Real estate investor Chris Prefontaine shares four questions to unlock lease-purchase and owner-financing deals. Ask if they'd accept creative terms, where they're going and by when, what their backup plan is, and which matters most: price, term, down payment, or monthly payment. The model generates three separate paydays per deal, often $75-$100k or more.
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I truly believe you can buy all the houses you want for $10. So you'll never use your credit, you'll never take out a bank loan, and I know there's a lot of resistance to that until you know what to say to sellers. I also know there's resistance in general to getting on the phone, but I promise you, once you get comfortable with the scripts and once you get comfortable with what to say to sellers— there's not a whole bunch— then you'll be excited to jump on the phone. So I want to share with you a few ways of just simply having conversations with sellers and getting to the next level by asking some good questions. So let me just give you some basics here. Whether I'm talking with an expired listing, it was on the market, it didn't sell, or I'm talking with a for sale by owner or for rent by owner, frankly, it doesn't matter what status. It doesn't even matter if it's a friend on the street who has a house for sale. The very first thing I want to get to is this question. And you can practice this, and this is a very simple opener. If I can get you to your price, I haven't seen your home yet, I'm just talking hypothetical. If I can get you to your price, are you open to lease purchase or owner financing? And then just button it. Now, what else do you need to know when I said ask questions? I hear so many times we critique calls with our students, and I hear so many times as soon as they don't know what to say, they start giving a seminar on how they buy or how they sell. They don't care about that. Right. What they care about is can you help them with their goal or their problem, right? Can you fix their real estate challenge? So the next question is, if this had sold, you know, if they didn't sell it yet, or when it sells, where are you going? Key question. And I'm curious, when did you need to be there by? That'll then tell you their motivation and if you have something you can fix. Because let me give you 2 extremes. If it's, oh, I don't know, I'm just downsizing, or I don't know, I'm just upsizing, no hurry, it doesn't have to happen. Not a motivated seller, right? In any way. And it doesn't have to be a bad problem. It could be unmotivated to get to a certain goal, right? So where are you going? By when? And what if it doesn't sell? What is your plan B? And here's why I say that. When we call as investors and we say, if I can get you to your price, are you open to lease purchase or owner financing? Where are you going? By when? And oh, what if it doesn't sell? They're so confident that it's gonna until you ask that question. Okay, I get it. Sounds great. 99% of the sellers I speak with feel the same way. They just want to get it sold. But what if it doesn't sell? What's the plan B? Well, I don't know. But if they said, I'm going to stay, the motivation is not there. If they say, well, I don't know, I'd have to get it sold no matter what. I have to lower the price. Great. That's where you jump in when you're talking about our terms niche and how we can get them to their price and say, all right, so instead of lowering the price, how about if it doesn't sell, you use me as your plan B? Simple, simple logic by asking a couple questions. Now, a lot of times people will say to me, what if they say I want a down payment? Or what if they say they want more per month? Or what if they say they want a shorter term? Any one— or more price. Any one of those, if you picture a quadrant and you have on the quadrant, you have price, terms, monthly payment, and down payment, I literally will have this conversation with a seller. I recently had this conversation. The gentleman had 2 homes and a large piece of land. We're still negotiating on this. And I said, I'm trying to get you to your price, but I'm going to need longer term. And he chuckled and said— when I asked the question, what's more important? He chuckled and said, both. Well, I said, Paul, I can't get you both. And then I went over the quadrant. I said, I got price to work with, I got term to work with, I got down payment to work with, and I got monthly payment to work with because he's free and clear. I can't give you all of those, so give me an idea of what's more important to you. And then here's kind of like some key Seeding, you know, certain lines you can say to the sellers. I end it with, because most of my sellers— this works on their ego now— most of my sellers don't need— very keyword— the cash. They'd rather maximize the value of their home over time. When you say, most of the sellers I work with— this is a posturing thing— most of the sellers I work with don't need the cash, I will tell you 70% of the time They will react with, because their ego tells them to do this, well, I don't need the cash either. Unless they truly are in a financial problem, which you can probably already got to. Okay? So let's just review real quickly. I want to get you to the point where you're excited to speak with sellers and you know that you can help them. And we'll help you with all the mechanics of that, but this script part is very important. So if I can get you to your price, are you open to lease purchase or owner financing? Where are you going? By when? And what is your plan B if that doesn't happen? That's the key question, right? And then the quadrant, the 4 things to remember when you're talking, negotiating in your mind, but just having a conversation: price, term, monthly, and monthly payment. That's it, guys. Very simple. Let's get out there. Let's learn the basics so you can get on the phone and get excited. Because when you're talking about 3 paydays, in our world anyway, 3 paydays, we get paid 3 times on a deal. When When you're talking about that kind of a return, anywhere in the $75,000, $100,000 and on up per deal, is it worth it for you to get comfortable with this and get excited and get on the phone? I think it is. Here's what you can do. I want to make sure you guys get your hands on all the scripts. I'm going to give them to you free, but you got to email support@smartrealestatecoach.com. support@smartrealestatecoach.com. You'll give— we'll give you the free scripts, and you're off and running creating 3 paydays. Make it a great week. Bye.
