What are some of the scripts that most of you use when cold calling homeowners in pre-foreclosure?? tia
I don’t have a script, as such, but I think what I say sounds more or less like this…
“Good afternoon, it’s John Doe here in City, calling for Mr./Ms. Smith.”
(You don’t want to mention a company name…you want to sound local…and you don’t ask a yes/no question like, “May I speak with him?”)
(“Speaking.”)
"Ah, great…well, as I said, my name’s John, and I’m local here in City. I’m actually a real estate investor looking for a house to buy, and I can close quickly regardless of the property’s condition. And, of course, there’s no commission or fee to you since there’s no agent.
“When is it more convenient for you to show the property…mornings or afternoons?”
(Again, no yes/no questions…use the assumptive close on the appointment.)
(Assuming that you are getting an appointment, you then say…)
“Okay, great…now before I come out, I do have some questions about the house. I’ll need some information ahead of time so that our meeting will be more productive.”
(Then you can ask all of the questions about the loan, etc.)
Whatever you do, you probably don’t want to mention the fact that you know about a foreclosure. This will probably just aggravate the situation. You’ll also hear a lot of people say that they just don’t need to sell.
For what it’s worth, I don’t have much luck finding valid phone numbers for pre-foreclosures, and most of the ones I talk to don’t need to sell because they have something else worked out.
Great info thanks alot paul.
I don’t call pre-foreclosures, but I do cold call FSBOs and expired listings. I take a slightly different approach than the one Paul mentioned.
I’m looking for homes I can rent to own so I come right out and ask for that:
“Hi this is Doug Pretorius, I’m calling because I buy houses in the area, and I was wondering if you or anyone you know would be interested in selling on a rent to own basis?”
The responses are generally:
YES!
NO!
It’s already sold.
I’m with a Realtor.
If they reply with anything other than YES then I’m off to the next lead within seconds, and that’s important for me, I’m all about high-efficiency dialing!
If they say yes then we get into the questions about their loan and when I can come over and take a look at the place.
I’m curious… what do you do if they agree to the rent to own? What’s your exit strategy?
Shaun, sub-lease (sandwich) if the numbers work, otherwise assign to a T/B for a few thousand.
With the exception of Doug, I would caution all others to be mindful of the DNC laws…
Regards,
Scott Miller
I disagree with PaulBroni.
I go straight to the point. You won’t agitate them, you will only agitate the ones that are normally agitated, but it’s easy to open them up.
“Hello, are you xxxx, the property owner of 1234 Main Street?”
“My name is Tien and we are real estate investors looking to buy homes in your area, we did some research at the register’s office and found that the bank was trying to cause trouble on your property, possibly trying to repossess it, is this true?”
This gets them a bit agitated but they never really get angry, just surprised.
A few reponses are all that I get:
“Oh yeah, it’s taken cared of”
“Not, we’re not interested in selling”
“No it’s not a problem”
“How did you find that out? I thought that was private information”
My followup is normally:
“Taken cared of, how did you do so? Did you refinance, catch up the payments?”
This gets the conversation flowing.
“No we’re not thinking about selling”
Answer: “So you are thinking about staying? What have u done to so far to stop the repossession process?”
“How did you find that out? I thought that was private information”
Answer: “That information is public at the registry’s office and the banks are by law forced to publish this information, that is how we came to the realization that the bank is trying to repossess your property, is this true? ( I love to bring the conversation back to them)”
I normally follow up with:
“If you are looking to stay we work with mortgage brokers and lenders that can help get you quickly refinanced, if you are looking to sell, we can make you an all cash offer today and close quickly if you accept”.
I am normally persistant. I hate wasting time beating about the bush talking about their loan etc etc.
BTW, I am doorknocking these people and saying that in front of them.
Normally its about 15 doorknocks to get a really good lead I can work with.
One thing i have noticed is, one thing that works for paul might not work for tien. Which means you have to develop an approach that fits perfect with your personality.
Plus some homeowners won’t work with anybody. They think that everyone is against them.
So your best bet is to brain storm about what you have to offer them. Then build your script around what you have to offer.
Otherwise, using someone else method might leave some stones unturned because their personality naturally fills the void.