NegotiationThe situation: I'm trying to sell my 1998 Volkswagen Jetta GL so I can put a down payment on a new Subaru that I've already agreed to buy. In fact, I should go and pick up the new Subaru tomorrow morning. If I can't sell my Jetta by tomorrow, I'll have to borrow the money for the down payment at prime price plus 5% interest. Needless to say, today I would like to sell the Jetta for no less than $4,700, which is what I need to put down a down payment on the Subaru. If I can't sell to the party I'm negotiating with, the Subaru dealer said he would buy it for $4,400, but I think I could get more. Negotiating Agreements: The buyer I am negotiating with is Carole Meriwether. We agreed to negotiate at 6.30pm in BAH because it is neutral territory. We both felt it would be in our best interests to negotiate a point where we both felt equally comfortable. Strategy: I will pursue an active engagement strategy. I will be as competitive as possible because I see it as a distributive bargaining situation where the more I win, the more she loses. Planning and Preparation: I enter the negotiation with the idea that I will drive a hard bargain. After researching more about the car on Consumer Reports and reading reviews, I believe the car is worth more than $4,700 and I plan on getting more. My strategy will be to start higher than you might expect at $7,800. After all, studies show that negotiators who have an exaggerated first offer tend to get better results. I'm thinking that Carole thinks this value is too high, so I'll be willing to argue why I priced the car at that price. The things I'll mention will be... middle of the paper... frankly, $100 isn't worth the hassle of dealing with. She recognized this and offered $4,550 for the sake of bargaining and I told her I wouldn't sell for anything less than $4,600. So she agreed and I sold her the car for $4,600. We reached an agreement and I'm slightly satisfied with the result. I say marginally because I started the trade with such high expectations and in the end I didn't even get my resistance price. However, I got more than the Subaru dealer would give me and was able to get Carole up to $600 more than she said she could spend. I feel like I won the exercise because I gave in less when it came to our resistance points. Carole's resistance point was $4,000 and she paid $4,600. My resistance point was $4,700 and I got $4,600. So she paid 600 more than she wanted and I got 100 less than I wanted.