[Patience] The art of negotiation
Many Charleston real estate agents might tout that they are great negotiators (I believe in one of my profiles I refer to myself as a skilled negotiator). But did you know that the agent really doesn't negotiate a contract but negotiates on behalf of their client who is either buying or selling a home by carrying out their expressed instructions.
Now because many people don't either buy or sell a home in Charleston all that often and most real estate agents handle a lot of deals and more than likely we would probably be considered to be a better negotiator than our client. And when I say better, what I mean by that is the way we communicate an offer and subsequent counter offers in a detached way rather than being emotionally vested.
But probably the most important thing that a real estate agent can do is to help their client develop a negotiating strategy based on facts on current market conditions, offer experienced insight into the motivations of the counter party and framing realistic objectives and expectations.
My clients and I just finished a very lengthy negotiation and believe me, they actually did even better than I (and probably they) thought they would do. And I attribute that to the patience of my clients during the process.
They made the other guys "sweat".
Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons by mujerendiagonal