Negotiating - Oh the Joy!

Three weeks ago I was in a car accident (actually, the victim of a car accident because I was rear-ended by someone going 30-40 miles per hour while I was stopped!) and find myself in the position of doing a lot of negotiating, post-accident. First, I negotiated with the police officer about his written statement. It reflected only the causing drivers side, and it was not 100% truthful - not even 1% truthful, and the 1% was that she hit me. Next, I negotiated with my insurance company over whether or not my car was totaled. It WAS totaled - completely smooshed is the technical term I like to use. Next, I negotiated over the market value of the car for the settlement with the insurance company. That's where things got fun. Luckily, this process really hasn't been so bad, because it's what I do every day, but applied to real estate. Here's what I kept in mind during the process...

Be Nice. I am a true believer that you will get farther by keeping your cool and treating the person on the other end of the negotiation the same way you would want to be treated. My oldest daughter learned the Golden Rule in preschool when she was 3, and it is a life lesson that is a good idea to keep in mind whenever one feel's like blowing her top.

Be Fair. While I would have loved to get enough money from the insurance company so that I could run out and buy my coveted car of the moment (an Audi Allroad with low miles - have one to sell me?) but that's not realistic. I was driving a 1999 Volvo V70 XC with low miles, and that is what I needed to negotiate the value of. (No pain and suffering included, even though the hassle of this process could be categorized that way in bad moments).

Be Persistent. It took four rounds of negotiation to settle on a fair market value for my totaled car. The insurance adjuster would make an offer, show me comps, and I would refute the comps, provide better ones, and wait to hear back from him. That was how rounds 1 and 2 went. At the end of round 2, I moved on to the adjuster’s supervisor (who had more authority to negotiate upward). Round 3 was similar, but with a higher dollar amount, and for round 4 I made them an offer that was accepted. Turns out it was $1,000 more than I paid for the car 13 months ago (but they don’t need to know that). Persistence pays off. My husband told me he would have stopped at round 3. Good thing he was not part of the negotiation!

Be the “Smartest Person in the Room.” Each night during this process, once the kids were tucked into bed, I spent 1-2 hours researching comparable cars. I wrote emails as to why the comps the adjusters were using were not any good, and supported my argument for the (higher priced) comps I found. I knew more about their comps than they did. It worked.

All my tactics for negotiating for myself on a settlement with my insurance company were learned negotiating for my real estate clients. Negotiation is just one tool in the tool box, but it sure is an important one.

Next step: negotiating a price on a used car. Maybe you’ll see me driving around in that Audi Allroad after all….