Don’t Lose the House Over a Cup of Coffee

Why Tampa Bay Home Buyers Need to Look Beyond the Negotiation and Remember the Real Goal: Buying the Home

After more than three decades selling real estate in the Tampa Bay area, I've watched this happen more times than I could possibly count. A buyer finds the house. They love the neighborhood. They love the schools. They can picture their family living there. They've gone through the home-buying process, written an offer and started negotiating. Then the buyer and seller get $5,000 apart, and suddenly everybody digs in.

The buyer doesn't want to "overpay." The seller doesn't want to "give the house away." Sometimes even the real estate agents become so focused on winning the negotiation that everyone loses sight of the reason they started negotiating in the first place: the buyer wanted to buy the house.

What Is $5,000 Really Costing You?

Let's put $5,000 into perspective. As I write this, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate is approximately 6.66%. Finance an additional $5,000 over 30 years at that rate and you're talking about approximately $32 per month, or about $7.41 per week.

Think about that. I've watched buyers walk away from a house they loved, a neighborhood they wanted to live in and sometimes even the school district they wanted for their children over an amount of money that, when financed, works out to roughly the price of a cup of coffee every week. That's when you have to ask yourself: Are you negotiating intelligently, or are you simply trying to win?

Winning the Negotiation and Losing the House

Real estate negotiations can become emotional. Nobody wants to feel like they gave in. Nobody wants to think the other side "won." But buying a home isn't a sporting event.

If you walk away from the right $500,000 Tampa Bay home because you wouldn't pay another $5,000, did you really win? You saved $5,000 on a house you didn't buy. And that's where I've watched the consequences become much bigger than the original disagreement.

I've Watched This Story Play Out for Decades

Some buyers walk away and immediately find another house. But others don't. They decide they'll wait. Then they sign another one-year lease. Something happens the following year, so they renew again. Interest rates change. Home prices change. Life happens. Before they realize it, several years have gone by and they're still renting.

Meanwhile, the house they could have purchased years earlier belongs to somebody else. Imagine driving through that neighborhood ten years later and saying, "I could have bought that house for $500,000." Now imagine it's worth $750,000.

You didn't lose $5,000. You potentially missed $250,000 in appreciation, while spending years paying rent instead of building equity in a home of your own. Of course, no one can guarantee what an individual property will be worth ten years from now. Real estate values can rise or fall. But that's precisely why buyers need to evaluate the entire financial and lifestyle decision, rather than allowing a relatively small negotiating difference to make the decision for them.

There Is More at Stake Than Money

This is the part people sometimes overlook. Maybe that was the neighborhood where you wanted to raise your children. Maybe it put them in the school district you wanted. Maybe it shortened your commute. Maybe it had the backyard, extra bedroom, home office or community your family needed. Those things have value too.

I've seen people sacrifice all of that because the negotiation became more important than the home.

A Good Real Estate Agent Should Keep the Big Picture in Focus

There's another lesson here for Realtors. Our job isn't to demonstrate how tough we are by blowing up a transaction over the last few thousand dollars. And our job certainly isn't to pressure somebody into purchasing a home that isn't right for them. Our job is to give buyers the information and perspective necessary to make an intelligent real estate decision.

Sometimes that means telling a buyer to walk away. A bad inspection, serious structural problems, an appraisal issue, unaffordable payments or discovering something fundamentally wrong with the property are legitimate reasons to reconsider a purchase. But walking away from the right Tampa Bay home solely because the buyer and seller are $5,000 apart? Before you do that, pull out the calculator.

Remember Why You Started

If you're buying a home in Tampa, Lutz, Odessa, Carrollwood, Wesley Chapel, St. Petersburg, Clearwater or anywhere in the Tampa Bay real estate market, don't become so obsessed with winning the negotiation that you lose sight of the bigger objective.

You're not buying bragging rights. You're buying a home.

If it's the right house, in the right location, at a payment you can comfortably afford, don't lose it because pride took over the negotiation. Because years from now, when you drive past the house you could have owned, you probably won't remember the $5,000 you refused to pay. But you may remember the house. And all because of about $7.41 a week.

Thinking About Buying a Home in Tampa Bay?

Whether you're a first-time home buyer, relocating to Tampa Bay, searching for a luxury home, buying an investment property or simply trying to understand today's Tampa Bay housing market, experienced representation matters.

I've been helping buyers and sellers navigate Tampa Bay real estate since 1991.

Vincent Arcuri | Real Broker LLC
813-VINCENT | 813-846-2368
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