How to talk to someone in preforeclosure - Investor Thrive Live Batchleads

What is going on, everybody? This is the weekly Batch Leads Investor Thrive live call where we talk to you about how to get deals, how to use batch leads to get more deals. That's why we're here. We just, we want to do more deals, right, Landry?

Yeah, that's right. Let's do it.

Yeah. So that's our goal is for you to watch this and you to take this and apply it in your own business. And we're not just going to talk about the theory. We're going to actually show you how to do it as well. So what we're going to be talking today is actually something that I've been hearing a lot of people doing deals through. Recently more than before, because I always have my ears to the ground. I'm always know kind of like what's going on. So yeah, a lot of people have been saying pre-foreclosures, stopping the foreclosure from happening and, you know, talking to the seller. Well, I wouldn't even say seller, the homeowner openly and honestly about the situation they're going through. We're going to talk about how to navigate that and how you can get a deal, because I've done many deals through people that are in pre-foreclosure. Um, so let's dive right in. Landry, what's up? How you doing today?

Pretty good. Yeah, I just, uh, I feel like I just was about to go for the same thing I say. I've noticed on all the lives that I do, I say the week's just flying by.

I wanted to say, but yeah, is the week flying by this week for you?

Yeah, it is. It's fun. Sometimes it doesn't, and I just— it just comes out. So I'm gonna— I need to flip the script a little bit. But yeah, I've been good, just kind of and, uh, keeping busy with lots of projects. I'm always doing—

I have been seeing your social. You, you are doing some cabinets. That's awesome.

Yeah, I kind of had a couple setbacks. I had to, like, my quarter round wasn't covering, like, the between my floor and the cabinet, so I went and got a piece of wood and blah blah blah, all this other stuff. So yeah, I am going to finish it and post about it and kind of just keep sharing it. So yeah, anyway, what about you?

Your tape job is amazing. Like, you should get paid to just tape and go and tape people before— houses before they paint.

That's what I used to do with my dad. Yeah, he would spray, so I got a sprayer, and that's why I'm doing it that way. By the way, I had a couple people being like, I would have just slapped the paint on. I'm like, well, I'm doing something different, that's why.

But yeah, everyone check out Landry Social, uh, if, uh, you haven't, uh, maybe you want to follow the journey. Yeah, yes, you should just do a YouTube channel or something about just taping. That was— it's very satisfying to see that.

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Everybody that's watching this, again, how to talk to seller— to someone— I wouldn't say sellers, guys. Let's get sellers out of the way because people that are in pre-foreclosure, they don't want necessarily want to sell. Most of the time, I'd say 99% of the time, they want to stay. So if you're like, hey, this is a seller, well, look, no, let's not address them as a seller, let's address them as a homeowner. So how to talk to someone or a homeowner in pre-foreclosure, this is very, very important because when I first started, guys, I did what most of you probably do. You just say, hey, I'm calling to see if you want to sell your house. And that's very insensitive to someone who's probably going through a lot. So we're going to talk more about that and how to have that conversation. But I do want to say shout out to the sparkling water crew. Is that what you got?

Yeah. Have you ever tried Spindrift?

I have not, but I—

I'm superior.

I'm a Kirkland fan through and through.

Got to try that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hey, real quick, do you— you play guitar, right? You sing and play guitar?

Yeah, I haven't picked it up in a while, but yes.

Check this out, Batch Leads hooked it up.

Oh wait, I saw that. Yeah, for when you did the event, or when you were at the event, right?

Batch Leads electric guitar.

Heck yeah. Oh yeah, super affiliate. Oh heck yeah, that's awesome.

I don't—

I only know how to play like maybe one song, not very good, but you just have to, yeah, pick up some other ones, maybe make up a couple of your own, eh?

Maybe. Thing about match. Yeah, we got some shoutouts from people because this is live, everybody. We're doing this live. We got, uh, Gaetano. I, I still got to learn how to say that. Do you know, do you know how to pronounce that?

Um, Landry, I'm terrible with pronouncing names.

Give it a shot. Let's see how you can do it.

Gaetano.

Gaetano.

Okay.

Oh yeah. Okay.

Is that right? I mean, I don't—

I, I still got to talk to him on the phone and be like, hey, how do I say your name? I think it's It might be right. It might be wrong.

Always screw mine up, even though it's like land re— people always think it's laundry.

Oh, okay.

There we go.

