Posted by Joe Kaiser on May 23, 2006 at 23:14:44:
More than enough . . . agree, btw.
Joe
I’ve never had a motivated seller call me. - Posted by M.Osterman
Posted by M.Osterman on May 17, 2006 at 11:45:32:
So here’s what happens when someone calls from my marketing.
We discuss the ins & outs of the house…of course they’re painting a masterpiece…I’m looking for holes in the story. I do my reseach while they are talking…leins, comps, etc…I get them to tell me a rediculous number…I ask how they came to that and usually its from a neighbor who sold or has a house listed for something huge. Well I ask what they would like at closing…“when it’s all said and done…what would you like that check to look like?” Most say the same as the asking price…I briefly educate them on the loans need to be paid…blah…blah…blah. So then they agree that selling without a realtor is worthy and worth the 10% discount. GREAT!!! Now, how about the fix up…ahhh what fix up? Well then I go through this process again and I can eek out a few more % points and I’m rocking and rolling right? Well then I go for my profit and there like WHOAH…NO. So now I’m left with a property that’s 15-20% below market and I’m stuck…So…I keep circling…calling here and there…nope…I’ve done a few slim deals…but I want some beef!
Re: I’ve never had a motivated seller call me. - Posted by JP
Posted by JP on May 20, 2006 at 06:40:26:
Wow I read the responses some were good and some were just plain Well???. Just based on your description I can see that you are telling over the phone. When we market for sellers we are looking for that little motivation. Not necessary that I got to be in Washington next week. It could be something as I need a smaller house. Then I determine if it has equity. If it does I set appointment to go see house. Too many of these darn courses are setting up all the autopilot crap trying to buy houses over the phone. I cannot tell you how many times I have gotten in the living room with the seller and we become friends. They like me and we just get down to business. Sure its time but remember you are spending money on getting these potential sellers calling you. I would prefer to be in someone?s living room instead of buying over the phone.
Sellers are calling for information. But they are also calling you to cross you off their list. I heard that from someone and it makes sense. I met a seller last week. We talked for almost an hour before we even talked about the house. I almost felt like one of the family. Want to know what I left with. A contract for Subject too. Even though he told my operator that he did not want anyone to take over payments.
In the past I would have just dropped the lead in the trash. Home was worth 250K and he owed 130K. He said he wanted 240K to my operator. I signed a contract for 225K, took over payments of 130K and giving him 20K as a down payment and a note for 75K that is due in 5 years with know payments and interest.
His motivation is that he wanted to move back to NC to be close to his older parents as they were getting up in age.
Is there a lot of equity in this deal? Not as much as I like but I have 5 buyers that will plop 10K down as a non refundable option fee just to get into this house for a price of 267,500 at 1495 per month. It will give me about 150-200 per month as cash flow. If I fill it in a hurry after possession which I an currently marketing as we speak.
I guess I gone off on some other tangent. I apologize. I just wanted to say that stop trying to do the deal over the phone. If it has equity go and see them.
Best regards,
JP
Re: I’ve never had a motivated seller call me. - Posted by Joe Kaiser
Posted by Joe Kaiser on May 19, 2006 at 01:15:20:
You’re doing it all backwards. Forget marketing, it’s a waste of time,
energy and resources. Yes, I know I sound like a broken record, yet
here you are “marketing” again so maybe you missed it.
It’s very simple . . . figure out who the motivated sellers are in your
area and contact them directly. Yes, that’s you contacting them. Big dif.
Joe
Re: I’ve never had a motivated seller call me. - Posted by Kristine-CA
Posted by Kristine-CA on May 17, 2006 at 13:05:02:
I can usually get off the phone asap if the sellers start to tell me that
they have something absolutely fab and that it appraised at such and
such.
I just say: It sounds like you have something absolutely great (blah,
blah) and that it sounds like you might be best served by an agent and
a listing on the mls. That’s when you might hear that there is problem
(title issues, pre-foreclosure, they are not the only owner, tenants that
haven’t paid rent in six years, and my personal favorite: the
unpermitted additions). That’s when I can help. That’s when we talk
about a price that works for me.
If they are just looking to save 6%, more power to them. But I’m not
the buyer for them.
I’m pretty bottom line. I don’t ask anything about the house. I don’t
care about their opinions about repair values or comps. But I think it’s
important to let them tell you the story the way they see it. As I
problem solver I want to solve their problem. You’d be suprised at
things that sellers think are problems that are not that big of a deal.
And then those things that are deal killers that they have no idea
about.
