In this video, Brad introduces Matt Fullerton, who is Express Homebuyers’ Acquisitions Manager. The two discuss how to negotiate with and close motivated sellers. But before they get into that topic, they share a bit about who they are, what makes them qualified to share advice with you and – most importantly – why you should listen to them.
Brad’s Background
Brad started off with “I’m Brad Chandler. I read a book when I was in ninth grade on how to buy real estate with no money down. I knew at that point in time I wanted to do real estate investing, so I got an undergraduate degree in real estate and ended up getting an MBA in real estate, and in 2002, an investor bought my neighbor’s house.”
He goes on to explain that the neighbor who lived there was a recluse. His yard was totally over grown and disgusting. The investor fixed it up. Brad was intrigued and wanted to learn more, so he went over to talk to the guy.
He learned that as an investor, this guy bought houses below market from motivated sellers. Brad says he thought, “Wow, I have two degrees and I sacked in my real estate license and no one ever taught me that. Wow, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Previously, Brad thought you got rich in real estate by buying property, putting down 20%, and paying it off over 30 years. He had no idea you could buy, fix, wholesale and flip houses. He learned that from this investor.
Brad bought his first houses in July and August of 2003. He bought his first house in July and then six more in the next two months. Now, 14 years later, he’s bought 2,100 houses and been a part of more than 5,000 real estate transactions.
In that time period, he started a Keller Williams team in 2008. In two short years, his team became the number one Keller Williams team in North America. They did $120 million and 800 transactions. He shared that information because he wants real estate agents to know that he stopped in 2010 because he couldn’t figure out how to make money in that business.
Turning to focus back on the home buying business, he’s since been able to build a $40 million revenue home fixing and flipping business. He’s now in the process of putting together a program to teach real estate agents how to invest in real estate and how to double, triple or tenfold their business by not only listing properties and working with buyers, but also buying, fixing, and reselling residential real estate.
Matt’s Background
Then it’s Matt’s turn. He explains his current job responsibilities as “the sales manager here at Express Homebuyers. That job entails managing all the acquisitions we have, so whenever we buy one of these properties that we hope to make money on, I’m negotiating with sellers, negotiating with my own guys a lot of the times to make sure we get these properties and get them at the right numbers so we can then resell them for an even better number.”
He continues, “I also handle our wholesale operation here, do all the negotiating on our wholesale properties, and even dabbling now, learning a little bit about the retail side as well.”
Matt has been in sales since the summer after his senior year in high school. He started in the car business as a salesman. He worked his way up to general sales manager. But he burned out on the hours and the culture.
Then he got into some private equity for a little while until he found Express Homebuyers.
Brad chimes in to say “Matt is being nice when he says, “I moved on from the car business.” The reason he moved on is because at three different places he was at, he blew the quota out of the water so far that they redid his comp plan and cut him down 50 percent.”
Word of Advice from Brad
If you’ve got a stud salesperson and they’re making you a lot of money, don’t freaking redo their payment plan or their comp plan!
How to Negotiate With and Close Motivated Sellers
Now on to today’s topic of how to negotiate with and close motivated sellers. What is the most important part of that process? It’s most definitely relentless follow-up.
If you look at the greatest salespeople, they are the ones with the best follow-up.
The next most important thing in the sales process is the ability to negotiate effectively. What exactly does that mean? It means coming to an agreement with the person you’re buying the house from or the person you’re selling the house to that’s mutually financially beneficial. You get what you want and they get what they want as well.
Brad and Matt slip into some role playing to demonstrate their point. The phone rings. Matt answers and Brad says, “I saw your TV ad and I’m interested in selling my house.”
(To get the full role playing conversation, either watch the video or read the full transcript of this video at the bottom of this article.)
Matt gets the address of the property and the information and explains the process. All the while, Matt is mirroring and matching what the caller says. He’s asking the question back just to make sure he heard it. This method also tells the caller that Matt’s listening.
