This is an excerpt from my book Real Estate Dealmaking A Property Investor’s Guide to Negotiating.
Because the negotiation process begins well before the actual appointment you make to close a deal, it’s critical that you prepare a well-thought-out plan before you begin any type of real estate conciliation. This requires gathering information about all the others involved, the topics you will be discussing in the negotiation, and the market where that particular real estate property is located. But gathering information is not enough; it also is essential that you validate the information that you have obtained.
Each negotiation session should be viewed as an important, short (only two to three hours) event, similar in length to an opera, a football game, or a courtroom trial. Although these special events only last a couple of hours, the number of hours required to prepare for them is enormous. Similarly, the preparation ratio for a negotiation session should be closer to 10:1 rather than 1:1. That means a skilled negotiator will spend ten hours of preparation to get ready for a one-hour negotiation session. If you can schedule negotiation sessions several days to one week apart, it will give you the ability to spend two to three solid hours a day to prepare for them extremely well.
- Gathering information is not enough; it is essential that you validate the information that you have obtained.
- The skilled, experienced negotiator will accrue ten hours in preparation time to get ready for a one-hour negotiation session.
- By documenting each step of the negotiation process, you improve the negotiation itself and gain negotiating strength at the same time.
- Having thorough, clearly written, dated material from your negotiation sessions gives you a powerful advantage in the event you find yourself in litigation.
- Lead your opponent into a discussion where you can declare an indisputable. It will give you the same powerful feeling as declaring “checkmate” at the end of a chess match.
For more information, read the book Real Estate Dealmaking A Property Investor’s Guide to Negotiating.
