When I graduated from college, my very business-oriented father who did not want any of his little girls to be pushed around out in the "real world," gave me an audio tape of a book entitled, "The Secret to Power Negotiating." I rolled my eyes and laughed about it at the time, but that summer after I graduated college I drove to Alaska (yes, drove), with my boyfriend at the time and we listed to that "Power Negotiating" audiotape to help us pass the time during the loooong, 7-day drive. Pretty dorky, huh?
Well, I have no idea if that audiotape ever helped me in the fish cannery of Seward, Alaska, or in law school, or in my 16 years as a practicing lawyer and advocate, but this week I learned first-hand, one of the secrets to power-negotiating: be prepared to walk away.
Shortly after we arrived in Jakarta in December, we moved into an apartment/hotel and started looking for a house to rent for our stay here. We quickly found a house we loved, in a great expat compound we were dying to get in, and we made a written offer to rent the house. Unlike in the US, properties here rent for a 2 or 3 year contract term and the money is all paid up front. Therefore with the renter providing 2-3 years of rent money up front (quite a lot of dough, re, mi), the renter also is entitled to submit a laundry list of revisions he/she would like made before move-in. Some properties need a lot, some need a little. Well, we submitted our written offer and long list of revisions at the end of December. The landlady initially agreed to every one of our contract terms. We were very happy. However, every few days instead of signing the contract like she said she would, she kept coming back to us with a completely revised contract and reneging on things she once agreed to pay for. This went on for weeks and was very frustrating, because she never seemed to abide by the terms to which she had once agreed. Tenaciously, I reviewed and revised each email and lease agreement, only to find that she had changed things in the new version. Then, the last straw was that she previously said she would pay for all compound and facility fees on the house for three years (amounting to several thousands of dollars), but last week for the first time after 5 weeks of negotiations and after 4 different revisions to the contract, she said that she would not pay those fees. We were upset, angry, frustrated, and did not trust her anymore, so as sad and hard as it was to do it, we decided to walk away and told her we going to find a house elsewhere. But, before we completely dropped the subject, (and, as Darren's brilliant idea), we told our agent that we wanted to have one face-to-face meeting with the agent, rather than having all of these negotiations conducted via email. This was a last ditch effort kind of meeting, however, we communicated to the landlord that we had had enough, and were prepared to walk away.
Well, our decision to walk way actually worked. At my meeting with the landlord's agent yesterday, and after I participated in 3 hours of excruciating negotiations, the landlord agreed to almost all of our terms and to pay compound and management fees. She even gave us an architect's drawing she had done of the proposed kitchen renovations, and it far exceeds our expectation (see attached). So, we're hoping all is going to work out okay in the end.
We are so excited, I can't even tell you. And, yesterday was Darren's 45th birthday, so this has been a FABULOUS birthday present to our whole family. The location of the house is the most important thing, as it is inside a large expat compound known as "Executive Paradise." It has fantastic facilities including 2 large swimming pools, fitness center with classes, 2 tennis courts, 2 playgrounds, sauna, jogging track, and Japanese restaurant on site. The grounds are beautiful and there are great roads for the kids to safely go biking and walking around. South Jakarta, where we're staying, does not really have sidewalks or public space for kids to play, and the streets are far too congested to walk down, so having a fully enclosed, guarded compound with several miles of space to roam about is a unique luxury and a blessing.
Okay, so the renovations will take a while - 4-6 weeks, and we'll have to stay in the hotel a little longer than we thought, but we're very excited about our new house-to-be! It has 5 Bedrooms (allowing space for an office AND a guest room, so come visit us!), and it has a beautiful large pool and a lovely manicured garden/lawn. Plus, in addition to all the standard rooms, we'll have a relaxing sunroom next to the patio and pool area, and a large living room upstairs that will be exclusively for the kids. Attached are some "before" pictures, but in the next 4-6 weeks, the whole house will be renovated with new kitchen and bathrooms, and will having new lighting fixtures throughout and a new coat of paint inside and out.
We can't wait!
So, lesson learned. Perhaps it took 20 years to really see it in action, but yesterday I learned that one of the secrets to power negotiating is this: walk away.
Thank you, Daddy-O!
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