7 Common Seller Tactics

During negotiations with a home's seller, they are going to try and convince you that the asking price and the incentives being offered are fair and demonstrate to you why it’s fair. There are some pretty common tactics that sellers employ and you need to separate fact from fiction.
• Appraisals - An appraiser can have all the credentials in the world, but they don't value a home the way you do. The things that are important to you in a home do not always come with a price. It's a good starting point, but that's where its value ends.

• Real Estate Agent Estimate - Real estate agents cannot be objective when it comes to evaluating a home's price. They've got too much financial incentive at stake if they close the deal.

• Comparable Home Printout - While it is a good source of information, print outs of comparable homes can suffer the same bias as a real estate estimate. They're most likely hand-picked to work in the seller's favor.

• Home Improvement Receipts - While it's nice to know the previous homeowner spend some money fixing up the home, it's irrelevant to the price paid for the home. After all, the home might have needed a lot of work when the prior owner bought it.