What problems are you offering to solve? In active markets in CA, NOO
property owners are getting lots of mail from “cash buyers.” What are
you offering? You might want to look at your farm area to see what
kind of service you could really provide. Many places have very few
distressed properties. How many trustee’s sales on SFH’s do you think
they have in the city of Santa Barbara these days, for example?
I think it’s fair to expect that the majority of your calls will be people
checking out saving an agent fee. I just let them know to keep me in
mind if their listing doesn’t work out.
Kristine
Re: I’ve never had a motivated seller call me. - Posted by BTI
Posted by BTI on May 17, 2006 at 12:47:49:
M
Your spending all your time on the house and the price, use the basics of the house to break the ice, eg bedrooms, baths, roof (how old), is the property still standing? Get on a first name basis, “Oh by the way I’m Brian, may I call you by your first name?”
Now head for motivation, “Tell me Jim, why do you want to sell this property?” “After it’s sold what do you plan on doing?” “Why not just keep it?”
Now get into the financial details, "Well Jim, what I’m able to pay depends on a lot of things, could you tell me are there any mortgages on the property? Who are they with and what are the current balances? “Are the payments current?” Get into liens, judgements, other owners. “Jim, I don’t know at this point what all my costs might be but to get me started I would like to drive past the outside and see the house and the neighborhood so could you please give me the address and directions on how to get there?” “Great Jim, I’ll drive by as soon as I can, and Jim,you do realize that I won’t be moving into the property, that I’m an investor so there has to be some sort of profit in it for me or I can’t proceed, but if that proves to be the case maybe I can still give you a few suggestions that might help.” At this point I haven’t given a price, and I haven’t had the seller give one that he has to defend, I’ve only let him know I need to buy at a price where I make a profit and he can wonder what that is, but he must know it’s not top market value and he can get off that price.
BTI
Re: That’s cryptic. - Posted by Jim V
Posted by Jim V on May 19, 2006 at 02:58:31:
Maybe I’m just slow tonight. But:
“Forget marketing, it’s a waste of time, energy and resources.”
“Figure out who the motivated sellers are in your area and contact them directly.”
Isn’t contacting motivated sellers in a given area considered marketing? Or do we need the decoder ring to be able to tell the difference between marketing and “contact”?
Re: I’ve never had a motivated seller call me. - Posted by M.Osterman
Posted by M.Osterman on May 17, 2006 at 13:14:03:
Since you know they have a problem…( you’re marketing to problems…right? ) do you leave that for them to tell you?
I do market “all cash” I find that that means little…then again. I’m re-thinking who I’m sending letters to.
Hmmm…
Thanks as always.
Mike
Re: I’ve never had a motivated seller call me. - Posted by M.Osterman
Posted by M.Osterman on May 17, 2006 at 12:54:42:
Thanks…But,
Why would you drive by the house if they haven’t showed any motivation to reduce the price?
Mike
Re: I’ve never had a motivated seller call me. - Posted by M.Osterman
Posted by M.Osterman on May 17, 2006 at 12:52:09:
Thanks…But,
Why would you drive by the house if they haven’t showed any motivation to reduce the price?
Mike
Re: That’s cryptic. - Posted by cryptic
Posted by cryptic on May 20, 2006 at 24:00:50:
PICK UP THE PHONE AND CALL THEM!
Re: I’ve never had a motivated seller call me. - Posted by Eric (MI)
Posted by Eric (MI) on May 17, 2006 at 13:44:45:
One thing I am finally starting to get my head around is qualifying the seller immediately. I have spent WAY to many hours of my life on the phone talking to people that don’t want what I can offer them. While it was a good learning experience in the beginning it is just a waste of time now.
What seems to be working for me (especially on cold calls) is to tell them what I am looking for, which for the most part is someone who is able to stay on the loan for up to the next 3 years and leave their equity in place until I can refiance it in my own name or sell it. If they balk at that immediately they aren’t very motivated but I will talk about other options such as discounted cash offers but I have found that the majority of the time if they aren’t willing to take a full price offer on terms they won’t often discount it 30%+ for a cash offer.
Re: I’ve never had a motivated seller call me. - Posted by BTI
Posted by BTI on May 17, 2006 at 21:14:04:
Mike
Several reasons, first if anyone is going to sell a home in my territory I want to know about it.
Secondly, what a seller is thinking today may not be what he is thinking tomorrow.
Thirdly, if he is a motivated seller, it is much better if I have some basic info to work with the next time we talk.
Plus I have several other reasons not to throw that suspect away but I’ll keep those to myself until I retire.
One final comment, the amount of money I have made on deals other investors found first but discarded as unmotivated sellers more then justifys what others would say is wasting time. Just think about it, if I waste time once a week but 10% of those turn into deals in an area that averages $500,000+ is it really a waste of time?
