Everything is negotiable

One thing that becomes clear on Wall Street is that free market transactions take place on a spectrum and not at fixed price points. Big businesses set fixed price points, so it’s easy to forget this.

I just booked my airbnb for a month in Manila and haggled the price down by $200. Here’s how the exchange went:

The other side wasn’t a bluff. I sent my initial negotiation text to a few other airbnb hosts, and when I noticed they were folding too quickly, I changed the text to $200. One person met me at $150, but after some back and forth about not needing a cleaner, she agreed to $200. Through these different parties, I got a feel for where the real mid market price was, and came back to the original host and got him to come down $200.

Of course, we all know that salary negotiations work the same way, where there’s the price they offer you, and the true price they think you’re worth, but there are plenty of people who discuss that topic so I won’t go into it. Here are some other areas where you can negotiate price:

• Cell phone carriers will make exceptions for you if they think you’re reliable and you always make payments on time. They’ll literally create a “special plan” for you.
• Rent is an obvious one but if you’re really ballsy, you can offer to pay in cash for a bigger discount.
• Banks and credit cards will make exceptions for you as well. They’ll waive fees, increase credit limits, come up with new and special packages for you.

There are other areas too, but the big picture takeaway is that you should always remember that everything is negotiable, so as you navigate life, you should always make efforts to get the best deals (as long as they don’t eat up too much of your time since time is money). This is because a lot of these are one time negotiations that lead to near permanent savings (the family plan I have with T-Mobile costs me $28/mo with unlimited data and calls and I’ve had it for 5 years now savings thousands for my family members on the plan).

A final point I’d make is that you need to understand the market and what your value is. For example, I know that airbnb hosts love me because I have 10+ years of good reviews on airbnb across the world, and frankly, because I’m Japanese (racism and stereotyping is real, and I’m always happy to benefit from positive stereotyping where I can because god knows I deal with the negative stereotypes as well). I have an excellent credit score and I never miss a payment, so I know businesses are willing to bend rules for me. With landlords, once I get to know them, I can feel out how willing they are to bend rules as well, and I know they think positively of me after a few consistent payments of me paying rent a full week in advance.