standing at their doorstep. It was way too easy for sellers to just tell me they’d think about it. I was not converting many of those leads into deals. We then switched to using an actual contract to write out our offer and pres- ent to them while sitting down some- where comfortable in the house. I think there is a little bit of an expectation that you would like a decision when you sit down and discuss the offer with them. It’s guaranteed they will give you more time to discuss your offer and make sure they understand everything that is involved. This is very important because an offer and a process that peo- ple do not understand leaves too many unknowns, so they’re easily disregarded. WE DO NOT PUSH THEM Don’t be pushy. Nobody likes a pushy salesperson. If a seller asks how long before he or she has to make a decision, it’s best to say, “As much time as you need.” You could always add that, though the seller can take days to decide, you still will be looking at and making offers on other houses during that time. If you happen to put several under contract before this seller decides, it could affect your ability to buy the house. THEM Make as much of the process as easy as possible for the sellers. Eliminate as much resistance as you can, and you will convert more leads into deals. Clearly explain what happens if they accept your offer. Let them know exactly how things will go down and what they will need to do. (Usually not much, as NO. 3 NO. 4 WE MAKE EVERYTHING EASY FOR
If you encountered someone who did all those things, you’d feel that you had done what you set out to do when you started looking for a buyer. This would likely prevent you from contacting any more investors. Competition eliminated. WE’RE PREPARED We run our numbers and are ready to make an offer before we go to see the house. We look up comps and determine a potential value for the house after it’s fixed up. We then use our formula to determine our maximum allowable offer (simply 70 percent of the after-repaired value, minus the cost to fix it up). Obviously, we do not know exactly how much it will cost to fix up because we haven’t seen the house yet. But we have our number already in mind and can de- termine the fix-up cost while at the house. After we walk through the house, we can tally up our estimated repair cost and subtract that from the number we already calculated and then make our offer. As a new investor, there were times when I went back to my office to deter- mine my offer. By the time I called back, the sellers had already accepted another offer. Don’t find yourself in that situation. Make your offer on the spot if you are able. NO. 4 MAKE THEMAN OFFER THEY CAN’T REFUSE Many investors think that the highest offer always wins. This simply isn’t true.
I’ll let you in on some of the reasons people sell to us, even when we offer less than our competitors. WE UNDERSTAND SELLERS Study after study has shown that peo- ple buy from people they like. Though we are buying houses and sellers are selling them, it works the same way. We are actually selling our service, and they are buying it. We show empathy when we meet with sellers. This goes a long way with them, as they are usually apprehensive about dealing with real estate investors who have enough money to buy houses for cash. That can be intimidating. Many times sellers are facing situa- tions about which they are embarrassed or stressed out. If you can genuinely show you understand what they are go- ing through, they will more easily open up and feel comfortable with you. If you cannot genuinely relate to sellers, do not try to. Doing that will be obvious and backfire. Be who you are, and it will work out better for you than the guy that shows up and tries to be all-knowing and high-powered. Sellers most likely will not relate to that guy. NO. 1
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Danny Johnson has flipped hundreds of houses over the last 12 years in San Antonio, Texas. He blogs about flipping houses at FlippingJunkie.com and is
WE PRESENT AN ACTUAL
author of “Flipping Houses Exposed: 34 Weeks in the Life of a Successful House Flipper,” available from Amazon. He also provides real estate investor websites at LeadPropeller.com and a CRM system at REImobile.com.
NO. 2
CONTRACT AS OUR OFFER There was a time when we would just make verbal offers to sellers while
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