So you’re “in” real estate. Whether as a lay buyer or seller, or a professional investor, you’re dealing in real estate and naturally you’ve scoured the internet looking for articles to help you with what you do. Besides the absolute most fundamental of dicta, such as “location, location, location,” what it means to be in the real estate business is this: negotiating.

If the heart of all business in general is selling (and it is), then the heart of the real estate business is successfully negotiating as positive an outcome for yourself as possible. And securing the most favorable terms calls for mastery of one of any number of tactics and strategies, such as the art of the low-ball, which is what this article will cover.

This “gray art” is one of the most common methods employed in any negotiation, whether it involves property or diplomacy or even, if you think honestly about it, romantic courtship! It’s a way to fluster the other party, maybe psychologically destabilize them enough to be open to your point of view, as it were. Essentially, you behave so outrageously as to flummox them and reframe the situation – which is to say, the negotiations – more to your advantage.

Simply put, you low-ball the numbers and see if they don’t work out in your favor after all. Low-ball the asking price with a counter-offer that is so much lower that it would almost feel insulting – operant word being “almost.”

You don’t want to be considered a time-waster, of course. You need to be taken seriously, after all. So your low-balled number shouldn’t be totally out of the realm of possibility. But it should be substantially low enough, such as as one-fifth or even more if you’re feeling really lucky (one rule-of-thumb states that if you’re not personally embarrassed by the figure, you haven’t gone low enough). The take-away is by doing this, you open things up at a frantic pace, signaling to the other party that you’re one mean businessman (or woman).

But don’t confuse this attitude with a take-no-prisoners approach. You are negotiating, not fighting. You should be prepared to continue negotiating, which is to say remain engaged and respond quickly to the other party. The point of low-balling is to gauge the other side’s reaction. Is s/he now angry? Or amused? Or do they understand what you’re doing – hence signaling their own experience in the matter and their own toughness? Such intelligence will be invaluable to helping you plot the rest of your moves.

Learn how to be a tough negotiator by low-balling the other party and flustering them! Go for broke. What have you got to lose? Again, don’t get “being aggressive” mixed up with “being insulting.” If you don’t ask, you won’t receive. It is more art than science, and thus a matter of delicacy, which calls for experience – but you have to start somewhere, and you need to start now. So start low and with any luck maybe you won’t have to inch up too high!

Author Bio: Barbra I. Miller writes frequently on real estate topics for various online publications. Please visit CheckOutRealEstate.com for more great articles from industry insiders such as Isaac Toussie and others!

Category: Real Estate
Keywords: real estate, businss, strategies, property, investing, realty, advice