Lets get better at negotiating!

[Alonso Fernandez Maldonado]

Like in any other business, in real estate, being a great negotiator can take you very far. After reading "Never Split the Difference" by Chris Voss I realized that negotiating is not so hard, it just takes a lot of practice. I have been implementing what I learned from the book in my calls and deals which as worked very well. However, I could speed up the learning process by practicing more often. Because of the lockdown it is a good time to practice since a lot of us have extra time on our hands. I was thinking of doing roleplaying sessions via ZOOM with whoever is interested. I would like to invite anyone who wants to improve their negotiating skills to send me a direct message so we can arrange something and help each other be better negotiators. 

[Joe Villeneuve]

Originally posted by @Alonso Fernandez Maldonado:

Thanks for your response, @Joe Villeneuve. I don't plan on teaching as I don't have any experience. I plan on connecting with people who have read or are willing to read "Never split the difference". The first stage would be discussing the book as you would in a book club, sharing ideas. After discussing the book I plan on doing virtual one-one-one meetings amongst those interested and doing roleplays using the techniques learned from the book. I'm not saying this will make people the greatest negotiations, but I do think it will help us get used to using different negotiating techniques without jeopardizing a deal. I think this can be useful for everyone, but I think the people who will benefit the most are the newbies who are not very comfortable with phone calls, talking to strangers, etc. More experienced investors are also encouraged to participate as they will also get something out of it and will help facilitate the conversation. I'm not sure if it'll work, but I want to try it now that we all have a little extra time.

@Joe Villeneuve

 I think you have great goals, but what you don't realize yet, is one chapter from a book isn't going to prepare you in any way for the art of negotiating.  Negotiation is an art that requires the science of analysis to set your min/max criteria for specific deals...all different based on the 100's of different strategies that could comprise the offer you would make.  Each property could have a number of different ways to make offers and multiple different strategies as part of those offers.  Without the analysis, and the min/max criteria that it generates, you can't make the original offer to negotiate from...and you wouldn't know what a good deal was because you have nothing to measure that deal off of.  The resulting agreement, then becomes a compromise...which is another way of saying neither party got what they needed.

The goal of negotiation is to get what you need, and not what you want. What you need is the deal, not the property. Without the proper analysis, the negotiator has no way of knowing if getting the property means also getting the deal. This usually ends up hurting the REI. The most important mindset every REI must take into any negotiation, is the ability to walk away. Sometimes the best deals you make, are the ones you don't.