For Manhattan Buyers: Negotiating 101

Wow, thanks for all the great comments. I appreciate them all. I wish all my ActiveRain buddies a happy, healthy and successful New Year.

I believe buyers should all have a buyer's agent but many first time buyers are on their own here. They rarely get the property because the buyers with agents are more aggressive and know how the process works. We only do dual agency with designated agents when another corcoran agent represents a buyer on my listing or I represent a buyer on another corcoran agent's exclusive listing. In NY the agency relationship is the broker "corcoran" not the agents.

If a buyer comes to my listing on their own they have the right to their own broker but they sign the agency disclosure that I represent the seller as the seller's agent In dealings with the buyer, I (a) exercise reasonable skill and care in performance of the agent’s duties; (b) deal honestly, fairly and in good faith; and (c) disclose all facts known to the
agent materially affecting the value or desirability of property, except as otherwise provided by law.

Lenn also takes issue with NY state's language "fairly" I remember we discussed this when NY first mandated agency disclosure a couple of years ago. According to Lenn, you can't be "fair" or "fairly" if you have a fiduciary to the other party. If I remember correctly Virginia took out the word "fairly" from their agency disclosure. Until a few years ago in NY we all represented sellers. Buyers were customers and agents that worked with buyers were sub agents of the seller.

I wear two hats one as a buyer's agent and one as a listing agent. The main factor is always the value of the property but other relevant information can help one side or the other in a transaction. One thing might not matter but many together may help negotiations.

As a listing agent, with seller's permission, I have found disclosing other offers to a buyer usually gets my seller an even higher offer. Many agents think it is against the law or unethical or unfair to disclose other offers. My sellers sometimes encourage me to disclose since my fiduciary is to them and they think telling will get the price up and they want the price up. I may say "we have a very strong offer but it's not at full ask". We usually get full ask after that disclosure.

Often motivation is meaningless. The property is worth what it is but sometimes the motivation may work to either buyer or sellers advantage. It may be mutually beneficial. In our current low inventory market, a buyer is not only negotiating with a seller but indirectly with other buyers.

I have also had sellers that have given me permission to disclose their motivation. Disclosed properly with the right spin even a divorce may work to the seller's advantage. In fact, I recently sold a home that was a divorce. The seller wanted me to tell buyers that the only reason they were selling was because it was part of a divorce settlement but they have three years to sell so not desperate.   

Hoping 2013 is a great year in real estate for all.

Thanks for all the great continued comments. I enjoy the discussion and the different perspectives from other markets.

Please keep in mind that all real estate is local and this post was written primarily for buyers of Manhattan New York real estate.

Manhattan is a unique place in the real estate universe. Not only does it have a large rental market (75% of the available housing units vs. about 5 - 10% in other markets), but it has ownership and other important differences that are often puzzling to newcomers and real estate professionals from other markets.

Mary, One of these days I'll find you the perfect Manhattan pied-a-terre,-)

Thank you. Happy and healthy New Year to you too Hannah.