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All "dos and don'ts" should be taken with a grain of salt, but you'd be well served to use these eight tips as a starting point when it comes to helping your clients work through offers, counteroffers, and the options they have to explore during negotiations.

DO:

Assist your clients in weighting the offer appropriately: persuade them to base the offer on their desire to sell/buy, on the property in question, and the time the house has been on the market.
Encourage your sellers to allow buyers move in quickly.
Encourage sellers to help with financing.
Encourage sellers to pay closing costs traditionally paid by the buyers.
DON'T:
Don't let a buyer/seller squabble over a small thing take away from the value of a solid, well-priced offer.
Encourage clients to work with their sellers/buyers to look for acceptable options to unacceptable contingency clauses.
Help your clients protect against a dangerous holdover from days gone by, negotiating fever. Many clients believe that going back with a counteroffer is what's expected, even necessary. But if the initial offer is reasonable, encourage your clients to consider it as is.
Help your clients see that a lower offer may sound better than it actually is. On a $325,000 home, an offer of $318,000 is only a 2.15 percent reduction.