Find deals immediately at no upfront cost to you!
By Simon Zutshi
One of the quickest ways to find BMV deals is to contact other investors who are already finding motivated sellers and ask them if you can have some of their leads that they are not interested in or ones that they cannot convert.
This is one of the strategies I teach on my one day “Property Investing Quick Start” seminars, because it is a NO RISK method of you obtaining leads immediately at NO UPFRONT COST to you. You can find these people at property networking events or just contact people who are advertising to find motivated sellers.
By now you might be thinking: this sounds like a great strategy but why on earth would an investor not want some of their leads? Well there are two main reasons:
1) Most investors have a certain criteria that they are looking for. For example maybe it has to be a 30%+ discount or maybe they only want a particular type of property or only buy in a certain area. If it does not fit their criteria they are not interested. Just because it does not work for them does not mean that it would not work for you or someone you know.
2) The other reason is that some investors are just not very good at negotiating with sellers or only have one strategy to buy property. This means that if you know what you are doing you may be able to negotiate a deal from a lead that they are unable to convert.
This is very simple and effective strategy. You get their unwanted leads for free but agree to pay a finders fee (e.g. £500) for each deal you are able to convert. This is a win win solution for everyone involved. Of course you need to be able to convert the leads into deals yourself, a skill which I find most investors are not very good at. In the rest of this article I want to give you some tips to improve your conversion rate when dealing with motivated sellers.
How to ethically deal with motivated sellers
The most important question you can ask a motivated seller is “How can I help you?” I believe you should focus on solving their problem. Generally they need to sell quickly and need certainty that the sale will happen in the required time frame. However you should never assume you know what they want.
First of all you need to build up a rapport with the seller so that they trust you and are happy to answer your questions. By asking good quality questions you can find out exactly what the problem is and what is important to them. Once you understand the real issue you can help them find a solution.
I tell the vendor that selling their house at a discounted price should be the last resort, avoided if at all possible, but in some circumstances can be the best option. Once I fully understand their situation I suggest as many options as possible to avoid them having to sell. There may be a solution to their problem, other than selling, that they are not aware of. This may be doing me out of a deal but I am not in this business to take advantage of people. I genuinely want to help people. I am always delighted if I can give some advice or help educate someone to get them out of their problem. It is a shame that not everyone takes this ethical approach.
In reality what often happens is that the seller has already considered all of their options and in fact selling at a discount is the best or only option open to them. However, the very fact that I have tried to help them avoid having to sell, creates an incredible trust relationship, such that they want to sell to me, even if I offer less money than someone else. This ethical approach will help you stand head and shoulders above the competition who are only interested in getting the deal and don’t really care about the seller.
Always look for the win win solution that works for your both. The final tip is that if you can’t reach a solution be prepared to walk away from the deal. Don’t get emotionally involved. Unfortunately you can’t help everyone.
If you want to learn how to be a professional investor whereby you make a full time income from working part time in property then the Property Mastermind Programme may be perfect for you. We are now taking applications for our next 12 month Mastermind Programme. Full details here: www.Property-Mastermind.com
Simon Zutshi
Founder, Property Investors Network
Simon Zutshi is founder of the property investors network www.pinmeeting.co.uk and author of the Amazon No 1 property best seller “Property Magic”.
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