Why Appealing to People This Way Will Help You Close More Deals…

Do you want to increase your closing percentage when you talk to sellers? Well, if so, pay attention because you’re about to learn the secret to one of the most important reasons people decide to buy and sell houses.

Let me start off with an example. This is a personal example, but it proves the point beautifully. My mother died of cancer and before her death we used Hospice. The other day I got a letter in the mail from Hospice asking for a donation to the program.

It was a brilliantly written letter which talked about a family with cancer and how Hospice had helped the mother of the family live out her last days in comfort. The letter pulled on the heart strings and touched on almost every emotion.

This was obviously the perfect letter to send to someone like me, being that I could emotionally relate. (No, I didn’t donate any money. I donate 10% of my income to other causes).

The big lesson…

So what’s the big lesson from this letter? If you want to close more deals and be more successful as a real estate investor you must appeal to people’s emotions. Human beings are not logical (especially one of the sexes, I’ll let you guess which one).

They make buying and selling decisions based on emotions. A person wants to sell their house quickly so they can escape the pain of high mortgage payments, or the pain of debt collectors calling. Some want to sell so they can move closer to their family in another state.

Here’s another example: Do people need a Ferrari, a car that costs $250,000? Of course they don’t. They buy it for emotional reasons. To attract the opposite sex, to feel better about themselves, and to show the world they “made it”.

How I’ve appealed to emotions with my own deals

One time I did a subject-to deal with an elderly woman. First, she told me that she did not like Realtors and hated how they operated. I remembered this and mentioned this often when talking to her. I appealed to this emotion of her dislike with Realtors. She also mentioned to me that she wanted to move closer to her grandchildren. I also mentioned this when trying to wrap up the deal, that the quicker the paperwork was signed, the sooner she could be near her grandchildren.

Have you ever done a deal which involved a couple going through a divorce? I have, and that’s when emotions are all over the place. One memorable deal I had involved a couple where the husband cheated on his wife. The three of us would be trying to close the deal and the wife would bring up stuff, such as “I bet you want to sell this house so you can run off with that tramp, etc.”

Anyway, I did close this deal as I kept reminding them as soon as the house was sold they wouldn’t have need to talk to or see each other concerning the house anymore.

In short, never forget that we first make decisions emotionally and then later justify them logically. If you aren’t closing a high percentage of your deals it’s probably because you’re not paying enough attention to your prospects and what is emotionally driving the sale of their house.

By the way, remember how I started this off about a letter I received in the mail? Well, you don’t have to wait to appeal to people’s emotions until you’re on the phone or in person. Start doing this in your letters and postcards immediately.

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Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.