Let the selling Begin!

Be Ready to Toss ix ax Extra
If you're close and the buyer has refused to up his or her bid, you can offer to add some things to the deal which have a low dollar cost to you but a high perceived value to the buyer. You can offer to pay for the repairs on the mechanic's checklist, especially if they are not high and if the mechanic will give you a deal on the repairs.

• You can offer to deliver the car with a full tank of gas
• Have it cleaned and waxed
• New floor mats
• Or something else of perceived value like an extra tire you might have lying around.

Drop Your Price in Decreasing Increments
Remember the psychology of pricing. You want to price it high enough to leave room to back off so that the buyer will feel that he or she has "won." Here's how professional car people do this. Let's say your asking $9,000 and the prospect offers $7,800. You've already decided that the lowest you'll go is $8,200. Your counterbid might be a drop of $400. However, before you make your offer, you might want to emulate the professionals.

Get out your calculator and do a lot of figuring and adding. Shake your head a lot and show some "pain." You make your counteroffer and then say nothing. Make the buyer respond before you say anything, even if you end up with five minutes of silence. Let's say he responds by upping his bid to $8,000. Go through the same process as before and show some more pain, then offer a reduction of $175. That puts your price at $8,425 and the buyer raises his offer to $8,250.

At this point, you've got your bottom price, but don't leave any money on the table. Back to your calculator and then counter with an even smaller drop of, say, $75. Now you're at $8,375. With every drop. of course, you should convey the impression that the buyer is one heck of a negotiator. At this point he says $8,300 and you agree to split the difference.