By Robert Phillips - Real Estate Investing123
Here's the true story of the accidental discovery of a superbly effective strategy for dealing with feisty sellers. I was a fairly new investor at the time. I was still learning even though I already had my first few deals under my belt. Take away selling was a tactic I'd heard of but never had to guts to attempt. Today it's a strategy I employ at almost every opportunity. It works like this.
To be most effective you have to be in a position where your business isn't dependent on the next deal. You're negotiating from a position of strength because your pipeline is so full of deals. You already know you're going to by X number of houses this month, you just don't know which ones. That's the ideal position for any real estate investor.
Unfortunately back then I wasn't quite in that position. I was intent of making a deal out of anything that came down the pipeline. That turned out not to be such a great idea as I ended up buying a few houses I later wished I hadn't. It wasn't uncommon for sellers to have the upper hand either but that all changed when I learned this tactic.
I got a call from a man who was a burned out landlord. He had a rental property, the tenants has disappeared and he was about to lose the house to foreclosure. It really wasn't a great deal to begin with. I probably wouldn't even pursue it these days but I told the owner I could try a short sale. He verbally agreed and I asked him to bring his wife and meet me at the vacant house to do the paperwork.
This lady was angry at the world and tried to take it out on me. She wanted so see my ID and wondered if I might be trying to steal the identities of her and her husband. Sellers had given me a hard time before but nothing like this and I had finally had enough and I was leaving.
At last she stopped flapping her lips, I looked at her and said something similar to this: "I'm only here today because your husband asked me to meet you here. I didn't cause this situation but I have a solution and I can only help you if you want to be helped. And if was going around stealing identities I hope wouldn't be so dumb as to target people with poor credit who are about to lose their home to foreclosure. Good luck. Sorry I can't help."
I wasn't joking either. I was headed out the door but before I got to the door she had changed her mind. "I'll sign the paper work," she said. I couldn't believe my ears. I had a solution to her problem and I was about to take it away. And that's how powerful & effective take away selling can be.
You need to understand that scenario doesn't always play out. Sometimes the seller will let you walk out the door so if you use takeaway selling you have to be prepared to let the deal go. There's no turning back. If you thought you were operating from a position of weakness before just try that tactic and then comeback and say you changed your mind and are still interested in buying the house. Actually don't because you'll get slaughtered.
You can't be certain of the outcome but if you start walking and the seller caves as they see the solution to their problem walking out the door or in other words being "taken away" then the whole dynamic of the negotiation is tilted in your favor. You've made it crystal clear that you don't need this deal and you're willing to walk away so the seller better be willing to be flexible if they want the deal done and their problem solved. After you've used it successfully I think you'll agree it's a fantastic strategy.
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