Okay. Okay, everybody. So let's dive in. Let's talk about how to talk to someone in pre-foreclosure. Look, as I would say, as things like progress and the economy, I think there's going to be more pre-foreclosures. More pre-foreclosures are going to happen. More foreclosures are going to happen. So if you can specialize if you can help people in that situation and if you can look at those people not as a paycheck but a way to actually serve and help them, you're going to get more deals and you're going to be happier and be able to sleep at night, right? Way more than if you're just like, oh, I just got to make money. So how do you start? Let's start before we talk about the conversation. Let's talk about getting a hold of these people. Let's talk about getting a hold of this list. So there's multiple ways to get a pre-foreclosure list. You obviously Batch Leads has data that you can get it from. You can also get it from your county. I get mine from my county for free. I just ask my title company. I just said, hey, title company, can you send me the pre-foreclosure list every month? So every month they send me the new pre-foreclosure list, okay? And, you know, notice of default, just that's kind of the list that I get. Just to let you know, that's when they stop making payments and then they get a notice that they're in default. And I think there's 90 days. I know all over the United States, it might be different processes and stuff, but that's the list that I get. So as soon as someone hits that list, that doesn't mean that they're like freaking like ready to go. A lot of people, right? A lot of people just chill like the whole time and they're like, well, I'll figure it out. And when I've called someone on our last call about this, they were like, no, don't talk to me, you know, because they're getting a bunch of people calling them just like, you want to sell? You want to sell? You want to sell? So we're going to try and approach this from a different way and we're going to show you how it's working for a lot of people. I've, I've talked to a lot of the top marketers that send marketing messages out. They say this is the best way to approach people in pre-foreclosure, probate, these situations where, look, you're not in their shoes. You got to put yourself in their shoes. They are losing their home. They do not want to get a call from someone saying, hey, my name is John. Do you want to sell? That could really—

It's a sensitive time and topic to just bring up.

Yeah. And not only that, but if someone's in pre-foreclosure, there's probably some cross things that are happening, like cross motivating factors you would say as like a wholesaler investor? Like they might be going through divorce, they might be— someone might have died in the family, someone might have died and the property now is in default because they haven't been able to make the payments. So if you just call and you're like, hey, is the house for sale? Like there's probably a lot going on where it can be insensitive and you might not get the reception or like the response that you feel like you would normally think you could get from asking that question. So let's, let's go. I just told you where you can get the data. Let's go right now into showing you what you do once you get the data. All right, Landry, you got, um, you're going to share, show us how to skip trace it, right?

Yeah, absolutely. And real quick, Nathan, too, because if you guys do have a Batch Leads account or you guys try it out and get into a trial, it's in— you just literally go to this property search section and then just type what, you know, your market And then you can pull up your filters and find people right here in the pre-foreclosure and auctions. Before I skip trace the list, Nathan Payne, I just wanted to ask you in terms of like, for example, the people that you're reaching out to and starting conversations with, you mentioned are notice of default. So people brand new in the process, you know, it's, it's been 90 days since they've made payments and now they're getting an official notice. What's the difference in reaching out to somebody that is brand new in, in that compared to somebody that maybe already has like an auction date, which you guys can filter in here too.

But what would you say auction date is? Just it's, it's coming up sooner, right? They have a date for the auction. So that those people you could say maybe might be further along the process, it might be more motivated.

Yeah. Do you notice sometimes with— I guess it's kind of just like a mix with the people that you're getting, people that are maybe, maybe a little bit in denial in the beginning of the process of—

oh Yes, a lot of people— there's actually people that are like masters of staying in pre-foreclosure, or they get in and they get out, they get in and get out. I talked to someone that bought a house that had been going through that process for like 10 to 20— I think he said 20 years. I don't want to like get too crazy.

Really? It's like getting in and out of that process? Or— okay, that long.

They played the system and eventually they like weren't able to do it and they lost the house, and then that's why he bought it at an auction. But there's there's just people who, like, they're not that worried about it. They'll catch it up. They'll— they have family or they'll just sell it on the MLS. That was happening a lot during the pandemic when properties were worth a ton. People that were in pre-foreclosure could have just— they could just sell it. But now the way things are now, you can't just throw your house and just sell it if you're in a bad spot. So anyway, to answer your question, it just depends. It always depends. And that's why you have to approach it where I'm going to explain to you guys all how to approach it the right way versus the insensitive way, the pain, the painful way. You don't want to be painful with these people.

Painless, name the game. Yeah. Okay, so once you guys get the data, whether you import it, you know, yourself, if you are like Nathan and grab it from the county, you know, I love that way that you're having your relationship with your title company and they're able to get you that list as well. For people just brand spanking new in that, that process, or if you guys get it in batch leads, once again, it shows up the same way.. So all you have to do in the My List section is just select them. Of course, you'll filter them out and find them, but you'll just select those guys. I'm just going to grab this first page, click Actions, and then Skip Trace. So super straight to the point. So I'm just going to click Skip Trace. Never charges, charges you for duplicates or properties that don't return info, which is really nice. I'm just going to name this Pre-Foreclosure Skip Trace, and these are in Arizona. So I'm just going to label it. Click Skip Trace, takes a couple minutes, and then eventually you'll get the info over to the right of all of these contacts and in each of their details. And then you have a skip trace section like this. So it's currently processing, and then you can just download the results. So it takes less than a minute probably to do it.

