The 3 Questions To Ask Every Seller

Okay, Q&A Thursday. Chris, what do I do when the seller says, I just want cash? By the way, that's every seller, every market. No, I want full price now versus waiting for my equity. No kidding. Until what? Until we help them with a reality check about the market. And also, when we dig into the 3-question formula that I'm gonna share here in a little bit that you can use all the time. So, So this is actually a pretty easy one to handle with sellers for this week's Q&A. You don't argue with them. You don't launch into a 15-minute explanation of creative financing and here's what I do. I hear it all the time when I critique calls. Here's how I buy. And you definitely don't try to outsmart them. Nope. You ask more and better questions. Sound familiar? Questions, because here's reality: the I just want cash may may mean exactly that, or likely it may mean something completely different. Let's break it down here just a little bit, because as I mentioned, this comes up literally all the time. A lot of these recent Q and A's are ones that I just hear all the time, so I wanted to nail them. The seller says, "I just want cash." A new investor immediately thinks what? Deal's dead, not a lead. I get this on my nightly accountabilities from some of the newer students. Well, not necessarily dead. Could it be dead? Yeah, absolutely it could be dead. Some sellers legitimately need all of their money at closing. And if that's the case, okay, perfectly fine. Don't force a creative deal where one doesn't belong. It's not where I'm going with this. It's the last thing I want you to do is try to convince people, but we need to understand what they actually mean first. Cash is certainly most often the default. Why does the seller say that? Why do they default to that? Well, how was real estate traditionally done? How does it work? You sell the house, buyer gets mortgage, brings money to table, you get cash at closing. That's what everybody knows, right? I mean, literally, for so many of my years, that's what I knew. What most sellers don't realize, they just don't, is that there are so many more options, especially in a market like we're in right now where they're not getting the prices they want. They're just not. And specifically, most sellers don't realize owner financing and lease purchase, for example, have been around, gosh, before formal banking. Yeah, way back. So sometimes when a seller says, I want all cash, what they're really saying is, well, I just want to make sure I get paid and I don't want to deal with anything non-conventional. That's a very different conversation because I often ask them why they said no or why they say that, or did you have a bad experience? And they might say, well, I need enough cash, for example, to buy my next house. Okay, how much? All of it? Or they might say, I want enough money to pay off some debt. Okay, how much? Or my attorney, or you can insert accountant, or my spouse told me not to do anything but a straight sale. Okay. Often to that I'd say, are they looking to give you other solutions or are they just saying no? Right? Now we actually know what we're dealing with, at least if they do that, and what we can solve in a particular situation. And if you always keep in mind about the 3-question formula I mentioned earlier when you're speaking with sellers, you'll be in great shape as it kind of reveals their motivation and should always feel quite natural to you, or it may show their lack of motivation. That's okay, right? That's what you're doing it for. All right, ready for it? Picture talking with a family member, neighbor, friend, whatever. This simple but effective 3-question formula, what I meant earlier, should feel totally natural, right? Here it is, ready? Where are you going? You see a sign outside. Hey, where are you going? Oh cool, by when? And the 3rd winsky. What if that doesn't happen? Or, you know, what's your plan B if that doesn't happen? You say it in your words. Where are you going? When do you need to be there? What is the backup plan if that doesn't happen? Oh, you have to be in Florida by blank. Ah, so what's the backup plan if that doesn't happen? And they say, well, I'll just stay. Okay, thank you. Now you know there's no motivation. Their backup is I'm staying. They're just toying. What if they say, well, I have to move no matter what. Like I have a job or this or kids or grandkids. Okay, so hypothetically, do you need all your equity to do that? No, we're just gonna go rent when we move. Or, no, we already have a place. Ah, now we have a terms deal if they don't sell conventionally. And respect that, like give them the room to try it first. By the way, we do live calls you can listen to in our 3 Paydays Mastery Course as well as our Deal Lab private workshops right here at our office. And if you're not taking advantage of that, you're missing out big time. Go check it out, www.deallabnewport.com/youtube. Okay, back to my thoughts here. So we're never convincing or selling a seller. We're diagnosing always. I've said in the last few videos. So again, the seller says, no, Chris, I need all my cash. My response is never, let me explain how we do owner financing, how that can help you. No, in conjunction with the 3-question formula that I just shared, I'd probably say something like, hey, you know, I totally understand, Mr. and Mrs. Seller. Help me understand how much cash is needed, and maybe there are some other ideas here that we can help with. That's it. Then shut up. You might get, well, I just need a down payment, or I just need some of it, or whatever. Because you know in your mind when they're done, you're going to pivot to what? Number 3. Hey, what if that doesn't happen? I'm just curious. So maybe they say, Well, I'm buying another house and I need $80,000. Okay, interesting, very specific. And this is just an example, but let's say the property might have $300,000 in equity, but they don't need $300,000 tomorrow, they need $80,000. Now we have something to talk about, right? Sometimes you may be able to give them both. That's not uncommon. See, this is where new investors can get caught up thinking Everything has to be either cash or terms. Why? It's definitely not. Maybe the deal's both. We call it a hybrid deal in the Smart Real Estate Coach community family. Maybe the seller needs some cash at closing and they finance the balance. Pretty normal. I don't know, maybe there's an existing mortgage and the seller needs enough cash just to make a move. I've had that before. Literally from $1,800 to $8,800 we've done to help them move. Quick example: I coach Debbie as part of my private President's Club. By the way, if you'd like to know more about that, just privately email me. It's not advertised anywhere. Chris at smartrealestatecoach.com. I actually, I hand select people for that, and it's not cheap, but you'll do deals and you'll do them pretty quickly. Anyway, Deb just called me yesterday as of the filming here, and her seller owed like tiny, like twelve grand, and wanted a hundred fifty grand to move, and the property is worth like over eight hundred thousand dollars. So we had So many ways to get that done. Deb gets a private investor, seller gets a HELOC, and we take over payments. There are a lot of ways to do it. So maybe after digging in a bit, they don't necessarily need all the cash and would rather wait for a larger amount once they understand how we work. Oh, you mean I'd take a lot less now, but if I wait 3 years, I get this chunk? Maybe there's a structure there that gets them what they want In need today while getting you the terms you need over time. See, that's structuring and that's fair and that's win-win. That's price versus terms. It's an interesting thing to always explore, right? Price or terms. Here's another question I like. What's more important to you, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, getting top dollar over time or getting all of your cash today at a lesser amount? Because sometimes the seller wants, I don't know, let's use half a million, $500 grand. $500 grand. Fine. Maybe I'm willing to pay the full $500 grand if, big if, I can get the right terms. But if they need $500,000 cash tomorrow and that's their only out, and if not, they're staying, especially in this market, now perhaps my number would be quite different, right? Quite different. My logic would be quite different. See, see what just happened? We're not fighting about price. We're just moving different levers around. I'm going to talk differently about that deal. Let me add this thought before we wrap here. It's important to know when to walk away, right? Because I said just keep moving levers, but no, this— you got to walk sometimes. I want to make this super clear. Regardless of how badly you need a deal, just like I did when I first started, I needed it like I needed oxygen back after the crash. But sometimes the answer is, hey, thanks a lot, we're not the right buyer. And that's fine. Sometimes I say it up front. If you need all your cash today, I might not be your best buyer. Let me dig in. You ask more questions because not every seller is your seller. They're just not. Don't spend 3 weeks beating someone over the head trying to get them to do creative financing or following up nonstop when that's not where they're going. That's not a business. That's torture for you and torture for them. It's not fun. Have fun with this. Find the people whose situation actually fits what you do and do that by asking the right questions, of course. Now, I said don't follow up on, you know, nonstop. I meant, obviously, I hope you know, with the ones that don't fit, right? Follow-up matters because most of this, especially dealing with FSBOs, is all in the follow-up, right? Just because the answer is no today doesn't mean the answer is no forever. It's no, not now, if they need you for a backup plan, a plan B, right? Again, unless they say, I'm just staying. Now, maybe after all that, the house sits for 60 days, 90 days, 6 months, I'm just throwing different scenarios at you. Maybe 2 buyers fell apart, great opportunity for you to explain what's going on in this market. Maybe they lower the price twice before they talk to you. Their circumstances change, so what? So stay in touch because what I just described is happening all over in today's market. Your follow-up then is gonna of course be very, very specific. It's done politely and it's done professionally, but it's done very specifically because time changes what? Motivation. We've seen that over and over and over again. So when a seller says, "Yep, I want cash," don't panic. Don't pitch. Don't assume. Ask and listen, right? We'll give you the questions to ask. Don't worry about that. Creative real estate isn't about convincing people to do strange deals. It's about understanding what people need, seeing whether there's a structure that works for both parties. The word fair comes to mind again, right? That's why I tell them, "I just want to make this fair. I can't give you everything." And I can't have everything. Remember, we're always doing one of two things. One, solving a problem, or two, helping them accomplish a goal that the market cannot currently achieve. That's it, always. And every time we do that, we're helping 3 families, by the way. Your own, of course, right? Financially, 3 paydays, sometimes 4. The buyers we help, and the sellers we help. 3 families every single deal. That's super powerful. That's different than most real estate niches. Now let's get out there and get after it together.