The UK property education company, Inside Track has gone bust. This news came as no surprise to the seasoned property veteran, but many budding property investors where taken aback by the announcement.
For many years the Inside Track property company had been the most vocal of the property education companies. The truth is that inside track where always overexposed and vulnerable to any downturn in the property market.
One of the problems with Inside Track has always been that their philosophy never seriously took into account potential changes in the property market. They emerged onto the scene at a time when property prices where increasing dramatically.
Inside Track realised early on that people where prepared to pay thousands of pounds to them, for the promise of becoming property millionaires. It was simple for inside track to blame the property markets ups and downs, or the financial market, if investments didn't go according to plan.
Learning the skills of effective property investing can be one of the most attainable ways; ordinary people can amass great wealth.
It's a force that can be used to strengthen your negotiation position. That force is 'inside information'. 'Inside information' is a term I've coined as information you gather before and during a negotiation that can be used at strategic points in the negotiation. When the property's appraisal, the price at which comparable properties sold for in the area, came back, the property was valued at $1.9 million.
The owner of the property did not know my friend had received the information displayed in the appraisal and thus, he was still trying to tout the property's value as $2.2 million. My friend asked the owner if he could lower the price of the property and the owner indicated he couldn't at that time.
My friend had several pieces of 'inside information'.
As I stated at the onset of this lesson, 'inside information' is different than insider information. It's not information gathered from an illegal manner or source.
Assess the value the information will have on the overall outcome of the negotiation. If the overall goal of the negotiation is worth the effort you undertake to reach a successful outcome, use the 'inside information' you have at your disposal. If you use 'inside information' correctly, you'll make yourself and your negotiation partner feel good about the outcome of the negotiation ... and everything will be right with the world.
The Negotiation Lessons are ...
- When negotiating, if you're negotiating against a shifty negotiator, use 'inside information' as a way to 'keep him honest'.
- Determine what type of information will best motivate your negotiation partner.
- Always be aware of the impact 'inside information' might have on the negotiation and make sure your information is valid. If it's not, you'll lose credibility and positioning in the negotiation. Step-Family Perspective - Who's on the Inside? Remember the movie, The Outsiders? Within each gang, everybody is an insider; but to everybody else they are an outsider.
Insiders share stories and secrets with each other. Although there is some interaction between people of different groups, it is minimal. The answer is simple: They haven't transformed from an outsider to an insider yet.
This feeling of the step parent being an outsider is felt by both the step parent and step children. The step parent sometimes attributes blame to the step kids, whereas the step kids attribute blame to the step parent. It's not easy for somebody to forgive an outsider. Once genuine acceptance for each (step) family member is achieved, there is a foundation for the step parent to start becoming an insider.