Why skilled negotiators use odd numbers – and how you get the best price when you sell your house!

When talking numbers in a negotiation it is a good strategy to use odd numbers for many reasons.

Firstly, an odd number signals the other party that you have thought long about your proposal and made many precise calculations.

Secondly because it looks like that it took some effort to come up with this odd but precise number people tend to believe more this number is true.

A round number on the other hand gives the impression that you are just giving a ballpark figure and that there might be still a lot of room to move.

Thirdly, an odd number is less likely to be negotiated down due to it being perceived as being a true value with hardly any bargaining range.

Two marketing professors from the University of Florida, Chris Janiszewski and Dan Uy looked at five years of data of real estate sales in Alacha County, Florida. They compared the list prices and the actual sales prices of the properties sold during that time. 

They found that those who listed their homes at an odd or precise price of for example $694,000 as opposed to $700,000 got a price closer to their asking price. The reason being that buyers were less inclined to negotiate over the odd numbered price. They also found that the houses that were listed with a round numbered price lost more value when they were on the market for a few months.

Key lessons here are to always use odd numbers in your negotiations and definitively when you are selling your house!

Source: Janiszewski, C and Uy, D (2008), University of Florida, Precision of the Anchor

Influences the Amount of Adjustment

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