comparable home sales in the area, aswell as the conditions of these properties. It also involves strategizingwith your real estate agent on the amount you will be offering, which involves a significant amount of advance preparation and analysis. Look at it from the angle of using your own knowledge and factors in arriving at your offer, rather thanmerely “responding” to the seller’s listing price. The two perspectives aren’t necessarily related. One critical component to include in making your first offer the best offer is having a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) done, which your real estate agent can provide for you. ACMA is a mathematical model used to determine the value of a target home. It calculates basic conditions (number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, existence or size of yard, existence or size of garage, etc.), and then compares the prospective home to similar homes currently on the market in your area. This will give an idea of the local/nearby average home asking price, which is fundamental information to consider for your first offer. After the basic CMA is done, you and your agent can add or remove factors that increase or decrease the target home’s value. For example, perhaps you learn that the seller has recently upgraded all the plumbing in the home (increased value); on the flip side, perhaps the seller’s plumbing system is old and outdated and will likely require repair or replacement sooner rather than later (decreased value). Get estimates for any necessary immediate repairs that will need to be done (decreased value). Do: Set your emotions aside. Another tip for negotiating is to set your emotions aside, no matter how tricky that could be. Be smart, coolheaded, and logical. This might take practice. A good idea is to have your agent speak on your behalf, especially if you’re feeling emotional, because that’s what agents are
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