Intimidation Is A Deal Killer – Tips To Close More Deals

Are you unknowingly intimidating home sellers? Are you losing deals to competitors that are offering less than you? It’s highly possible.

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Even from the beginning of our investing, my wife and could not believe how many times sellers told us that they wanted to sell to us even though we were offering less money. We really could not understand why they would do that. Just like everyone else, we figured if we could offer the most money and close the fastest, we would have any deal that came our way (this was usually not possible as most people offer more than we do). That is just not all there is to the equation, as we soon found out.

Why would they sell to someone offering less? Sometimes we could close faster. Sometimes we could close with less hassles. Sometimes we would pay the closing costs. But none of those things made as much of a difference as just being personable. Sellers consistently told us that they just liked us more than the guy that “tore the house apart and made me feel this big [gestures with a tiny gap between her index finger and thumb]“. Or the time the a seller told us that we just seemed like such a perfect couple and she wanted to sell to us. WOW!

The truth is, in our experience, sellers are more afraid of being taken advantage of than getting the most they can for the house. Read that sentence again and again until it has fully sunk in. Many of the sellers that investors deal with are not very savvy when it comes to selling a house. They are worried that this big time investor that is going to pay cash for their house has so much more knowledge of real estate and negotiating than do and are afraid of getting taken. Even if they don’t have a clear idea of how they would get taken. The fear is there.

So how do you get them to really want to sell to you above your competition? Here are some great strategies:

• Treat them with respect.
• Talk at the same tone as they do.
• Don’t wear a high-powered business suit. Jeans and a polo work just fine.
• Don’t use a lot of technical real estate terms. Explain everything in plain English.
• Don’t rush through your meeting.
• Ask open ended questions about the history of the house and themselves.
• Show them pictures of other houses you have rehabbed.
• I seem to do better at building rapport when my wife is with me.
• Don’t tear there house apart or make them feel embarrassed about its condition.
• MOST IMPORTANTLY — LISTEN TO THEM. REALLY LISTEN.

So go out there and buy some houses and don’t be worried about whether someone is going to offer more than you. Be who the seller really wants to sell to.