Once you have put up your advertising and marketing to attract motivated sellers for your wholesale business, you must know how to take a call and screen potential sellers. You should practice taking in leads at least 2-3 times a day until this becomes natural for you. You will want to make an interview sheet with a check list and space for the answers.
**Please Note: Although many courses tell you to take calls live, I use a business service and I never take seller calls live. I have setup a business voice mail where people call in and listen to a message asking them to leave name, addresses, and how fast they want to sell. This helps me screen them better and know what my strategy will be before calling back**
The following advice is structured after my take-in sheet that I have use plus my own experience wholesaling real estate in Chicago.
Initiating the Conversation: Begin by calling back and stating exactly who you are calling and why. Many times when they see your number and they don’t recognize it, they are apprehensive when they are speaking. Just get to the point and say something funny like, “I’m the guy/girl you’re going to sell your house to”. That helps ease them into wanting to talk.
Start Probing: When calling a potential seller for your wholesale deal, you must know if that person is on title or not. Many times the person who called is a family member just looking for information so when you ask who is on title, you will know if he is a decision maker. Then you will want to get the contact information of the person on title as well. Make sure you get email and cell phone numbers.
Property Information: Ask if the property is vacant or not, how long they’ve owned it, bed and bath count, and ask if it has any special features. If they wonder why you are asking so many questions, just remind the seller that it is standard procedure.
Property Condition: After you get the details about the information, now ask about condition and repairs. Any seller will tell you how decent it is and doesn’t need that much work. Never listen to a seller! The best way to get an idea would be to literally ask, “if you were to sell this home, how much would you put into it, and what would you do?” This will question will help you dig better when looking for info.
Is the home listed? Most likely you will know whether it is or isn’t listed before you call back, but if it is, get all your info ready. Learn about how many days it’s been listed, if there have been any offers, do they have a good realtor, and when does the listing expire? Many wholesale properties are not listed and/or have been listed for over 4 months. This is a great way to highlight how you can close fast with cash, at a lower price.
Motivation and Price: This part is vital to any wholesale deal. Many motivated sellers are not always selling for the heck of it but because something is pushing them to. Ask their particular reason for selling, how quickly they are looking to sell, what will happen if they don’t, and for how much. Once you know their reasoning behind why they want to sell and they say what will happen if they don’t, you basically can start creating solutions for them regarding the property.
Mortgage and Liens: Once you know the price, ask how much their mortgage is and if there are any liens on the property. Motivated sellers will tell you this information upon request, so make sure you ask. If there is on mortgage and no liens, start negotiating! But if your property has liens and a mortgage, you MUST consider these things before making an offer.
Talking Numbers: RULE #1 in negotiating, the FIRST person to say a number LOSES! NEVER, never say a price regarding a property unless you know what they’re range is. After all getting all the information and taking good notes, just ask, what it they are asking. No matter what they say, remind them that you are a cash buyer and can close in 30 days and ask for what is their best. Once they tell you what their lowest is, you know what you can work with. Do not counter, say you will look that up and get back to them. If you know it’s a good area and a decent price, set up a time to meet. This part is tricky and will take some practice to know whether or not you can offer over the phone or in person, but for starters just do as I say.
Obviously you will add your own parts to it once you get used to this structure but until you know what the heck to say, just follow this and you will be find. Now wasn’t that easy? Just create a take-in sheet using these steps and use it to start talking to people and getting some wholesale real estate deals under your belt.
Now GOOD LUCK!
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