Seller Getting Cold Feet
I was wondering if anyone can comment on what percentage of their sellers get cold feet at the very initial stages of a SS?
We have had six people calling us in the past week all interested in exploring working with us on SS. We set up an appointment with each of them to see their home and sign the papers and three ended up cancelling to pursue "other" options.
Is there any merit to setting up a meeting the same day the seller calls to avoid missing an opportunity because of a "mood swing" that a person in financial/personal stress may be experiencing or should their desire or lack thereof be seen as an indicator of their motivation and potential change of heart down the road?
thanks!
posherov
I would send them a FACT FAX to 'steal the thunder' from the naysayers....
The naysayers are illinformed busybodies &/or competitors who really don't know too much about the process... but pretend that they do.
I would say that you should remain cordial and helpful with an eye on the clock (date). A short sale would not appeal to me unless I had exhausted all other possibiliities. THough a repo doesn't show on a credit report the fact that it went into foreclosure will. The owner gets nothing unless you get creative and figure ways to legally help him profit in some manner, i.e. movuing expenses, cleaning fees, etc.
I wou ld never burn any bridges because what will probably h appen is a realtor will tell them they can sell the property and they can get $$ for the property ( and then the realtor will do a short in the last two to three weeks before the sale).
Good Luck!
Stockpro, you're absolutely right about remaining cordial - we always wish them the very best and tell them that we hope they find a way to solve their situation, but also let them know to call us if they run out of options and at least a month before the Sheriff's Sale. What's sad is that there is so much denial there in terms of what they can do and also INERTIA. Even in the middle of a SS, when the seller has agreed to everything and is happy just to get out from underneath the weight of their debt, we still have to beg, plead and harass them to fax back paperwork. There's definitely a lot to be said for getting EVERYTHING signed the first time you meet with them.
jk
SSPro, I don't think we've had any naysayers try and detract from what we're doing...yet. I'm sure it is bound to happen though. The informative fax is a good idea - what kind of information do you suggest including to help the seller make a sound, informed decision. Also, any thoughts on dealing with other investors who are just trying to muscle in? Would a face-to-face confrontation with a baseball bat in hand be too much?
posherov
I trhink there are a couple of issues at hand here. One is to motivate the seller to do what is necessary to bring the SS about. You need to find something that will motivate them i.e. money, goods or services that they want and need.
Second, I know the SS pro speaks against taking the deed but.... If you do that at the outset (along with getting the letter from the seller etc. at the begining)
then you control the property and the competition..
i think sspro is/would be against the deed b/c it makes the transaction null and void to the bank. at least the ones i spoke with, will not work with you if you've already taken (and recorded) the deed.
i'll tell u that not only with shorts, with any type of creative offer, people will get cold feet. i WISH i had every sale that i thought i had set up from the first contact. a lady called me, asked me how quick i could buy her place and told me she was moving back to hong kong and wasn't coming back to the states. she wanted to sign over power of attorney, the deed and all sorts of stuff. i dropped my life and ran over there and saw her condo (it was in pristine condition). she was very smart and asked a lot of questions and i think i talked myself out of the deal trying to be too helpful. i hate to admit that b/c i think i have a decent head on my shoulders and we had a great rapport going. but when i left i had nothing signed and she wanted to "sleep on it", to which i never spoke directly to her again.
so yeah, with anything you'll get cold feet people, just smile, leave your card and move on.
good luck!
The seller's motivation - now that's an interesting subject! Dwan and Sharon (and perhaps other REI gurus as well) teach that one of the first things to ask a seller is what they want to see happen as a result of your help. Excellent strategy I think because it (theoretically) let's you inside the seller's mind. The problem is it turns out that most of the time the seller has absolutely no idea what they want. lol. OR, they forget to share it with their spouse or the other person on the deed.
Especially if I have a lot invested in the deal.
Here's a great little piece of wisdom my partner and I picked up on recently:
An elderly woman called us to see if we could help her and her husband out. They had refied several times pulling out the equity to try and start a couple of businesses. Their attempts failed unfortunately, so now they are out of equity and out of money and about 6 months behind on their payments. My partner asked the woman, "what would you like to see happen as a result of our help?" The woman responded by saying that all she wanted was out of the situation. My partner set up an appointment to meet with the lady and her husband 2 days later.
The day before, she called to verify directions to the house and the husband answered. He flipped out. Started screaming how he had another investor there who offered him cash and that he wasn't going to let us screw him. My partner attempted to clarify the situtaion, but the man was raving mad and ended up hanging up on her.
She called me in distress. She hadn't done anything to deserve the outburst, obviously and this had the potential to be a really good deal. We wondered what evil investor was sitting in this man's living room telling him lies about us. It was a little perturbing.
Though she really didn't want to do it, we both agreed that she should call the man right back and see if we could find out what the other investor was offering. We don't mind giving the seller some money, but we hadn't seen the house or done our due diligence, so we never promise the seller money over the phone - maybe that's our mistake? - perhaps we just shouldn't specify how much we'd be able to give them?
Anyway, long story short. She called him and Dr. Jekyll was back! It had been maybe 10 minutes and he'd calmed down and was able to answer her questions. Turns out there was no "other" investor. Turns out he'd been talking to Ameriquest about consolidating. The cause of his turn at being Mr. Hyde went unexplained, but he did say that he'd been screwed over in the past and was really afraid of it happening again...plus the truth be know, he really wanted to stay in the house and the Sheriff's Sale wasn't till August, so why do anything about it now.
Anyway, clearly the poor man was in denial, but at least we got an idea of where he was at. I wonder how his wife took to him cancelling the meeting with us?
By the end of the conversation, the man was downright friendly and the call ended well with my partner letting him know to call us back if his option with Ameriquest did not pan out.
Moral of the story: Don't let an angry outburst from a seller on the phone or at the door deter you. Call back an hour later. Return the next day. Be nice.
stockpro: we have started to take the deed if for no other reason than to minimize all the footwork. I don't know that we'd ever use it to hold over a seller's head if they do get cold feet. We're not going to force our services on someone who doesn't want them. I may change my mind down the road, mind you.
We would never tell the bank about having the deed either. Right now, it's more of a convenience thing than anything else.
Thanks everyone for your feedback.
posherov
Had to share this!
The wife of the above-said couple just called us and has set up a meeting for next week. Guessing the thing with Ameriquest didn't work out.
I hope we can help them.
posherov
I know tht the banks don't always like it when you have the deed (keeping it secret is probably a good idea) I do have several mortgage broker bankers that say "take the deed" the bank may not like it but they are already in foreclosure, what are they going to do? enforce the DOS? They advocate taking it..
I think that having it may make some of the paperwork easier certainly. I certainly have little bias either way if you can make the deal work. Glad to hear you followed through with the phone call and made a follow up on this
Randall