What Do You Ask For; The Farm?

Posted at 6:18 PM, May. 16, 2008

A basic rule of thumb I like to demonstrate to my clients is, pick your battles.  When it comes to contract negotations, a little goes a long way.

Often, in the initial stage of contract negotiations, it is almost garaunteed that one side will feel pious  and almost offended at the lack of clairity the other side seems to lack.  However, what I try to illustrate to my clients is, regardless of how "grounded" we feel we are in the moment, emotions run deep.  We can bring personal, political and financial issues to the table without necessarily throwing them on it.  We all have motives, relevant or not.

What is important to keep at hand is, what matters.  What truly matters.  Will you life come to a screeching hault if the GFI outlet is non-functioning?  Would your moving plans sieze should you discover that the filter in the HVAC unit needs changing?  Often enough, the inital agreement already bears slight wounds, so be careful about what you go after with inspection issues.  Choose the items that are representational to the property.  If it is a gut rehab and several items fall short of expectation, than go after it.  If it is an older home put those expectations into perspective.    If you don't you may find youself going to war over minor wages while missing the bigger picture.