How to talk to motivated sellers

You don’t need a script

Let me share a little secret with you. You don’t need much skill to get your contracts signed.

Think about what a motivated seller is: anyone willing to accept an offer below market value regardless of the reasons why (more). If the people on those lists were motivated, it wouldn’t take you thousands of mailers, calls, or texts to get one contract signed, and you wouldn’t need a script to convince them to sell to you. They would be trying to convince you to buy from them.

So your job on the phone and at the kitchen table isn’t to talk anyone into anything. It’s to find out whether they’re willing, and to show them numbers they can’t argue with. And remember: the more motivated the seller, the more selective they are, because it is important to them that they get their problem solved. The more desperate they are, the more credible you need to be.

The first call: find out, don’t sell

The first call isn’t for making an offer. It’s to understand the seller’s situation, and decide whether it’s worth an appointment. Listen more than you talk, and write down the answers while you listen.

Notice the second question. You say it on the first call, plainly. The people who need full retail find out now, not after you’ve driven across town. That isn’t losing a lead. That’s saving both of you a week.

Before the appointment: your numbers

The second you sign a contract, you WILL wholesale it. You know how I am so sure? Because you do not sign a contract until the numbers work FOR YOU! None of this crap where you sign based on the lowest number the seller is willing to sell for. YOUR numbers are the only numbers that matter!

So you walk in with them already done:

1. The ARV.
   3–5 renovated sales nearby from the last 3–6 months, similar size and beds.
2. The repairs, line by line.
   How: how to estimate repairs.
3. What your buyers actually pay.
   Not what they say. What investors near the house really paid. How: how to determine your assignment fee from real buyer data.
4. Your highest allowable offer.
   Your highest allowable offer is the buyers’ price minus your fee. The math: MAO vs. assignment fee.

The appointment, step by step

1. Walk the house, and ask more than you tell.
   Take photos of every room and everything that needs work. Let them show you around; they know the house’s problems better than anyone.
2. Tell them you won’t buy it yourself: you’ll wholesale it.
   And explain why that’s good for them.
3. Explain the two options.
   “See, mister seller, we can either buy your house ourselves and flip it, meaning I have to bring it to the exact same condition as all the other houses on the market, having a lot of costs in the process, thereby having to give you a lower offer… or I can wholesale it to a buy and hold investor that will use the house for passive income. These investors are not going to refinish the floors or put granite countertops in. They have far lower repair costs and their offer is much higher.”
4. Show the scope of work, line by line.
   The comps (in full technicolor pictures of their beautiful kitchens and baths) demand a new kitchen, new paint and whatever else, and each line has a price. Always honest and transparent: then your numbers back you up.
5. Offer your highest allowable offer, with a short contract.
   “What we can do is sign the contract for $X, for just one week. I will know if this offer is a good offer because we will get a lot of hits. If there is interest, we can extend to 2 to 3 weeks. If no one is interested, we tear up the contract and you lost but 2 days. So, what will it be?”

When they dispute the repairs, open the numbers

You reach into your pocket as the seller’s face turns from wonder to sheer horror, and you whip out your huge black… phone, people, phone! You used to go to HomeDepot.com; now you open EstiMate and show them that a new set of appliances is $3,000, not $450, a new bathroom $5,000, not $575, and a new kitchen not 2 grand but friggin $17,000. And… crickets.

You can NOT argue with the numbers. They are not going to start this entire process over with some other investor who most likely is not going to be as awesome, honest, caring, transparent, and good looking as you, KNOWING your numbers were legitimate. No other investor is going to magically get a new kitchen for $6,000. If they are truly motivated, they accept, and BOOM! Done deal!

Example prices only. Use your own contractors’ rates, and check your state’s rules on wholesaling and on assigning contracts (why).

The wrong way, and when to walk away

This is what most wholesalers do: they negotiate, negotiate and negotiate until the seller won’t budge below a certain number, rush to sign at that number, and rush again to find a buyer, hoping someone will buy it. This is of course NOT how you do it. Sheesh, people!

If they won’t, you don’t argue and you don’t pressure. Shake their hand, give them your card: “call me if you are ready to get a legitimate cash offer”, and walk away. Motivation is a response to a circumstance, not the circumstance itself, and circumstances change. Some of the best calls you’ll ever get are from people who said no three months ago and remembered the honest one.

Talking to motivated sellers, step by step

1. Answer fast.
   The same day, ideally within minutes.
2. Ask the seven first-call questions.
   Including the below-market question, plainly.
3. Book the appointment
   when there’s a real reason and a timeline, with everyone on title present.
4. Do your numbers before you go.
   ARV, repairs, buyers’ price, highest allowable offer.
5. At the house: walk, listen, photograph, explain.
   Tell them you wholesale, and why that helps them.
6. Show the scope and make one offer.
   Your highest allowable offer. No haggling down from a fake high number, no creeping up.
7. Sign, or walk away politely.
   And follow up later if they said “not now”.

Questions