From Tom Nardone, Millionaire Mailman …
Nearly every day I talk to students and new investors. I am amazed at how many times I see an investor get so distracted by a run down house. They think its all about the “bricks and mortar," or they think its all about the “house” that they are looking for.
NO!
What you are looking for is:
“The uncomfortable circumstances surrounding the ownership of the property.”
Driving for dollars is good (this is the activity of spotting vacant run down houses and then contacting the owners), but what you are really looking for is the person on the title, who has some “pain” in the ownership of the property.
The pain comes in many different formats.
Here are some of the major types of pain where you will find motivated sellers:
- Behind in mortgage payments
- In foreclosure
- Facing a foreclosure sale date
- Divorce
- Lost job
- Bankruptcy
- They live too far from the property to effectively mange it
- They have an unexpected deadline they have to sell by
- Property taxes are delinquent
- In Probate
- Death in the family
- House needs extensive repair
- Inexperienced landlord evicting a bad tenant.
- The property upside down in value
...and there are even more!
Non-motivated sellers cause more new investors to give up and quit more than any other reason...
Don’t let this happen to you! When I send out my marketing, if a seller calls in and states either one of these two:
#1 - What his motivation for selling is ,
OR
#2 - States a deadline he has to sell by...
...then either one of these two reasons gets an immediate appointment from me to go out to the house because he has told me “the uncomfortable circumstances surrounding the ownership of the property.
If the seller is an absentee owner, then I would spend time with them on the phone and get the property under contract by emailing it or faxing it to them. There is more that I do to follow up on the less motivated leads, but I will talk about that in another post.
Instill “trust and confidence” in the seller, and you will get the deal.
Once a seller has opened up to you, and they have told you their uncomfortable circumstances for selling the property, if you are able to instill the trust and the confidence that you are the one to “solve their situation,” then you will get the deal.
Notice I didn't say solve their “problem.” Never say to a seller that you can solve their “problem.” People don’t like to admit they have problems. Use the word “situation” when talking to sellers.
I have had sellers sell to me for a lower price than my investor competition because I was able to instill “trust & confidence” in the seller and that I was the one to solve their situation.
So when you are out there looking at property, remember not to look too hard at the property itself. Look the “pain, to experience the gain.”
One more thing on this subject...
I never feel as though I’m taking advantage of someone when they are down and going through tough times. This is not what this is about. I always feel, and the sellers always feels, that they are being helped in their situation. You can’t BEAT people out of their house. You have to help them as a buyer by relieving their uncomfortable circumstances.
Enough said!
Enjoy the Journey!
Tom Nardone