Learning to bargain correctly when buying an apartment on the secondary market: 15 working tips

Article updated: December 21, 2021
Elena GrushinaRealtor with a legal education. Work experience - 12 years

Hello. In this article, I will tell you how apartment buyers can safely transfer money to the seller, what safe transfer methods are available, what documents will be required, and what nuances there are if the apartment is purchased with a mortgage.

A small digression - if you need a free consultation, write online to the lawyer on the right or call (24 hours a day, seven days a week for all regions of the Russian Federation) Moscow and the region; 8 (812) 425-62-89 — St. Petersburg and region; all regions of the Russian Federation.

When is it possible to reduce the price?

There are at least two cases when you can bargain, for example:

1. The most successful option: the seller put the living space up for sale due to departure. They are already waiting for him in another country, for example.
   Sometimes sellers sell an apartment due to an urgent need for money. They have an outstanding bank loan or urgently need money for an operation.
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   It is difficult to predict the size of the discount in this case. If luck is on the buyer’s side, you can bargain for an amount less than what was initially announced by 20-30%, if the proceeds from the transaction are enough to pay off the debt or pay for the operation.

2. Having published an ad, the seller waits for calls, but they still don’t come after a month, two, six months. It's hard to accept the delay in the sales process. If initially he wanted to help out for a 2-room apartment. apartment with renovation 1.2 million rubles, then after a while I agree to a million.
   The “tasty” price is a bait to distract from the presence of registered residents in the apartment, the lack of documents for redevelopment or a certificate of legal capacity from a psychoneurological dispensary.

   Bargaining has become appropriate for him, he “breaks down.” Because of which? Because of the fear that the sale will drag on for years and there will be a collapse in real estate prices.

Buyer Benefits

In most cases, apartments are purchased using mortgage funds. This is time-consuming and requires additional documents from the seller, which must be submitted to the bank.

Your advantage will be:

• availability of the required amount at the moment. Indicate this to the seller and he will be more willing to reduce the price;
• speed of the transaction, especially when the seller is limited in time;
• the opportunity to help with paperwork, but only if it is relevant to your field of activity;
• you do not rush the owner to vacate the apartment so that he can calmly find another place to live.

All these factors will make the transaction more comfortable for the seller, for which he will be ready to give you a price.

How to prepare properly?

Do they immediately agree to inspect the proposed option? Do they start haggling from the door? No. Each buyer should prepare for the auction by collecting information about the apartment, the area in which it is located, the owners and the reasons that prompted them to sell.

How long have they been selling it? How to find out all of the above? You can call the owners, ask them about everything you are interested in, and also find out the exact location of the apartment. Knowing the address, you can determine it using Yandex or Google Maps . Using these services you can find out what is nearby. They analyze the situation on the market, looking through the ad databases, noting for themselves apartments in the same area and their prices.

All this information will be useful later, as it will allow you to think through the directions of bargaining and select adequate arguments for it.

Attention! Do not bargain during a telephone conversation with the owner. Why ask for a price reduction if there was no inspection? How can you explain your request? Lack of money? Why then decide on such an expensive purchase?

What to consider before viewing a home?

They do not agree to view the apartment until they answer the following questions:

• How much are you willing to pay for real estate, what budget is allocated for its purchase, or what amount will the bank give on credit to purchase an apartment with a mortgage?
• How much does the apartment you like in the ad cost? Is it worth the money the owner wants for it?
• How much money is missing?

The answer to the first question depends on the buyer’s budget, and the other two are answered by knowing the price of the apartment they like. An online calculator may be useful to calculate the average cost per square meter on the secondary housing market in the selected neighborhood.

