Epic Real Estate Investing - 5 Tactics to Getting More of Your Offers Accepted | Episode 84

Episode Date: January 13, 2014

If you're not doing any deals, or not doing as many as you'd like... there is a quick fix. Write more offers. However, getting those offers accepted may present a new challenge. Listen in to this episode as Matt shares his 5 best methods for getting more of his offers accepted. Cha-ching! ---------------------- If you have a question you'd like Matt to answer live on the show, call the Epic Real Estate Hotline at 1-888-891-7203 Download Matt's free course How to Do Deals : No Money Required at FreeRealEstateInvestingCourse.com Don't have a buyers list yet? Borrow Matt's until you do at EpicWholesalers.com Get "done for me" income properties with "guarnateed cash flow" at CashFlowSavvy.com Hit the streets and join Matt in the field in one of his cash flow markets at EpicRealEstateTour.com Subscribe to Financial Freedom Fridays on Matt's YouTube channel by visiting EpicREI.tv Subscribe to this podcast and access all episodes at EpicRealEstateInvesting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Broadcasting from Terrio Studios in Glendale, California, it's time for Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. Hello, welcome to another episode of Epic Real Estate Investing. This is your first time listening to the show. Welcome. Super glad that you're here. If this is not your first time, welcome back. This is the place where I teach people how to invest in real estate, and I do that at here on the show, and I do it at the Epic Pro Academy.

That's at Epicproacademy.com. working on some revisions of that right now. It's going to be totally awesome. I can't wait to share that with you. And I also actually do the investing for people that don't want to do all the heavy lifting themselves. And I do that at cashflow savvy.com. And the next epic real estate tour for Cashflow Savvy, so you can come and see how I do this.

That's coming up very soon. It's coming up in February. February 20th and 21st, to be exact, seats are definitely filling up since I announced this last episode. And those seats are limited in case you didn't know. We have 20 seats available, and I believe half of those are already gone. So if you do plan on joining my team and I for a tour of the Memphis Market, be sure to go to Epic Real EstateTor.com for the details and to register, Epic Real Estate Tour.

All right. If you happen to have a question, comment, or concern that you'd like me to answer or address here live on the show, please share them with me. And on the Epic Real Estate Investing Hotline, that number is 1-888-891. 7203. 1-888-891-7203. All righty, something new that I have planned for this show beginning this Friday. Matt totally set on the name yet.

I've been looking for the perfect name, but I'll have that name finalized by Friday. And it's just a quick spot, a short episode, probably no longer than five minutes long or so. I think I'm going to call it the Financial Freedom Friday. Financial Freedom Friday. That's where I'm going to share real estate investing tips, of course, but also financial freedom tips and financial education nuggets, wealth creation pointers.

Just to set you off on the weekend with good thoughts and new ideas, something to think about. You know, as real estate is your vehicle for financial freedom, I think it's the vehicle that gives the average person the best shot at achieving financial freedom, not to mention great wealth. You know, real estate, it's your vehicle. and you could look at Friday's short little episodes as the fuel and the steering wheel. Okay, probably could look at it as a map also. So that begins this Friday and you can consume Financial Freedom Friday episodes in one of two ways.

First, just stay subscribed to this podcast and you'll get to listen. Or second, you can go to epic rei.tv. Epic rei.com. dot TV, of which will take you to my YouTube channel. You can subscribe there, and you can watch Financial Freedom Fridays, as they will also be videos. I'll do my very best to be visual with my words so that you don't miss anything in the audio version that I'm sharing here on the podcast, but there'll be some visuals involved on

the video in many of the episodes. So if you like to listen and learn, not much for you to do. Just know that a new episode will be added to the schedule of which will be released on Fridays. or if you like to watch and learn, go to EpicREi.tv. Subscribe there and you'll get an email notification each Friday when the video is released. Cool? Super. Wow, two shows in a row with a bunch of domain names to remember.

My bad, it's not typical. Just there's a lot going on here over at Epic Real Estate. So if you missed any of those domain names, no worries. You only need to remember one as you'll be able to find everything mentioned right here on this show. you can log in, log this domain into your brain, Epicrealestate.com forward slash episode 84. Episode 84. Epicrealestate.com forward slash episode 84. That's where you'll find the show notes compiled by my awesome partner, Courtney.

All right. So let's get on with today's show. How do I get more offers accepted? Right? And this is important. You know, as you can't do deals unless you get offers accepted. And remember, as we discussed two episodes ago, number, episode 82, it was three simple focuses for your prosperous 2014.

