Honest negotiation is at the heart of estate agency: Tim Waring

Ask many and I would imagine the importance of property negotiation would fit no higher than mid table in the league of personal skills, especially when it is an activity that they might only encounter three or four times in a lifetime.

By comparison persuading a hormonal teenager to get out of bed to avoid missing the school bus might be a daily negotiation that has become a finely tuned art.

Seemingly many homeowners consider themselves skilled negotiators when it comes to buying and selling property, but in the process then commit some wonderful howlers that often prove expensive in terms of time, hassle or money, and occasionally all three.

Here a few scenarios you might care to consider, and why allowing an estate agent to negotiate on your behalf might prove to be in your best interests. Agents do it professionally and they know the pitfalls.

In the first situation, you have found your dream home. You have a buyer for your present home and you know you are good for the money, so you think you are the ideal buyer. You intend to drive a hard bargain from an apparent position of strength, expecting the seller to drop their price by 10 per cent.

However, it then transpires you have not exchanged on your sale, in fact there are three other parties involved and being good for the money means a mortgage with a decision in principle from a lender. Please be open with the selling agents and you will gain their confidence. You are still a good buyer, but your negotiating position is clearly not as strong as you portrayed.

Get the lifestyle tips you need with our specially-curated newsletter If you’re selling, again be open with your agent. They will also want to understand your position, the reasons for selling and your aspirations on price. So when they want to get you the best figure they can, saying you don’t have to sell before they have even started or you don’t want to be messed around, is perhaps not the best opening gambit for a working arrangement that is supposed to be to mutual advantage.

Remember that if your buyer perceives you are less than enthusiastic about selling, they might be equally ambivalent, bid accordingly or simply walk away. Hardly the strongest of negotiating positions, especially if truth be known, you do want to sell and have decided to play it cool.

As for legal documentation, there are procedures and protocols that solicitors and conveyancers are obliged to follow, often at the insistence of lenders. As I have said in this column before, if you then state you have certification/warranties, be willing to provide them. If you don’t have them for whatever reason, the likely outcome is a price adjustment, and you are on the back foot when it comes to any negotiation.

Maybe if you happen to be going on holiday soon, and you are in the midst of a property transaction, you might want to buy one those business management books when you are next at Leeds Bradford Airport.