09/03/2026
What do buyers and sellers need to know about each other?
Many times, it seems like buyers and sellers have no understanding of each other's perspective…
In my 26 years of real estate, I've learned that a solid understanding between buyers and sellers regarding each other’s most important wants and needs is the most critical starting point for a successful transaction.
In any market, but especially in complex sectors like rural acreage, farms, and specialized residential real estate, deals stall not just because of price, but because of a fundamental disconnect in perspective. Educating both sides on what the other is actually trying to achieve can turn a high-friction negotiation into collaborative problem-solving.
Buyers need to remember that for the seller, the property is often tied up with decades, or generations of personal family history, sweat equity… pure emotion driving their valuation. Or it may be that having to move twice is an absolute deal killer… So a seller’s primary need might not be maximum dollar; other parts of the offer could be just as important... like a seamless closing timeline, time after the close in order to get moved, or a buyer who respects the land's heritage and infrastructure or the neighborhood dynamics. When buyers are taught to look past the listing price and try to learn and understand the seller's timeline, emotional stakes, and motivations, they can structure offers that appeal directly to those other priorities.
At the same time, sellers frequently misunderstand the buyer’s perspective. A seller might view a buyer’s meticulous inspection questions or concerns over well capacity, soil grading, and water rights as nitpicking or bad faith. By educating sellers on the buyer’s baseline needs—such as risk mitigation, future insurability, financial predictability, and long-term usability—sellers can proactively address shortcomings. Transparency about past property quirks, structural updates, or drainage conditions builds immediate trust.
This mutual education serves as a stabilizing baseline. But it must be orchestrated by the agent/agents. Buyers and sellers rarely get to just sit and visit and share their situations… so it is up to the agents to ask the right questions and to also make sure they have prepared their answers…
By setting the stage for the showing, writing a creative offer for sellers and for the incoming offer for the buyers, the agents help set realistic expectations from day one. Without this background information, you have simply got an emotional seller and a cautious buyer.
When both parties understand the "why" driving the other side's positions, the negotiation shifts from a zero-sum winner take all battleground to a shared roadmap, dramatically increasing the likelihood of finding common ground and putting a winning deal together.
