BARGAINING FOR A HOUSE!                    DO 1850                            4/83

         1. WHEN YOU HAVE MADE AN OFFER, THAT'S YOUR WORD! YOU HAVE VOWED A VOW & YOU'VE GOT TO LIVE UP TO IT EVEN IF IT HURTS! Now don't forget that! That's what happens in a fleece. If you made the wrong fleece, like I told you guys about that place in Sri Lanka, then you've got to stick to it no matter what. (See No.1394) It's your word as a Christian, as a righteous man, that your word means something, for our own conscience & before God! It is not right to offer somebody something or say something & then back down, except in maybe some very rare circumstance where you can't go through with it.
         2. I'M GIVING YOU A LITTLE LESSON ON ANY KIND OF DEAL: You decide on what you feel led of God to make your fleece, at least your first offer if nothing else, & be prepared to stick to it!--That if he accepts such an offer, that you're willing to stick to it.
         3. YOU SAY, "WELL, THAT'S OUR OFFER!" YOU'VE JUST SORT OF GOT TO PLAY IT BY EAR & SEE HIS REACTION. After he's blown off steam, then he settles down on something. He may say you have to pay it all in advance, that's what he'll dicker for first of all, but he's got to set his floor & you've got to set your ceiling, & I wouldn't actually call it a fleece unless he came down close to your price & your terms, your last offer.
         4. YOUR BEST CHANCE ON THESE THINGS IS YOUR FIRST TIME THERE. If you phone back, he figures you're still nibbling & you're really interested to phone back, so your best chance is to dicker & get a deal on the spot the first time around.--At least it's your best chance if you do a little bargaining & leave him with what is your semi-final offer. Then maybe if he calls you & says, "Well, I thought it over & I decided I won't do that, but I'll do this," then you have a chance to come up to your final offer & say that's as far as you go, period. So he hangs up & he has time to think that over & waits to see if you'll call back, & if you don't call back, it's obvious he lost you, so he calls you again & says, "Well, all right!" You savvy?
         5. BUT REMEMBER, YOUR BEST TIME TO BARGAIN FOR A HOUSE IS ON YOUR FIRST VISIT, & GET ALL THE DETAILS!--The exact telephone situation, the utility situation, the security situation, who pays the gardener etc. c
         6. IF YOU CAN'T REMEMBER ALL THESE THINGS, THEN YOU NEED TO MAKE YOURSELF A LITTLE CARD TO BRIEF YOURSELF ON, to refer to from your notebook. Just take out your notebook & have a list all prepared. Just be very obvious about it, write it down. Say, "You don't mind my writing this down, do you? My memory is not too good & I might forget & we need to know all the details." Have a list prepared with blanks to fill in & then you won't forget anything.
         7. MAKE A STANDARD CHECKLIST OF EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO ASK ABOUT A HOUSE SO YOU DON'T FORGET ANYTHING! It needs to cover everything about the house, the exact size, location, security situation, noise situation, facilities, water, lights, utilities, telephone, pool, water source, in every respect. There are at least a half-a-dozen questions you've got to ask just about the telephone: "Is it a private line, how much, long distance or just local or what? How well does it work? How often does it work? Are the water & electricity reliable?"
         8. HE'S THE SELLER & YOU'RE THE BUYER SO IT'S UP TO YOU TO ASK THE QUESTIONS! He's not going to volunteer! Ask everything about the house: "How is the plumbing? What kind of sewage disposal does it have?--Is it sewage, septic tank or cesspool? How well does it work? Any drainage problems? Any yard flooding problems?" I think that's why they got that place cheap in Peru, it seems to have a habit of getting flooded when it rains! Well, the owner wasn't going to tell them that, of course!
         9. SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO ASK AROUND, ASK THE NEIGHBOURS OR SOMEONE WHAT THE SCORE IS, ASK SOMEBODY ELSE BESIDES THE OWNER WHAT THE SITUATION IS IN THAT AREA. Naturally, the owner is going to tell you that there are no problems & everything works fine, he's going to give it all a rosy glow! But why don't you ask a few neighbours or the people you meet on the street or somebody else, like you did. That was good, you got a lot of information from that one man, but don't just depend on his word alone. Ask around, ask in the corner store, find out all about the house.
