Howdy, All-
Thanks for taking the time out to read my post!
I’m just getting goin good in this REI Game. I’ve got my investors in line, and I have my courses (which don’t do you very much good sitting on a shelf I found out after almost two years), and I have a few bucks to do some advertising or whatever.
Now, with that said, I’ve been having some issues. The two biggest things that keeps coming up (and I’ve gotten the same “critique” from all three of my investors) is that when I’m talking to sellers, I’m not finding motivated sellers, and as I’m talking to them, I become a “motivated buyer” (those of you how have done this before and have been in sales for any amount of time know what I’m talking about).
So, I guess my question would be two-fold:
- How do I find motivated sellers?
–and–
- How do I not become a motivated buyer?
I’ve been in sales for years, and I’ve always been taught to get the customer excited about my product and let the customer know why they need it. Now, after years of “brain-washing”, I’m finding out that I need to get the “customer” to sell me on why I should buy their product and not be offensive while making them think they’re doing me a favor.
I’m to the point now, that I’m confusing myself!!! ???
Does anyone have any suggestions???
I look forward to investing with you and learning from each other!!!
Now, let’s go get this money!
8)
You don’t need to brainwash somebody who NEEDS to sell their home. As far as being a salesperson that’s great, but the only selling you have to do to motivated sellers is explain how it works and then get them to sign the deed.
What kind of advertising are you doing? Signs? Direct mailing? What I do is when I get a reply I run the numbers and if they work I will make the phone call. From the phone call I can figure out if the person wants to sell or NEEDS to sell. When you find those people that need to sell the salesperson in you can take a break. You are helping them out of their situation. That is the sales pitch.
I hope this helped a bit. Good luck to you!
:
First, you need to get out of the motivated buyer mood. I understand that it’s easy to fall into when you are new. The best way to avoid this is to have a clear plan of what you are looking to buy.
Right now, you are wanting a “deal,” and any deal will do. In your mind a deal is basically anything that you can get under contract. Unfortunately, if you keep this up, what you’ll probably get is a BAD deal, and soon you’ll also learn what it is to become a motivated seller.
As I said, the best way to avoid this is to have a plan for what you are wanting to buy. You can setup your plan with whatever criteria that suits you. The important thing is to stick to those numbers. For example, If you have in your plan that you will not buy anything that is not at least 80% ARV, then you would not buy a $100K property for $90K. The numbers don’t work. It’s very important to stick to your numbers, too. A $100K house that the seller is willing to let go for $80K matches your figures on the surface, but if it has $20K in repair work, then what you’ve just bought is a retail property. Hard to make money on retail property.
As far as locatiing motivated sellers, that’s pretty easy. I’ll tell you the great secret that we professional investors don’t won’t to get out. If you run any type of advertising like “we buy houses,” or “sell your house fast,” etc. and someone calls on that ad, they’re motivated sellers. Sellers who don’t need/want to sell their homes quickly aren’t going to call.
I hear all the time investors say something like, “Oh, I get X number of calls on my ads, but nobody seems motivated to sell.” The problem is one of two things: The deal didn’t fit the investor’s criteria (which doesn’t mean that the seller wasn’t motivated), or most likely, the investor was unable to close the deal.
Roger