Posted by JoeKaiser on June 19, 2001 at 10:17:51:
Geez, that thing is catching on.
I like the “call through” screening particularly well and JUMP when they make it to my cell phone. Now, I better go call the other ads in my paper to see if anyone else is using it.
253/565-9478
Joe
response to my newspaper ad; newbie! - Posted by bob shupinski
Posted by bob shupinski on June 17, 2001 at 18:00:29:
in the real estate section of my paper i put
the following message: “I buy houses, cash,
any condition, call xxx-xxx” and today i got a
message on my answering machine. She wants to
know what my ad was all about! when i call her
back, any advice on how to approach this subject? thank you.
Re: response to my newspaper ad; newbie! - Posted by SueC
Posted by SueC on June 18, 2001 at 05:58:04:
Gosh, I wouldn’t even bother calling her back. I don’t know what your message says, but I tell callers to leave the property address and that we don’t buy retail for full price, call a real estate agent. without an address or a message regarding a lead, I don’t bother calling back. Maybe I’ll miss a few, but maybe they’re the ones I want to miss. (I will someday get a service to screen everything live for me, but can’t afford it right now.)
MY SELLER MOTIVATION SCALE & how i make offers - Posted by SteveS(CPA)
Posted by SteveS(CPA) on June 17, 2001 at 19:50:29:
bob,
OK Bob when you call you have to immediately take control of the call. If it was me when I call her back I would say, “Hello, my name is, Bob. You called on my ad today. Do you have a property for sale?”
At this point she’ll either say yes or no. If she says, no, she was just wondering about the ad. Then be nice but try to get off the phone as soon as possible.
If she say yes, start asking her about the property. After you find out about the property you then need to find out what her situation is, did she lose her job? is she buying another home? is she on the run from the law?
This is very important because is will give you some indication of her motivation level.
I have a scale that I use as a general rule to determine motivation, this is not scientific, but it’s kinda key words I look for to determine motivation. But remember, not all sellers will tell you the truth and not all sellers will face the fact that they are over their heads, with that said, here’s my scale:
SELLER MOTIVATION SCALE
If you’re talking to this person. Stop. Unless they are lying, they’re wasting your time.
Even though I have bought homes from this type of seller it?s really an uphill battle. Unless, they really want that other home, you most likely do not have anything to work with.
Some sellers will know when they can?t afford their home either due to unexpected debts or some other unforeseen occurrence. These people are pretty astute. They are astute because they see problems on the horizon and are being proactive to handle them. Because they are not in an emergency situation it will be very hard to motivate them into selling them their house for anything other than cash, because they have time on their side. The same is true if they recently had a child, gotten married or children have moved out.
Investor (don?t wanter)
Their may be times when you come up against an investor who is either retiring or just tired on having the property. If the property is generating a positive income and isn?t to much trouble, you may be able to convince him to sell for something other than all cash, if you can get your accountant in on the deal to show him a plan on how to give him the most money and a tax-savvy plan so the net amount coming to him looks better than if he got all cash in one lump sum. I?m not saying this will work all the time. But if you can up up with a plan that will give him the most bang for his / her buck plus guarantee payments to them without all the management hassles. You may just have a deal.
Divorce (but not forced to sell)
This person just wants to get out of the house for personal and emotional reasons. Sometimes you can stoke the fire by showing them how your deal will help them get on with their life and get away from the property. If you can reinforce how horrible, terrible, and awful it is for them to have to stay even one more day in that house is and how wonderful, beautiful and sweet it will be when they accept your offer and are living a new life will be - you may just have a deal.
But the key is helping them associate how awful living in that house is (which they already have) and how your offer will relieve them of that awful burden. Then you may have a deal.
Divorce (must sell) These people may be less emotional about selling the house than someone in the 6 category, but they may still have the same emotions. All these people want is someone to get them their equity out of the house and get the property away from them. If you can structure a deal to do that then you have a deal. If you can?t find another deal.
Transferring - These people are basically looking for the same thing as the divorce must sale people. But the difference is if it?s coming close to the time when they have to be leaving, and buyers aren?t swarming them, then you may be able to show them how you can relieve them of the hassle of having to manage a property out of state and maybe get their equity out in a year or two. They may or may not be as concern with completely getting away from the property like those in a divorce are.
THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO YOU WANT TO FOCUS ON AND TARGET LIKE A RADAR!
Job loss - If a person in the home has loss their job and they are finding it hard to find another job and bills are piling up. Then these people should be receptive to at least listening to your offer. If you frame your offer well enough they should see the benefits of getting some cash now and a nice income stream for a few years. Show them how your offer will help them catch their breath, pay up some of their bills and move into a nice place. Even if they say, no in the beginning, wish them luck, but tell them if they ever change their mind your offer will still be good, because you want to help them as much as you can.
Major financial setback - this can come from any number of situations including job loss, medical illness, or death of a spouse. No matter what the reason they are drowning and need your help. The situation becomes even worse if they are upside down in their house or just moved into it within a few years and paid little down payment.
In some cases, they may be in denial and not want to hear your offer. Here I would stress to the extreme how your offer will help them immediately. Show how your offer solves all of their problems and you most likely will have a good chance of getting them on the dotted line. But it?s all in how you frame your offer. If they don?t see, feel and taste how good your offer is you haven?t sold them yet.
Facing foreclosure or eviction
You would think these are the easiest to deal with but in most cases they are the most stubborn, which may be part of the reason they are in foreclosure, but the goal should be the same as above. Show them as much as you can how your offer will solve their problems and free them to live a better and happier life, then you are on your way.
Needs to sells and can?t and open to anything
This should be a slam dunk. But if your delivery is weak then you may mess even this up. Your offer and delivery should be picture perfect. If it is you have a deal. If not, practice.
Now, I know this isn?t the entire list of possible situations that can come up. There are hundreds if not thousands. I also know that every sellers motivation level is going to be different. So this is more my motivation level than theirs.
But if you read this far, you will see that on most I focus more on how you framed the offer, your delivery, and how YOU solved their problems. The reason is, it doesn;t matter how motivated they are, if your delivery is poor than you just won?t make any money.
The best way to delivery your offer is by showing them how they will benefit immediately from your offer today. If they do not see they benefits of your offer, go home, because you?re wasting everyone?s time.
Practice in the mirror making different offers. Write down the benefits from the sellers stand point of your offer. Does it really solve their problems? If not, work on it until it does. If it does practice your delivery and how you’re going to present your offer.
The better you get at that then your seccess should increase greatly.
I hope this helps.
Re: response to my newspaper ad; newbie! - Posted by Travis (Dallas)
Posted by Travis (Dallas) on June 17, 2001 at 18:49:44:
Congratulations on plunging on in to real estate. When you don’t know what to do, just start and you’ll get what you need to make it work.
Just ask questions on your first contact…Why they are selling, age of house, sq.ft., address, any loans, ask type of loan & if loan is assumable, interest rate, loan balance, bedrooms/baths, how soon they want to sell, what equity they think they have or want, condition of house, etc… Since this is your first time to talk to someone, take your time and practice just talking to them so you’ll get comfortable. Maybe roll play with a friend so you’ll sound more comfident before you talk to them. Bottom line…Are they motivated and can you make money. Remember this quote “First person to name a price loses”. Get the facts & then call them back after you’ve gotten some advice.
Or just go for it & ask “If I pay you all cash and close quickly, what’s the least you would accept?” Then after they name a price ask “Is that the best you can do?” Then tell them you’ll look up some information on their property & call them back.
Good luck.
Travis
Re: response to my newspaper ad; newbie! - Posted by Matt B
Posted by Matt B on June 18, 2001 at 08:09:41:
You actually have a voicemail message that tells people that you don’t buy at full retail, and if they want that, call an agent? I wonder why you’re getting so few responses? (You know I’m not being rude here, Sue.) What exactly does your voicemail say, Sue?
god! that is a great post - Posted by sue
Posted by sue on June 17, 2001 at 19:53:56:
Thank you so much for that post it has helped me a million percent!!!
Re: My telephone message - - Posted by SueC
Posted by SueC on June 18, 2001 at 09:29:54:
OK, now I’m all embarassed and worried (ok, not THAT much, I’m no hothouse flower).
I took a page from Joe Kaiser and said on my voice mail that if you are looking for full market price and are not looking to sell right away, then you may want to work with a realtor to get the price you need.
