Sell My House Myself

The Don't Blink Rule Negotiation Strategy

I want to sell my house myself without a Realtor ® you say? On this page, I will share with you a great negotiation strategy that I used many times, with phenomenal success.

The game: He or she that blinks first, loses

The objective: Be the last one to blink.

The prize: More money and better terms for the winner

Sell My House Myself
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Lets go back to when you showed the buyers your house. They are now sitting in front of you with an offer in hand.

Did you pay close attention to their body language? Did you observe them touching and feeling various objects in the house?

Did you hear them talk about the use of rooms or placing furniture?

Don't know what I'm talking about? If you need a reminder go to Reading Body Language

Showings and Body Language

The reason I mention about body language here, is you want to have an idea how interested the buyers are in your house.

If they showed several buying signals, you can be much more stubborn on your price and terms.

They want your house, and they are going to buy your house and your objective is to sell my house myself. Win! Win!

The buyers would still like to negotiate for a better price and terms of course, so you play the "no blink game" with them.

Case Study

Your house is appraised at $275,000.00

You are asking $277,900.00

The buyers showed several buying signals

The buyers gave a verbal offer of $265,000.00

You asked them to write it up on paper because you read, The Verbal Offer.

The buyers returned and you are all sitting at the kitchen table, because you studied Kitchen Magic  on this page.

In order not to complicate things, we will say everything else in the offer is OK and it is just the price you need to agree on.

Buyer: Doug and Sue, here is our offer for $265,000.00 all written up. We had our lawyer look it over and she said everything was in order.

You: I really appreciate your offer Joe and Mary. I can see you folks would be really happy living here. I know Sue and I sure enjoyed it.

Everything looks great to us but... we need to talk a bit about the price. (Place the appraisal in front of the buyers)

As you can see Joe and Mary, this appraisal was done by a certified professional appraiser, which states this house is worth $275,000.00 in today's market.

We feel that is a fair price and what we expect we will receive for the property.

We would really like to see you be the lucky owners because, we know you would take great care of our house.

Now Sell My House Myself Magic!

DON'T SAY ONE MORE WORD! QUIET! SILENCE! SHHHHH!

This takes nerves of steel. Silence. The air is heavy. You feel like screaming. You want to say something. Wait for it....wait for it.....wait for it.

There is only the sound of breathing. Tick, tick, tick......You get up and get a glass of water and sit down again....tick, tick, tick....

You glance out the kitchen window at a robin pulling a worm out of the front lawn. tick, tick, tick...

BLINK!

Buyer: Could we just have a moment outside to talk for a few minutes?

You: Sure, take all the time you want.

Five minutes passes. The buyers come back inside.

Buyer: We talked it over and we really want this home. I guess we got a deal at $275,000,00.

You: Great. You have made a great decision that you will not regret. You are going to love living here.

Now lets just make the changes here and initial and then we can answer any questions you have. If you would like to take another tour of the house after, that would be great.

Another sell my house myself don't blink negotiation strategy success story. Congratulations!

Will this Work Every Time?

Of course not.

Everything depends on the buyer's motivation. If the buyer's motivation is very high, probably at least 9 times out of 10.

The point to understand here is, if you use the no blink rule, you will end out better off, than if you don't.

You would be surprised how many times that this method will be successful, almost exactly as it unfolds above.

Remember: When it comes to the sell my house myself don't blink rule, the success rate is directly related to the amount of motivation and desire, that the buyers have towards your property.

That is one reason that the observation of the buyers when they are viewing your house, is so important.

Try a Little Practice

To give you an idea how this negotiation strategy might feel, try a little practice before the real deal happens. Have a partner or friend sit across the table from you and do a mock offer.

You can use the script from above for sell my house myself. Just change the dollar amounts to fit your own situation.

See how long you can sit there without saying a word after telling the other partner, you are sticking with your appraised price.

When the person(s) sitting across from you are the actual potential buyers, it will feel more awkward than say your husband or wife. This is still good practice and worth the time.

The Bottom Line

If your house and property has a certified appraisal for $275,000.00, should you expect to receive $275,000.00?

Why not? If you sold through a real estate agent you would expect them to sell your property for $275,000.00 right?

The only difference of selling through a real estate agent and sell my house myself when it comes to price, is how much it costs you to sell.

The house and property are worth exactly the same in either case. Make sense? Of course!

One More Thing

When you are sitting in silence, the buyer may start talking about all the reasons they want to pay less. Let them.

You can nod, say hmm, hmm but don't get involved in a conversation. The worst thing to do, is to start to argue with the buyer.

Don't Blink!

Do you see how easy this negotiation stuff is if you know a few skills? It's not about selling, it's about having the edge.

For More Information about Real Estate Negotiations

The Verbal Offer

The Give and Take Negotiation Technique

The Final Negotiation Steps

Negotiation - Main Page

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