The “strongest” arguments that have helped buyers more than once are also learned before viewing the apartment:

1. Cheaper apartment in a building nearby.
2. Carefully study the description of the apartment on the website/in the newspaper. It is better to memorize it so that while watching it you can compare the information from it with the realities of life. If discrepancies are identified, there is a reason for bargaining (the kitchen area is 8 square meters instead of 9 from the advertisement; the metro station is not 5 minutes, but a quarter of an hour).
3. Before viewing, get acquainted with the banks' offers on deposits and interest rates on them. The most favorable conditions are subsequently announced to the seller if he refuses to throw off a couple of tens of rubles, but at the same time mentions that he is not in a hurry for money. On deposit, after a couple of months, the owner will return the amount of the concession in full.
4. Before watching, learn what unreasoned bargaining is. Sometimes it is more useful than a reasoned one. If you look at some kind of housing in an advertisement, but the price is too high, they think about how much they wouldn’t mind paying for it. Then they calculate the difference, and it is its size that is announced in unreasoned bargaining as the desired concession.

What to consider when viewing housing on the secondary market in order to save on its purchase?

When you like the apartment during inspection, they think through arguments for bargaining. You can refer not only to shortcomings (first or last floor, proximity to tram/railway tracks, problems with natural lighting, etc.).

You can act more cunningly, but this will require a trusting relationship with the owner. After talking with the seller, find out the answers to your questions:

• How long does it take for the owner to sell the apartment?
• Does the owner have any special “wishes”: receiving the entire amount in cash as soon as possible, quickly completing the transaction due to the need to travel abroad, etc.
• Was the redevelopment legalized (what are the risks of buying real estate with illegal redevelopment?).
• Are there “natural” encumbrances: debt for electricity, water, light, etc. (read about the consequences of purchasing an apartment with debt on utility bills here).
• Has the owner found a suitable option for leaving her ex-husband?

Having analyzed the answers to the questions and found the seller’s “weaknesses,” they form a list of arguments, so that they can then voice them one by one during the bargaining during the next inspection of the apartment.

Read more about what you need to pay attention to when buying an apartment and what to ask the seller about in our article.

Can the price rise during trading and how to protect yourself from this?

This often happens if there are two or more applicants for one apartment. The seller can arrange a secret or open auction among potential buyers, promising to sell the apartment to someone who agrees to pay extra above the stated price.

A way to protect yourself against a sudden demand from the seller for additional payment after you have already agreed on everything is to enter into a deposit agreement. It is better to do this through a notary. After paying the deposit, the seller will be obliged to fulfill his part of the transaction according to the terms of the contract. If he refuses, he will return the deposit to the buyer in double amount.

How to find an approach to the seller?

When buying a home, you need to know the nuances that allow you to dictate your terms . There is a reasonable argument for those who doubt the advisability of trading: the seller sells and the buyer buys - they depend on each other.

But sometimes even the “trump cards” up your sleeve don’t help, since there is no trusting relationship with the seller. How to build them?

Bargaining is a process that is based on a dispute and involves confrontation between the parties. If the owner does not want to, he will not give in on the price and refuse to sell the apartment. There is no need to discuss the price until a positive emotional contact has been built with the owner.

You don't have to treat him like a friend. It is better to blindly follow three rules of etiquette:

1. politeness;
2. attentiveness;
3. punctuality.

You must arrive to the screening on time, take off your shoes near the door, and hang your clothes on a hanger if offered.

Important! Any owner loves his apartment to the depths of his soul, since he lived in it, raised children, and experienced turmoil. The buyer's "proprietary" behavior in it is not acceptable. You cannot discuss with him the demolition of walls, methods of dealing with rubbish.

The only thing that can be mentioned (if there is one) is the renovation, but at the same time the owner should be praised for something: for example, for the pattern on the ceiling or for the tiles in the bathroom.

How to behave in the bidding process, knowing about the shortcomings?

They always talk about shortcomings carefully so that the owner does not get offended. Resentment will blind him and become the primary reason for refusing to reduce the price of housing. You can find flaws in everything if you want, but some buyers put up with them provided the owner reconsiders the price. The following disadvantages are carefully mentioned:

• poor layout: narrow corridors, windows facing the roadway, not the courtyard;
• lack of major repairs;
• problems with heat supply due to the fact that the apartment is corner;
• first/last floor;
• alcoholic and rowdy neighbors;
• insufficient wall thickness, etc.