So writing more offers is one of your focuses. So if that's one of your focuses, let's discuss how to be better at it. Okay. So to be better at it, write more offers. That's your job, especially in the beginning of your career, okay? Writing more offers, that's going to get more offers accepted, obviously. You know, just like, say, the game of monopoly. If you don't pick up the dice and roll those dice, you're not going to be circling that board.

You're never going to pass go. You're never going to buy a property. You're never going to get one of those green houses. You'll never get enough green houses to get those hotels. I mean, it doesn't matter how many times you, say you read the instructions on the inside of the box. It doesn't matter how many times you watch others play the game. It doesn't matter how much time you spend planning your strategy. If you don't roll the dice, you're not passing go and you're not collecting.

your 200 bucks. You know, rolling the dice, playing monopoly, it's equivalent in the real world as writing offers. You've got to roll the dice. You've got to write offers. So that is the first way to get more offers accepted. Now, here's where the fantasy and monopoly differs with the reality of your real estate investing. Here's where rolling the dice and writing the offers differ. You see, while playing monopoly and you roll the dice, it's a game of chess. It's a game of chance, isn't it? I mean, you don't have any control over what numbers come up, do you? You can't manipulate the dice. You can't influence the dice. Now, in the real world of your real estate investing, however, you can manipulate the dice. You can increase the odds of your offers

getting accepted. You do have some control there. You do have some influence of where you can increase the odds of getting your offers accepted. So that's what we're going to discuss today. So first, Let's discuss the actual mindset of writing offers and getting them accepted, and then I'll get into some actual tactics or strategies of getting more offers accepted. But the mindset is really important. You know, your primary focus, your primary mindset should be that of a problem solver. That right there is going to get you more offers accepted. You know, every motivated seller that you meet with, your intent should be to solve the seller's

problem. Now, this is not the episode where we're going to be. to discuss land contracts and lease options and contracts for deeds and subject to and master leases, letters of intent. I mean, keep in mind, those are just tools in your tool belt, tools that can help you solve the seller's problem. And here's why I want to draw your attention to this. As I frequently hear about people's strategies being defined as, you know, I hear people say, I'm a lease option investor or how do I market for subject to deals. They're so strategy-focused. And to get more offers accepted, it would behoove you to focus more on the seller's problem

rather than how I'm going to turn this into a lease option deal or how I'm going to turn this into a subject to deal. I mean, if that's what you're doing, you're approaching your investing really rather backwards. You're really limiting your options. You're eliminating some opportunity for yourself. You're putting the cart before the horse, so to speak. So first, focus on solving the seller's problem. and then look into your toolbox and pull out the best tool for the job.

So, you know, maybe it is a contract for deed. Maybe it is a master lease, or maybe it is, in fact, a lease option. All of these strategies, they're just tools. They're tools to fix the seller's problem. And this is why I endorse and implement the seller information questionnaire in my business. And you can find that in the free real estate investing course. It's the same seller information questionnaire that I would give you there. because it extracts the seller's problem first.

And once I know the problem, I can then diagnose a solution, or I can prescribe a solution, or multiple options of solutions, multiple prescriptions, of which all of them would work, meaning maybe a lease option and a subject to would solve this particular seller's problem. Now you've got two different chances for your offer, for being accepted, right? Two, definitely better than one.

Yes? Right. So, but if your sole focus is on wholesaling lease options, if that's just what you've decided you want to do, you may be prescribing the wrong solution for the seller. You know, just like if a doctor were to try and make, say, Ephedron, the cure for everyone and everything that walked through his or her door, I mean, some people would get cured. that might be the right thing, or some people would not get cured, right?

And some people might even die. You know, in the medical field, that would be called malpractice. You don't want to be that doctor. You don't want to be malpracticing out there. So you've got to properly diagnose a la the seller information questionnaire, and then you've got to properly prescribe

all of your toolbox of investing strategies. Oh, and keep in mind, and this is key. giving the seller money is frequently never the only solution. Money is not going to solve every seller's problem. Again, it's just another tool in your toolbox. But you won't know that. You'll never know that unless you first diagnose the problem. So that's the mindset of getting more offers accepted, being a problem solver.

That's going to help you get more offers accepted. So with that in mind, you need to find sellers with problems, right? I mean, there are more sellers with problems that you find, the more likely you're going to get offers accepted. So that'll help you get more offers accepted is by finding sellers with problems. If the people you're talking to, if the property owners you're talking to don't have problems, there's not much you can do there, right? Not if you're a problem solver. If they don't have a problem, there's nothing there for you to do.

