 3% of the final sale price, and it’s meant to cover specific fees that are accrued during the selling process.

It may seem odd, but this is a great tactic for increasing your sale price and having a fast sale. When the buyer comes to you with an offer, you’ll negotiate to something higher, but as part of that higher value, you’ll include the closing cost price as well.

The buyer will think they’re receiving a deal because you’re paying the closing price, but in truth, you’re increasing the listing price to cover the closing cost sales as well.

When you’re curious about how to negotiate price as a home seller, there are numerous tactics to try. Make sure you’re showing your house off, so it looks as good as it’s worth, and then use negotiation tactics to convince buyers to buy your home.

This is important because, if your home doesn’t look like it’s worth your listing price, all the hardball tactics in the world won’t help you out.

HBSB Holdings, LLC is a real estate solutions company based out of Tempe. We’re a family-owned business and focus on helping homeowners like you find solutions for your problems, whether you’re going through a foreclosure, can’t sell your property, or just need to sell your house for all kinds of reasons. We buy houses in the following areas –

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We buy houses as-is for cash, and our cash home buyers are ready to help you anytime you want.

Also, if you have any questions about selling your house, read our FAQ here.