In this live, conversational session Nathan Payne walks viewers through a real‑time cold‑call to a For‑Sale‑By‑Owner (FSBO) property. Joined by his friend Christian and occasional input from a third participant (Speaker C), Nathan explains the full workflow: spotting a FSBO sign, deciding to act, using skip‑tracing to confirm ownership, and executing a multi‑step outreach plan (multiple call attempts, voicemail, text). He emphasizes the importance of not getting emotionally attached to a deal, handling competition, and positioning oneself as an investor rather than a pushy salesperson. The discussion also touches on broader real‑estate investing topics such as multifamily lead generation, market selection (Texas, Mississippi, Colorado), and underwriting considerations for larger “moldy” deals. Throughout, Nathan models a pragmatic, upbeat mindset, encouraging viewers to repeat the process—call, leave a message, text, and follow up—while remaining flexible if the seller is not the right opportunity.
Chapters
Today we're going to be calling a for sale by owner house. My man Christian, what's going on, brother? What's up, Bobby? Yeah, so what he did is he saw a house that was for sale right next to your, uh, your house, right?
Just down where I live.
Yeah, down where he lives. And he's like, I want to call that house. And I said, bro, let me call it. I'll call it. So, you know, I'm going to be calling a seller right now that listed their house for sale by owner. And do you want to kind of give a little bit of a backstory on the property?
Yeah, uh, to be honest, I don't know much. Yeah, I don't know much about it. It's on the main street in the, the town where I live. And yeah, yeah, it's just this old shack. It's not even I don't even think anyone's living there. It's kind of beat down and kind of falling apart. And I saw the sign.
So you saw the sign, brother.
The sign was clearly there. Nathan Payne, give it a call.
Weren't you saying though, like, you've always seen it and you're like, man, I wish I would have called it before.
Yeah. And I kind of felt bad, actually. This is maybe a hard lesson learned, but I thought about calling it probably like 50 times.
Right, right, right.
You know, before. But and then I saw the for sale by owner sign go up and I was like, Ah, she should have done it.
Yeah, you're going to have some competition, which is fine. You know, we're going to rise above the competition right here.
Rise above.
That's it.
Yeah, we do. But not the big moldies right now. The big moldies, we look at them, but when you do the underwriting on them, they just don't make sense right now.
Yeah.
And especially with the cost of capital right now on the refinance side. Now the smaller ones, let's say, you know, 1.3, and I'm roughly about a million into it, and I'm refinancing it right now, and I should be able to pull almost all of my cash out of it.
Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, so the reason I'm asking you is because today one of my family members has a website where he generates traffic to, I guess, leads for multifamily, and sometimes he gets them outside of Tempe. So, look at that, I'll send you that info.
I'm definitely interested. Those are like, that 12 units used to be my specialty number.
Okay, well, there you go. 12 units right there outside of Pueblo and like south of Denver. So that would be cool. Well, do you know a couple more of those markets off the top of your head that you could say?
We do Texas with that a lot.
I believe Mississippi is one too, isn't it?
Mississippi is. I'm trying to remember. I don't think Alabama was.
Yeah. So what he did is he saw a house that was for sale right next to your house, right?
Just down where I live.
Yeah, down where he lives. And he's like, I want to call that house. And I said, bro, let me call it. I'll call it. So, you know, I'm going to be calling a seller right now. That listed their house for sale by owner. And do you want to kind of give a little bit of a backstory on the property?
Yeah, uh, to be honest, I don't know much about it. It's on the main street in the town where I live, and yeah, it's just this old shack. It's not even— I don't even think anyone's living there. It's kind of beat down and kind of falling apart, and I saw the sign.
So you saw the sign, brother?
The sign was clearly there, dude, to have Nathan give it a call.
Weren't you saying though, like, you've always seen it and you're like, man, I wish I would have called them before?
Yeah, and I kind of felt bad actually This is maybe a hard lesson learned, but I thought about calling it probably like 50 times.
Right, right, right.
You know, before, but, and then I saw the for sale by owner sign go up and I was like, ah, should've done it.
Yeah, you're gonna have some competition, which is fine. You know, we're gonna rise above the competition right here.
We'll rise above.
That's it.
With the painless method.
But so next time, if you see a house like that, all you gotta do is number one, you can just go leave a note, right, on the door. Or you can knock it and just be like, hey, you know, I'm an investor, I'm looking to buy. And see if they respond. And if you can't get a hold of who owns it, like by knocking or leaving a note, you can skip trace it, right? And are you familiar with skip tracing?
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, so skip trace it. So they left the number on the for sale by owner. So let's, I got it right here. Let's call and let's see how it goes. Let's see.
They're gonna answer.
That's the goal. And we call 3 times just in case, 'cause I have an out-of-state phone number, so. Hello?
Hi, this is Jerry.
I'm not available right now.
If you're calling—
Okay, well, Jerry, come on, Jerry.
Well, we know She hit the F you button, so that means that she's there and alive. So we'll give it 2 more. And yeah, so she'll answer.
Hi, this is Jerry.
Okay, one more. And should I call from my number? Oh no, it's all good. Usually it's like they think it's spam, but if you call enough, they're like, oh, this is probably someone real.
Hi, this is Jerry.
So the next thing you do is you send a quick text and you know, we'll see if she responds. So, hey Jerry, this is Nathan. This is Nathan Payne calling about the house in Santaquin. Is that right? Yep. Santaquin. How do you spell Santaquin? S-A— Santaquin? Q-U-I-N.
There you go, baby.
Oh, okay. Santaquin for sale. Do you have a quick minute to chat? I could have left a voicemail too, but I'm hoping that she's just hitting no, no, no, that she'll just do a quick response. So let's talk about this. What am I going to do right here? The first thing I want to find out is the options she's explored, right? Because if I call her and I just assume that she just wants a cash offer, that could be a waste. You know, that's probably not true. Maybe she's looking for renters. Maybe she's looking for top dollar. So the first thing I want to do is be like, hey, you've had this sign up here. The house looks like it needs some work. What options have you explored so I don't repeat something that you've already explored, right? Like I don't bring up a cash offer and you say, forget all cash offers, I'm not even looking for that.
So that's the goal.
I'd want to find out what she's done already, get on the same page, start with the end in mind, and let her know, hey, this is why I'm calling, looking to buy the house as an investment or pretty much to find out any way I can make money on it and see if that's something we could work on, like we could work together. And if she's open to that, then we have a good conversation. If she's not, then she's looking for something else that I can't provide. Yeah, so that would be the goal. Yeah, unfortunately she didn't answer. I would have just loved her to pick up.
I know.
Unless you try— you want to try? I don't think— I don't think it's because I have a 404 number. I think she's probably in the middle of something.
Yeah, and did you call from an 801 as well?
No, I just called from my cell phone. My cell phone's a 404. Oh really? You can give it a shot. Why? You might as well. Doesn't hurt if she hits you with the—
It hurts a little bit. No, I'm just kidding.
Yeah, yeah.
With the painless method, it doesn't hurt at all.
It doesn't. Yeah. And because for me, you're looking for the right opportunity. Yeah. You're never trying to like force anything. If she's not the right opportunity, then it's all good.
Exactly. Don't get too attached.
Never get attached.
Never get attached.
That's when you make bad decisions. Exactly. You were at that meeting earlier today. Exactly. Matt Strong said, Don't get attached.
Don't get attached. Let's give this a try here.
She's like, "Do you really want my house?
Gosh, man." Call me.
Hi, this is Jerry.
I'm not available right now.
Well, it was worth a shot. I'm sure Jerry will give us a call back. Well, to be continued.
Yes, to be continued. And I guess what we can do is we can leave everyone with, look, if this happens, What you can take from it is call. Usually they don't answer the first time because they think it might be a spam call. If you call twice, they're usually like, okay, this is a real person. 3 times, they don't answer, they're busy, in my opinion.
Exactly.
Leave a voicemail if you can, which I forgot to do, and a text, and then just follow up. Now, it's very possible that, you know, she's in the middle of something, or maybe she put that sign up and she's getting lit up and she's like, I can't take any more phone calls.
Exactly.
But We'll find that out. To be continued. Keep watching us and we'll let you know. We'll let you know what happens. See you later. Thanks for coming, man.
