Loni Lueke REALTOR® - The Do's and Don'ts When Buying a Home

and cons and help you with your decision. The real estate agent's services will be beneficial by connecting you with the sources who can provide you with reliable information. He or she will assist in this process and usually help to find the best offering price based on the factors involved. After you agree on a price, the agent will send the proposal to the seller's agent. The seller's agent will present the offer to the seller and your offer will be accepted, you’ll receive a counteroffer, or it will be rejected. The communication about the offer is between the seller’s and the buyer’s agents and they are communicating with their clients. This way, the emotions between seller and buyer are filtered and the negotiation is about the facts. However, there are always emotions in place. On the seller's side, this could be anything that happened to make the seller leave a home for a good, or not so good, reason. Knowing the reason is helpful for the negotiation. Depending on how quickly someone wants to sell, they are more open for negotiation than, let’s say, because of a divorce when only one partner wants to sell and the other wants to stay. The emotion on the buyer’s side may be that they are deeply in love with this house; they need to find a place by a certain date; they are financially limited and don’t have much room for negotiation. In addition to that, the seller usually thinks their house is worth well more than the asking price, and a buyer usually thinks the house is worth less. So, having an agent representing each side is very helpful for both the seller and the buyer. When both parties agree to a price and contingencies, they sign the agreement, and you'll have a binding contract. The process in South Carolina is that all documents are sent to the attorneys (one for the buyer, one for the seller) and that the escrow account is held by the buyer's attorney.

THE BEST WAY TO NEGOTIATE

The goal of your negotiation is to buy a house for the money you're willing to pay, and if you get it for less then you have