Using A Property Information Form To Gather Seller Information
I hope you’re not still using scraps of paper or a yellow legal pad to keep track of your seller property information. You should be using a standardized Seller Property Information Sheet to track each seller that calls in.
I don’t care if you use the Property Information Sheet that we give to our Real Estate Investor Bronze Members or if you use one that comes with any of hundreds of real estate investor courses, books or seminars. Just use one to consistently capture and track the information you get from sellers.
The Property Information Sheet should have spaces for all the basic property information like bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage as well as asking price, your estimated value and repairs needed. You’ll find at least these blanks on almost every Property Information Sheet.
However, there are a few things that your form may not have, which you should add if yours is missing them.
First, where did the seller come from? If they came from mailing a postcard, you want to know which postcard. If they came from a real estate agent, put down the agent’s name. If a bird dog or wholesaler sent it, put their name down. You need to keep track of where all your seller inquiries come from and so you need a space on your Property Information Sheet to track that.
Second, be sure to get the property owner’s complete contact information AND jot down their motivation for selling. While many forms will have a place for owner’s contact information, few have a place for why the seller is selling. Often times, structuring a win-win deal requires you to have great knowledge of your seller and why they are motivated to sell. Without this information, you’re only closing a fraction of the deals that you should.
And finally, you need to record the financing currently on the property. As many investors move toward creative financing, knowing about the existing financing on the property becomes much more important. Some Property Information Sheets may have a spot asking how much is owed, but few will go into the details of how much, at what rate, under what terms and so on. In the past, many investors have been tempted to skip asking how much is owed, but it is becoming more and more important as credit markets have tightened and some house prices have dropped, leaving many houses with more debt than they’re worth.
So, if you have not been using a Property Information Sheet, commit to start using one and if your form does not have the additional fields I recommend, please consider adding them to improve your own real estate investing business.
Until my next post,
James
P.S. The links above to our Property Information Sheet are for our Real Estate Investor Bronze Members. Bronze Members can login to access this free form to use as well as all the other forms, checklists, course downloads and training materials plus see the live training and consulting sessions schedules.
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