         10. LOOK IT OVER CAREFULLY--HAS IT GOT ROACHES? HAS IT GOT RATS? Well, of course the owner is going to tell you it doesn't, but LOOK! With either one you usually see their calling cards around somewhere. Open the drawers, open the cupboards, look! Look the whole place over, & if they're there you're going to see the evidence & you can even smell it!
         11. ASK HOW LONG AGO WAS THE LAST OCCUPANCY. And when you've got all the information about it, then start asking about prices & terms & things like that, & on that first asking it's a good time to give him your first offer. When you've found out exactly what he's asking, make your first offer. Say, "Well, how about $_____ since we're going to all this trouble of paying it in foreign currency?"
         12. PICK OUT ALL THE FLAWS IN THE PLACE! "It's unfurnished, I've got to pay you in Dollars, it's a lot of trouble, & the house is not even safe, you can see through it & there's no way to lock it & blah, blah, blah!" You can go on & on about all the drawbacks which he knows exist but he's just waiting to see if you're smart enough to notice them! Pick out all the drawbacks & all the flaws.
         13. BUT BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY OFFERS AT ALL, FIND OUT HIS PRICE & HIS TERMS, WHAT IS HE GUNNING FOR TO BEGIN WITH? And he'll give you his top, not necessarily what he is going to get, but what he wants. He'll probably say, "Well, I want $___-a-month, 12 months in advance." So you can work from there. "OK, I'm offering you $___-a-month, foreign currency, which is causing me a lot of trouble, but I'll give you two months in advance, first & last month, six months." Decide ahead of time how high you're going to go & what terms. Then you finally give him your flat offer of maybe $___ as the top. "All this trouble & what little you've got to offer, no furniture, no nothing! I'm not even sure I'm going to like it. I'll take it for six months, first & last two months in advance & that's it!" That's half the payment in advance, in other words, three months in advance for only a six-month contract.
         14. IF YOU'RE JUST GOING TO GET WHAT IS THE GENERAL AVERAGE & WHAT IS USUALLY DONE & EXPECTED, THAT'S NO MIRACLE & THAT'S NO FLEECE! We expect MIRACLES! We expect God to do something UNUSUAL to give us a SIGN, to show us that that's the place so we should take it! Make him an impossible offer to meet impossible conditions & then you get an impossible answer--a miracle!--A fleece! But you have to know ahead of time after discussion & consideration.
         15. YOU ONLY HAVE TO HAVE YOUR ROCK-BOTTOM FIRST OFFER WHILE YOU'RE RIGHT THERE. You can walk out on that one, see, because he can always phone you back, or he knows you can phone him back. You may phone him back then after we discuss here & decide on what's going to be our second offer, & you phone him up & give him a second offer. You understand? It's bargaining! You've got to do it this way, & the fact of the matter is, it's done all over the World, big businessmen do it all the time!
         16. FIRST OF ALL, ASK ALL THE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE HOUSE SITUATION: Number one is the LOCATION--& don't forget noise on that. Is it safe? Noisy? Is it accessible? What about public transportation, the distance from places you have to go & all that sort of thing regarding the location--availability, accessibility, safety, protection, etc. Number two is the SECURITY SITUATION. There are a whole bunch of questions in each of these categories. Number three, the UTILITY SITUATION--lights, water, etc., where do they get'm & what do they cost, including your telephone.--All utilities & all about them. And after you find out all those necessities, then you can talk about Number four, HOUSE ACCOMMODATIONS--what's the house got? How many rooms & how many of this & how many of that? Exactly what are the accommodations & what's the situation?
         17. MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T EVEN ASK ABOUT GARDENING BECAUSE YOU CAN ALWAYS JUST REFUSE TO PAY THE GARDENER IF HE DECIDES TO TACK THAT ON AFTER YOU MOVE IN. You can say, "Hey, listen, we didn't ask for a gardener, we'll do our own gardening, forget it!" Some places you just refuse afterwards because you already made your deal & you're in & those are things that he is going to pay for anyhow, whether you do or not. He's got to take care of his property & you know that & he knows it, so he's got no leverage once you're in.
         18. SO AFTER YOU'VE FOUND THE RIGHT LOCATION & THE RIGHT SECURITY SITUATION, UTILITIES SITUATION & WHAT THE ACCOMMODATIONS ARE, THEN YOU CAN THINK ABOUT THE PRICE! "What's the price, what are the terms, what do I have to do" & all that stuff. Then if you're interested, he makes his first asking price & you make your first offer. But don't make an offer unless you really plan to go through with it, in case he accepts it! Don't make an offer unless you're actually interested & you're making a solid offer you intend to KEEP!--And make it low enough it'll take a MIRACLE for him to accept it.--Especially if you don't like the place too well, make it plenty low where it would really have to be a miracle, a sign from God to take it!
