My mom recently closed on the sale of her condo, and I just debriefed on the negotiation with our real estate agent. Here is what we learned. We all can benefit from these. 1. Homework paid off with the right real estate agent. I interviewed four real estate agents,...
I recently interviewed several real estate agents in person to determine the best fit to help sell my mom’s condo. Since negotiation comprises one of real estate agents’ core competencies and our agent would be our front-line negotiator with buyers and their agents, I...
Here’s Part Two of my annual list of lessons learned and links to the columns that more extensively address these strategies. Don’t forget to implement these in 2025! Auctions will almost always maximize sellers’ negotiation leverage when price matters. Similarly,...
He had been in the pool deck and resurfacing industry for about 40 years – and he was a talker. He was also the fourth sales professional I met that day. But I was all ears. Why? Because my wife and I weren’t yet firm on what we wanted for our pool decking and patio....
“Hi – how are you?” my friend said to his teen daughter years ago after coming home from work. She erupted, yelled at him, stormed to her room and slammed the door. He turned to his wife and said “what did I do?” She replied “you talked.” This example, shared by...
My 14-year-old daughter has excellent negotiation skills. And that’s a problem, at least now. Of course, I shouldn’t complain. She’s a great kid and very responsible, etc. But she can also be really frustrating. My friends with older daughters tell me this is a...
I’m told there’s almost nothing more personal and emotionally challenging than a divorce. Even divorces without kids, where the spouses have just grown apart but still want a future relationship, can present significant challenges. So how can parties effectively...
I’m often asked to identify my most challenging negotiation, and my answer for the last 21 years has always been the same – with my wife! The second most challenging one? With my kids. Most family negotiations have all the elements of extremely tough negotiations....
Four years ago, I wrote a Negotiators Guide to Thanksgiving Conversations and eight years ago I wrote a column thanking negotiators for exhibiting certain effective traits that make all our negotiations better. Here are three more effective negotiator traits to be...
