Chris Voss is an expert negotiator. After going from a street cop to the FBI and later thriving as a hostage negotiator, he wrote the world-famous book, Never Split the Difference. This book has served as a masterclass in negotiation for almost every field of work, including real estate investing. Although many of Chris’s examples come from life-or-death situations, the same rules and tactics can be applied to real estate investing. That is exactly why Chris pivoted and started coaching real estate agents to become better negotiators.
But maybe you’re not an agent. Maybe you’re just trying to get your first or next deal done, working with a tough buyer/seller, and feeling like you’re making no headway. Chris has seen this time and time again. An overly aggressive buyer comes in, lowballs a seller, the seller then paints the buyer as the enemy, and the duo does a dance to the death ending in no deal done and frustrations at all-time highs. This is NOT the way to do real estate deals, and Chris has some advice that’ll help you change the way you (and your agent) get things done.
Chris goes in-depth on a few concepts, such as why “no” is actually what you want to hear, how to form “calibrated questions” that get you what you want, and why you’ll need to start using “tactical empathy” if you want to close deals faster. These are some of the same tactics that co-host Rob recently used to get a multimillion-dollar property, without much money out of pocket. No matter your skill level, number of deals done, or years of experience, this advice from Chris could catapult your investing to the next level.
David:
This is the BiggerPockets Podcast, show 683.
Chris:
People feel trapped. They feel like they’re being led into a trap. Concern is a negative emotion. They’re automatically getting dumber. If they say no and they don’t feel trapped, then they’re not going to be getting dumber in the moment. They’re going to be more likely to hear you…