Don Juan De Real Estate

The Casanova of negotiators.

Realtor Myth #4 - Agents are professional negotiators.

It's as if you were incapacitated by his power. Pen trembling in your hand, afraid to put ink to paper. Was it what he wanted? Would the pen let you down? Under his exacting stare you write down the number that he has wanted the whole time. Defeated you collapse into the rickety chair letting your tired head fall into your trembling hands. At least it was over.

Truth - More and more home sellers are looking to take back the power. To be in control of the process. Why? When a real estate agent is looking at negotiating the sale of a property their goal is to simply come to an agreeable price that will see the transaction come to fruition. Imagine the house was the agent's personal home. Would they hold out to get an extra $10,000? With your sale they are only getting a small portion of that extra $10,000. As Economist Steven Levitt puts it "When she sells her own house, an agent holds out for the best offer; when she sells yours, she pushes you to take the first decent offer that comes along. Like a stockbroker churning commissions, she wants to make deals and make them fast." The goal is not to get you the best price, it is to get your house sold (or bought) at a price that you can live with.

Also it cannot be ignored that if an agent sold your home for $300,000 you would only receive $285,000 (actually less when you add GST on the commissions). That means that you would have had an extra $15,000+ in negotiating room to get the property sold FASTER.

For those younger readers that would prefer to hear Levitt's theory in rap, here you go...


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