         19. NO MATTER WHAT THE HOUSE LOOKS LIKE OR HOW WONDERFUL IT IS, IF IT HASN'T GOT UTILITIES & GOOD WATER & ELECTRICITY & TELEPHONE, FORGET IT! I'd rather have a cabin with good water & electricity & telephone than a mansion without! That's why I say ask about UTILITIES next!--That's the next most important thing. After your location & your security situation, then start asking about utilities. There's no point in even looking at houses, no matter how nice they are, if they've got lots of utility problems & no telephone! So besides location & security situation, utilities comes next on the list.
         20. AND AFTER THAT THE ACCOMMODATIONS--JUST WHAT DOES THE HOUSE HAVE IN THE WAY OF ACCOMMODATIONS ETC.?--And that includes whether it's furnished or unfurnished, how much room does it have & how many bathrooms has it got, how many toilets does it have & how much yard does it have for the children to play in, the pool & all the rest in the way of accommodations. That's way down, fourth on the list, but don't forget it.
         21. FIRST OF ALL YOU WANT TO FIND OUT WHERE YOU WANT TO BE, NEXT YOU WANT TO FIND OUT HOW SECURE IT IS GOING TO BE, & THIRD YOU WANT TO FIND OUT IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE ABLE TO LIVE THERE--water, lights, food, telephone, how close to the store, how expensive are the groceries etc.
         22. YOU NEED TO SHOP AROUND & SEE WHAT THE CLOSE-BY SHOPPING IS, SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO TO THE BIG TOWN EVERY TIME you want to buy a little grocery item or a loaf of bread! Go & price the staples--if you have to, buy them, don't just stand around pricing them--buy an armload of groceries, it won't hurt. Buy a loaf of bread, a box of milk, a sack of rice, things which you consider staple foods that are things you always need & will always be buying regularly & need often, & you don't want to have to run all the way to the big city for. Buy a nice big sackful or boxful of groceries & bring'm home with you.
         23. IF YOU'RE NOT CONCERNED ABOUT PRICES, YOU'RE NOT A GOOD MAN TO GO SHOPPING! That's a MUST now, remember that. If you're willing to pay anything for anything, well, that's not a good shopper! If you don't care what you pay for it, that's not good shopping. And if you don't know what the price was, you must not have been that concerned about it. So do a little shopping before you come home. Find the biggest & best market nearby and see what they've got and bring home a load of groceries.
         24. SO CHECK THE UTILITIES, THE ACCOMMODATIONS & THEN THE LAST THING IS THE TERMS. And remember, even the price sometimes is not as important as the terms. The higher price can sometimes be better at lower, easier terms. For example, if the guy is going to stick to his $___ -a-month & absolutely refuse to come down any further, say, "OK, a month at a time." You wouldn't mind paying $___-a-month if you only had to pay it monthly, right? So the terms have a lot to do with it. If he'll come down to $___, okay, we'll up our final offer to first & last two months in advance, a six-month contract. We don't want anything longer than a six-month contract because we don't know that much ahead of time.
         25. OK, THAT'S ABOUT THE LAST THING ON A PLACE, WHEN YOU START DICKERING FOR THE PRICE.--Because unless you're satisfied on all these other points, there's no point even discussing price. If it hasn't got a good location, security, utilities & sufficient accommodations, then why worry about the price? It's got to have all that. You've got to have the right location, you've got to have security, you've got to have utilities & you've got to have sufficient accommodations, & if it hasn't got that, you don't want it at ANY price!
         26. BUT THEN WHEN YOU START DISCUSSING PRICES, HE STARTS WITH HIS ASKING PRICE, YOU START WITH YOUR OFFERING PRICE, & IF HE WON'T COME DOWN IN PRICE THEN HE'S GOT TO COME UP ON TERMS. And if the terms are easy enough, you might be willing to pay his price, OK? Now all those things are things you've got to remember when you're looking for a house!--Amen? GBAKY BARGAINING!--In Jesus' name, amen! (See also HH Checklist, FN 57, Pg.68)

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