Boy meets girl. Boy and girl talk. Boy and girl like each other. Boy (or girl) asks for the other’s phone number. Without the phone number, this relationship is going to nowheresville.
Real estate investing has often been compared to dating…
Investors find motivated sellers. Investors explain to sellers how they can solve the seller’s problems. Sellers like what investors have to say. Investor gets a great deal.
The difference is that investors and sellers don’t (generally) meet each other at a bar. There’s no pick-up place for these kind of meetings. Investors have to go find the sellers.
That’s where marketing comes in. Investors use many of the same techniques as other investors:
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Door Knocking
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Bandit Signs
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Direct mail
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Networking
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Online Advertising
The trouble with a lot of these is that you are relying on the seller being proactive enough to contact you. Many sellers want to run away from their problems – rather than actively trying to solve them.
Bandit signs may just sit out there for days. Most direct mail goes direct to the garbage or recycling bin. Online advertising can get lost on page 382 of Google.
Wouldn’t It Be Nice to Find Motivated Seller’s Phone Numbers?
Don’t you think you would be one step ahead of your competition if you could talk to motivated sellers on the phone?
Imagine this scenario. You go to the public records and find a list of houses with code violations. You drive by a couple of them and see they are vacant and in disrepair.
Think a postcard or business card left at the door will get the seller calling you? Perhaps. But what if you could call them?
Now there is a service that will almost instantly give you the owner’s phone number. It’s not guaranteed to find the owner all the time, but it can do so in a large majority of the cases.
It’s called Inquiso. Inquiso searches all kinds of public records for you to find the phone numbers of owners. They also provide other information from the public records such as:
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Friends and family member phone numbers
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Mortgage information
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Business information (if one exists at the address)
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Year built
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Beds/baths
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Zestimate of value
Inquiso also gives you a percentage chance that the phone number is correct for the lead you are trying to track down.
That way, you could literally be sitting in front of a house, pull out your smartphone, and find out all the information you need to start a relationship with the owner.
Feeling squeamish about cold calling someone? Inquiso also offers some training in terms of scripts and what to say. You can find some helpful videos here.
What about the ‘Do Not Call’ thing? The ‘Do Not Call’ legislation prohibits ‘sales calls.’ You are not calling the motivated seller to ‘sell’ them anything. You are calling them to ‘buy’ their house. You are providing information on their options as well. The legislation does not prohibit providing the information to help the homeowner solve their problems.
Inquiso strongly suggests their users determine their own interpretation by visiting the Federal Trade Commission’s website to get more information.
Of course, if the homeowner asks you to stop calling them, you should honor their request.
Inquiso works hard to find out this information for its customers. Consequently, they would like to be compensated for it. They do this by offering three monthly subscription service plans. You pay a flat fee for a certain number of free searches. Then you pay another amount per search over your initial flat fee. You will also receive three free searches when you sign up.
Further Leverage Your Subscription
Even if you don’t find someone in Inquiso’s database, you can find people through more conventional methods.
Inquiso works great for training bird dogs. Tell the bird dogs to give you the address of any run-down houses they see. You can then just plug the address into your Inquiso account and be on the phone to the seller in no time.
Inquiso makes it very easy to find a way to communicate directly with motivated sellers. Just as in dating, the quicker you find the ‘hot’ ones, the less competition you will have for their attention.
Now if only dating was this easy…
Talk to Me
Do you have experience with Inquiso or will you try it? Share below.
Track Down Leads – Don’t give up if you have trouble finding a motivated seller. The harder they are to find, the better the potential deal.
Leverage Your Time – Use help to find motivated sellers. Be willing to share the profits. You will be much more profitable overall if you don’t work alone.
Practice Your Communication – Cold calling is not easy. Create/borrow/steal scripts and practice using them before you get on the phone with a seller.
Listen – Don’t come across as a salesman to a seller. Listen and empathize with them. When you hear their problems, write them down. Learn their ‘language’ and remember it. Then use it in your future conversations with them and your advertising.
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.