Goodwill Games

Here is an important reminder when negotiating on the sale of a home, whether you are the buyer or the seller. Over the past 25 years of selling homes in and around the lake country area I have discovered that price, terms, inclusions and closing date are not always the final factor in a successful transaction. Goodwill, the ultimate in intangibles has a lot to do with what the final price of a home might be.

Let me give you an illustration. Recently I was working with the buyer to purchase a nice home. The buyer wrote a good offer but not at a price that the seller liked. It was well within the parameters of a normal first offer, but lower than what the seller liked. The seller decided to ignore the good offer. Because they had other showings they thought that surely someone else would offer a higher price and they could disregard the only offer that was on the table. Well sure enough no one else made an offer, the deadline passed and the buyer was offended with no reply. Nadda, zilch, nothing. The deal never came together.

Then the buyer told me that had the seller responded in a timely fashion, the buyer would have certainly paid more than their initial offer. The seller still sits with an unsold home while the buyer has moved on to a different property. Goodwill was lost with the buyer because the seller chose to ignore the offer.

If I can encourage you when selling or buying to keep the Goodwill alive, you will be more successful buying and selling your home.