Shouting does not make you a great negotiator

Shouting, Hysteria and Insults do not make you a good negotiator!

Recently with some very well qualified buyers we have been submitting offers on homes.  It seems that the only way the listing agents for these properties know how to response is with shouting, insulting the buyers or near hysterical epithets about the houses value, the sellers situation, why we should cover their losses, etc.

A few tips

• Neither my buyers nor I care about how the sellers got into their current financial situation, we only care what the house is worth to us.
• She who shouts louder does not 'win' the negotiation, in fact, if you can't be professional I don't want to do ANY business with you!
• Just because the buyers are well qualified does not mean they should overpay for your listing.

Negotiation isn't always about getting the lowest price, sometimes it's about getting to a price that everybody can live with.  By achieving that, it is much more likely that the deal will not fall apart at the closing table over the equivalent of something like curtain rods because one side or the other has beaten the other side up so much.  It is an art as well as science (see debate 101).  There are specific techniques to be applied, but the skill with which they are applied usually makes the difference.