Haggling down home and car prices like a pro
By Holden Lewis • Bankrate.com


Fishing has been defined as a jerk on one end of a line waiting for a
jerk on the other end.

Selling big-ticket items such as houses, cars, appliances and jewelry
is a lot like fishing. Salespeople, including savvy homesellers, hook
you and reel you in by using a variety of negotiation strategies. They
use those time-tested tactics on you whether you want them to or not.

Since you can't avoid the salesperson's negotiating ploys, your only
defense is to recognize what he's doing. You then have the chance to
use some of those tactics yourself -- becoming the fisherman instead
of the fish.

It's called haggling. How well you do it could be the key factor in
determining the price you agree to pay for your new home or car.

When consumers make major purchases, the most common mistake they make
is to assume that negotiating is not an option, says Steven Cohen, who
dispenses advice online and in seminars as founder of The Negotiation
Skills Company.

It's there, if you can find it
In fact, he says, there is room for negotiation in virtually every
purchase.

Roger Volkema, a management professor at American University, touts
the Golden Rule of Negotiation: "People will not negotiate with you
unless they believe you can help them or hurt them."

You can help the seller by buying, and hurt the seller by going to a
competitor or by wasting his time. So unless you're buying something
unique, like the Hope Diamond, there is almost always room for
negotiation.

The second most common mistake: lack of preparation. "That can be
disastrous," Cohen says. "If you negotiate without preparing properly
you can actually make your position worse."

A seller aware that you are guessing or bluffing will be unlikely to
give an inch.

Haggling isn't unseemly, seat-of-the-pants horse-trading. It's more a
freewheeling form of negotiation.

Ready for action
You prepare in three key steps, by:
Three key steps:
• Determining exactly what you want
• Researching to find out what constitutes a fair price for what
you want to buy
• Figuring out what's most important to you and to the seller

Don't assume that the seller shares your priorities. Yours might be
price, but the seller's top desire might be a quick sale. Or it might
be something that you would never expect.

"People need to think in broader terms and think of negotiation as
discovery," says Volkema, author of "The Negotiation Toolkit: How to
Get Exactly What You Want in Any Business or Personal Situation."

What you'll need to know to haggle successfully
"I think it's a good idea, when you're making major purchases, to go
to several places, shop around not only to make comparisons but to get
some confidence," says American University management professor Roger
Volkema.

"In the real-estate business," he says, "they say the three most
important elements of selling a house are location, location,
location. The key to negotiation is information, information,
information."


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