Real Estate Investing Attitude...or who's selling who?

Today we’re talking about having the right attitude. Attitude is critical in this business, maybe second to marketing, but marketing may be second to attitude. In any case, you need to have the correctattitude.

First thing, I’m absolutely not talking about going around always smiling, always being happy-go-lucky, thinking positive that the glass is half full. Of course you need to have a great attitude, a positive attitude and that kind of thing, but I’m not talking about singing kumbaya and holding hands when you’re looking at houses.

What I’m talking about is the outlook and today we're going to focus on having the right attitude when talking to sellers. There’s a certain attitude that you have and air that you have to have around you when you’re talking with sellers. Let’s face it, we’re trying to get them to do something.

First off, if your seller is difficult. If they are difficult in any way they are probably the wrong seller. You do not want to deal with someone who is wanting to get full price on their house. We are looking for the low hanging fruit. we’re looking for motivated sellers. But sometimes you have to sway them a little bit. Let’s face it, deals aren’t always obvious, in a lot of cases deals are made and your attitude is going to help.

Your attitude has to be, even if you’re a newer investor, your attitude has to be “I'm a real estate investor.” Ya, that seems like common sense to many of us, but your attitude has to be with those sellers, “I am a real estate investor. Mr. Seller, Ms. Seller, I know you have an issue right now but I am here to solve that problem.” You have to look them in the eye, price them high, and watch them buy. That is what’s going to get you the deals. You have to have confidence in yourself and in many cases you’re going to have to fake it until you make it.

If you go in and let these sellers know “I really want to be a real estate investor when I grow up, and someday I know I get a deal!” you’re not going to get a deal. Your attitude has to be “I’ve done a ton of these deals.” You do not have to say it and you don’t have to lie about it, but they can feel it if you have the right attitude while you’re talking to them and there’s a lot of confidence in your voice. You have to fake it until you make it.

You’ve got to be the one, first off, asking the questions. This goes for on the phone as well as in person. The person posing the questions is the one in control. You do need to be the one asking the questions. Because if you’re on the phone with them and they’re asking all the questions and you’re just answering, you aren't getting anywhere. You’re following their agenda. They are pushing you down their street instead of you pushing them down your own.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with them asking questions: As a matter of fact you can destroy your credibility if you don't answer their questions, so you do have to give them that chance. But the ideal way to do it is answer their question and follow it up with a question of your own, which gets them moving more in your direction.

So they ask a question regarding a sub-to deal, “What happens if you don’t make my payments?” And I answer, “Mr. Seller, if I don’t make your payments, then the house would be foreclosed. Then all my work, all my time, and all my money that went into this house would be lost. Now, what’s the least you would take if we were going to pay you in cash or if we were going to take over your payments in the next 30 days?” So you answer their question and then you ask a question of your own.

Practice in your daily life. This will make it easier to do when you’re talking to sellers, especially if this is not typically how you talk. Your wife asks if you’d like to see a movie this weekend. You answer yes, you would, and follow up with a question regarding where to go to dinner. Just getting in the habit of answering a question and then asking another, thus regulating the conversation, will help you when talking with a seller.

And you know, it’s tough to do so you might want to practice within your daily life. If your wife asks you if it’s okay to make a frozen pizza for dinner tonight, answer yes and then follow up with what you’ll watch on television tonight or something goofy like that. Just get in the habit of answering a question and then asking a question, and, like I said, it will become habit. So be in control and ask the question.

Another aspect of your attitude has to be everybody’s doing it. When you’re talking to them, let’s face it, we’re proposing something to these sellers that in most cases they’ve never heard about. Now if we’re wanting a cash buy or we’re asking to lease it from them, that’s not really untraditional.

But when we’re proposing a subject-to deal or maybe an option deal where we want to get an option on their pretty house and hopefully get a buyer, it’s something most people haven’t heard of, but you have to give the impression and have the attitude that everybody does it. “It’s something that’s absolutely normal, Ms. Seller, and I’m shocked you’ve never heard of somebody giving their house away and letting that person make the payments.” So you have to come across like it is something we do all the time, it’s typical in the business and has happened many times. And, in my case, I tell them “We’ve done this many, many times” and I’ll actually let them see a list of the homes that we’ve done it with in my presentation book. I’m actually going to have an episode about how to make a portfolio.

You need to have the outlook, confidence, and air about you that this is something normal, whatever it is you’re proposing.

One thing is: I know some of you are new, and nervous, and don’t know what to say.

First off, get a script. If you have a script in front of you it’s going to help you a lot better get through that telephone call. Even now everyone that works for me and myself when I talk to a seller on the phone, I have somewhat of a script in front of me. So, have a script. You would not take a vacation half way across the country without deciding what roads you are going to take first. So have a script.

I know it sounds like a stupid thing to say, but I’m sure there are some of you that do not have scripts out there and you’re just sort of winging it. Now, by having a script, it’s going to help you become more confident and yyou’re not going to come off as nervous.

And let me mention this, I was talking to my good friend Charles Dudley who is a very, very successful investor on the east coast, and he practices putting and’s, uh’s, and um’s and things like that into the conversation so he doesn’t sound too polished. You don’t want to sound like a big “wheeler-dealer” kinda guy because they just might not trust you for some reason.

