7 tips for negotiating the price of a Spanish property

How can you be successful when haggling with an owner over the asking price?

23 April 2018, 13:50

It’s possible to haggle over the price of a home as long as you have the right motivation. The Spanish company Indivisa Personal Shopper Inmobiliario explains how to go about a successful negotiation and reduce the initial asking price.

Don't visit the property more than twice: You will want to visit the property several times to be sure about what you're buying, but the bad point to this is that being too visibly interested benefits the seller.
Be reasonable when making an offer: You need to know the market in depth to be able to make a sensible offer. Before you submit your proposal, you should know what type of final price you can honestly expect to knock the property down to.
Always have another option up your sleeve: You should be interested in buying the property but not desperate. If things don’t go your way in the purchase or negotiations, it’s important to have a plan B.
Give the seller a deadline for accepting your offer: Set a limit for how long the owner has to decide about your offer. A period of between 3 and 5 days is a good idea. Generally, the most successful negotiations are the fastest ones.
Learn as much as you can about the seller: Being informed about the seller and their reasons for putting the property on the market gives you more power when it comes to negotiating successfully and securing a larger discount.
Show flexibility with the terms of the contract: A lot of homeowners are more interested in reaching an agreement on the date of the handover of the property or the signing of the contract rather than closing the transaction at a slightly higher or lower price, so it is good to be attentive to the seller's needs in order to reach a better agreement.
Explain to the seller why the option presented is the best: Psychological factors play a key role in the purchase of a property. For many sellers, elements that will enable the operation to be completed successfully are important, such as knowing that the buyer is able to pay the asking price or that they’ve already got a mortgage from the bank.