They don’t go too far when talking about them; they remember common sense and a sense of proportion. Didn't like the faded wallpaper in the living room? This argument is bad, since the owner may like them.

Adequate behavior of the buyer when identifying shortcomings: calm discussion with the owner without anger, curses, shouting and bickering. When a person is calm, he will always be heard; and when he shouts, they will never listen.

Do you have advantages over other buyers?

Every major transaction, like the sale of real estate, is accompanied by bargaining . It is considered a mutually beneficial process. In other words, the buyer must offer something to the seller in order for him to make a discount.

Arguments are thought out in advance, and the entire list is never announced to the owner. They are real “trump cards”, which are best placed on the table one at a time. This approach will allow you to reduce the price as much as possible.

Sellers always meet buyers halfway with arguments:

1. Fast buy . You don't have to sell anything to buy the option offered. Owners really appreciate the desire to complete a real estate purchase and sale transaction quickly.
2. Cash . If the buyer says that the required amount (taking into account the discount) is in the bank account, and the deposit is in his pocket, the owner “melts” (you will learn about what a deposit is, how it differs from an advance and a deposit and who benefits from it, here ). The conversation about a discount becomes more intense if the buyer wants to take out a loan from a bank or borrow the missing amount from relatives. In this case, it depends on the circumstances, and, therefore, the deal may fall through.
3. Willingness to wait to move because the owner has not completed the renovations in his new apartment or the boss has not signed an application for transfer to work in another city.
4. Willingness to take on the hassle of completing the transaction . This argument is left for last, and is given only when the seller has almost agreed to a discount.

Psychological tricks and bidding tactics

More active methods of persuasion help if negotiations to reduce the price are at an impasse. What are they doing to change the situation in their favor?

• Firstly, you can come to the apartment you like with a piece of paper on which to write down the pros/cons of all the apartments inspected. Seeing her would make any salesperson nervous. The main thing is for the buyer to behave correctly and not to rejoice ahead of time.
  He must put on the mask of a bored person who is more concerned not with the details, but with the view from the window. Only occasionally should he glance at the piece of paper with addresses. You can complain about fatigue and casually throw out the phrase: “It’s better to buy something cheaper.”

  If the owner does not have a crowd at the door of those wishing to purchase living space, he will retain the client by lowering the price.

• Secondly, you can cheat. If the buyer is not inspecting the apartment for the first time, he knows about its location.
  When the owner is at work, he can come and talk with the neighbors. You can arrange a surprise visit when the buyer comes for an inspection. If they say “bad things” about her, the seller will get nervous and give up a couple of tens of thousands of rubles.

How not to go too far?

Trading is an emotional process. Usually they speak first and think later, succumbing to their emotions. The owner of the living space agrees to a discount today, but changes his mind the next day.

Why? The main reasons: immediately after the preliminary agreement, another buyer may come to the owner and offer more or negotiate a smaller discount. To avoid such an outcome, it is better not to go too far with the discount: it should be reasoned and reasonable, and not prohibitive.

Useful tips for successful trading

A few practical tips will help you buy a home more profitably:

1. First, inspect the premises and think about whether you are ready to buy it and at what price. If you need to incur costs to repair or correct defects, tell the seller this and ask for a discount commensurate with these costs. State the price for which you are willing to purchase the apartment.
2. Prepare a list of several addresses where you are considering purchasing options. The seller must understand that you are interested in several apartments and will make a choice.
3. Give your reasons for the amount for which you will buy this apartment. Be confident.
4. If agreements are reached, document them. Draw up a preliminary agreement, which outlines important points, for example, the amount of the deposit (or advance payment), the period for concluding the main agreement, sanctions in case of failure of the deal.
5. Make an advance or deposit. This way you can cement the seriousness of the parties’ intentions.

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