In real estate investing, having all the numbers is crucial to evaluating a deal and making a good offer that gets accepted and makes you a profit. Most often when I talk to motivated sellers, I find they are not willing to provide some of the information I need to evaluate the deal accurately. Usually they do not want to discuss the mortgage balance among other issues.
So how do you overcome these objections and get all the information you need?
In my real estate investing business, I only deal with sellers who are motivated. By being motivated, they must be willing to provide most of the information I need without pressure. Generally I am not interested with sellers who are luke-warm and are just shopping to see if they can let you buy their house.
Most of my motivated sellers submit their information through my real estate investor website. In this case, the website does the job of pre-screening them and pre-negotiating with them, so I just need a few minutes to tell whether it is a deal or not.
Here are a few common objections and how to overcome them:
Mortgage balance:
Once in a while when you talk to motivated sellers and ask them their mortgage balance, they might tell you it’s none of your business, or if they are polite “why do you need to know?”. So I have come up with a simple statement:
“In order for me to able to evaluate the deal and make a fair offer that makes sense both to you and me and pay off the outstanding mortgage when I buy it, I must know the mortgage balance owed on it.”
Then I go completely silent… say nothing!
Usually they will consider it and give the information.
You must let them know that without mortgage balance, you will be unable to make any offer. If they are really motivated, they will provide this information. If they do not provide it, you have no business talking to them.
A motivated seller will tell you anything in the world to sell you their house.
Repairs:
Do not be surprised that their estimation of repairs is always on the lower side. In my business, I always assume that I will need to do paint, carpet, bathrooms and kitchen.
Before I ask for repairs my conversation goes something like this:
“How long have you lived in the house?”
“Have you done any remodeling on it?”
“So what repairs does the house need?”
Usually I will ask about carpet, paint, kitchen and bathrooms. When you take your conversation like this, you are likely to get more accurate answers that you can rely on.
Asking price:
This is usually the toughest part to negotiate. Of course, you must know the mortgage balance before you can ask this question, or even make an offer.
My question goes something like this:
“If I can buy your house all cash and close quickly, what is the least you can take for it?”
Once they give an answer, I usually just say, “Hmm…”.
Then I go silent.
Not a word until they speak. In most cases, they will talk themselves down without me saying another word. Sometimes I will still follow up with “Is that the best you can do?”.
In most cases, this technique works like a charm. Good luck in your next real estate investing deal.
Simon Macharia is a real estate investor in Dallas Texas, and uses the an interactive real estate investor website to pre-screen and pre-negotiate with motivated sellers. Learn how you can close more deals using less money, time and effort with a real estate investing website.