The Art of Give and Take When Buying a Town home or Town house in Central Florida

Negotiation is not usually a  part of your everyday purchasing habits, so it is perfectly normal to feel uncomfortable with the whole idea of negotiating a deal on a Town home. But, when you're buying a Town house in Central Florida, the only way to get out of negotiating is to accept the sellers' asking price for the Town Home, which might mean paying more than the fair market value for the town house. In order to avoid that sinking feeling that you paid too much, keep reading this page:

Below you will find information about sellig or buying a town home in Central Florida

A sample negotiation scenario

Handling your emotion

Money-saving negotiating tips

A Sample Negotiation Scenario - An Example of How It May Go

You fell in love with a beautiful Spanish-style Central Florida town home with an asking price of $312,000. Your real estate agent tells you that comparable town homes in the area sold in the last six months for $300,000 to $310,000. So you make an offer of $300,000 for the town house. Your real estate attorney or your agent prepares a contract, writing in the appropriate contingencies, including the condition that all appliances and light fixtures remain in the town home. Your real estate agent then formally presents the offer to the sellers of the town house. In a couple of days, you receive a counter-offer of $310,000 with the seller's contingency that you submit a pre-approval letter from your lender. After a couple of more rounds, the seller finally agrees to come down to $305,000 if you move the closing day from four weeks to six weeks to allow their kids to finish school. You need to close on the town house in four weeks, but you offer to let the sellers rent the town house from you for two weeks after closing. The sellers accept. A deal is struck! The townhouses market is reduced by one and you are the proud new owner of this Central Florida Town Home!

Handling Your Emotion - Those interfering feelings

The example above neglected to mention the emotions that might come up along the way while negotiating on your new Lake County Florida Town Home. After all, we are talking about your dream town home and all your hard-earned savings, so of course feelings are likely to play a strong role in the process. You can't control their existence, but you can control where and when you express them. Even though it may feel personal when the sellers of the town house insist on a pre-approval letter from your lender, getting angry or indignant in front of the people involved in the transaction can do more harm than good. Besides, look at it from the seller's perspective: They are taking their Central Florida town home off the market to work with you. They want to sell to someone who is financially capable of buying their town home, or else the ping-pong game of negotiating is a waste of their time.

A few Money Saving Negotiation Tips

■   Whoever made the most recent offer on the Central Florida Town House is legally bound to that offer unless it is either withdrawn by that party or the other party makes a counter offer. If the offer is accepted it is binding subject to any contingencies that may have been put into the contract.

■   Get all counter-offers and contingencies to the purchase offer in writing, initialed by both parties. Your real estate attorney as well as your real estate agent can prove especially helpful here, making sure all amendments are legal and clear to both sides.

■   EVERYTHING IS NEGOTIABLE! From the price to the closing date to the sconces on the living room walls of the town house.

■   The bigger the gap between the asking price of the Central Florida town home and the offering price, the more time you should allow to reach a mutually satisfactory price.

■   Be aware of how long the town home has been on the market. If it's been a while, say a few months, you might have a slight edge when negotiating for this town house.

A home inspection typically isn't done until after a purchase offer is made, so be prepared to enter the negotiating phase without a crystal clear picture of what you're getting. Once you learn what the townhome's physical problems are, you can go from there, asking the seller to make the repairs or lower the price of the town house, or you may choose to walk away if you think the problems are too extensive--that is, IF your attorney or real estate agent has included a contingency spelling this out! There may be certain dollar amounts stated for repairs required by the seller or it may be an "AS IS" sale. Some "AS IS" sales truly are that and others allow you to walk away if there are any repairs at all required within a certain time frame. These are very important clauses.

If you're not the only buyer bidding on a Central Florida town home, remember that the seller is looking for the best offer not only in price but also in terms (who's paying for closing, repairs,contingencies, etc.). Too many conditions and the seller of the town house may very well turn up their nose and go with a less-demanding buyer.

Pick your battles. Know ahead of time what's really non-negotiable to you, then be willing to compromise on the lesser issues.

Keep your feelings out of your finances. If you can only afford to pay $369,000 for a town home, don't go far above that number in a panic that you might lose this town house. Be willing to walk away, trusting that there are more fish in the sea.

Keep your eye on the ball. The goal is to get your dream town house for a fair price, not to just win a battle with the seller.

Contact a professional at R & S Realty Group for help when buying a town house, town home or Central Florida Town Home in Central Florida.