Sometimes The Tail Wags The Dog
Successful Investors Create Deals Where The Seller Persuades YOU to Buy
by William Tingle

Are you a motivated buyer of real estate? I know I am. I love a good deal as much as the next guy. What I love even more is to find myself sitting across the kitchen table from a motivated seller. That is when deals are made that result in a check with my name on it and no matter what else you may have heard, that is what doing this business is all about.

Some investors I meet seem to think that what this business is all about is acquiring properties, ANY properties. If they can get a deed, they will take it and think about how it will make them money later. The problem with some of these deals is that they WON?T be making any money with them, at least not any time soon.

Not a good thing.

A big mistake I see new investors make is searching for properties. They look for properties when they should be looking for sellers, yes, motivated ones.

When it comes to motivated sellers, there is motivation and then there is MOTIVATION. Your job is to get these sellers to contact you and try to persuade you to take their house. This is exactly the attitude that I have adopted, and the sooner you see it this way, the more successful you will be. I turn the tables on my sellers. When they call and we start talking, after I determine that there IS motivation and a real deal here, I immediately try to position myself as the unmotivated buyer.

I usually say something to the seller like, ?Well Mr. Seller, we do have a way we might be able to buy your house IF it qualifies.? Now the burden of making the deal happen is shifted to my seller. More times than not, it works.

When I got started I spent hours trying to turn a regular old ?I am thinking about selling my house? seller into a ?Please take my house!? seller. I wasn?t very successful. Fortunately, I quickly saw my mistake and corrected the problem.

When you finally realize that seller motivation is the key, it totally changes how you approach your search for finding great deals. Searching for motivated sellers becomes the most important part of your job and the focus of your time, efforts, energy, and creativity. No longer will you waste time and effort on inspections, title searches, and other due diligence UNTIL you have made absolutely sure you've found a motivated seller. I do this by screening the sellers that respond to my marketing.

Regardless of the root cause of a seller?s motivation, once you meet one, you will never again wonder what a motivated seller looks like. It is truly an enlightening experience. They are happy, dare I say ecstatic; to give you their house in return for the relief that it brings them.

Let me give you an example of a motivated seller. The other day, I was scheduled to close on a little 3/1 junker. I already had it flipped to another investor. In fact, he had already flipped it to someone else.

The ARV on this property was the low to mid $40?s and it needed about $10k in work. It was vacant and uninsured. I had contracted to buy at $5k and the deal was set. Before we could close, my attorney uncovered a lien on the property for $10k.

Now here in Georgia, liens are good for 7 years. If the lien holder wants to re-file the lien, they can, but in my 4 years investing I have never found one that was renewed.

I placed a call to my seller.

?Steven,? I said. ?We have a problem. This property has a $10k lien that is twice as much as I agreed to pay for the property. I would still consider buying, but I could only give you a token for it. Are you interested??

I reminded him about the 3 years back taxes owed ($400) and the fact that the house was uninsured.

I said, ?I can write you a check for $250, will that work??

So I bought this house for $250. I will let the lien ride for 8 more months and sell it for $10K or $15k or I may sell it to a rehabber right now and carry the note with a $10k prepay penalty for the first 8 months to cover the lien. The point is, I have options.

Was my seller more motivated to sell? You bet!

Hey, I love to buy houses as much as the next guy, I just know that it is a very good thing for the seller to be even more motivated than I am. If they are trying to sell me on the deal, I know they are right where they need to be to accept my offer and my terms. If they are, the chances are pretty good I will be getting up from that kitchen table all signed off on a deal I will like.

Don?t spend your days trying to talk sellers into giving up their houses. Next time, let the tail wag the dog. Position yourself so that the seller has to convince YOU to buy, even when it is a good deal. It?s really not hard to do if you know how.

William Tingle has been a full time real estate investor since 1999. Since then, he has completed over 100 Subject-To deals and rehabbed, flipped, and Lease/Optioned numerous other houses. He is the founder and president of the Macon Real Estate Investment Association in Macon, GA and also hosts www.Sub2Deals.com, a website specializing in Subject-To investing.