Next he asks for clarification about the condition of the house and why the caller needs to sell. When Brad the seller says the house is “in great shape,” Matt says, “The house is in great shape. What does great shape mean to you, Brad? A lot of times it means something different to me than it does to others.”
When Brad asks how much Matt will pay for the house, Matt says, “Well Brad, I’m going to do a market analysis here. I’m going to take a look at what houses are selling for in your area as well as what our estimated repairs are over the phone. I’d really like to give you a hard number but the best I’m going to be able to do without putting my hands on the house is a range.” And then he schedules a home visit.
The Home Visit
At the home visit, Matt works to build rapport and trust with Brad the seller. He explains the process and finds commonalities, such as “I like your picture there, Brad. Hey, I’ve read that book.”
Understand that only 8% of buying decisions are based on price. People don’t care about price for the most part. What they care about is that they can trust the person with whom they’re dealing. There have been several times Express Homebuyers got the deal despite their lower offer because the home seller felt more comfortable working with them than someone else.
At the conclusion of walking through the house, you get to the price negotiation. Generally, Matt finds out a number from the seller on the phone, before making the home appointment. He also gives the seller some sort of range that he thinks he’s going to be in.
(There’s a lot of great, realistic conversation between Matt and Brad in this part of the video.)
Going back and forth with the seller, discussing what a neighbor’s house sold for and what condition it was in, and finding out why he thinks his house should be that much and what he thinks about our number. Ultimately, what Matt’s doing is trying to get Brad negotiate against himself.
Throughout this process, you’re going to be focusing on the seller’s pain points, while continuing to build rapport. Matt’s making jokes with the seller and making him feel comfortable.
He might put his hand on Brad’s shoulder to make him feel more comfortable, more relaxed, more trusting. And then he’s going to focus on how he can solve the seller’s problems. Again, people buy for two reasons.
They have an external problem and an internal problem. The internal problem is always emotional based and is the one that drives the decision-making. In the case of this example, the seller’s emotions are he’s scared by his health problems. He wants to get closer to family to either have them take care of him or vice versa. Matt is going to really hone in on that and say, “Listen, we can be the ones who…”
Now when you get down to your ultimate, “I checked with my office and this is what we can do for you” number, it’s better to use an exact number, such as $203,416. Why? Because an exact number makes it sound like the seller just squeezed every single penny out of your pocket. If you say $203,500, it sounds like there’s more room there, but $203,416, there must have been a lot of accounting work going into that last $416.
This same tactic works for Realtors as well. When you’re setting the price on the listing agreement, talk in detailed specifics because there’s a good chance your seller will then say, “Wow, this agent really knows what they’re talking about. They’ve really done their homework and they know it down to the penny.”
Learning Resources
Some of the best books Brad and Matt have read and recommend are
Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini. In it, he talks about how people typically don’t let someone into their house unless they really trust them.
Start with No by Jim Camp.
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, is an awesome negotiation book.
Spin Selling by Neil Rackham is another good one. It lends itself to our sales process.
Both Brad and Matt also highly recommend working with sales trainer John Martinez. You can get in on an incredible discount deal he’s offering by clicking on THIS LINK and using coupon code ehb80off.
Last words of advice on how to negotiate with and close motivated sellers are find pain and find leverage, and use it to your advantage. Focus on the internal things. Are they embarrassed about their house? Are they stressed about losing it? Why did they call you? Focus on that, and then let them know how you can solve it.
Brad’s New Podcast
Starting in the next few weeks, you can take advantage of Brad’s knowledge, based on 5,000 real estate transactions. Join him on his new podcast, where he will break down every obstacle you possibly have on why you’re not reaching your real estate goals.
For those who are interested in a free 30 minute coaching session, go to ExpressHomebuyers.com/free-coaching.
On social media “like” Brad’s Facebook page at Facebook.com/brad-chandler-866315706842600. On LinkedIn, search for Real Estate Investing Forum or simply click here. Ask to Join and Brad will approve you.
