{"id":44768,"date":"2013-06-18T08:33:38","date_gmt":"2013-06-18T14:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/renewsblog\/?p=44768"},"modified":"2021-03-16T10:07:58","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T16:07:58","slug":"2013-06-18-talking-to-sellers-property-information-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/2013-06-18-talking-to-sellers-property-information-form","title":{"rendered":"How to Talk To Motivated Sellers on the Phone: The Benefits of Using A Standard Property Information Form"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In your real estate business, it\u2019s critical to your success that you learn to ask the right questions when someone calls. When you get the right information every time, it will help you to quickly determine whether or not you are dealing with a motivated seller. Always bear in mind that even thought this person isn\u2019t a motivated seller today, it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that they won\u2019t be motivated in the future. Time and circumstances change all things.<\/p>\n<p>I have a rule of thumb that I follow regardless of which category they fall into. So long as the house is one that I am interested in buying, I keep them on the mailing list until one of these things happens:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I buy the house.<\/li>\n<li>Someone else buys the house.<\/li>\n<li>They ask to be removed from my mailing list.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That\u2019s it. Don\u2019t disqualify someone because they aren\u2019t a motivated seller today. Keep on marketing to these folks. I have bought houses several years after I started marketing folks. Absentee owners that are \u201clong distance landlords\u201d are\u00a0a group of people that sometimes become very motivated after a tenant trashes their house one too many times.<\/p>\n<h2>What Questions Should I Ask?<\/h2>\n<p>You should always use a standard Property Information Form to be sure that you don\u2019t forget anything when a seller calls. I like to keep a stack of them on my desk. If you do that, you will always get the information that you need. Some of the things I have on my Property Information Form are listed below.<\/p>\n<h2>The Sellers Contact Information<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Their name, phone number and email address; try to get all of their phone numbers.<\/li>\n<li>The property address<\/li>\n<li>Be sure to get the name of the person that actually owns the house. Often the person calling may not be actual owner or the decision maker.<\/li>\n<li>Ask whether the property is vacant or occupied. If it\u2019s occupied, who lives there? Is it a tenant, a relative etc? This will have an effect on how you can access the property.<\/li>\n<li>In the far right corner of my Property Information Form, I list the referral source and the type of referral:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">-DM \u2013Direct mail campaign<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">-PR \u2013 Probate<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">-AO \u2013 Absentee Owner<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">-Other Type of Referral (Bandit Signs, Referral, Ad etc.)<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\">-What state do they live in?<\/p>\n<p>It is important especially when working with absentee owners, to know which state they are calling from so that I know which time zone they are in. I don\u2019t call them too early or too late.<\/p>\n<h2>The Property Information<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The number of bedrooms and baths<\/li>\n<li>The style and type of construction such as \u201cbrick ranch\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Whether it\u2019s built on a basement, slab or crawl<\/li>\n<li>When the kitchen and bath(s) were last updated<\/li>\n<li>Types of flooring: carpet, hardwood or other type<\/li>\n<li>The ages of all the major systems such as the roof, HVAC, etc.<\/li>\n<li>The type of fuel used for the heating system<\/li>\n<li>Be sure to find out if all the utilities are on in the house<\/li>\n<li>Ask them what repairs and updates they would do if they were to live in the house. You will be amazed at the information you will get just by asking this one question.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Try To Determine Their Motivation<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>How long have they owned the house?<\/li>\n<li>Why are they selling? Probate, absentee owner, facing foreclosure (What\u2019s their motivation)?<\/li>\n<li>What is their asking price? You want to find out what their \u201cexpectations\u201d are.<\/li>\n<li>How much the house is assessed for? A lot of the time sellers have no idea.<\/li>\n<li>If the house is listed, if so who has it listed? When is the listing over? Ask if it\u2019s OK to keep them on your mailing list just in case the house doesn\u2019t sell.<\/li>\n<li>Do they have other properties to sell? Never forget to ask this question.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Existing Mortgage Information<\/h2>\n<p>You want to get specific information on what (if anything) is owed on the house. You may find out very quickly that you can\u2019t help this seller no matter how motivated he is especially if there is no possibility of a short sale.<\/p>\n<h2>Figure Out What Your MAO Is<\/h2>\n<p>I have this right on the bottom of my form. I list the <em>ARV (after repaired value<\/em>) and the dollar amount of the repairs needed. Since I am a wholesaler, I also have a place to list the wholesale fee I want; \u201cMe\u201d. These figures will tell me my <em>MAO or my \u201cmaximum allowable offer\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I have set the form up so that I can put two sets of figures in this area. What I will do is figure the MAO for a complete rehab, and a \u201cto rent\u201d MAO. Landlords won\u2019t necessarily do the same level of work that a\u00a0rehabber would do for a retail sale. Some won\u2019t do any updating at all; they will be OK with a bathroom that has pink tile if it is in perfect condition. After all, they won\u2019t be living there. Doing this second MAO gives me another way to \u201ccreate a deal\u201d if I can\u2019t get the seller quite as low as I need for a rehabber to buy this house, and I have landlords that would pay a little more.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Related<\/strong>: <a title=\"BP Podcast 012 : Wholesaling and Marketing with Sharon Vornholt\" href=\"\/renewsblog\/2013\/04\/04\/wholesaling-podcast\/\" target=\"_blank\">BP Podcast 012 : Wholesaling and Marketing with Sharon Vornholt<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Other Tips<\/h2>\n<p>When you talk to any seller, not only do you want to find out their motivation is, but you want to know if they have a \u201cnumber in mind\u201d to just walk away and be done and to be rid of this headache.<\/p>\n<p>What problem do they need YOU to solve? Always remember; it\u2019s never <em>just<\/em> about the money. When they have given you a number, wait a little bit before responding. Then ask them, \u201cis this is the best you can do\u201d? Once again, just wait. Wait for them to speak first.<\/p>\n<p>You will be amazed at the number of people that will immediately drop their asking price significantly. Finally, ask them what they will do if they don\u2019t sell the property; if they get stuck with this unwanted house.<\/p>\n<p>I have uploaded the form that I use in my business in the BP File Place. You will find a number of good forms there that you can use. Just pick one and always use it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Do you have any other information that you ask for when you speak with a seller?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Photo: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/13522901@N00\/64027565\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">splorp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In your real estate business, it\u2019s critical to your success that you learn to ask the right questions when someone calls. When you get the right information every time, it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":44871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5524],"tags":[653,4598,2871,4023,4802,59],"class_list":["post-44768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-investing-for-beginners","tag-landlords","tag-mao","tag-motivated-sellers","tag-property-information-form","tag-property-information-sheet","tag-real-estate-investing"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}