BTI
Re: That’s cryptic. - Posted by Jim V
Posted by Jim V on May 20, 2006 at 24:23:03:
That’s not marketing?
I’ve done my time doing calls, if you are dealing with a targeted market, the results can be reasonable.
Did you have something to add, or did you just feel a burning need to question the obvious?
I Agree! - Posted by Innovator
Posted by Innovator on May 18, 2006 at 04:10:42:
When I’m cold calling (usually FSBOs) I keep it as short as possible. “What are you asking?” Answer. “Will you take payments?” Yes or No. Next! Short and sweet. Make more calls, less BS.
Run the numbers, you’ll find the motivated sellers that will take terms to get rid of their headache.
Re: I’ve never had a motivated seller call me. - Posted by M.Osterman
Posted by M.Osterman on May 17, 2006 at 21:18:58:
BTI
Personally I’ve done both. Maybe I’m trying to better my negociating skills and eliminate those sellers that think I’m going to pay full price for their junker. I try and find something…just one thing that tells me there motivated before I’ll go, before… I just went…
I agree that your in a better negociating position when you can say “you didn’t tell me about that roof!”
thanks for the feed back
Mike
Re: That’s cryptic. - Posted by cryptic
Posted by cryptic on May 20, 2006 at 10:11:40:
That’s not marketing?
You missed what Joe said, “It’s very simple . . . figure out who the motivated sellers are in your
area and contact them directly. Yes, that’s you contacting them. Big dif.”
The key word is contact them directly. Don’t waste your time hoping they’ll contact you. Doesn’t sound like you’re talking to incredibly motivated people. Motivated people have a deadly snake in their hands and will “give it away”, 50 cents on the dollar or less.
You stated, “I’ve done my time doing calls, if you are dealing with a targeted market, the results can be reasonable.” How would you define reasonable?
Is reasonable better than what you get from your other marketing? Is it cheaper than your other marketing? Are you speaking directly to the person with a HUGE problem? If so, why stop?
You haven’t stated what type of marketing you doing, so let’s ass_u_me it’s signs, mailings, newspaper ads etc. You do state that the calls you get are basically a waste of time. Do you know the definition of insanity? Insanity is doing the same things and expecting different results.
“Did you have something to add, or did you just feel a burning need to question the obvious?” I didn’t see a question in my previous post. Sounds like you’re frustrated with YOUR current MARKETING. Don’t shoot the messenger.
Re: That’s cryptic. - Posted by Bob Smith
Posted by Bob Smith on May 20, 2006 at 14:18:11:
Joe is either not saying something very important, or is simply being cryptic for the fun of it. It is impossible to figure out who is a motivated seller. You can, in some cases, find out who in your opinion should be a motivated seller. We all know that most people in foreclosure aren’t motivated. Neither, often enough, are people in bankruptcy or losers in a lawsuit. So much for our judgment of who should be motivated. The problem is that sellers with real motivation rarely advertise it, and neither will their friends. What motivates them usually isn’t visible from publicly available information that one can buy. It comes down to Joe saying You Must Know Somebody Who Knows Some Motivated Sellers, without saying who that Somebody might be or how you might contact them, which is somewhere between vacuous and taunting.
Re: That’s cryptic. - Posted by Joe Kaiser
Posted by Joe Kaiser on May 20, 2006 at 19:55:02:
Bob,
We look for people with big problems and big equities and we contact
them directly. We don’t mess around with ads and flyers and signs and
all that other real estate marketing stuff that depends on them finding
us. I don’t chance the possibility that they won’t find me.
Obviously, not everyone is interested, but certainly enough are to make
contacting them directly the best possible approach.
That’s you calling them and not them calling you. Them calling you is a
huge waste of time.
Big problems become known at the courthouse. That’s where these
things play out. Simple as that. You target big real estate opportunity
scenarios (lawsuits), determinining whether or not there’s someone
there interested in your services (gun for hire).
I’ll have to look up “vacuous” before commenting.
Joe
Re: That’s cryptic. - Posted by Jim V
Posted by Jim V on May 21, 2006 at 04:27:42:
Joe,
Apologies for jumping in the thread, it just seemed the best respond point. Marketing, IMHO, is presenting yourself to people that might otherwise not avail themselves of your services. Bulk marketing, by way of mailings, lists, whatever, might have limited results. Targeted marketing, meaning you focus on a market segment and take extraordinary steps to contact those potential clients, can produce higher results.
When a person who offers mentoring/information services provides oblique answers to questions in some way relating to the services the mentor/information provider supplies, a prudent question would be “Who’s being marketed?”.
If answers were in fact answers, it would kind of be a pointless issue, woundn’t it?