Stop Assuming People Will Not Take Your Offer Or Counter!

This is probably the biggest tip I tell wholesalers all the time.  When you are interested in a property, make the offer!  That’s it!

It’s such a simple tip.  See property, have interest in it.  Make an offer.  Yet for reasons continually inexplicable to me, too many investors simply don’t make the offer!

I recently sold a deal that I got seven offers on within 24 hours.  The irony is I had it at a higher price in purpose for a test I was running and no one offered on it.  When I lowered the price, all of sudden everyone was interested.  When I sold it, several of the others said ‘that was a good deal!’  To which my response was, ‘it was but you could have had it sooner had you just made the offer.’  The look on their face was shocking as if to say ‘you mean we can offer a bit less than the asking price?’

Let’s clear this up right now… 

Asking price is irrelevant to a property.  Let me say it again.  Asking price is irrelevant to a property.  The only importance of asking price is to manage emotion when your offer is ‘too low’ and learning how to navigate those waters with follow ups and counter offers.  I recently bought a property 125k off list price.  125k!  No one is going to convince me that you can’t get a ‘discount’ on a deal.  In reality, I didn’t get a huge discount as much as I just bought it for what it is was actually worth today.  Which is what you want to do.  Buy at current market value or less with plenty of room to wholesale and make money or keep it and rehab if you so choose.

So how do we do this?

For starters, let’s go back to my initial tip.  When interested in a property, you make the offer.  Always.  It doesn’t matter if it gets rejected.  If it gets accepted, more often than not, you are paying too much.  So getting rejected on the first offer is generally a good thing.  Then you dive into the conversation.  It doesn’t matter if the Seller is direct or you are working with an agent on a listed property.  It’s a conversation where rapport is built.  Believe it or not, you can build rapport with ‘low offers’.  Rapport then leads to honest negotiation.  And then the opportunity for a deal may present itself.

It is quite possible the Seller or agent can believe you so much that they literally start siding with you.  These are some of the best deals.  When this happens, respect it!  Never and I mean NEVER take advantage of people that extend a trusting hand to you on a deal.  Things can get real exciting in a hurry.  And when this happens, you must PERFORM.  So make sure you are ready! 

What about if you are in the midst of going back and forth?  No problem at all.  Keep building the rapport.  Keep stressing the bonuses of working with you.  Keep stressing the benefits to them because it really is all about them from their perspective.  Be consistent in your follow up.  Keep countering but justify your counters.  Don’t say things like ‘well it’s just overpriced’.  That just doesn’t get you a positive response.  Explain why your offer is what it is.  I have literally told people things like ‘would you do a nine month project just to make $10,000?’  Sometimes silence is your best ally when you negotiate.  Silence is powerful.  Then pick the dialogue back up.  It takes work but is worth it!

It all starts with the offer.  No matter what, when interested in a property, make the offer.  I cannot stress this enough.  All the strategies in the world will not do you a bit of good if you don’t make the offer.  Do so, and you will get more deals.  You’ll have more to keep up with but that’s ok.  This is how you take massive and consistent action.  And the result will be continued success.  Now go make some offers!