ACME’s Courtney Poulos is featured on City Biz.
Courtney Poulos, Founder, SERHANT. CA, Team Lead ACME | SERHANT., in Los Angeles, California, is putting out an open call to women in the real estate industry. She wants to hear about the negotiations that got hard, the moments they felt talked down to, and the ways they handled it. The stories will help shape a project she is developing on what she calls a new approach to negotiation for women in the field.
Poulos leads ACME | SERHANT., a luxury founding Los Angeles real estate sales team, and has closed more than two billion dollars in sales over a 21-year career. The idea for this project came out of a few recent negotiations that made her start thinking about how women are sometimes treated at the negotiating table, and whether there might be value in leaning into innate strengths rather than adopting a more traditionally masculine style.
A Deal That Almost Fell Apart Over Communication Style
Poulos points to one listing that sat on the market for months before finally getting an offer. A second agent called wanting to show the property that same night, saying he could get his buyers in fast and would have an answer by 9 a.m. the next day. Poulos agreed, but made clear there was already an offer on the table with a deadline of 10 a.m.
When she called at 9 a.m. as promised, the agent brushed her off, saying it was too early to expect his clients to respond. Prior to sending over the terms that afternoon, he asked her directly, “If you have another offer, why didn’t you accept it?” – seemingly calling her out for what he believed was a misrepresentation of interest. By the time the terms arrived, the seller had already accepted the other offer. He said, prior to sending over the terms, “if you have another offer, why didn’t you accept it by now” thinking he was calling her out.
Poulos believes that assumption, that she would exaggerate or mislead rather than simply tell him the truth, may have played a role in why his clients missed out. She says she has noticed similar dynamics in other negotiations over the years, and wonders whether directness from a woman sometimes gets read differently than the same statement would from a man.
Why Emotional Intelligence Might Be the Real Advantage
Poulos is not arguing that women should adopt a tougher, more combative style to compete. Her position is closer to the opposite. She believes qualities like reading a room, managing multiple client needs at once, and staying calm under pressure are real advantages in a negotiation, not weaknesses to overcome.
She also points to a lesson from a Harvard negotiation course she recently completed, where she learned that a calm, direct response can sometimes shift the tone of a difficult conversation more effectively than matching an aggressive counterpart’s energy. In her own experience, she has found that naming the behavior out loud, rather than escalating or backing down, has occasionally helped.
A Call For Real Stories from Women in the Field
Rather than build this idea entirely on her own experience, Poulos wants input from other women working in real estate right now. She is asking agents to share what a difficult negotiation with an overly aggressive counterpart looked like for them, how they handled it in the moment, and what they might do differently with hindsight.
The goal is to gather enough real accounts to spot patterns across markets and brokerages, not just anecdotes from one office in Los Angeles. Those contributions will inform future writing and speaking on the topic, including a book Poulos is developing.
How To Share Your Experience
Women working in real estate who want to contribute their own negotiation story can email Courtney directly at acme@serhant.com. Poulos says she is looking for specifics: what the other side said or did, how it felt in the moment, and what the outcome was, good or bad.
You can learn more about Courtney Poulos and her work at ACME | SERHANT. by visiting her agent profile.
About ACME | SERHANT.:
ACME was founded in 2011 as a luxury real estate team in Los Angeles specializing in residential real estate, luxury properties, and renovation-resale strategy, and as of April 2026 is now a luxury team, ACME | SERHANT., under the umbrella of the national firm led by celebrity real estate agent Ryan Serhant.
This article is based on information provided by the expert source cited above. It is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or real estate advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any real estate or financial decisions.