room to come up. It's funny how each side feels it's fair if they both give in and meet in the middle but that thinking has nothing to do with fair market value and it certainly is not how every property listed works. As a buyer its crucial you recognize a fair price when you see it. I love the art of a negotiation (which I will good into great detail later) but just keep in mind sometimes making a strong offer from the start is the best strategy.
Make sure you don't overpay
An important component is a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA), which your real estate agent can provide — another benefit of working with a buyer’s agent — This is a mathematical formula to find out the value of your future home. It factors in the condition, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, basement development, garage, etc. Then, it compares your potential home to similar houses that are active on the market plus recently sold homes in the same or similar communities. Be careful though CMAs are a guideline only, Real Estate is not black and white. Once I did a CMA for a client on a home they loved, but my CMA showed the home they were interested in was about 20K higher than similar homes that recently sold. They asked me my opinion, so I told them it seemed a little high. They thanked me for my honesty, and they decided to hold off and keep looking. A few days later they called me back and told me they couldn't get that home off their mind, and they decided it was worth it to them to pay the extra price. I immediately called the seller's agent to let her know we wanted to make an offer. To my surprise my buyers became angry with me when I told them that the home sold. They said my CMA must have been incorrect being that someone else bought it that quickly as the home was only on the market a week. As I mentioned earlier a home is worth what a buyer is willing to pay, and a seller is willing accept there is no exact price. Never forget that rarely there are two homes exactly same and even
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