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H IGH -P OWERED R EAL E ST A TE T ECHNIQUES

probably come up heads again, andI’llloseeverything.”Your
willingness to take ariskhas entered the negotiating arena and
colored your decision.
• Time. Time is the ultimate negotiating power. Every real estate
transaction has a time frame within which the parties must
work if they want to make a deal. He who controls the timing
controls the deal.

FIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF A SKILLED NEGOTIATOR

A renowned researcher in the field of negotiation conducted a survey
in which CEOs of major corporations were asked to rate, in order of
importance, the requisite qualities of people they would utilize to ne-
gotiate on their behalf. Even though I had developed my own ideas,
their choices surprised me. Here they are:

1. Personality. They believed that a good personality was more
important than knowledge. (That shocked me.)
2. Knowledge of the subject matter. Ithought that would have been #1!
3. Ability to organize information. This speaks volumes for the im-
portance CEOs placed on good work habits such as record-
keeping and efficient filing and retrieval systems.
4. Knowledge of human nature. Wouldn’t you think this would have
a higher ranking?
5. Ability to find and exploit weaknesses. CEOs were interested in
utilizing people who had the brainpower and mental agility to
probe the other side without setting off any warning bells, and
then use the information gained to their advantage.

The next section of this chapter describes how you can develop
these five negotiation skills that CEOs value most highly.

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