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Make this Mistake and You’ll Instantly Lose a Deal

Jason Hanson
2 min read

When it comes to closing deals, I’m obsessive compulsive. After all, this is my livelihood. If I don’t close deals I don’t eat. For example, when I was first starting out and becoming successful, a new investor asked me if he could tag along and see how I closed a deal.

I said sure. We were at the seller’s house and it was a lease option deal. We were in her kitchen and I was explaining the paperwork and the details of the deal to the woman, and this guy’s cell phone went off. He took it out of his pocket, flipped it open to check who was calling and then put it back in his pocket.

I could have murdered him. And if the law didn’t frown upon this I just might have. Because when he did this I saw the woman’s eyes turn to him and she stopped listening to me. She probably thought to herself just like most people that “hey, if you’re looking at your cell phone, then I’m not that important to you.”

Whenever I go to meet with a seller I leave my cell phone in the car. In fact, when I go anywhere important I leave it in the car. You have no idea how many deals you’re losing by texting or looking at a cell phone or doing something else stupid. (By the way, I didn’t get that deal and I’ve NEVER taken anyone with me to a house since, and never will again.)

Anyway, now that I’m heated, let me tell you a second way to lose a deal.

Do you know a persons favorite word in the entire world? If you have any sales knowledge at all you should. It’s a person’s first name.

When I’m helping out a new investor I always proofread their offer sheets to make sure there are no typos or misspellings. And you’d be surprised how often a first name or last name is misspelled. If you make this mistake, you’ll probably immediately lose the deal.

How do I know? Because another investor just did this to me.

I had a property and he was interested in it and he sent me an email calling me Justin (my name is Jason). I didn’t even read any further and just deleted it. If a guy doesn’t take the time to proofread his offers and get your name right, then who knows what else he will screw up.

And… if you think I’m being anal about this, then you don’t know your customers very well. I talk to homeowners all of the time and am constantly surprised at how fickle they are and how the tiniest thing can win or lose a deal.

So from now on take your business more seriously. Proofread every communication that goes out to a potential seller and don’t make silly mistakes that will cost you a deal.

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