You don’t want to seem dumb either, but if you think that you come off too polished, maybe throw a few pauses in and do not be afraid to tell someone you don’t know. You want to come off as a regular guy like them, but you’re in a situation to help them out in a deal.

In any case, don't show your nerves as you’re going through this. And, granted, although you have a script, that seller doesn’t have it. So they don’t always say what we want them to say, they don’t always answer the way we plan on them answering. In any case, they have no clue what you should have said. So if you make a mistake, who cares? Keep on going. They don’t know you messed up. They have no idea you said the wrong thing or you’re at the wrong section of the script, so keep going.

Remember, we deal with motivated sellers. We pick the low hanging fruit. Moreover, we shake the tree and let the fruit fall into our hands. So if we’re working with people that the way we say something is going to make or break the deal, we’re not working with the right person. When you havesomeone that says basically, “Mr. Buyer, I’ll do almost anything to sell this house,” those are the people that we want to find. And if you’re not finding enough of those, and I’m guilty of this myself, most of the time, you’re not marketing enough or your marketing isn’t right, so get your marketing in line.

Anyways, you have to know that when you make a mistake, they have no idea that you made a mistake unless you get all goofy, fumbley, and all sweaty. You can’t have an attitude like you’re selling something-you’re not selling anything. That’s why we call the person with the house that calls us or that we’re calling back; we call them the seller because they are selling us. Never get the attitude that you have to talk them into something. Your attitude should always be “I have the best thing around, the best thing since sliced bread. I have the answer to your problem, Mr. and Mrs. Seller. You just need to follow me down the yellow brick road and you’re going to end up in Oz and I’m going to have your problem. I’m going to take your problem from you, if you allow me.”

So you have to be sure that you’re not attempting to convince them of anything. They’re trying to talk you into buying the home. That’s the attitude that should be overwhelming on that call: that they’re calling you, you’re asking them questions, and they’re hoping “Oh man, I hope this guy can help us out of this situation: We’ve had this house, we can’t make the payments anymore, we’re getting a divorce, we’re making two payments, there’s a foreclosure happening, grandpa died.” Whatever it might be.

You have to have the attitude and make the whole feeling of that call that they’re talking you into something. So you should be using lines like you know “We are looking at a lot of house right now. If your house qualifies it might be something we can work with.” The word “If” is a magic word in this business when talking with sellers.

Your attitude should never be like “Oh my gosh I’m so happy to be talking with you, Mr. Seller, this is a so wonderful!” Even if in the back of your head you’re thinking, “Ca-ching! This is a $50k deal.” You don’t want to let them know that. You don’t want to come off that way. You always want to have the attitude that they are selling you. Let them talk you into buying that house from them and they will feel much better about it. If you just jump at it, they will think it’s too easy. You have to always make them feel like they did their job, that they won by convincing you to buy that house, coming to look at it, or signing the contract. So use the if word a lot.

One of the things that is really harmful in this business is desperation. I know, some of you are new at this, and you want that deal like you want air. You have had a few contracts signed, none of them went through, and you realize you can make it in this business if only you can get that first deal done. You can’t let them know that. You can’t have that attitude. Your attitude has to be, “This is just another day in the office. We do this regularly and have a ton of people who want us to buy their houses. We’re looking at a lot of houses right now, and signing a few contracts. If yours is one that we choose, maybe we can help you out of this situation.”

There have been times where I have talked to people on the phone and I know that the deal is a great one, but I have to remind myself during the call to slow down. When I get off the phone I celebrate because I know I just got one.

But in any case, don’t show desperation. Let them know they should be desperate. They should be desperate to work with you, not you be desperate to work with them. You have to have smell confident through that phone or in person. Confidence has to ooze out of you. Now, not cockiness, but confident. You have to act like a professional and like you can resolve their problem. Turn it around so they are the ones begging you, they’re the ones that are desperate and need you. Really, they do, especially today because there are quite a few houses out there. Don’t be afraid to remind them that there are so many houses out there.

It’s so easy, it’s so funny, all we do is take their money. I love it.

Couple things to remember: Make sure you get on our free membership list. We’re giving a bunch of freebies out. Those on the list will get a free membership when the site starts up. You’re going to get free leads, free reports, free videos—more things than just watching me every couple days sitting here flapping my jaws.

Stick with us, keep in touch, and watch what’s going on. We have flipping live every month. We had a great one last time with a special guest answering lots of questions for folks. We have the RE Insider getting kicked off soon where we will be doing extended interviews with special guests who are going to be giving really good, knowledgeable training, all for nothing if you’re a member. If you want to be a guest on the show, if you’re a trainer or have a real estate product, I’d love to talk with you, have you be a guest on the show. We can work together and partner on some things.

Also email me questions. Really soon we’re going to start an episode right here on REI-TV.com where we answer your questions for a whole episode.

Flippinhelp@gmail.com. Send me some questions there and we’ll have a whole show to give you answers.

I hope this was good. Remember, have an awesome, be sure you give the right impression to these people, and let them know that you’re there to help them. Let them sell you.

Now go make an offer.

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Nick Cifonie is a full-time real estate investor, trainer, mentor, and coach. He is also the host of Real Estate Investor TV, found at www.REI-TV.com. To visit for a free membership, free leads, and other goodies!

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