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Black Belt Negotiating For Listing Agents

By Michael Soon Lee, CRS, GRI

Even though it’s become a buyers’ market in many areas of the country this doesn’t mean that we still can’t get the best deals possible for your sellers using strong negotiating skills. Unfortunately, many of us have forgotten how to bargain effectively for owners during the last decade when all many listing agents had to do was accept the highest bid. Now, in a market where you don’t want your listings to sit around we must begin sharpening our bargaining skills again and help is available from an unexpected source – Asia.

Negotiating is like a martial arts contest where knowing how to use power, leverage and timing can mean the difference between winning and losing. For instance, a martial artist would never go into a contest without first spying on his opponent to find weaknesses. Similarly, before setting a price on a property you’ll want to carefully look into who’s your competition, how long similar properties have been on the market and how they compare to your listing.

Experienced fighters will warm up before engaging in a contest so they don’t injure themselves. Likewise, savvy listing agents will not just jump into a negotiation without first building rapport with agent for the buyer.

Once the contest begins, martial artists are always looking for an opening or hidden weakness and it’s usually not something obvious like a knockout punch. In real estate the best deals generally do not involve price because it’s so cut-and-dried. While the seller has a bottom line figure and so does the buyer, there are many other factors that can be much more important to the seller. Items like size of the earnest money deposit, move-out date and putting caps on repairs can represent thousands of dollars in savings to a seller that have nothing to do with price.

Black belt fighters do not believe in win-win and neither should you. Always try to get the best deal you can and assume that the other party will, too, because they will. If the buyer accepts your final offer you needn’t feel guilty since it must satisfy his or her needs. How good a deal it is for the buyer is not your concern.

Martial artists keep looking for an opening even when a situation seems hopeless. As long as both sides are talking keep fighting for your client by asking the buyer to suggest possible solutions. You can also brainstorm together to generate ideas.

If a karate tournament ends in a tie it goes to sudden-death where the first one to score wins. If a bargaining session hits a deadlock you have several options. You can suggest something off-the-wall like asking the buyer to throw in his timeshare in Cancun since you have nothing to lose. Alternatively, you can walk away but leave the door open for the buyer to return with a better offer.

Finally, when a fight ends the contestants bow to each other as a sign of respect and gratitude. When a contract has been ratified you should congratulate the buyer and remind him or her about the benefits of the deal such as being able to spend weekends enjoying the home rather than driving all over town, realizing the tax benefits of home ownership and being entitled to any appreciation whenever it occurs.

All this being said, the first place you should hone your negotiating skills is over the fee that the seller will pay your broker for you to market his house. If you can’t effectively bargain with the seller how can you protect his interests when dickering with buyers?

Great martial artists are constantly practicing their craft as should you. Instead of just waiting for the few opportunities to just negotiate real estate deals for clients look for chances to bargain every day. Any time you pull out your wallet ask yourself, “Is this an opportunity to haggle?” While you don’t need to dicker over every little item, the more you practice the more adept you will become at the lost art of bargaining.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Michael Soon Lee, CRS, GRI, has been a real estate broker for over thirty years and is the author of two new books “Black Belt Negotiating” (AMACOM Books, 2007) and 111 Ways to Justify Your Commission (Kaplan Publishing, 2007). He is a world class negotiator and martial artist who has bargained on everything from multi-million dollar real estate deals to discounts on gas for his car. Michael shows people how to use martial arts secrets to gain leverage in any bargaining situation. His website is www.SeminarsUnlimited.com and his phone number is: (800) 417-7325.

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