Sometimes putting the parties together in a real estate transaction can be exactly what's called for to move the transaction forward as quickly as possible. However, you need to make sure that the parties are people you feel will be able to get along well when they meet each other and begin negotiating face-to-face. Obviously to make the deal happen the parties need to be in agreement on the major deal points, and sometimes even when they agree on these things they still can get wrapped-up in hotly contesting the minute points of the deal. When this happens you can utilize a technique known as "chunking-up" to help to redirect the parties back towards putting the minor differences aside and completing the transaction.

As the person facilitating the negotiations, "chunking-up" refers to your ability to move your clients away from thinking about the minute details of the transaction that they currently are not in agreement on and having them focus on the bigger picture of what completing this transaction will mean to them. Sometimes when doing this the simple break alone from arguing with each other can help to relax the two parties and have them come to an agreement.

When your clients are disagreeing with each other over something that does not seem to be moving forward towards resolution, ask each of the parties why they are interested in completing this transaction. You might ask something like, "What is the purpose you are looking to accomplish if you successfully find a way to complete this transaction?" Make sure you ask each of the parties this question. Then continue on by asking each of them why this reason they just gave you is important to them. What you are doing here is having the parties get in touch with the much bigger reasons why they really should move ahead and make the deal. And you're also diverting their attention away from the minor issue they are not in total agreement on--yet. Many times when people are hotly contesting minute details of a deal they're just caught up in their egos and don't want to be the person who gives in.

If while chunking-up you can find a way for the parties to see that they are in agreement on accomplishing a common goal through successfully completing the transaction this can greatly assist you in moving forward in reaching agreement between the parties. Let's say for example that when you were chunking-up both of the parties agreed that they would each be much better off if they could find a way to successfully complete this transaction. You might then say, "Great, knowing that you are in total agreement that you will both be better off if we find a way to successfully complete this transaction, what are you both now willing to do to move forward and complete this transaction?"

This now sets a much better tone for them to both make minor concessions to successfully complete the deal.