A Pactrust ™ Deal Part (3 of 5)
March 24:
After the front of the house is cleaned up, and once the ad hits, the phone calls start hitting my answering machine, one after another. I call them all back and repeat the same mantra over and over again with every caller:
“Yes, I have this great little house over there on Xxxx Street in Mission Hills, and if you can afford the nine or ten thousand that it’ll take to get in, and the $1,200 or so in monthly payments…after you add the tax and insurance, of course: I’ll just GIVE it to you (pause). The only thing I want out of it is to have you put it in your own name, or sell it, in a few years, and at that time if there’s been any appreciation I’ll just split it with you.” (NOTE: If they don’t like the ‘split appreciation’ idea, you can say, “No problem. If you’d prefer, you can come in with $18,000 instead of $9,000 and you can have it all.” They invariably want to get back the $9,000 deal.)
With each caller, I tell them that the house is being worked-on at the moment, but that if they want to see it, they have to come “with their rose colored glasses on,” because it’s a real mess at present.” I tell them that we haven’t had a chance to do much of anything yet…or even haul off the trash. Then when they show up, I make sure that my buddy Bob has tarpaulins and plastic sheets spread out over the floors and counter tops, and that paint cans can be seen in various places (needs to look like something’s going on). With all of the callers, I tell them to drive by the house and then call me if they like it from the street and have an interest (Remember…the place looks great from the curb: I want them to see it from the street, then begin rationalizing all the shortcomings and building their “want-to” while they sleep that night).
March 26: The fifth or sixth caller calls back and asks if we can meet at the house to work something out. Maybe 7 or 8 others have said they’ll drive by, but haven’t yet. I know we’ve got a live one at this point. I again remind the prospect that the house is a mess and that he’d better have a good imagination for “potential” and for what things COULD be like, rather than what they ARE like. He laughs and agrees and we meet.
Find out what happens at the house next week.
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