o The strategy is to share, inquire, empathized, acknowledge and listen. o The main reason for listening is to better understand the other person, and to look for both common ground and for interesting differences. o The content includes feelings, experiences and appropriate personal (not necessarily private) information. o The feeling atmosphere is usually open, dynamic and eventually a relief. o The likely outcomes include increased mutual understanding, deeper self-understanding, new, shared meaning and more clarity about the work relationship and the work. Start to observe your co-workers in conversation. Using the criteria presented, practice noticing if they are mostly debating, discussing or engaging in dialogue. Compare the outcomes they are trying to reach with the style of conversation they are using. Create a conscious plan for an important conversation that is already on your calendar. Or think of an important work relationship that you could improve with a good dialogue. With the help of a coach or skillful communicator, or your own quiet resources, go through the following checklist to plan your part of a dialogue. As those who know how to invest in real estate will tell you, it's difficult to get owner financing on most real estate transactions. The reason for that is simple: The owner wants the money that he invested in his home so that he can reinvest it somewhere else. It's like this: You own a home worth $150,000, with $75,000 left on the mortgage. When you sell the house, you get $75,000 and the other $75,000 goes to the lender who held your mortgage. You then take your $75,000 and use it as a down payment on another property or for some other kind of investment. Or, you can use some of that to make money through owner financing. Most owner-financed deals are not brokered by realtors. Those who know how to invest in real estate know they are most often the homes you find for sale by owner (FSBO). You can still engage a broker or a real estate lawyer to review your transaction, and then you don't have to pay the typical percentage that accrues to the real estate agent. And the title company holds final responsibility for ensuring that all the i's and t's are dotted and crossed. So when does owner financing really come into play? * Suppose the owner is really motivated and he's had difficulty finding a buyer. If the buyer doesn't qualify for traditional financing, the owner has a reason to use his cash to make the deal happen. And the owner can usually demand a higher interest rate from the buyer than what the local bank would charge. * If the owner does not need the money from the sale to finance his own real estate transaction, then he might offer owner financing as an investment. Money that he puts into the stock market has a chance to make or lose money. But by financing his buyer's mortgage, he's got a secured loan and he's going to have a guaranteed return. * Some owners will come through for a buyer with a short-term loan. This mostly happens if the buyer cannot get all of his down payment but he otherwise qualifies for a mortgage. The owner will lend him the down payment-again, at a higher interest rate. The best-case scenario for the buyer is to move this loan obligation into the mortgage principal within the next year or to finance it at a lower interest rate. Then the owner has a relatively quick and high return on his investment and he's free and clear to move on. * When the buyer just needs minor help, his offer for the property will be higher than the asking price. And then at the closing, the seller returns this money to the buyer.