Take Two Steps

You've been out looking for the perfect house for about 3 months now. You like this particular condo, but find most sellers price their houses a tad bit too high over your budget. You went to see the place twice already, with different real estate agents so they won't suspect you love this place and try to take advantage of that by quoting you an unreasonable price. Having known quite a number of agents by now, and desperate to own that house, you do either of the two things below:

1. You announce to all your agents of your interest in the unit, and tell them the price you're willing to pay. Your  though was that you'll buy from whoever can negotiate for you the best deal.

or

2. You stick to only one agent, for whatever reason you so choose, to get the deal for you at the best he/she can muster.

At first glance most may take up choice number 1 because of 2 reasons:

a) They want the best agent to give them the best deal.

b) They believe that competition creates good agents.

Well maybe not too much of b), but most definitely a). Who in the right mind would not want to buy something cheap? Plus it does feel good to have so many people working for you, rather than at your office when you are working for so many people. But method number 1 is flawed. It's not a double-edged sword. It's a sword that makes you think the edge is facing your opponent, when it's actually facing you. Why?

We now move to the seat of the owner for a moment. You now own a house you've been wanting to dispose of. A few months passed and not many offers come from either direct buyers or agents. All of a sudden you get numerous offers from various agents telling you of interested people asking specifically for your unit. Would you then sell your unit to the lowest bidder or the highest? It's a rhetorical question we all know the answer to.

What has happened was that instead of achieving your goal of getting the house at the lowest possible price, you've just made the owner think that there are many people interested in his/her unit. This will in turn make the owner increase the selling price to act as desperate-filter, and grab the one with the highest offer and desperate level.

Next time you go out trying to negotiate something either for yourself or your boss, make sure you try to fit into the other party's shoes and see things from their perspective. Or you could go to your nearest Borders and pick up a copy of 'Business For Dummies'. Or you could hire experienced agents to do the negotiations for you. That way you won't look like a monoscopic black and white moron.