Well, nothing that you can do of what you'll be compensated for. So marketing to the right people, networking with the right people is essential to getting more offers accepted. That's why I recommend things like pre-foreclosures, prospecting and marketing to people that are about to be foreclosed on. That's a problem. They've got a problem. That's why I recommend non-owner-occupied properties. Because through non-owner occupied properties, you're dealing with investors, and you're going to come across a certain percentage of inexperienced investors or inexperienced landlords. And inexperienced, uneducated landlords, they've always got problems. That's why I recommend and expired listings.

They've got a problem. They couldn't sell their property through a realtor. So that's a problem that you could potentially solve. And you can look at other places where people are experiencing problems, things like probate listings. There's a problem that you can potentially solve. Divorce listings. Maybe they've got to sell the house to divide up the assets.

There's a problem you could potentially solve. Unemployment listings. You know, there's people without jobs now. They might not be able to afford their mortgage. So that's a problem you might be able to solve. inheritance listings. Maybe people have inherited a house and they don't know what to do with it. There's a problem that you might be able to solve.

Those are all places of where the chance of finding sellers with problems is greater than looking at just a blanket cross section of people going through the white pages or knocking on doors. Okay. Of which also work. Okay. It's just these, when you kind of narrow down your focus to certain categories of people, certain categories of people that are experiencing certain types of events, the chances of finding sellers with problems, it's just greater there.

It's not a surefire way, not by any means. There's no surefire way of finding sellers with problems. And I don't believe any of one of those lists or categories is better than the other. We just narrow down our search to these categories because the possibility of finding a seller with a problem there is greater. Get it? I mean, you're going to have to dig. You're still going to have to negotiate.

And most of the time, there will be a problem that you just can't solve. And that's okay. But that's what's great about real estate investing is that it's so lucrative. You don't need to solve a bunch of problems to make a good living at this, for you to be successful at this and for this to be a regular thing for you. You just need to solve sellers' problems. And you've got to find the sellers of which problems you can solve. So narrowing your marketing and narrowing your prospecting relationships to

defining people that are most likely to have problems. That's going to help you get more offers accepted also. Okay? A last note on mindset, and then we'll get onto some tactics and strategies of getting more offers accepted. Is that when it's your intention to solve a seller's problem, if you're going to say, okay, cool, I get it. I'm going to be a problem solver. Well, when that's your intention to solve that seller's problem, what does that do to the

relationship between you and the seller? It puts you on the same side, doesn't it? Yeah, you are on the same side as the seller. It unites you to the pursuit of the same goal. So to get more offers accepted, you're better suited to align yourself with the seller and take on the conditions of the market as your adversary. That's who you're, you've teamed up against. The market, that's the bad guy.

It's not you. It's you and the seller versus the market. and if the seller genuinely feels that, you're more likely to get your offer accepted. If the seller feels it's a negotiation between them and you, now you have an adversarial relationship between the person that's going, the only person there that can give you what you want.

The barriers are higher. The resistance is greater, it's stronger. I mean, most people think getting an offer accepted is negotiating or even arguing. I mean, so many have the mindset of, if I can only prove the seller wrong, then I'll get the deal. Wrong. That doesn't work.

Or it doesn't work very well. You might get lucky here and there. But it's so much more work. It's so much more difficult. So join forces with the seller in solving their seller's problems. It's you and the seller versus the market. That right there, that's going to help you get more offers accepted. Okay.

So the mindset, I really believe that's everything. I mean, if you adopt the right mindset, I just went over. do nothing else, you're going to get more offers accepted. I promise. You will. This is still a people business and you can get a whole lot more done with people when you, one, give them options to getting what they want and two, joining forces with them and actually helping them get what they want. Mindset, mindset, mindset. Okay. Now, let's go over some tactics or some strategies to getting more offers accepted. You know, we actually already covered one of the more important ones and that is to write more offers. You got to keep rolling the dice and you can manipulate those dice with the right mindset.