Closing Quote
You owe it to yourself to give this life everything you’ve got. It’s such a crime to just get by. God gave you so many tools, opportunities, resources, creativity, talent, intelligence, awareness, and so much more, so use it. Create the life you want. Give it your all and make this life count. You will never regret it.
If you like this article, please share it on social media so we’ll know what you find valuable and can create more for you.
To read entire video transcript, click here
How To Negotiate With And Close Motivated Sellers
Brad Chandler: Boom, we’re live. Isn’t this great? We’re doing something new today. Instead of having the laptop down here and me trying to type notes, we are looking right at the camera. If you guys have questions, make sure you type them in the comments section because we’re looking right at the camera this time and we can see them.
We are going to sit here and just have small talk until we see some people come on. Facebook is wheeling and dealing in the background. It has the mice running on the treadmill trying to get more people. We’re going to start. We have an awesome session today.
I have a great guest on. We’re going to get to the topic. A couple of housekeeping things to begin with, I got some notes here because I will forget. Who am I? There are bound to be people in Facebook nation that are looking at us two and saying, “Who the hell are you guys and why should we be listening to you?”
My name is Brad Chandler. I read a book when I was in ninth grade on how to buy real estate with no money down. I knew at that point in time I wanted to do real estate investing, so I got an undergraduate degree in real estate and ended up getting an MBA in real estate, and in 2002, an investor bought my neighbor’s house.
The guy who lived there was a recluse. It was totally grown over. It was disgusting, and he fixed it up. I went over and talked to him. I go, “What are you doing over here?” because he had a seminar. He was doing some coaching himself.
I go, “What do you do?” He goes, “I buy houses below market from motivated sellers.” I was like, “Wow, I have two degrees and I sacked in my real estate license and no one ever taught me that. Wow, that’s what I’m going to do.”
I thought you got rich in real estate by buying property, putting down 20%, letting it pay off over 30 years. I thought that was how you made money in real estate. I had no idea that you could buy, fix, wholesale and flip houses. I learned that from him.
I started in 2003. I bought my first house in July and August. I bought my first house in July. I bought six houses in July and August, and here we are 13, 14 years later, and I’ve bought 2100 houses. I’ve been a part of over 5000 real estate transactions.
In that time period, we started a Keller Williams team in 2008. In two short years, we became the number one Keller Williams team in North America. I think we did 120 million dollars, and we did 800 transactions. I tell you that because if you’re a real estate agent listening to this, I stopped in 2010 because I couldn’t figure out how to make money in that business.
We really focused back on the home buying business. Since then, I have been able to build a 40 million dollar revenue home fixing and flipping business. You’ll hear more about that, agents out there in the United States, about training but I’m going to put together a program that teaches real estate agents how to invest in real estate, how to double their business, triple their business, tenfold their business by not only just listing properties and working with buyers but how to buy, fix, and resell residential real estate.
That’s who I am. I want to give you guys all my knowledge. I’ve been blessed over the years. We’re doing this stuff for free. I want to give you back stuff. You’re going to hear more about that in the coming weeks and months.
Matt, who the heck are you?
Matt Fullerton: I’m Matt Fullerton. I am the sales manager here at Express Homebuyers. That job entails quite a few things. It entails managing all the acquisitions we have, so whenever we buy one of these properties that we hope to make money on, I’m negotiating with sellers, negotiating with my own guys a lot of the times to make sure we get these properties and get them at the right numbers so we can then resell them for an even better number.
I also handle our wholesale operation here, do all the negotiating on our wholesale properties, and even dabbling now, learning a little bit about the retail side as well.
Brad: What do you know about sales? Have you ever done sales before?
Matt: I’ve done sales since the summer after my senior year in high school. I started in the car business as a car salesman. I worked my way up all the way to general sales manager. If anyone out there has ever been there, I got burned out on the hours, burned out on the culture and everything like that.
I got into some private equity for a little while, and then I got really lucky and happened to find Express Homebuyers.
