Have you ever made an serendipitous discovery that changes your outlook? I made such a discovery one day when dealing with a stubborn seller. I wasn't totally new as I had my first couple of deals done but I was still in the process of learning the ropes. A strategy called take away selling had been mentioned a few times in books I had read but I hadn't ever tried it. It seemed a bit risky. It has turned into my most effective negotiation tool. Let me explain.



First of all, hopefully your business is at a point where you don't need the next deal to pay your bills. So the point is that you're operating from a position of strength. Your pipeline is full of deals. You're going to be buying 2, 4, 10 or however many houses it is that you buy every month so any particular deal will not make or break you. That's a great position to be in.

Unfortunately back then I wasn't quite in that position. I was intent of making a deal out of anything that came down the pipeline. That turned out not to be such a great idea as I ended up buying a few houses I later wished I hadn't. It wasn't uncommon for sellers to have the upper hand either but that all changed when I learned this tactic.

One day the phone rang and it was a landlord whose tenants had trashed the house and disappeared. The house was on the fast track to foreclosure. The numbers didn't really make it a great deal be the owner agreed to let me contact the lender to attempt a short sale. I arranged to meet him and his wife at the house so we could get the paperwork out of the way.

He neglected to tell me that his wife was mad at the world and wanted to blame all her problems on whoever was standing in front of her at the time, which happened to be me that day. She even wondered aloud of I was really an identity thief preying on her and her husband. It wasn't the first time a seller had been tough to deal with but this was worse than usual. I decided it was time for me to get out of dodge.

So when this lady finally shut her mouth, I looked her in the eye and calmly said something like this: "Look, I'm only here because your husband called me. You have a problem and I have a solution but I can only help those that want to be helped...and if I really was an identity thief, don't you think I would be smart enough to prey on people who weren't in foreclosure and had lousy credit? I wish you the best of luck but I can't help you."

I wasn't joking either. I was headed out the door but before I got to the door she had changed her mind. "I'll sign the paper work," she said. I couldn't believe my ears. I had a solution to her problem and I was about to take it away. And that's how powerful & effective take away selling can be.

An outcome similar to this is not uncommon, but take away selling doesn't work every time. So before you try it you need to understand that you really do risk losing the deal. If the seller let's you walk out the door without giving in then it's over. You'd be a fool to go back and try to negotiate a deal at that point because you've given all the power to the seller and you won't get a good deal.

But if the seller is motivated enough that they won't let you "take away" the solution to their problem, then you've suddenly turned the tables. You have taken control of the situation and the deal ought to be done in short order. Try it. It works wonderfully.