And you can manipulate, as a tongue twister, you can manipulate those dice with the following, the following tactics and strategies, okay? And I kind of mentioned this already too, but I want to point out again, give the seller more than one option. I love the use of the three-option letter of intent. In fact, I don't think I really any longer write an offer without presenting multiple options. It's my favorite tool. It's my most effective tool. And I've covered that pretty extensively on this show. And if this is your first time hearing of that three option letter of intent, or if you could use a refresher, episode 70 and episode 80, those both would be a very good resource for you to catch up and or get on the same page. On those two episodes, you will learn

how powerful of a tool this is really giving giving that seller of multiple options. It's an extremely powerful tool. Another tactic is to adopt the practice of always writing an offer. Always write an offer. Even if you can't come to a meeting of the minds with the seller, write an offer. And if they won't accept your offer, if they won't even accept the piece of paper that you wrote the offer on, when you give back to the office, mail it to them. And here's why this works.

In a nutshell, you know, a no today does not mean a no tomorrow. Okay. And specifically, in detail, here's why this gets more offers accepted. First, when you find someone with a problem, time is typically not on their side. They've got a problem and those problems typically have deadlines. So time is not on their side. Problems tend to escalate in severity. They tend to snowball to points of urgency or even depression.

Second, most people don't write offers. Your competition is not writing offers if they didn't come to some sort of verbal agreement with the seller. And when that person's problem, that seller's problem, snowballs to a point where they need a solution, who are they going to call? Of all the people that they talk to, who are they going to call? They're going to first call the people that actually wrote offers who put their terms in writing.

And most people don't write offers. So if you always write an offer, if you adopt that practice, you're likely to get a callback when that seller situation reaches that point. I get offers accepted this way at least once a month, at least once a month. I've been doing this for a while, so they kind of, they're overlapping now, but I get offers accepted like this at least once a month. Offers I wrote three or six months ago. I mean, I believe my record was nine months and 16 days.

It's very easy to separate yourself from your competition, get more offers accepted. if you just do what most people don't do. And most people don't embrace the practice of always writing an offer. So always write an offer. Here's another tactic. Always go for the terms. Always go for the terms. And the second part of that is you've got to know how to formulate different terms, multiple ways.

And here's what I mean. Let's say your mindset is in the right place of being a problem solver. You've got that part down. And let's say you've aligned yourself with a seller. you've got that part down. And you've done those two things. You've got that mindset and you still haven't been able to come up with an agreement of how you're going to solve the seller's problem.

You know, let's say this situation is, this situation is all about money. Money is the only thing that is going to solve this seller's problem. Well, and after analyzing the market together and you've come up with the number and they still say no. Let's say that's your situation. they are dead set on their number because that's the number that's going to solve their problem. And they tell you what that number is. I need this much.

Say it's 25% overmarket value. Here's your response. Great. I can do that for you. And I can do that for you in one of three ways. Okay? You gave them their price. Now they're going to hear three different options for your terms.

You got to know your terms. And what you're going to do is you're going to lay out three different. term options for them. You know, unless the seller is going to downright give you their property, it's always better to get control of the terms. I think it's always better to get control of the terms. And here's what I mean by that. Let's say they do want that price of their property, that that's 25% over market value,

they're being totally unreasonable, they're never going to get it. And you say, great. What does that do? They're like, whoa, you got their attention, right? Great, I can do that for you. And I can do that for you in one of three ways. and here's an example. I can give you 10% down now,

and then I can make monthly interest-only payments to you until I find a buyer or refinance. Or I can divide your number into 250 equal monthly payments. Or I'll buy a five-year option from you at that price, and then I'll lease the property from you in the meantime. That's an example of knowing your terms and being able to get more offers accepted, and all of those terms will amount

to that same dollar amount that they want. That's a way to get more offers accepted, solving the seller's problems, and turning a profit for yourself in the meantime. Now, maybe they won't go for your terms, and that's okay too. No big deal. I'm not saying, I mean, you don't want to get every offer accepted.

You're not going to be able to solve every seller's problem. Keep that in mind as well. But by knowing your terms, you'll definitely be able to solve more of those problems. and that's what this episode is all about. How to get more offers accepted. And quite honestly, if you're getting every offer accepted, you've got to check back and look at your business.

You might have to come to grips with that you're paying too much for real estate. I don't think you should get every offer accepted. So your goal, it's not to get every offer accepted. Stick to your investing criteria. Stick to your minimum deal standards. And get more offers accepted that meet your criteria and standards. that should be your goal. And if you're sticking to your investor criteria and you're sticking to your minimum deal standards

and you're still getting every offer accepted, you need to elevate your standards. You need to raise your standards. Okay? And having a strong understanding of the terms and how to structure those terms will definitely get you more of those offers accepted. I mean, here's an exercise for you. If you're totally lost with what I'm going right now, take a dollar amount, say a nice round number of $100,000.