Brad: Matt is being nice when he says, “I moved on from the car business.” The reason he moved on is because at three different places he was at, he blew the quota out of the water so far that they redid his comp plan and cut him down 50 percent.
Guys, if you’re listening, gals, if you’re listening, if you’ve got a stud salesperson and they’re making you a lot of money, don’t freaking redo their payment plan or their comp plan. My wife’s best friend, same thing; everywhere she goes, she sets sales records. What do they do? They cut her comp plan. Come on, it’s just amazing to me.
Matt has a ton of sales experience. We’re going to get to the meat of the topic in a second. I have a favor to ask you. If you can please like this, if you can please share it, we want to build this audience. We want to give more people this information.
If you’re watching this live, great; that means that you have liked my Brad Chandler coaching page. If you’re not watching this live and you want to see more awesome content like this, this is the page that we are broadcasting from right now.
Don’t say I showed it too fast. All you got to do is pause that video. There it is. One more thing before we hit the topic, I started a LinkedIn group called Real Estate Investing Forum. Search for Real Estate Investing Forum on LinkedIn. Go and join it. Click join here, whatever the button is. I’ll approve you.
I’m going to putting a lot of really great content on there. All this stuff is free of charge. Go join that page if you would and you will get some awesome information.
Matt: We’re here to help.
Brad: The topic today, what is the topic? The topic is how to work with and close motivated sellers which Matt has done a lot of. Matt, from the sales process beginning when the lead comes in, to the time when we actually close a house, what is the most important thing in that process?
Matt: Definitely relentless follow-up.
Brad: Okay, I did not tell him to say this. For all of you guys who have heard me speak before, all you hear me talk about is follow-up. We’ll do another conversation, another video on that. Today though we’re going to talk about sales and closing.
Great, we understand follow-up is where it’s at.
Matt: Definitely.
Brad: If you look at the greatest salespeople, especially cars, I read books all the time. It’s the person who follows up the most. Let’s remove that. Their follow-up, our follow-up is awesome. What is it about the sales? What’s the next most important thing in the sales process?
Matt: I would say effective negotiation.
Brad: Okay, what does effective negotiation mean? How do you effectively negotiate?
Matt: Effective negotiation can mean a lot of things. It really depends on what your needs and wants are. For us, for our purposes and for yours, effective negotiation is going to be coming to an agreement with the person you’re buying the house from or the person you’re selling the house to that’s financially beneficial to you and gives you what you want and hopefully on their end, financially beneficial and gives them what they want as well.
To be honest, not everything can be 100% win/win.
Brad: Let’s deep dive a little bit into – this isn’t going to be a really long video because we’re going to try to hit some core points and then move on. We know everyone is busy but let’s role play or run through a couple things. A call comes in.
Ring, ring, “Hi, I saw your commercial on TV. I want to sell my house.” Let’s role play this a little bit about negotiation.
Matt: Okay, ring, ring, “Hey Brad, this is Matt Fullerton with Express Homebuyers. How can I help you today?”
Brad: “I saw your TV ad and I’m interested in selling my house.”
Matt: “Terrific. Before we go any further, let me take a quick step back. What’s the address of the property?” We get into the property information and everything like that. We’d get all that, blah, blah, blah.
“So Brad, typically when people are reaching out to us, they want to know how our process works and how much we can offer. What kind of questions did you have?”
Brad: “I see you buy houses in seven days. How do you do that?”
Matt: “Brad, that’s a great question. I’m going to get that answered for you. What I’d like to do now is just take a few minutes of your time and ask a few questions about the property, and the situation so I can do that.
“Your question was how do we buy houses in seven days. If title work, if say hypothetically we can to an agreement on your house and title work is clear, we can close as soon as that is done. If title work is clear in seven days, we can buy your house in seven days.”
Brad: Matt is mirroring and matching me. He’s asking the question back just to make sure that I heard it. Also as a listener, a participant in this negotiation, it tells me that he’s listening to me so it’s really important. Again, we’re keeping this brief but Matt would do some front-end rapport building, right?