About 3/4 or more (the vast majority) of the calls I was getting from sellers only wanted to find out “what would I pay” or “what is my house worth” before they called a realtor anyway. Not motivated at all. So I thought screening them out would help. I guess it’s a narrow line to walk, because for L/Os I may be able to pay full price, but not if they aren’t motivated.
So what’s your take on that? I like what LeGrand has to say in his LO course, but I can’t afford a live person to take my calls just yet…and I can’t answer them myself during biz hours.
My take - Posted by Matt B
Posted by Matt B on June 18, 2001 at 10:36:50:
Well, I don’t usually argue with other peoples’ approaches, especially if it works for them. (Unlike you, I’m a delicate flower that doesn’t want to pick a fight.) I can really only comment on what has worked for me. As you know, my voicemail script is-
?Do you own a vacant house? Have you been or are you going to be transferred to a new city, leaving your house sitting empty? Are you going through a divorce and need to sell your home? Do you owe back payments or liens? Have you just outgrown the old homestead? If so, we may be able to help. We buy houses every day from people in situations just like yours. We buy houses many different ways, and may be able to come up with an offer that suits your needs. If your house qualifies, you will have a guaranteed written offer in your hands within 48 hours. We are able to solve many of the problems that homeowners face when trying to sell their home, so there’s a good chance we can solve yours. We never charge a fee or commission on the houses that we buy because we’re not realtors, we’re investors. To find out if your house qualifies, leave your name, phone number, and the best time of day to call you and someone will get back to you fast!?
When you’re just starting out, don’t worry about wasting a little time on the phone. Now, of course, I’m not saying go waste your time calling classified ads. However, you have mentioned several times the lack of calls you get. Well, I’ll be completely honest. If I heard that voicemail message of yours, unless I just wanted to give my house away and didn’t care if the bank took it or you did, I’d hang up. Even then, I might still hang up since (this is just my opinion) I’d think, “Geez, this woman has got a real attitude problem!”
I get a LOT of deals from people who START OUT wanting full retail for their house. I then diplomatically steer them into the right kind of thinking. I give them the opportunity to talk first though. I don’t try to disqualify someone instantly though a voicemail message and make them think that they’ve got to sell me the house for 50 cents on the dollar or I won’t be interested.
I even include “No equity, no problem” in my advertising. If they were to call and hear that message of yours, you can bet that they wouldn’t leave a message.
I do not like the idea of using an answering service either. When I go through my specific line of questioning, I am listening for certain clues as to the sellers’ motivation level. An answering service isn’t going to be able to tell me that. Also, when I get to the end of my line of questioning, I want to be able to lead right into my lease option pitch if the situation calls for it. I ask “qualifying questions” to help me determine if I should pitch it, then go into it. If the seller shows interest at that point, I then make an appointment. If not, I’ve wasted a 5 to 10 minute phone call.
Is getting a deal signed up in the next month worth a wasted 5 or 10 minutes here and there, Sue? It is in my opinion.
Don’t worry about not taking the calls yourself during the day and having voicemail catch them. I am so busy, most of the time, I let voicemail catch my calls. The thing is though, that people actually do leave me a message. Many of them have houses with little equity and they are willing to lease option it out to me just to have the payment taken care of. They sure as heck wouldn’t leave me a message if they heard your message.
It is certainly up to you, but I highly suggest changing your voicemail message. I mean, it is kind of a big, glowing, red flag that you have got so few messages, don’t you think? Any way, let me know how it goes.
Similar to Terry Wygal’s message… - Posted by JHyre in TexOhio
Posted by JHyre in TexOhio on June 18, 2001 at 16:37:04:
here in Houston. Seems to screen out retail snoopers without scaring off motivated sellers…maybe Terry’ll post his message.
John Hyre
Actually… that message should be… - Posted by David Alexander
Posted by David Alexander on June 19, 2001 at 01:31:29:
credited to Joe Kaiser… but Terry and I both borrowed.
I changed it up a bit to fit my lingo… regardless the system is still the same… I like it…
Mines at (214)890-6917
David Alexander
and don’t forget… - Posted by TRandle
Posted by TRandle on June 19, 2001 at 08:36:04:
512-302-6741 either. Another investor in my area is also using it. Soon, Kaiser’s message will be the national prequalification mechanism for investors. I liked it too much to change it. LOL! The simplicity is brilliant.
I’m still waiting for him to post his “buyer” message so I can “plagiarize” that as well. Thanks Joe K.!