4 things you must know before talking to motivated sellers

In real estate investing, most of the best deals come directly from people who are motivated to sell their houses. Even though there are so many houses sitting on the market, not all the sellers are motivated enough to give you a deal that ends up making you profit.

Even though some may be motivated, they might not have enough equity to make you a profit.

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 take lead 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.

Most buyers start talking about their beautiful house, updates they have done, nice neighborhood, and so on. Most of them are attached to their house and can continue for hours if you do not lead the conversation.

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

I always have a list of questions that must be answered 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 have no problem talking about their mortgage balance; they talk about it as casually as the number of rooms.

In my business, the sellers I talk with have already been pre-screened and pre-negotiated with on my real estate investor website. A few of them will still prefer to call, and they usually have to be motivated enough to leave a voice message.

I have a virtual assistant that calls them and fills all the information I need through my website. I already know if the deal can happen or not by the time I talk to them.

This way, you never waste your time or the sellers time with houses you can never buy.

2) Develop rapport
Do not represent yourself as Mr. Big Corporate House Buying Company. You are just a regular guy that wants to buy their house as an investment property. Their house seems to meet your needs.

Build rapport with them as you talk, especially when you establish you can 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
Even though their asking price could be good enough to give you a profit, always negotiate to get a lower price. Most people might feel like they got a raw deal if you do not negotiate.

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

If the deal looks good, always make an appointment to go see the house as soon as possible.

This will stop them from shopping your competition. You can always cancel the appointment if you later think the numbers are not good for you.

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.