Matt: “Hey Brad, so tell me why you want to sell the house?”
Brad: “I’ve got some health problems and I really want to move to Florida to be closer to family.”
Matt: “I’m sorry to hear that. I got family in Florida too. It seems like everyone has a little bit of family in Florida. What kind of timeframe do you need to make that move in?”
Brad: “I’d like to do it in the next – I thought it was going to take me months to sell my house but you guys say seven days. I can’t do seven days, maybe three or four weeks.”
Matt: “Brad, that’s totally fine. We’re happy to work with whatever kind of timeframe you need. We’re getting ahead of ourselves a little bit here. Let’s take a quick step back. We’ll get that handled.
“You said you have some health problems. I’m really sorry to hear that, and you need to sell the house. Tell me a little bit about the house.”
Brad: “So it’s a blah blah blah, and it’s in great shape.”
Matt: “The house is in great shape. What does great shape mean to you, Brad? A lot of times it means something different to me than it does to others.”
Brad: “No repairs need to be done.”
Matt: “No repairs at all? Your carpets are stainless, not a scratch on your hardwood floors?”
Brad: “Oh no.”
Matt: “So a couple repairs, okay.”
Brad: Ask me when my kitchen was updated.
Matt: “When was your kitchen updated?”
Brad: “It’s not updated but it’s in great condition. I bought the house in 1979 and I just kept it in really good condition.”
Matt: “Great, that will be terrific for a buyer in 1979, Brad, but let me tell you, buyers today want granite. They want new tile. They want stainless steel appliances, and last time I checked, 1979, those things weren’t as popular as they are today.
“That’s something that’s not necessarily broken. I’m not saying it’s been badly cared for but it’s going to be something that we’re going to have to factor into it.”
Brad: “What are you going to pay me for the house?”
Matt: “Well Brad, I’m going to do a market analysis here. I’m going to take a look at what houses are selling for in your area as well as what our estimated repairs are over the phone. I’d really like to give you a hard number but the best I’m going to be able to do without putting my hands on the house is a range.
“What kind of timeframe would you have for me to come out and take a look at the house?”
Brad: “I’m retired so I’m available any time really.”
Matt: “Great, so I can come out this afternoon?”
Brad: I wish I was retired. We’re working on it. “This afternoon? Sure.”
Matt: “3:30?”
Brad: “Sure.”
Matt: “See you then, Brad.”
Brad: “Okay.”
Matt: “Appreciate it. Once again, I’m Matt Fullerton. I’ll be knocking on your door at 3:30, and we’ll hopefully put this together for you and get you moved to Florida by the end of the month.”
Brad: Can you knock on my door?
Matt: Knock, knock, knock.
Brad: “Hey Matt.”
Matt: “Hey Brad, how are you doing? Matt Fullerton with Express Homebuyers. Thanks for having me out.”
Brad: “Not a problem.”
Matt: “Listen, I’m going to go over the process here with you. I know it’s kind of weird having a stranger in your house taking pictures so I’ll tell you how everything works. I’m going to take some pictures out here, outside of the house. I’m going to come in, take some pictures as well.
“I’m going to sit down and run some repair estimates right here on my iPad. Once I’m done with that, I’m going to come in and talk to you about the numbers of what I found. If those numbers work great for you, are you ready to make a decision today?”
Brad: “If you give me the price I want, sure.”
Matt: “Sure, of course, figuring that we give you the price you want today, of course. Is there anything else preventing you from making a decision today?”
Brad: “No.”
Matt: “Okay, terrific. I’m going to get started taking pictures out here. Would you like to join me and tell me some about the house while I’m doing that?”
Brad: “Sure.” Let’s fast forward. Again, the whole time Matt is building rapport, he’s checking out the house. He’s checking out the neighborhood. By the way, if you guys like this video, if you could please share it, that would be great. When you share, it lets me know that you like the content and then we’ll produce more of this content.
