4 things you must know before talking to motivated sellers

Some of the best real estate investing deals come from people who are looking to sell their houses. Even though the market has so many houses sitting there without buyers, not all sellers are motivated enough to leave enough room for you to make a profit.

Similarly, even though some of the sellers could be highly motivated, not all such deals have enough equity to make you profits.

When talking to motivated sellers you therefore need to make sure you weed out sellers who could waste your time without turning off potentially profitable deals.

Here are 5 things you must know before you talk to the next motivated seller.

1) Do not waste your time
You must be the one to lead the direction of the conversation. The conversation must focus in a direction that provides answers to all the questions you need answered to determine if you have a deal or not.

A lot of sellers will start talking about the good things about their beautiful home, the updates they have done, the great location and so on. Of course they are attached to their house, but this will not help you if they continue for hours.

Unless you can buy their house cheaply enough to make a profit, all this information has no value to you.

I make sure that I always have a script with a list of questions they must answer in the conversation. The order in which they are answered is not necessary, but I must determine I can make the deal happen quickly, preferably within 2 minutes.

Never deal with sellers who are not motivated. If they cannot tell you the outstanding balance on the mortgage, they are not motivated enough. Most motivated sellers talk about their mortgage balance as casually as they talk about the number of rooms in the house.

In my business, by the time I talk to motivated sellers, they have already been pre-screened and pre-negotiated with by my real estate investor website. the ones that call must leave a voice message, or they are not motivated enough for me.

My virtual assistant then calls them and fills all the information on my website. By the time I get to talk to them, I already know if it's a deal or not.

This way, I do not have to waste time with sellers of houses I will never buy.

2) Develop rapport
Do not appear as Mr. Big Corporate House Buying Company. You are just a regular guy that wants to buy their house as an investment property. And you like their house because it seems to meet your needs.

Develop this rapport in your conversation, especially once you have established you might make the deal happen.

3) Listen, listen, listen
Listen, listen, listen - and since you are leading the conversation, learn how they got into the predicament, what repairs are needed, etc.

You mainly need the information that you need to determine the level of motivation, asking price, equity and repairs.


4) Negotiate
Remember to negotiate even when the asking price looks good enough. Lots of people might think they could have gotten a better price if you do not negotiate.

You can negotiate on appliances, closing costs or even furniture, not just the price.

And always make an appointment to go see the house if the deal looks good at the first glance.

This will stop them from shopping your competition. If you later crunch your numbers and find you cannot make the deal happen, you can call them to cancel the appointment.

Always remember to treat them nice with respect and most motivated sellers will be as keen to sell you their house as you are to buy their house.

When your real estate investing business is run from an interactive real estate investing website, the website tells your story for you, pre-educating motivated sellers how you buy houses. It also automates most aspects of real estate investing, so you close more deals using less time, money and effort. Learn how you can employ such a website so you receive pre-screened and pre-negotiated deals ready for you to make an offer in just a few minutes.