Negotiation: The Art of (Avoiding) War
There are a lot of Realtors out there who claim to be expert negotiators. I think there’s even a designation for some kind of negotiation training class or seminar that you can take. It seems to me that, in the real estate business anyway, negotiation is a fairly simple process that needs to be focused on creating an acceptable outcome for all - you know, win-win.
I imagine someone is going to leave a comment telling me that I’m just not a good negotiator, but I don’t think that’s the case. In the age of transparency, negotiation isn’t about getting-over, it’s about getting to an acceptable end.
Our job as “agents” is to represent the best interests of the principals for whom we work (our buyers and sellers). And rarely (never) is it in their best interest to beat-down the party on the other end of their transaction. What is in their best interest is buying or selling their property, in the right time frame, for the right price, with the right amount of exposure.
A successful negotiation is about finding the common ground.It’s about aligning the objectives of the buyer and the seller. In a successful negotiation there is no loser, there are two parties working together towards a common goal. The negotiation is defining that goal.
Problems arise in negotiations when we lose sight of our objectives, when we let our ego get involved. When the negotiation becomes about “extracting our pound of flesh” rather than getting to the end we had set-out for.
We don’t have to be friends with everyone involved in a negotiation, but we do need to be respectful - respectful of their position, of their vantage point, of their objectives. And we need to be willing to exchange enough information to discover where the common ground is, so that we can figure out how to get there.
Too many people in this business liken negotiating to a poker game. The problem is that a poker game has a loser. In fact, it has several losers. And unless you’re willing to become one of those losers, you really shouldn’t play.
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