Originally posted by K. Marie Poe:
I've bought a lot of houses and negotiated lots of deals and I've never once asked "what's the lowest you'll take". I have, however, been on the receiving end of that question as a seller, usually from newbies with a script. To be fair, there's some geezery old-school RE bullies in my farms that work that way too. They say things like "I'm going to give you (virtually zero) down and $300/mo and you'll come out way ahead. If I give you cash, you'll just spend it. You like interest, don't you?" I will write a screen play about them if I ever get tired of REI.
Relationship building, also called listening, only takes a little time. I agree with
@Melodee Lucido in that the more you talk to sellers, the more you'll get your own groove, and then the words will become your own. But get clear about what you are offering. "What's the lowest...." isn't offering anything. It's just a hope-and-a-prayer filtering for low hanging fruit. There's only so many low hanging branches. End of metaphor.
I agree with this 100%, If you ever ask anyone "whats the lowest you'll take," your absolutely doing it wrong in my opinion. Sit still, listen closely, make sure you are not offensive in any way. It does'nt get any more offensive to me than," whats the lowest you'll take." When i hear that statement, I quickly try to get away from that person and will usually think to myself, "I will burn this thing to the ground before I sell it to you at any price. :) It takes time to negotiate right, in my opinion, getting to the bottom dollar could take weeks if time permits it, otherwise you seem like a vulture and may leave the other side hating you for seemingly taking advantage of them.
Sean K
