Identifying Motivated Sellers
By Paul Esajian on October 28, 2013
Time is perhaps the biggest asset you have in the real estate industry. How well you use it will delineate you from the rest of your competitors. If you are working on multiple deals, it can be easy to get bogged down with one snag and forget about everything else. This is where many investors get into trouble. You need a steady stream of leads coming in and deals closing at the same time. To do this efficiently, you need to know which deals are worth spending time on and which ones are better left alone.
The best investors can decipher a real lead in the first five minutes of talking to a seller. There is a fine line between dismissing a lead altogether and digging a little deeper to see what the story is. For the most part, however, you can gauge a seller’s true intentions in the initial phone call. If they have an unrealistic sales price in mind or want the process extended for months, you know they may not be serious. This doesn’t mean to throw the deal away, but you should put this lead on the back burner and follow up down the road. Dismissing it all together prevents it from becoming a deal in the near future.
On the flip-side, there are several signs that indicate an interested seller. They will typically be asking a lot more questions and be open to answering yours. These deals need to be worked immediately. Remember, time is your most valuable asset, do not waste it. The more time you give them before following up, the more time you give someone else to contact your seller and undercut you. Deals on silver platters don’t come around too often, but when they do, you need to place a priority on them.
Every successful investor knows you need to place yourself in the seller’s shoes. They do not care about your particular issues. In their eyes, they are the only deal that matters. Even if you are busy, you need to make every lead a priority. It is the least you can do for them and for yourself. This is especially true when you have a seller that wants to work with you. If you have to make an extra trip to their house to review everything, then so be it. This is what you have to do for good deals. If they are a motivated seller, you need to do everything possible to close the deal.
As soon as leads start coming in, you need to have a system in place to deal with them. Warm leads should be handled right away while lukewarm ones are relegated to a follow up system. Most deals will take a few phone calls and a few meetings. If you are really that busy, you most likely will not be able to make it to every house. This is why you need to pick and choose your battles and identify as quickly as possible over the phone which sellers are serious and which are just using you for information.
In the first ten minutes of talking to a new lead, you should gather as much information as possible. Ask questions, but more importantly, listen to the answers. Most of the time your seller will tell you their intentions if you just listen.