Countering "Best and Highest" Offer

[Ben Sears]

I'm looking for strategies to counter when a seller offers their "best and highest" offer. I know there are some fantastic negotiators out there so I would love to here some tactics. I'm in negotiations right now and have hit this wall. I'm more than likely going to take the deal because the numbers still work great but my type A personality hates not having the last word!

[Matt K.]

Use a specific number... something like 139,035.89  if you google it Harvard Business Review has articles that talk about this and why types of numbers to use etc. Then have your realtor push it through and defer to higher power... my client would love to pay more but based on the condition and work needed this is the highest he can go based on the bank.

Another good option (might be hard now) is do some digging to see why they are selling, if it's time sensitive (divorce) then you could make that offer more valuable by making it easy. 30 day close, 2wks inspection, let them keep security deposit/full rent for month of whatever...