Quick question. Do you all entertain sellers who do not want to discuss anything about the condition of the property nor do they have any pictures of the property? I'm wholesaling virtually and I have come across sellers who won't talk, but are ok with me coming to take a look at the property. Since I'm not physically there, I can't do that. I do have boots on the ground in my market that I planned on paying after getting a property under contract. But, I did not consider paying someone to scope out the property before getting it under contract. How do you all handle this situation? Out of all the videos I have watched, I don't think any of the gurus mentioned this dilemma so its not really something I planned for...
Title Representative · Irvine, CA · Member since 2017 · 874 posts · 519 votes
4y
@Denise Oatneal it depends. We've closed 20+ deals virtually. I tell my sales reps that if the seller is really tough to deal with on the first phone call, then we usually want to pass on it, since if they are that tough just to ask some basic questions, imagine what they would be like when we need access, are negotiating a contract, or God forbid need to try to re-negotiate terms, i.e. ask for an extension, or every once in awhile a price reduction if the repairs a lot more than we originally thought. But sometimes there are the ones who were terrible on the first call, and then were in a better mood when we had someone else call them on a different day. If the house is an obvious fixer and has other compelling factors, i.e. it's vacant, thus we know it's probably a pain for the seller, then we may give it a second shot.
Ok! Thank you so much for your response! Would you ever suggest hiring someone to scope the property and/or take pics/vids of the property before the contract is signed during situations like this? I've been trying to figure out if I should pay for someone to go an see the property (and/or take pics/vids), or if I should just move on from sellers like this (and like you said, try again another time).
@Denise Oatneal it depends. We've closed 20+ deals virtually. I tell my sales reps that if the seller is really tough to deal with on the first phone call, then we usually want to pass on it, since if they are that tough just to ask some basic questions, imagine what they would be like when we need access, are negotiating a contract, or God forbid need to try to re-negotiate terms, i.e. ask for an extension, or every once in awhile a price reduction if the repairs a lot more than we originally thought. But sometimes there are the ones who were terrible on the first call, and then were in a better mood when we had someone else call them on a different day. If the house is an obvious fixer and has other compelling factors, i.e. it's vacant, thus we know it's probably a pain for the seller, then we may give it a second shot.
Title Representative · Irvine, CA · Member since 2017 · 874 posts · 519 votes
4y
@Denise Oatneal Yes, in every city that I work, I find a boots-on-the-ground person to take pics of the houses we work. I usually pay them $40 per house. When possible, we try to get the pics before we make the offer so that we can try to be as accurate as possible on our offer, and if we have buyers we trust, we can start to pre-sale it to them once we have the pictures, to make sure we are offering a number we can sell it at. And sometimes we have the boots on the ground person help with small things like printing out the contract and getting signed, if the seller isnt' computer-savvy, or setting up a lockbox, etc.