Learning to negotiate

I'm kind of a push over. I'm not very good with putting my foot down.  This makes the whole subleasing negotiation a little more difficult.  We need to be in the new apartment December 01, and we would like need someone to take over our lease on December 01 and pay December's rent. We can't afford to pay rent on two places.  The problem with this is that most people don't want to move in until January.  Trying to talk someone into paying December's rent stresses me out.

Oddly enough, I rocked at bargaining in Senegal.  I was better at Lamine than bargaining with taxis (no joke-he agrees with me).  I don't know why I'm having a hard time with this.  This morning, though, I  basically pitted two different people who are interested in the apartment against each other, and I got exactly what I wanted---someone who will pay all of December's rent and they won't actually be in the apartment until January. Woot-woot!