Matt is walking around the house. He’s building rapport. He’s getting the guy to trust him and like him.
Matt: “I like your picture there, Brad. Hey, I’ve read that book.”
Brad: Yes. Not sure you guys know this, but only 8% of buying decisions are based on price. People don’t care about price for the most part. What they care about is that they can trust the person that they’re dealing with.
Matt and the rest of my team is very good at building trust and getting people to like them. When I was actually going to houses, there were several houses I bought where the seller said, “Hey, we have $15,000, $20,000 higher offers but we feel comfortable with you. You haven’t rushed us. You’re not a fast talker. You’ve answered my questions repeatedly.”
When you guys are dealing with motivated sellers, again, you want to build rapport. You want to build a bond. You want to make them feel special. I recently read a book, Pre-Suasion by Cialdini. He talks about when you’re in the house, actually, he went around with one of the top sales guys in this one alarm selling company.
What he found out is the guy would purposely leave his book in the car so he could excuse himself and come back in. What that does is it builds trust because typically, you’re not going to let someone in your house unless you really trust them.
Anything you can do to build trust and rapport with the seller is great. Fast forward, you’re there 20 minutes later, half an hour later. “What are you offering me, Matt?”
Matt: Prior to this, we’re going to find out on the phone of course what Brad is asking and make sure we’re even in any kind of ballpark here because we’re obviously not going to come out and waste our time or anyone else’s time on something over $500,000 apart.
“Brad, I’ve been running the numbers. After we took a look at everything, thanks for showing me around. After we took a look at everything, it looks like we’re going to be somewhere – I know you said you wanted to be at 250, Brad. It looks like we’re going to be just a little bit under two here. Is that worth talking about with you?”
Brad: I kind of stepped ahead but are you going to try to get me to give you a number before you throw out a number?
Matt: Yes, on the phone before we ever come out to someone’s house, we’re going to find out a number on the phone. We’re going to get at least some sort of range or some sort of desired number, and we’re going to have given Brad a range that we think we’re going to be in.
Brad: Okay, so we’re going to go with that I said I want $250,000 for my house. “What did you just say, how much?”
Matt: “Just under 200. I’m looking at somewhere in the 190s. I’m working on the numbers as we speak.”
Brad: “That’s really a lot lower than what I think – not I think. The property is worth at least 250. Look, there’s not a whole lot of repair work that needs to be done here.”
Matt: “Sure, Brad, I can totally appreciate what you’re saying here. Let me take a quick step back. When you said the property is worth at least 250, what are you basing that on? Maybe I’m missing something here.”
Brad: “Well, my neighbor’s house sold for I think 275 or 300.”
Matt: “Was it 275 or 300? That’s a big difference.”
Brad: “It was somewhere in there.”
Matt: “Let’s call it 275 for argument’s sake. Say you had no emotional attachment to your house. Have you been inside your neighbor’s house?”
Brad: “Yes.”
Matt: “Okay. Say you have no emotional attachment to your house, and you were looking at your neighbor’s house and your house. Which one would you pick off the street?”
Brad: “He did update his kitchen and baths.”
Matt: “There’s quite a bit right there. Kitchen and baths, I know you’re not a contractor. Believe me, I’m not either so we have estimates. Luckily, I have this handy computer that tells me how much things cost but those things are a lot. Look, I get that your neighbor sold his house for 275.
“He sold it on the market, right? He had a for sale sign in his yard, people coming by?”
Brad: “He did, yes.”
Matt: “He paid commissions, Brad. He paid closing costs. It takes a big chunk out of that 275, plus updating those bathrooms added a lot of value. Once we add all these things together, we’re getting real close to that 200 number. Heck, I might even be a little high. Maybe I should take another look.”
Brad: “Oh no, I can’t go any lower than that. Can you come up? Can you get me 245, 240?”
