What to do when your Buyer's List Fails

Hi there everyone. I had a recent experience that I thought might be helpful to a lot of you out there. I read in the forums all the the time the struggles newbies have with Buyer's lists, or "I have this potential deal, now what...."

There is a certain amount of truth to the notion that if you land a good enough deal, you'll have no trouble finding a buyer. But having a property under contract with no clear exit strategy can make for sleepless nights. Always much better to know who you're buying for and what they want so you can go get it.

I recently got a call back from out in the boonies. Way out of town. Where this fellow got my business card, I do not know, but he had one and had called 4 or 5 months earlier. I realize I have enough of a story here for several more posts; I could talk about the benefits of Business cards, persistent and consistent follow up, or even probate....(yeah, we bad!) but what happened next is the meat of it.

I had made the man an offer...

solely because I had one buyer interested in some new rentals in this area. He had bought 2 other REO's recently, one just a street over, and he was on a roll. But the fellow with my card declined my offer, thinking his property was worth more.

Months go by, and now that the fellow has had time to get a little discouraged, and a taste of the real world, he calls and wants to know if my offer is still good. "Of course" I say, thinking this one is in the bag. Contracts are written and signed, time to call the Buyer.

At first he sounds eager. Can't wait to get his property manager over there to look. He haggles a little, I come down a little. He wants a new roof, I get him a new roof. But on the verge of signing the assignment, he decides to try and gouge me. So my choice is to take practically nothing for this property, close the property myself, or scramble to find another buyer....

Scrambled!!...(but Over Easy)

Normally, each house I acquire, I do a marketing package  with pictures and video. I hadn't done that this time because I thought I had it sold for sure. So I used a trick I learned from a BP colleague. I pulled a list of all the cash buyers for that zip code in the last 6 months. I looked for folks who had either bought several, or who had multiple holdings.

I came across one individual who met both criteria. He lived in Idaho, so I figured he had boots on the ground here. Turns out the Selling Agent was the same in each case. Click the link for the email and simply say "I have a wholesale property at such and so under contract, are you interested?" I got an answer back in 7 minutes that said: "Sure. Send me the contract and wiring instructions for EMD. I just need to do a quick walk through, what's the lockbox code?"

That was it. Had the signed assignment and deposit by the end of business that day. THAT, is what a real cash buyer looks like. From the time I hung up with Buyer number 1 to the time I got the email back was no more than an hour and a half.

Buyer number one is kicking himself right about now. He's normally a pretty savvy investor, but I guess he just thought he had me over a barrel. I don't hold it against him though. In this town the good ones really do go fast, and if you snooze, you lose.

Until next time..........
Jerry