Start With No by Jim Camp begins with a challenging proposition, one that most real estate agents will back off from. The author "explains why win-win is an ineffective, often disastrous strategy" and I'll add that he does so quite effectively.

I read this book with a closed mind and the fixed concept, that in real estate, negotiating to compromise is what gets most sales to the closing table. But soon I was confused. As I moved through the book I started to find nuggets that would be helpful in improving my skills as a negotiator. The final chapter consists of 33 "rules" that one should practice everyday to become and efficient fiduciary for their client.

I know the arguments for the win-win theory of negotiating. I know sales scripts and closing techniques. And yet I knew that some of what I had just read would be very helpful to me.

The only thing I could do was to read the book again, and this time with an open mind. Here a a few pithy statements of mine to help sum up the contents of this amazing book.

• Do not be needy.
• It's okay to be unokay...let the adversary bloom with confidence.
• Yes and Maybe are responses that don't forward the negotiation. No tells you what aspects and conditions need to be discussed and resolved.
• For every negotiation you must have a Mission and a Purpose.
• You can't control the outcome, but you can control your behavior.
• Never close.
• Ask interrogative questions and then listen.
• Know your adversary's pain.
• Know your budget...it's okay to say No.
• Know the adversary's budget.
• Have an agenda before you start any conversation.

Would you like to be a better negotiator? Can you open your mind to something a little different than anything you've heard lately? Jim Camp's book, Start With No, has been an eye-opener for me. Usually I send my just read real estate books out to anyone who asks for them, but this one I want to keep and reread as I try to put into action the 33 rules to become a successful negotiator. It's okay for you to say "No". I'm good with that. Reading this book is not for everyone.

But I would like you to join the Active Rain Book Club and share with us some real estate specific books you've enjoyed lately.

• I can't think of a single buyer that bought a listing because of an open house in 2010.
• I can't think of a single buyer I met at an open house and worked with to a closed transaction in 2010.
• I can't think of a single neighbor or other drop in at an open house that listed their home with me in 2010.
  
  
  So recently, in my 2011 plan I decided not to do open houses. I was thinking that I can always find another agent in my office to hold my listings open. If I get all of my listings priced exactly right, they will sell the first week anyway. And I have lots of other things I could be doing on Sundays.
  
  But then I caught part of a Celtic's game on TV. I don't know about you but when I see parquet flooring, when I see the Celtics on TV, I think of Robert Parish, Danny Ainge, Kevin McHale and Larry Bird. 1980's NBA basketball. Sure, you've got your favorites and I respect that. But...
  
  I remember watching Larry Bird in the finals of the NCAA tournament in the late 70's and one interviewer caught him pre-game or post game practicing left handed shots. The interviewer asked him why? And Larry told him it was because he was no good at shooting left handed. Years later, as a pro, Larry told his team mates he was going to take all of his shots left handed in a game. He didn't, but he got more than 20 of his 47 points left handed.
  
  
  
  The point is, maybe my open house skills are rusty. Maybe I need to practice them some more and find a way to make them work in the current economy. So I'm going to add open houses back into my 2011 business plan. I'm going to put a little more thought into the advertising and the presentation. I'm going to meet some interesting people and convert them into clients. 2011 is going to be a good year.
  

   

There have been some featured posts in the past few days concerning door knockers. Does door knocking open new doors for Realtors looking for business in neighborhoods new to them, or even where they live make sense? Is it a bad practice. Greg Nino is strongly against it in his post Door Knocking For Business Is Dangerous, Desperate & Borderline Pathetic...
and there have been several comments supporting his view point.

In his post Greg refers to a featured post and I think it was the one by Durrell Thomas entitled For Door Knocking, This Works Like Crazy. Durell provided a script which he uses and several commentators have agreed with him that door knocking is probably an effective tool. Both posts have in the neighborhood of 70 comments and I'm not keeping score, but am interested in the dialogue.

I learned years ago from a young woman who, with me as her agent, liked a home in a neighborhood she didn't know well, but she liked the house enough to make an offer. There were multiple offers on many homes at the time and she wrote an aggressive offer, but asked me to hold on to it until she did her version of a neighborhood review. Offers were to be presented the following day and I took my turn. We were $5K less than the highest offer, but the seller said "I have to take this one." My client had gone out and knocked on every door in the neighborhood and introduced herself. She told the people who answered that she wanted to buy that house but first she wanted to know who lived around it and what they were like. The seller said he had to take it because the neighbors told him that they wanted that woman to be a part of the neighborhood.

Whatever your reasons are for door knocking or not, go ahead. But the best way for a buyer to know a neighborhood is to become a part of it without relying entirely on what the listing or selling agent says, or what police reports or blogs say.