Prospecting is one, if not the most important, aspect of a continuing real estate investment business. Even realtors who say they only work from referrals do, in fact, prospect. The balance between working your business to make money and prospecting is critical, otherwise you’ll find yourself always playing catch-up to make a living.

Prospecting for investors is done by various traditional methods of looking for distressed properties and motivated sellers. Without motivated sellers, an investor can become discouraged quickly and leave the business. Prospective motivated sellers must have to sell their properties instead of just wanting to sell.

The key to determining if a seller is motivated is to ask him more questions than he asks you. Start with generalities but quickly focus on the essential question that has to be answered somewhere in the conversation, “Why are you selling?” If the answer is that the prospect wants to sell and move, his focus will likely be on the price you can offer and he will be talking to other investors.

If his answer is, “I have to sell because I can’t afford two mortgage payments”, you may have a motivated seller who needs to quickly liquidate his property. In this case, the seller is looking for a solution and the final price he accepts is secondary. He wants help and if you focus your attention on a solution, you are likely to close the sale and buy the property.

The types of solutions investors provide are a quick closing, not having to be approved for a bank loan to close, creative financing techniques such as assuming the seller’s mortgage payments and seller financing. Realtors only get paid if the property is sold and closed. Investors know their profits will come even if the closing takes weeks or months later, but they know their profit is coming or they shouldn’t do the deal in the first place.

By prospecting more for motivated sellers and asking critical qualifying questions early in your contact with sellers, you’ll eliminate much of the wasted time that normally occurs in building trust with a seller. Be practical with your business and remember, just because you had a great conversation with a seller, does not mean he will sell to you or list with you. This process of qualifying prospective sellers also works for qualifying buyers – ask them why they are buying a home and determine their motivation. Knowing their motivation allows you to formulate a solution and make the sale.

In summary, an investor or Realtor should set up an ongoing and continuous prospecting campaign to bring in leads. These leads should then be screened, preferably using a standard script so that no important information is left out. The prospects that survive the initial pre-screening are then made a sales presentation that includes critical questions about their motivation to sell. If they aren’t motivated, they should be put into a tickler or tracking system and followed-up in the future. Today’s unmotivated seller is tomorrow’s motivated seller and the serious money in real estate business is in the follow-up.

By: Dave Dinkel

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