Have you ever gazed vulnerably at a manila folder
crammed full of mortgage documents that you are about to sign and
wondered if you could have gotten a better deal? Almost everyone who
owns a house has had this feeling before; this is usually because they
didn’t take time to effectively negotiate a better price with the
lender. Most people fail to negotiate because they feel uncomfortable
discussing the subject matter or the uneasiness that accompanies
negotiating. For the most part, people hate confrontation and would
rather pay a little higher price than have to negotiate.

Tried Brain Evolution System? Try it Today For 21 Days Free!

Studies
show that most borrowers will return to the same lender time and again,
even if they know that they can get a slightly better deal elsewhere.
This is to avoid having to negotiate and the fear of getting hammered
by an unknown lender. Consumers could save hundreds or thousands of
dollars each year by employing some simple negotiating tactics
throughout the year. Some examples of where you could save money are
your mortgage, car, life insurance, tires, mechanic, electrician,
plumber and more. By simply taking an extra step to negotiate you could
probably save enough money for your next vacation.

Negotiating
doesn’t have to be a grind and it doesn’t have to be tacky, it has to
be planned. Much like chess, when you know how your opponent will move
next, the game is yours. One strategy for successful negotiating is to
simply set up a higher authority when making these purchases. This is
called “good guy, bad guy” gambit and is commonly used in the car
business. I’m not advocating that you behave as a car salesman does,
just merely use the same gambit. Think about it, car salesmen have been
using this tactic for years and you have probably never been aware of
it.

Have you ever noticed that the car salespeople are your
“friend” when you’re buying a car? It’s the “mean manager” that won’t
cut your price or give you more money for your trade and the
salesperson is on your side. Before you know it, you’re asking your
salesperson to negotiate for you with the stingy manager to cut the
price. If the sales manager says “No” you’re not angry at the poor
sales person, after all, he’s on your side.

This is called “good
guy bad guy”, the salesperson is the good guy and his sales manager is
the bad guy. The truth is, when your salesman scurries off to “go to
battle” for you with the “mean manager”, he’s actually talking about
the weather or the Braves game with him. Both he and the manager have a
vested interest in you paying more for the car. The reason salespeople
use the good-guy bad-guy gambit is to avoid tension and to keep the
consumer’s ego from spoiling the negotiation.

Most consumers are
inexperienced negotiators and have the tendency to draw a line in the
sand early in the negotiations, i.e.” If you don’t give me this price
or rate I will not do business with you. This calls the consumer’s ego
into play, and usually kills the deal. This is why most people that try
to negotiate a mortgage or car purchase will usually begin with company
“A”, throw out an unreasonable offer, have it rejected, and eventually
buy the product at company “B” for the same price that company “A”
offered.

In the history of negotiating, man’s ego has killed more
deals than the price ever has. To avoid having each other’s ego spoil
your next deal, try setting up a higher authority who is calling the
shots for you on the purchase, i.e. your husband, wife, mother, father
and so on. A higher authority is a fictional person that you create
that has the power to say “yes” or “no” to you being able to purchase
the product. The higher authority will be the “bad guy” and you will be
the “good guy”. You may feel a little emasculated by doing this
however, you’re trying to save money, not impress the salesperson with
your negotiating skills.

You should begin by telling the
salesperson something along these lines, “My (uncle) told me to use
your company to get a good deal on (insert product or service). This
gives the salesperson the impression that you are naïve and you are
serious about doing business. Follow up this with something like, “I
have never bought one of these (products or services), can you help me
get a good deal? At this point the salesperson should be salivating.
Since you are “inexperienced”, all of your offers and counter offers
during the negotiations will come from your “uncle” who is the family
expert in these matters.

Now you can let your “uncle” throw out
the first offer without bruising anyone’s ego. The offer should be
slightly on the ridiculous side, you can say something like this: “my
“uncle” told me that I shouldn’t pay more than (blank) for a (blank) is
that about right”? After asking for the ridiculous price sit back and
watch, you have just put your salesperson “in check”. The salesperson
will most likely respond to your “uncle’s” offer with, “Your uncle is
crazy”, there’s no way the (blank) could be sold for less than (blank).

The
salesperson’s response is usually a lower price than the original
asking price that was in play before. Now we have the salesperson’s
first offer, which is what we wanted. Now all you need to do is pick up
the phone and tell your “higher authority” what the salesperson has
offered. At the end of the phone call you tell the salesperson that
your “uncle” advised you to shop around. Then you apologize for you
“higher power’s” behavior and explain to the salesperson that you like
them and the product, but your uncle has advised you to shop around.

The
salesperson will do one of two things, ask you to stay while they try
to get you a better price, or they will just let you leave. If they let
you leave, they probably don’t have much more negotiating room to work
with. If this is the case, and you feel like you have been given a fair
price, you should try to chip away at their counter offer. You do this
by telling the salesperson that you think you can get your uncle to go
along with the deal if he could just give you a little better deal.
This usually gets you a little more knocked of the price. You can
repeat this step as much as you like until you get the deal you want.