DO BE QUIET AND LISTEN Whether you are approached by the buyer or the buyer’s agent, remaining quiet is one of the best ways to negotiate the sale. Developing a feel-good, overly friendly relationship with either can interfere with your focused efforts to sell your home quickly and for a fair price. Buyers uncomfortable with your quietness may want to break the silence by giving information that would be crucial to know. Again, the more knowledgeable you are about the buyer — rather than the other way around — the better poised you will be in negotiations. DON’T BE MOVED BY AWKWARD SILENCE When you are negotiating and the buyer makes an offer, don’t feel compelled to respond immediately. Whether it be 10 seconds or 10 minutes, make the buyer or their agent speak first. They may see your silence as disappointment, and choose to revise the offer or offer a concession just to break the silence. Do not let experienced negotiators use this tactic to get you to accept successively lower offers without a counteroffer from you and your agent. However, you don’t want to wait too long to respond, either. When a buyer makes an offer, that means that they are in the mood to buy, right then and there. You should take advantage of that “mood,” since moods change, and you don’t want to miss out on a sale simply because you’re stalling.
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