My reflection blog this week is about deception in negotiations to gain an advantage. I will reflect on an example where I have been misled and where I have overstated a claim.  I will also reflect on how far I will go to leverage my position.

When I first reviewed the course material and the assignment, I immediately thought I don’t lie intentionally for any type of personal gain or have I?  In the last twelve years, I have participated in 4 corporate moves, which means I have bought 4, and sold 3 homes. Although this is standard protocol with the moving, the deception from the buyer and seller is pretty relevant in the negotiation pricing.

The first home we purchased was an older home, but was in a great quiet neighborhood that was reasonably priced with great opportunities for families. The known problems did not arise until we tried to sale the home for our first corporate move. The home had siding material that was no longer allowed in the state of Georgia due to some lawsuit that was not disclosed when we bought the home. Of course I was like, how did this get through the inspection process when we purchased the home? The owners had recently painted the home and the material type passed the initial inspection and sale went through flawless.  The owners taking the action to paint the home right before the sale was a deception in the negotiations and was intentionally done. This deception ended up costing us over $5,000 to repair the siding prior to selling the home. The worst part of the deception is we bought the home from a friend whom you would not think would be deceptive.

In turn I have been a bit deceptive when selling a home as well. My last home I sold last year, we only lived in it about fourteen months. The home was nice and in a well sought out neighborhood. The previous owners had a couple birds, but the home was very clean but one of the agreements was the previous owner to shampoo the carpets, which they did the day before closing. After we moved in, I was humored as there was grass growing in the carpet in one of the bedrooms where the birds occupied. Apparently the water from steam cleaner watered left over birdseed and grass grew. With humor I asked my husband how was one to mow the carpet? I was able to clean all the grass out and re-shampoo the carpet and when I sold the home I made sure that room was full of packed boxes.  I did not disclose the grass growth capabilities in the home, as I did not want to have to replace the carpet. Our home sold within the first 10 hours of being on the market, and had several price wars due to the housing shortage in that location. I don’t think the carpet would truly have been an issue, but I felt I was being deceptive by not being honest.

When it comes to deception in negotiations it is not something I would set out to do. I don’t like lying as the guild would eat me up. I have learned how to buy and sell a home based on my own personal experiences, and I think deception in home buying is done all the time almost like a standard practice. I do consider myself a bit savvier when buying a home. I think I would probably do it again if I had to sale, as the home inspection should identify any true defaults with the home. I would never intentionally take deception to a level that it caused harm or damage to another person or my own reputation.