Million Dollar Listing: The Art of Great Negotiating

Is Real Estate Agent Josh Altman writing a book? He should. Last night on “Million Dollar Listing”, I got to see his hard negotiating style. It was great. Let me break it down…

Beautiful Mansion in Beverly Park, CA on the market for $19.5 million. Altman is representing a buyer. The buyer’s initial offer is $15 million.

Seller counters with $18 million

Altman’s client states the highest they will go is $17 million. Altman instead counters with $15.8 million

Seller counters with $17 million

Altman counters with $16.5 million and gets it

I am astounded. Despite his client approving more, Altman still came in lower. Then, on re-counter, Altman got the number he wanted but still came back with a lower offer. And why? He stated because he always like to save his client some money. In this case, the client saved $2.5 million. This is the negotiating style I hope to have when I get into business. I don’t find it cheap or sneaky because if the client rejected $16.5 million, Altman would have been able to agree with $17 million.

This is the reason clients should not be in the room when making offers. The other agent on the show, Madison, has done this twice and the offering got a little heated. If the client were present, Altman’s negotiation could have gone wrong for the client. Think about it, the client would have stated $17 million and the seller’s broker would have taken it. Instead, the property got sold, Altman’s client got a house, and Altman was part of one of the biggest house sells in L.A. County. Seriously, this guy needs to write a book; I would read it.

Note: I call him Altman because there is another Josh on the show. To differentiate between the two, I refer to Josh Altman by his last name.