Recommended Reads for Negotiations?

[Sahar A.]

Hi all,

I was hoping for reading material on negotiating real estate deals as a Realtor. I prefer books but all materials are welcome - thanks in advance!

[Irene Nash]

Hi Sahar,

I like the book 'Never Split the Difference' by Chris Voss. It's a good one to listen to on Audible because a lot of it has to do with voice tonality.

There's some stuff in there that has the potential backfire in real estate, i.e. if a buyer always offered a hefty percentage low to gauge where the seller is (market value is market value and the price at which the property is likely to sell, regardless of how buyer or seller feels about it - and it's possible to offend a seller to the point where they'll jump through hoops to not work with a specific buyer). But overall really helpful in terms of how you phrase things, psychology of the other party, etc., not stuff you're likely to hear in many other resources.

He also makes a good case for killing the 'win-win' mantra in negotiating, which is great but as he points out only works if the other side is 'win-win' too. Not that you have to play hardball or be unethical, he's more saying to not set yourself up to get blindsided.

The book "Pitch Anything" by Oren Klaff is interesting as well and I think worth listening to (or reading). It does away with starting out with 'thanks for your time, this is who I am, etc.' when people just want the speaker to get to the point. He also defines some pressure points that could be used against you or your client in a negotiation.

Hope this helped and thumbs up for looking for training on negotiation, I think it's a completely under-trained skill in RE!