For context, my father works in (commercial) real estate and, since I have been old enough to walk, I have been prepped for real estate negotiations specifically. One rule: you lose pricing leverage after they know that your heart is set on doing Deal X *specifically*.
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So there has been a delicate dance of "Well, after several years of living in Tokyo, we're *very much* ready to move into our own place... if it is the right place" "How much is very much?" "80%." "That's very precise." "I wanted to convey seriousness without promising too much"
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"You know there are very few apartments as X/Y/Z as this on the market Mr. McKenzie." "Oh I understand it is quite wonderful, and such a great neighborhood." "*praises neighborhood*" "A thing I love about Tokyo is how it is *so good* at building beautiful apartments." "..."
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After he was reasonably sure that I had transactional intent he started to try to assess whether I would get offered a mortgage or not, which starts from the point of "So a mortgage means that you borrow money, see..." "Ask me about credit underwriting at financial institutions"
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"... What?" "Well while I very much appreciate how much effort you were about to put into explaining financial instruments to me, we should probably skip to the part of the conversation where you ask me what my occupation is." "... You work at a bank?" "Close enough for now!"
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"Oh. Hmm. Well. We could get started on the, err, application process for a mortgage." "Well let's not get ahead of ourselves; I would still love to chat to confirm my understanding of a few things because, obviously, residential mortgages in Japan are more your thing than mine."
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Conversation winds around for a bit. "Say I've heard that underwriting in Japan happens at the bank branch level. Does that match your understanding?" "Oh yes that's absolutely true." "Fascinating. So I should probably assist you in routing application to person who knows me."
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"You know someone at a bank?" "I might know a few people at a few banks." "... Like a teller who smiles at you when you walk in?" "Or like the branch manager of
$BANK$BRANCH who was sort of surprised I talked them into opening a business bank account." "Wow?" "Weird hobbies."2 replies 0 retweets 19 likesShow this thread -
Lest you think that I entirely got the better of this conversation, my first words to Ruriko after she got back were "This guy is very, VERY good." e.g. "Of course, have to have the wife onboard with this." "Naturally, naturally. What's her biggest concern right now?"
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Now an excellent response there would have been dissembling or rapport building but I instead gave him the true answer and he *immediately* had an empathetic and responsive pitch ready to go for her, which he has been elaborating on via email for days.
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And while I know I'm being sold to and know that being vocally appreciative of his efforts would cost substantial concessions on the pricing aspect, holy cow, is it a fun thing to get the up-close-and-personal version of people who are just very good at their jobs.
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