Matt: “Brad, I would love to, believe me. You and I have the same goal here. I want to buy a house. You want to sell a house, but 245, 250, there’s not a lot of wiggle room there. I can work on the numbers, maybe try to get you up to that two number, maybe cross that bridge but don’t even hold me to that because I’m working hard doing these numbers but I’m not going to come in and shoot you something that I have 40 grand to work on. That just wouldn’t work for us.”
Brad: Explain to the viewers, what are you trying to do here? What is it you’re trying to accomplish? Obviously you’re trying to get at a certain price. What tactics? What are you employing to try to get the gap to be closed?
Matt: Really, I’m asking him a lot of questions. First of all, I’m going to find out why he thinks that his house should be that much and what he thinks about our number. That’s why I ask, “Is that even worth discussing with you?” because if Brad says, “No, that’s not even worth talking about,” say, “Brad, hang on, don’t kick me out. It’s an initial glance. We’re just looking at the numbers but I just don’t see 250 here.”
What I’m trying to get Brad to do is negotiate against himself. Without me giving really anything because I’m at from 190s to 200, Brad is down to 245, 240, and if I keep discussing that with him, if I keep finding out or disqualifying his reasons for thinking his house is worth that much, Without ever giving him another number, Brad is going to keep negotiating with himself if he wants to sell his house.
Brad: We’ll jump into some more tactics. One of the viewers just said that the thing is backwards. You don’t have to read this but I’m guessing the sign we held up earlier is backwards. Yes, it is backyards. It’s Facebook.com/brad-chandler-866315706842600, and that’s not my credit card number.
If you like this stuff, please share it. Please like it. Getting back to negotiation, how do you close this up? Let’s say you’ve gotten me down through this negotiation process, I’m at 225 right now. It’s 20 minutes into it. We’re at 190. What do you do?
“Matt, I really just can’t take any less than 225.” He’s run the numbers. He knows that if we don’t get it at 190, we’re not going to make money on it. Where do you go from here?
Matt: “Brad, I wish I was there. If I could give you 225, Brad, I would have given you 225 but this would be done. We wouldn’t be sitting here going back and forth. Believe me, I don’t like this any more than you do. Like I said, we have the same goal. I want to buy this house, you want to sell it.
“Like I said, I can maybe get you to 200, and I want to go get on my phone and make another call real quick just to one of my guys back in the office just to keep myself honest. For us, I have to make sure that these numbers work. Can I get you up to 200? I think so. Don’t hold me to it, but 225, I’ll shake your hand and wish you the best of luck Brad. I just can’t get there.”
Brad: Throughout this process, you’re going to be focusing on my pain points. My pain points are I’m in bad health and I want to move to Florida. The whole time, again, we’re abbreviating this, but the whole time, he’s going to be building rapport. He’s going to be making jokes with me and making me feel comfortable.
He might put his hand on my shoulder to make me feel more comfortable, more relaxed, more trusting of him, and then he’s going to focus on how he can solve my problems because again, for those of you who heard this in the meet-up, people buy for two reasons.
They have an external problem which means they need a new pair of jeans. They have an internal problem which is they want to look good in those jeans or they want someone to look at them. The internal problem is always emotional based.
I’m a seller. My emotion is that I’m scared with my health problems. I want to get closer to family to either have them take care of me or vice versa. What Matt is going to do, he’s going to really hone in on that and say, “Listen, we can be the ones who…”
Matt: Can I interject something here? A good way to say that might be, “Listen Brad, 225, I hear you. I can’t do it. Let me ask you this question. Which works better for you, 200 and in Florida with your family or 225 and nothing?”
Brad: “Yes, I really want to get to Florida but I was really hoping for more cash too because I need the cash to live on. I’m retired. It’s important to my income.”
Matt: “I get that. That’s totally fair. I understand your concerns. Let me do this. Let me call my guy back at the office.” Just to cut in real quick, this can be a call to anyone for anything. If you know where your numbers are going to fall, I call any guy in the office and say, “Hey, talk to me about sports for a minute,” and go back in, just to give yourself a minute to strategize in your head, to look at your numbers one more time, and give yourself some time to think before you go back in.
