So I’ve been hand writing yellow letters for 2 weeks now. Sent out about 175 to absentee owners and I’ve gotten around 12 calls (all of which are just wanting to sell at market value).
I do have a question concerning responding to their calls.
I have the contact # on the letter as my google voice # that goes straight to voicemail. They leave a message and then I call them back when I can (around work schedule).
A couple of people have called in saying “you sent me a letter saying ‘you want to buy my house’, but you don’t have an offer for me? what’s your offer? ok, well look at my property and figure out your offer and then get back with me.” I’m left stumbling around my words because I’m just trying to test motivation.
So is there a good way to respond to those types of people? Or is that a sure sign that they are not really motivated anyways?
Just say you’re interested and would like to get some more information. Once you do, you can then make an offer that will be a win-win for both parties. Then ask your questions and gather all of the information you need to make an offer.
If I had someone leaving a message asking me to make an offer on their house, I would believe that they are motivated. If an individual had no desire to sell, they would never open the door.
By creating a simple consistent system, you will be able to quickly respond to their interest before they get distracted by something else. As a real estate appraiser, here is what I would recommend:
Do a little research and determine, from other sales if possible, what is the lowest sales price per square foot within several categories (age, design, remodeled/renovated houses). A nice spreadsheet will help you with this.
Then go onto the county records and track down the assessor’s card to find out the size of the home.
At this point it is a simple mathematical equation. Once you have your price per square foot database, your response time will be within minutes. This will give you a barebones offer that can start future negotiations.
First off, if they are interested in selling their house, they must have a price in mind. They at least have an idea how much they think their house is worth.
You are reaching out to them because you are interested to buy. Prices always come from the seller and not the buyer. They should understand that you are first interested in buying and not yet decided. The most motivated sellers should treat you with courtesy in order for you to choose buying their property over other properties that you have as options. Depending on their situation and they really don’t know the price (e.g. seller inherited the property and are not familiar with it)…try asking this question, “In today’s market, how much do you think is your house worth?” The answer to this might not necessarily be the real price of the house given that there are other factors to consider and it is often inaccurate but at lease the price will come from them and you will have an idea of how much they are really interested to get away with. That’s when you connect to your seller and get their real motivation for selling, then…make your offer. Don’t be shy to say it. It is very ideal that you do your research about the property as much as you can first for comparable sales.