Comments are of a general nature and may not be relevant to your individual circumstances. If you intend making any investment, financial or taxation decision you should consult a professional adviser.

Hi Guys,

I am a real estate agent in Sydney. Lucky for all of us (Property Investors) more than 50% of all real estate agents DONT know how to negotiate. In most situations you can knock up to $20k off the asking price by asking a few simple questions such as:

How long has the property been OTM?

Why are the owners selling?

How did you come up with this ‘asking’ price?

I believe the best question you can ask the agent is “seriously, what will the owners take?” most agents will buckle and tell you a lower price than the asking price instead of defending the sellers asking price.

Another good way to get more money off when buying a property is to get an offer accepted after negotiation with a 5 day cooling off period. Once the owners have accepted your offer and the property is now yours subject to your Pest/Building report coming good the ball is in your court. Now is a great time to try to get more money off the property by using the Building/Pest Report to your advantage. There will always be pointless wear & tear come up in the report, you can tell the agent this all adds up and you want some money off the agreed price to fix the problems or you don’t think you can go ahead. Using this method on incompetent agents I have seen some owners take off up to $10k to ‘meet the buyers half way’

For help when buying or selling visit http://www.jenman.com.au

I hope this helps goodluck!