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If you’re buying around Carmel, Greenwood or Fishers, you need to know what “this is our final offer” does before you say it. If not, it locks you out of a house you would have paid more for. But if you do, you send the one number you’ll never regret.
1. The lose-it test. Would you be okay losing this house? Too many times, with multiple offers on the table, a buyer or seller loses a deal simply because <em>they <strong>talked</strong> themselves out of the deal.</em>
2. The hourly cost of overpaying. It is terrible to overpay. But this is not an investment property. It’s where you wake up every morning and where your family lives day to day. If you make $120 an hour, how much does overpaying truly cost you, spread across your time living in that house?
And how much does losing it cost you, when you have to live with that feeling in your stomach?
3. The final-offer lockout. Too often people take negotiating advice from used car salesman books or a movie made 20 years ago. If I’m the listing agent and you send “this is our final offer,” (but the buyer might actually have paide more) AND then a different offer comes in? That might have just talked yourself out of a deal.
Never talk yourself out of a deal.
4. The $37,263 ask. Say a quote for hardwood floors, paint and a few extra options comes to $35,000. Ask for $37,263, not 40 grand. It’s specific. It’s calculated. A number made up for the sake of a number is weird, fake, slimy and gross. A number with a quote behind it is negotiation.
5. Meant to be. Find the number you can truly live with: your mortgage, your cash, your bank and your investments. Send that one. There is nothing wrong with a bad deal walking away from you. The bad outcome is overpaying for a house you won’t enjoy, or never offering the right amount. If it’s meant to be for you, it’s meant to be for you.
Before your next offer, find your number.
You don’t need a house picked out or a plan. If you’re wondering what may or may not be possible for you, email me at nlamkin@c21scheetz.com and let’s talk it through.
