Talking to Motivated Sellers – The Initial Call

So you’ve put out some marketing and had some potentially motivated sellers call you. Whether you are taking the call live or returning the call from a voice mail message, here is a big picture overview of the process for talking to motivated sellers for the first time.

First off, do not… I repeat… DO NOT… research the deal before you talk to the seller. Get back on the phone with the seller as quickly as possible and without doing ANY work on the file before you call. There will be plenty of other areas to procrastinate where it is to your advantage to do so… this should NOT be one of them.

If you can, take the call live from motivated sellers. If not, return phone calls as soon as you can.

For this initial call, you will want to grab a blank Property Information Sheet (download link for our Real Estate Investor Bronze Members). The Property Information Sheet that I recommend has a space for all the information about the property in a neat, organized way. If you are not going to use the one I recommend, I do recommend you get one and stick to it so that you can become accustomed to your own version.

I use a very basic script to fill out the Property Information Sheet, but really I am trying to accomplish a few key things on this call.

They are:

1. Build rapport and trust with the seller.
2. Get enough basic information about the property so that I can do my full research once we get off the phone.
3. Set an appointment to meet with the seller to see the house and present my offers.

It is important to realize that in all but a very few cases, you want to do all three every single time you do one of these calls. The more face to face appointments you have with sellers, the more houses you will buy and the better deals you will find. Saving time by pre-screening on the phone is a HUGE beginner’s mistake. The real rule is if the seller could make a deal if he had a reason to do so then you should make an appointment.

You will notice that I did not say, if they seller seems motivated. Or, if the numbers work based on what they are asking. No, no, no. I said: if the seller could make a deal if he had reason to do so then you should make an appointment. In other words, if the seller could sell to you at a price that you would buy at, then go. If the seller owes more than the house is worth or what you’d offer, then you may consider not making an appointment, but otherwise you should make an appointment and at least visit the house and seller.

Until my next post,

James

P.S. If you’d like to hear me train our new office staff on how to talk to motivated sellers, download and listen to the Real Estate Investor Daily Training Volume #1 (free download for a limited time).

Related posts:

1. Talking To Motivated Sellers Whether you are just starting as a real estate investor or an experienced veteran, it...
2. The Initial Call Back To Motivated Sellers In our system for working with motivated sellers, we break the entire process down into...
3. About The Initial Call Back Script When you are about to talk to a seller for the first time you will...
4. Talking to Motivated Sellers Training Download One of the times that I hired a personal assistant to call back motivated sellers...
5. About The Initial Call Back Checklist The Initial Call Back Checklist is used to address seller inquiries when we have not...
6. Follow Up Lead Status For Motivated Seller Leads We categorize our motivated seller leads into nine different groups based on their status in...
7. Real Estate Investor Motivated Seller Calls – How To Deal With Seller Calls So, you’ve put out some marketing like an ad on CraigsList, a classified ad in...
8. Finding Motivated Sellers to Find the Best Real Estate Deals Discover strategies for getting more motivated sellers than you need to call you and offer...
9. Handling Motivated Seller Calls My mentors, including Brent Grove founder of 1-800-WeBuyHomes and 1-800-WeBuyHouses, taught me that I want...
10. Three Ways to Get Motivated Sellers Calling to Deed You Their House In order to get motivated sellers calling, you need to advertise your house buying business...