My daughter is excited about her second year of college, mostly because she gets to live in her own apartment with friends. The search for this apartment served as a great reminder that negotiations can sneak up on you when you least expect them.
We live on the West Coast, but my daughter attends school on the East Coast, so it was important for her to find an apartment before she moved back home for the summer. She didn’t want to handle this task virtually, and her soon-to-be roommates felt the same.
At the start of their search, their only criterion was to find an apartment — preferably a two-bedroom — that the four roommates could share. However, as they delved into the process, each roommate began to express additional preferences that were important to them. This led to the first unexpected negotiation: negotiating priorities.
Negotiating Priorities
Most of our commercial negotiations involve balancing the needs of ourselves and others. However, many people enter a negotiation thinking only about their own priorities, which can lead to chaos and stress as other stakeholders start to weigh in with their needs too.
During the apartment search, my daughter and her roommates had to do a hard reset on their priorities. With every apartment they viewed, they discovered a new priority that hadn’t been mentioned before. This slowed their search and put them under even more time pressure as the school year neared its end. In hindsight, they all realized that they should’ve established what was important to each of them before beginning their search. This would’ve saved time, stress, and irritation.
To help them find an apartment, they enlisted the services of a broker. Almost immediately, the broker began sending them listings and taking them on tours of apartments. It was all quite exciting — until one of the parents asked, “How much is the broker charging?” This led to the second unexpected negotiation: negotiating assumptions.
Negotiating Assumptions
Assumptions aren’t inherently bad. In fact, we rely on them to process the world around us. However, they can become detrimental when we fail to test them, leading us to negotiate based on incorrect assumptions.
This was the first apartment for any of the roommates, and their first time using a broker. They assumed that the broker was being paid by the apartment owner. When they realized that no one had accounted for the additional broker fee, they had to reassess whether the apartment was still within their budget, stalling their search once again. Since then, they’ve been careful to test every assumption, from what’s included in rent to how each roommate likes their coffee!
After viewing many apartments, they finally found a cute three-bedroom that met all their priorities and fit within everyone’s budget. But as they were about to sign the lease, they noticed that the rent had increased by $100 per month. When they inquired why, the broker explained that the rent covered utilities for only three people, so with a fourth person, the rent would go up by $100 per month. This brought about the next unexpected negotiation: negotiating change.
Negotiating Change
When an unfavorable change occurs, many people resort to complaining. However, they don’t recognize that change is an opportunity to negotiate, and a skilled negotiator seizes the opportunity to turn the change into value.
When the roommates learned that their rent would be going up, they grew frustrated with the broker. The broker had known all along that there were four roommates! My daughter recognized that the broker wouldn’t want to lose this deal — which included a commission from the landlord and his broker’s fee. (This was such a proud-papa moment for me.) She suggested that if the broker were to decrease his fee by $1,200 (the annual increase in rent), they would accept the $100 a month increase and sign the lease. The broker agreed.
My daughter and her roommates learned some valuable negotiating lessons in finding their apartment, and they reminded me of a few as well. The biggest lesson? Expect the unexpected. When the unexpected happens, don’t panic or complain. Instead, look for an opportunity to negotiate.
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Negotiations can sneak up on you when you least expect them. We’ve helped clients successfully navigate the unexpected in their negotiations for nearly 50 years. Get in touch to speak with an expert.