Brad: You might want to relook at the numbers and say, “Hey, can we make this deal work at 205?” Who knows?
Matt: I come back in and say, “Hey Brad, I got you to 203,416. Does that work for you, 203,416 and you’re in Florida in three weeks.”
Brad: “Sure.” Why did you use an exact number?
Matt: Because an exact number makes it sound like Brad just squeezed every single penny out of my pocket. If I say 203,500, it sounds like there’s more room to be had there, but 203,416, “Geez, that must have been a lot of accounting work that went into that, 416.” “I can’t make it 17 either. It’s 416 and that’s all.”
Brad: If you’re a realtor, same thing. When you’re setting the price on the listing agreement, talk in really specific prices because there’s a good chance that your seller is going to say, “Wow, this agent really knows what they’re talking about. They’ve really done their homework and they know it down to the penny.”
Great job, Matt. Now I want to ask a couple questions on how did you learn all this stuff? What’s some of the best training you’ve gotten, the best books you’ve read, that type of thing?
Matt: Some of the best training I’ve gotten honestly is a lot of trail by fire, just thrown right out there but honestly, I’ve read a lot of great books. I’ve taken a lot of great courses. Start with No, that is an excellent book. That’s by Jim Camp.
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, that’s an awesome negotiation book.
Brad: I read that book too and it’s amazing, Never Split the Difference.
Matt: Spin Selling is another good one. It lends itself to our sales process. I’ve been to some seminars. It’s been years and years of trying hard to get better every day.
Brad: We work someone who has been extremely helpful, and that’s John Martinez.
Matt: Yes, John has been awesome. We’ve done John’s training. I’m sorry I forgot to mention that, John. I thought he meant more outside stuff but yes, John Martinez’s training has been really helpful for us.
Brad: John does incredible sales training for really anyone. He does Fortune 500 companies, he does real estate investors. He might work with real estate agents. He’s given us an incredible discount on a package deal that he’s doing. I don’t have the link in front of me but if you go to our last blog that was published, and you can find our blog at https://www.expresshomebuyers.com/wholesalers/blog/.
When you click on that last link, it’s about I believe how to build the wholesale business. I will put it in the comments afterward. John is an incredible guy, really good.
Matt: Agreed.
Brad: You definitely cannot go wrong. I’ve turned him onto a lot of people and everyone has been like, “Wow, this is amazing.” Any last words on negotiating?
Matt: I would say find pain and find leverage, and use it to your advantage.
Brad: Again, the pain is what actually makes the person sell. You don’t want to focus on external things. You want to focus on the internal things. Are they embarrassed about their house? Are they stressed about losing it? What is it? Why did they call you? Why did they call you as an agent? Why did they call you as an investor? Focus on that, and then let them know how you can solve it.
Finally, two things, I am starting a podcast here in the next couple of days, couple of weeks, and I’m going to offer free coaching on that podcast. You guys can get the knowledge of 5000 real estate transactions by coming on my podcast, and I will break down every obstacle you possibly have on why you’re not reaching your real estate goals.
If you’re interesting in a free 30 minute coaching session, I actually think this link is on the top of this video but it’s ExpressHomebuyers.com/free-coaching. Lastly, I’m going to read a quote that a good friend of mine Gabriel put on his Facebook today. It’s a great way to close out. I love it.
“You owe it to yourself to give this life everything you’ve got. It’s such a crime to just get by. God gave you so many tools, opportunities, resources, creativity, talent, intelligence, awareness, and so much more, so use it. Create the life you want. Give it your all and make this life count. You will never regret it.”
All right guys, again, if you liked this information, please share it. Please post it on your wall, like it, whatever you can do, and then we will give you more and more content like this. Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks, Matt, for your time, appreciate it, and we’ll see you in a couple days. Happy Wednesday.
Negotiating with Sellers is the part of this that I’m most uncomfortable with. It was helpful to get some insight into how this works and how to do it correctly. Thank you both!