Negotiation Tip #1: Bring Mommy

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days...not a good way to start out a new blog. I have a good excuse though: I'm in the process of trying to buy a new townhouse. It's the model home in a new development about 10 miles from where I work. It's not a done deal yet, but hopefully soon. I'm going back today to sign a bunch of paperwork, so I'll take some pictures and post them later.

By the way, my mom is the best negotiator ever! Earlier this week we were going back and forth on the price and we were getting pretty close to the number I wanted. The sales manager was scribbling a bunch of figures down on a piece of paper. First he wrote down the original asking price. Then he took off a few thousand for some wall units that never got built, then he he took off a bunch of money for a discount we had asked for, then he reduced it by some loan incentives we get for using their lender, etc. etc.

We were only a couple of thousand dollars off at that point from my original offer. So my mom busts out with the following compelling argument:

"We are the Chinese. We rike even lumbers." (Poor mom has always had trouble pronouncing the word "number".)

Anyhow, she then proceeds to write in really big print, the figure representing my original offer, just in case the sales guy forgot. "You lumber so ugry! So you preez just to make plice rike this. This more preety."

I had suppress my laughter and nod solemnly. I looked over to my right and my real estate agent, a friend of my mom's, was nodding his head vigorously. But then amazingly enough, the sales guy kept using that number for the rest of the conversation.

My mommy kicks ass!