Top New York real estate broker Fredrik Eklund explains the importance of entering every negotiation with a gameplan. Start by establishing both a ceiling and a floor. This will help you know when to strike a deal or walk away. Also, Eklund discusses how time can kill any negotiation yet any savvy negotiator knows how to harness tension and anticipation to his or her advantage.

Fredrik Eklund: Before getting into negotiations it’s very important to set a floor and a ceiling so you know where to move, right. Because if you don’t, you can be manipulated and you can lose yourself in the emotions. Because if you’re a good negotiator, you will obviously try at least to be completely disconnected emotionally from the deal and negotiation itself.  Although you will play emotional. So if you’re not upset, you can play upset. But none of that matters unless you don’t have a floor and a ceiling. So you need to know if you go under the floor you need to walk out, you know, end the negotiation. And at the ceiling you need to know to accept so you can close the deal.

Time is very interesting when it comes to negotiation. I always say in real estate time kills everything, all deals. But there’s a little bit of time, a few seconds, minutes, or sometimes a couple of hours depending on the situation which you can use and delay to get where you want because people get frustrated at a certain point and in a good way if you don’t give the information right away, just hold it back a tiny, tiny bit and make them wait, that could be good.

As an example, when I go into an apartment and the seller is there always asking me at the end of the appointment, "So Fredrik, what is my penthouse worth?" I never ever give a price in the apartment. One, because I want to do my research and really go home and think about it and I don’t want to be drawn into any excitement, which I could potentially be because it’s so beautiful. But it’s also — for the purpose of this discussion having them wait three and a half hours for an email to come with a price will make them want it more and then having it come in writing will feel more substantial and real because it’s coming in an email and you have to wait for it.