Negotiating the sale of real estate is one of the most dynamic events in business and personal life. Money, emotion, needs, desires, features, timing and more combine to create an interesting storm.
Your real estate agent must be a negotiating expert. And if not an expert, your agent should at least profess to be a student of negotiation strategy and tactics. Your agents skill in this area will serve you: good or bad.
One tactic that is essential to understand is leverage. The FBI* tells us that there are three types. You will see other authors using similar categories with slightly different grammar.
Positive Leverage: Something good will happen if you agree to my terms.
Negative Leverage: Something bad will happen if you don’t agree to my terms.
Normative Leverage: If you agree to my terms, your normative values (the way you see the world) will be satisfied. Interestingly, this requires that the negotiator learns the normative values of his or her counter part. Insert: good communication skills and knowledge of “people”.
In residential real estate negotiations, I have found that positive and normative leverage are most powerful. Continue to read this blog and you will learn more.
*Thanks Chris Voss, Author: “Never Split The Difference”. Highly recommended read or audio book.