When asked for real estate investor advice, I am routinely asked about in home negotiating with regards to purchasing single family homes as a real estate investor. To me, this is the basis of being a successful buyer. I have heard much advice from some of the national “gurus” for new real estate investors. Some of the advice includes, “Fake it till you make it”. I could not disagree more!
Motivated sellers are already leery of real estate investors intentions. If you are faking it, you are only going to feed their mistrust. I say be yourself, and be honest. Why? Well, that is a good question! People make home selling decisions based off of comfort. Now, that comfort doesn’t have to be with your level of experience. Routinely people tell me they sell to me because they trust me. I’ll tell you a story of my day last Saturday.
I had been traveling and planning real estate investor events, and was going through a bit of a house buying withdraw. We generate a lot of leads in our office, and when I am busy, my team goes on the appointments. Last Saturday I told my team I was taking the leads. I ended up with four appointments. One in Mesquite, two in Desoto (owned by the same family), and another in Mesquite. I set my day up with plenty of time in between appointments and arranged them where I was basically making a big circle from my house, to the houses, back to my house.
I woke up that day anxious. I was a little nervous. What if I was just wasting a Saturday? I really just wanted to hang out with my wife and kids, but I love to buy houses. You see, it is still the thing that gives me the most excitement in this business. Getting the deal is a rush! I got dressed, started up the truck, and hit the road. Did I dress like a banker? An attorney? Nope! I dressed just like the picture attached. I actually took that picture in between my first appointment (which I contracted on the spot) and the next two.
You can imagine, I was a little excited at that time!
The first house was a small, three bedroom brick house. I met two of the three heirs there. I walked through the house, and discussed their parents, their siblings, and their goals. We really didn’t talk about the house much. They told me where their rooms were when they were children, and talked about the changes of the neighborhood over the years.
When it came down to the time to make my offer, there it was! I was nervous again. They were nice ladies, and my offers can offend people from time to time. I made my offer, and they took it well. I asked what they thought. They told me they were hoping to get $3,000 more. I asked, “If I gave you that, would you sign today?” They talked about it, and said, they would. I ran my numbers, and saw it would work, so BOOM, we wrote a contract!
It was a good thing I built the rapport so well. There was another investor scheduled to be there an hour later! He is an active competitor of mine, so it is best not to get in a bidding war. They called him, cancelled their appointment (this made me very happy), and sold the house to me!
I looked at three more houses that day, and bought two of them. Do you want to know about those houses, and what I did? I’ll tell you about that next week! Any questions about this deal?
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This is a great article Tim, thanks for taking the time to write it up. Its comforting to see even people with a large amount of experience under their belt still get nervous from time to time.
My first buy call appointment I have ever done is scheduled for tomorrow. I already drove the comps ahead of time and have a rough idea of the ERC, and I know my offer is going to be low. I built a good rapport with the seller on the phone we talked for awhile, and im afraid to come out with “my number” and hitting the poor guy in the knees.
Any advice on how to present your offer when it comes time to. I figure the best way is just to come out and say it.
I just like to be honest. I say something like, “look, I hate this part, so I am just going to say it.” I also say, “I don’t like car dealers, so I don’t like to circle a lot of numbers and go back and forth”. it’s all about identifying with them.