What to Say and What to Keep Back When You Negotiate

A viewer asked what a buyer should tell a seller during a negotiation. My answer was to give the other person enough information to take you seriously while keeping your own ceiling private. Those are not opposing goals. A useful conversation needs a clear purpose; it does not require revealing every number in your head.

Explain what you want

If I refuse to explain who I am, what I need, and what I am trying to accomplish, the seller has little reason to invest in the conversation. I want the other person to understand the deal I am proposing and how they could help make it work. That gives us something real to negotiate.

I also want to listen. The condition, quality, timing, and other terms may change what a fair price looks like. The final number depends on what we learn together, not only on the first number either side says.

Do not volunteer your maximum

If a seller asks the most I could possibly pay, I do not have to give that figure. I can say it depends on the property or product and on the terms we reach. A higher-quality option may be worth more to me; a weaker one may be worth less. I can still make an offer and explain it clearly.

In the session, I used a hypothetical house listed at 325,000. Imagine I would be willing to pay up to 312,000 but begin with an offer of 275,000. I would not add that I could go to 312,000. The seller might counter at 295,000, and the conversation could move toward a lower final price than my private ceiling. The numbers were an illustration, not a claim that any particular home should sell for those amounts.

If I announce my ceiling at the start, I give the seller a reason to anchor the conversation there. I put the consequence bluntly in the video: “the price is going to be 312.” I would rather let the other side respond to the offer I actually made.

Preparation gives the conversation substance

Keeping a number private is not a trick that replaces homework. I need to know the market, understand what I am buying, and decide what would make the deal good for me. Otherwise I may protect my ceiling and still make a poor decision.

That is why I pair this answer with how I negotiate as an informed buyer. The more I understand the product and the seller's position, the easier it is to be both open about my goal and careful about the terms I have not agreed to.