Write that at the top of a piece of paper. and now write as many different ways you can pay off $100,000. Write a bunch of different ways or terms of paying off $100,000. And I gave you three examples and do that. And don't stop until you come up with at least five different ways. But go for 10. I mean, it gets a little more challenging as you go along, but 10 should not be a problem for you, not you, the professional real estate investor.

That should not be a problem for you. And if it is a problem coming up with 10 different sets of terms to pay off $100,000, hey, there's a clue as to where you might want to spend some time practicing. The more scenarios that you can come up with, the more offers you're going to get accepted and get them accepted without compromising your criteria and without compromising your standards. Here's another one. I gave you three examples. Here's a fourth.

And I've used this recently to just, I just want to give you another idea. So you want to write down $100,000? Okay, I'll give you $10,000 today, and I'll give you $1,000 a month until it's paid off. Right? And what you'll notice there is, and you'll notice this with all three of my examples, is I didn't use subject two. I didn't use lease option. I didn't use contract for deed. Or in this case, that fourth example I just gave you, I didn't use principal only loan,

even though that is what it is. You want to avoid the real estate investing jargon when explaining your turn. terms. It causes confusion. And a confused mind tends to do nothing. And in this context, that means you don't get the offer accepted. So you want to first know different terms that you can offer. And second, you want to be able to articulate those terms simply to a layman so that they understand those terms. Another tactic for getting more offers accepted is to demonstrate the certainty of close or the speed of close. If you can present your offer in a way that conveys this deal will close and or this deal will close fast, you can get more offers accepted that way.

And the reason being is a seller with a problem, the certainty of that problem disappearing or the speed of which that problem disappears is more important to them than the price. You know, getting that problem behind them is going to give them some peace of mind. And I've said it before and I'll say it again, sellers will trade equity for peace of mind all day long. They'll trade equity for peace of mind all day long. So how can you do this? How can you convey the certainty of clothes? How can you convey the speed of clothes? Well, one way is, let's say you can offer a non-refundable deposit. You know, that could, depending on your deal, it might not fit for every deal. But if you got a really smoking deal and you want them to accept it,

perhaps you offer them a non-refundable deposit. And that shows some commitment on your part. And that shows if you don't follow through, they get to make some money. Another way, you can offer a proof of funds. A proof of funds just kind of shows, hey, I've got the money to close. Another way is you can share with the seller testimonials of satisfied sellers that you've dealt with in the past. You can share stories of people that you've helped in the past if you don't have written

testimonials. Or you can convey your competence. And you can do this by setting the seller's expectations appropriately. Meaning, if you lay it out for them of what is going to happen once you two reach an agreement, once they sign the contract, if you can lay it out for them how their problem is going to be solved, how it's going to disappear. You know, when you've got a seller with a problem and one that might be a little distressing to them, say it's an urgent issue and it's kind of freaking them out, which happens frequently,

by laying out a very simple step-by-step plan of what's going to happen and demonstrate that you've done this before and you've got systems in place to make it happen and you've got a team in place to make it happen smoothly if you can lay all that out there and set their expectations appropriately all that can give that seller a lot of comfort and confidence in you and that the deal will actually close and that this problem will be behind them once and for all

And again, it's just an idea of exchanging equity for peace of mind. Okay? So there's the mindset. There are some tactics that will help you get more offers accepted. A lot more offers accepted. And keep in mind that not every tactic and every strategy is going to be a good fit for every situation. Maintain the mindset of being a problem solver and make sure that you're prospecting and

marketing to people with problems and actually write more offers that. you're writing right now and you'll get more offers accepted. You don't need to know it all to get more offers accepted. Your knowledge will come with your experience, but you won't get the experience unless you keep rolling the dice, unless you keep writing offers and writing more offers. Travel as far as you can see, and when you get there, you will see further. That, I promise.

All right? So now you know, but it will only work if you do. Again, before I go, if you happen to have a question, comment, or concern that you'd like me to answer or address here live on the show, perhaps it's even a question from this very episode. Please share them with me on the Epic Real Estate Investing hotline at 1-888-891-7203. And I will answer that question for you. Okay? That's it for today. I'm Matt Terrio.

Living the Dream. You've been listening to Epic Real Estate Investing, the world's foremost authority on separating the facts from the B.S. in real estate investing education. If you enjoyed this show, please take a minute to visit iTunes and share your thoughts. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time here

at Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.