Pamela Meyer

On Friday, HousingWatch published the first five of my tips for detecting lies related to closing on a home purchase. It's a little like a good card trick -- you have to pay careful attention to figure out what's really going on.

I wrote my book "Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception" to give ordinary people access to the professional techniques practiced by law enforcement negotiators and intelligence investigators. Here are tips six through 10 for those crucial just-before-the-finishing-line days:

It's a tense time – you've found the perfect house or apartment – and now there's no going back. You're negotiating everything -- from the price, to the move-out date, to that cool light fixture. But woven into negotiations are multiple opportunities for deception. How can you lie-proof the close?

I wrote my book "Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception" to give ordinary people access to the professional techniques practiced by law enforcement negotiators and intelligence investigators. Here are the first five of my 10 tips for those crucial just-before-the-finishing-line days:


1. Be aware – you will be lied to. When the stakes are high, studies show that those given a chance to lie will almost always take that chance. And the bigger the sale (and the larger the potential losses) the more likely the parties involved in the transaction are to lie. Many who do lie when the stakes are so high, claim to feel little guilt – they see it as justifiable self defense. So keep your eyes wide open. The good news? With such high stakes, it's also easier to spot deception – the give-away clues are far more evident and easy to read.

Read on for more of Pamela Meyer's Liespotting tips.

It's a nagging question that often pops up during a property hunt. Is your real estate agent lying to you? You may look him in the eye and ask straight-out if there are any other offers, or if the basement has ever flooded, or how long the house has been on the market. But how do you know if he's telling the truth?

It's stressful enough finding a place you like and that's affordable without having to wonder whether you can trust those involved. When you're about to plunk down a few hundred thousand -- or a few million -- for a house, the honesty stakes are probably the highest they will ever get.

So how do you get the upper hand? By drawing on the same lie detection techniques and scientific research which for years have been used exclusively by the law enforcement and intelligence communities. I wrote my new book, "Liespotting: Proven Techniques for Detection Deception," (St. Martin's Press), with the aim of bringing this valuable information to the general public.

Here are some insider tips: