The Power of a Question

I decided to take action the other day and get on the phone with a seller. After printing up some leads from Craigslist I picked one to call during my lunch break. Sure I was a little nervous, but after some confidence boosting self-talk I made the call. To my surprise, the seller actually sounded more nervous than I was! What a relief. I had a feeling this would be a good call and I was right. The seller had listed the property for $4,000 in the add but rather than repeating that price I asked, "so how much were you looking to sell it for?" His response..."Um, I think we will take $3,000 for it." That's when the florescent light bulbs started coming on in my head and shining on my new path to success. Just from one simple question the seller came down 25% on his initial asking price without me asking for it! I'm sure you can imagine how excited I was but I held up my poker voice and gave him a "hmm, ok..." 

I thought it would be a good idea to take a detour around the asking price and find out some more details about his situation (motivation level). Turns out he was renting the place and the tenants just up and left so he just wanted to wash his hands of it. Well, one man's trash is another man's treasure so if I can help solve his tenant troubles and my cashflow crunch at the same time we've got a win-win situation! He gave me some good intell on the mobile home park and the current management situation, basically it looks like I'm going to have to have a talk with the gate-keeper before I can even buy the property so hopefully that will go well. After conversating and building rapport with the seller I decided it was time to go back to the purchase price. 

Me: "So if I had a bag of cash I could hand you right now, how much would have to be in it?"

Seller: "Well, just make me an offer."

Me: "Would you take $1,500?"

Seller: "Let me see...sure I think we can make that work."

I couldn't believe it, it was that easy! I have to be honest, the angel of greed showed up and started kicking me for not going lower but I decided not to press the issue because there may be even more room for negotiating after I see the home. Even if that is as lowest I can get the property that's still about 37% of the initial asking price. 

If all goes well with the park manager and I get the property it shouldn't be too hard to line up enough cash to purchase, fix, and find a tenant/buyer to make my first deal happen! Cheers to taking action and the power of a question.