Hey there—I’ve got a great Q&A for you today… it’s an excellent lease purchase question from one of my students, but it actually relates to any kind of deals you’re doing. Check it out…
So, my student placed a simple Craigslist ad stating that his company was looking to lease houses on a long-term basis. He received a reply from a woman asking for information about his company—she wanted to know if he was reputable.
My student wanted to know how to respond to her so she feels comfortable to move forward.
My answer: positioning.
See, the whole idea of placing an ad like that is to get someone to raise their hand and say, “Yes, I might be interested in selling you my house. Tell me more.”
Then you get on the phone and talk to them.
BUT—the minute the seller tries to get you to justify who you are, your experience, your years in the business, how many deals you’ve done—you lose.
Game over. Get off the phone.
See, you have the cash! To buy their house. End of story.
Can you imagine going to a car dealership to buy a car and the dealer asking about your experience driving cars and how many cars you’ve owned and how long you’ve been driving…?
Crazy, right?!
His job is to sell you one of his cars. Your job is NOT to go in and sell how awesome you are and how good your money is to buy his car.
Their problem is they need to sell a car. The solution is your money. BOOM.
Do not get stuck in the same situation when talking with homeowners.
If you cater to their line of questioning, you’ve switched over to selling a service.
You are not selling; you are buying. They need to tell you why you should buy their house—they need to sell you on their house.
You then must qualify them.
This is the position you must take and maintain as you talk to the seller. You need to stay in control of the conversation.
If they ask about you and your experience, you turn the tables and ask more questions about their house.
Seller: “Tell me about your experience.”
You: “Well, I could tell you about the deals I’ve done, but let me ask you some questions about the house you want to sell right now. I don’t even know if I’m interested in your house. I don’t even know if I want to lease-purchase your house. I’m looking for a nice house in a nice area, do you mind if I ask you some questions about your house to see if I’d be interested in it?
Stay in control of the conversation.
The harder you chase sellers, the faster they’ll run.
You cannot ever be the desperate motivated buyer.
You must qualify the seller before you let them qualify you.
Instead, you say: “You know, it’s okay, Mrs. Seller, if this isn’t going to work for you, it probably won’t. But what are you going to do if you can’t sell it? Will you rent it? Well, what if I could rent your house for you and take care of all the day-to-day needs and repairs and make the rent payments, then buy the house at the end of the term. That would work for you, wouldn’t it?”
And then you make an offer… they negotiate… you pull away—”I don’t know if that works for me.”
You just want a yes or no answer.
Don’t be a jerk, of course, and there is a time and place for negotiating…
But always position yourself as the busy buyer with tons of leads, and you can just go on your way to buy the next house.
Make them come to you. (And, make sure you mail them an offer even if they say no.)
Positioning. It’s a simple, but important strategy to use.
