This has been an ongoing disagreement between us for a long time now. He says there is nothing to lose in trying for something better than what you think you're going to get, and he always wants to start negotiations extremely high. I think that this disadvantages you as a seller - but I don't know enough to know why I think that.
He is currently interviewing for a new position. At his current job, he makes a base pay of $22/hr, plus a shift differential. He has a desirable skill set and is extremely good at what he does, but the place he's interviewing with is a small company in a small, rural town, and he is young and has the minimum of experience they're looking for. He thinks he should start salary negotiations at $35/hr; I think this is far beyond what he could ever hope to get given the circumstances, and the absolute highest he should open with is $30.
A similar situation: we own a vintage pickup truck in great condition which is worth much more here, in New England, than it was back on the west coast where we bought it. We're thinking of selling it soon. Based on comparable listings, I'm pretty sure the highest we could possibly hope to get for it is ~$11k, with a more realistic price being in the range of 8-9k, but he has an idea that involves driving it to an area with lots of traffic from wealthy vacationers and advertising it for $25k, just to see what happens (in case some very stupid person with a lot of cash to burn wants to buy a 30 year old vehicle with 150k miles on it for more than the cost of a new one?...)
We've argued about this. I think he's being absurd, but he insists there's no harm in dreaming big. Is he correct about that in these contexts, and I should just let him do what he wants and wait for the prices to move down on their own? Or do you put yourself in a concretely disadvantageous situation by making your starting offer higher than the market can reasonably support?
Submitted September 19, 2017 at 12:24PM by CoriOreo http://ift.tt/2wEhiqG
