Real Estate Investing Facts

This a great article by by coach Daryl White explaining how to make your phone calls.

Making Your Calls Count
By Coach Daryl White – February

Has this ever happened to you? You spend hours, maybe even days researching your leads to find phone numbers for neighbors, relatives and owners and then spend even more time going over in your head every possible call scenario so that you’re ready for them?

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When the time comes to actually call owners you pick up the phone, palms sweating, stomach doing flip-flops and then, Oh My God, someone answers the phone (didn’t expect that to happen).

You make your “Alexis introduction” and the owner says “I’ve got it all taken care of”. You say “Great, I’m glad to hear that, I’ll call you back in a few weeks to see how things are going”. You hang up and about two seconds later you realize that you have absolutely no clue what’s going with that owner.

Talk about a wasted call.

Well this happened to me many times when I first started in this business. I would get so nervous when someone answered the phone that as soon as they said something that sounded like they truly did “take care of it”, I would quickly end the call.

Next I would see the same lead pop up on the ‘Auction List’ a few weeks later and wonder what happened? So I’d call the owner back but would never get an answer. So what did happen? What happened was that I failed to make my first call count. I did not find out everything I could while I had them on the phone.

When you get an owner on the phone your goal is to make the call count for both you and for them.

For you, you need to find out if it’s a lead you will continue to pursue or refer to another resource so you’re not wasting your time on non-deals. For them, you need to know if they are on the right path and if not, help them get them there so they can achieve a more positive outcome.

I accomplish this by asking the following four “qualifying questions”:

1. What happened?
2. What would you like to see happen?
3. What are you doing to make that happen?
4. What will you do if that doesn’t work out?

I call them “qualifying questions” because the answers to those questions will help you to quickly determine if it’s a possible deal for you or what other option(s) they should be pursuing.

There are eight basic options for an owner in default:
1. Forbearance
2. Loan Modification
3. Mortgage Refinancing
4. New Mortgage or Line Of Credit
5. Sale of the Home
6. Deed-In-Lieu of Foreclosure
7. Bankruptcy
8. Do Nothing and Lose the House to Foreclosure

However; an owner who has no income really only has one option – the sale of their home. Even in the case of bankruptcy, the court is unlikely to approve a payment plan if they have no income.

That is why it is important that you know how they got in default before you start discussing their options with them or recommending a solution. As Alexis would say that would be like prescribing medication to a patient before you know their illness.

The 2009 job unemployment predictions are in the millions so it’s very likely that the majority of owners in default you talk to this year will be unemployed. Many of them will either be stuck, not knowing what to do, or doing the wrong thing because no one is telling them the hard truth about their options.

That is where you come in. You are the “White Knight” who’s going to ask the tough questions, listen to what they say, and give them honest feedback and recommendations that will help get them unstuck and moving in the right direction. Just like Alexis taught me in Lab.

By following the steps above, every call you make will count and you won’t just be counting calls if you know what I mean. So get busy, get on the phone and get those deals coming in. Happy investing!

Daryl White
Lab Graduate & Investor
Coach & Lab Instructor

If you would like to learn more about investing in foreclosure click on the link below.Kick Start Your Foreclosure Investing

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Here is a question I get asked a lot. “Now that I have the
Foreclosure lists, how do I contact the sellers?”

You can attempt contacting the sellers in several ways. One way is to physically go to their address and knock on their door. This is very direct, and may show that you are a serious investor. However, this is very time consuming. Also, if you don’t know the seller’s situation, you might be wasting your time. So unless the property is not far from where you live or work, I wouldn’t recommend this method.

Another method is to call them on the phone. You can see if the seller’s phone number is listed in the telephone directories by searching for it by address. This doesn’t take much time at all, and with practice, may be very effective. It helps to have some kind of phone script that you can start using and refine to suit your own style.

More on this later.

If you cannot find the seller’s phone number, you can try calling the lawyer who is handling the pre-foreclosure. Depending on the law firm, the lawyer, the secretary answering the phone, and how polite or how skilled you are, you may be able to get the seller’s phone number from them. Sometimes they will give it to you, sometimes they will not. If they don’t, you can usually leave your number with them and ask them to forward it to the seller – indicating that you are a very interested buyer.

A method that I personally use and have found to be extremely effective is to send a letter or a series of letters to the seller. This method is powerful because the seller will have something tangible in their hands.

Usually, they will keep the letter, perhaps show it to their spouse, or leave it on their kitchen table – thus constantly reminding them that there is a buyer for their house when the time is right…you.

With the right wording and approach in your letter, you will compel the seller to call you. And sometimes they have already made up their mind to sell to you because they have had the time to think it over with their spouse. By being in the “top of their minds”, you will have a tremendous advantage.

The bottom line is, you never know what the seller’s situation is. But if you are persistent in your efforts, it’s only a matter of time before you find a foreclosure that will make you a handsome profit. With each foreclosure that you look at, you will improve your skill in making a deal happen. And it doesn’t take more than 1 or 2 successful deals to be making a healthy income!

Over the years, I have used letters, phone scripts, and other tools that I have refined to become very effective for contacting sellers.

And get this, I didn’t have to chase anyone, I would have sellers call me constantly to sell me their homes because my letters worked so well.

They have worked for me, so I recommend them to you.

The Lazy Man’s Way To Generate Cash From Foreclosures That Will Make You Rich!

Aiden Win Mr. Foreclosure

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