So, wow, impressive.

That's it, right? Yeah, that's it. There you have it.

So how do you reach out to these leads now? So look, there's, there's going to be a couple solutions, right? You can text, you can call, you can mail, you can— I don't do RVM, but you can RVM, you can smoke signal, you know, I'm just kidding.

You can't do that. Oh, I was like, I mean, because I wasn't thinking of the, like, legitimate smokes.

Yeah, it's a joke.

You got it. I get you. I get you.

But one thing that is working a lot right now, guys, is door knocking. Okay. But again, you got to door knock with the right message. If you knock on someone's door that's in pre-foreclosure and you're like, hey, I'm here to see if you want to sell this house you haven't made payments on. They might be like, get out of here, or not give you that warm response that you feel like, you know, you deserve as an investor, which you probably just, you know, again, you got to put yourself in their situation. You got to put yourself in their shoes. So let's talk about how to respond to people the right way. Okay. And this is an opinion, right? Like, but this is what I've done a lot of research and I found a lot of people that are doing deals this way are having success. Because again, they're not approaching it as like, hey, are you a seller? I'm here to buy your house, right? They're here. They're there to solve the problem, right? They're there to help out and provide value. And if you can approach every situation that you find yourself in as, hey, I'm here to provide value to the other person, not take advantage or get what I want, it's going to work out better. So let me show you guys how I leverage AI artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, to write me a message. I kind of have a good idea of what to write, but I kind of— I ask Chat to help me out sometimes. So let me show you what it said. And I'm actually kind of amazed that it's exactly what I wanted to say, but they said it even better than I could. So I said, when reaching out to someone in pre-foreclosure— sorry, what is the best way to text someone in pre-foreclosure and let them know you are there to help? That's all. Like, not to buy their house, but to help. So it says, when reaching out to someone in pre-foreclosure, sensitivity, transparency are— and transparency are essential. These individuals are likely going through a stressful period, and it's vital that your message is clear, concise, respectful, and non-invasive. Here's a suggestion.

Wow, that was really good.

I've never seen a better idea of what's going on than most wholesalers do, right? So this is a letter, this is a postcard, this is a text, this is a call. Or you knock on the door and you say this, or you leave a note on the door, whatever. This is exactly what I'd say. Maybe I'd shorten it down. I'll show you how to do that. But basically you say, hey, hey, you knock on the door, say, hey, Joanne, I hope this— well, this is a text, but it says, I hope this message finds you well. My name is Real Estate Nate, and I've worked with homeowners in your area to find solutions during challenging times like pre-foreclosure. I understand how tough this period can be, and I'd like to offer assistance, whether it's discussing potential options, Helping navigate the process or answering any questions. I'm here to help without any obligation on your part. If you're open to a conversation, please let me know if you're available. Your privacy and comfort are my top priorities.

I love that.

Wow.

That is a really, really nice message.

Really nice, right? So, Landry, you're in pre-foreclosure. You just got— you're going through a lot of crap in your life, for example, in this situation, and someone texts you saying, Hey, Landry, is your house for sale? Or just says that, you, you're probably not going to respond, correct?

Right. I, I don't think so in, in that time type of period in my life, you know.

It might be tough, right? Especially, we'll look at it, especially if you're getting like 10 or 12 of those texts a day that say the same thing.

It's overwhelming already in general. Even if you did want to, it's almost like, I don't even know who's legit here. I don't even— it's not even worth it to me to, to reply to anybody at this point.

Right. But you get a text message like this, and this is what I've been talking to a lot of marketers about and people that are crushing it and doing well with pre-foreclosure is they approach it as like, hey, I'm the expert at pre-foreclosures. I'm the expert at stopping foreclosures from happening. I'm here to help if you're— if you need help, right? I'm here to give you some advice, navigate the process. And those people are like, well, how do I get out of pre-foreclosure? How do I stop this? How do I stay in the house? They have those questions and then you're able to navigate. There's, there's guys in the industry that will actually even call the banks and negotiate the, the payoff. They'll actually try to negotiate how much is, is there. Now, it doesn't always work, but at least they're able to help out and, you know, help the seller in a time. I keep on saying seller because it's ingrained in me, right?

Yeah, right, right.

That wants to, you know, stay in the property or at least know their options. Right. And that's That's the best way to work it. So everybody, if you, you know, if you type something in like this, uh, you can even ask chat to be like, can you shorten, uh, short, short in the message a little? You can ask it to improve it, right? And then it will.

It's so— I always forget about it, you know, how cool. I think we were talking about last time you could tell it to do it in the tone of somebody you, you know. Somebody out there, which is kind of cool.

So switch this in the tone of David Spade.

I think that is what it was.

Yeah. And let them know I am an expert at stopping foreclosures.

You can get really specific with this stuff.

Yeah, let's see. Channeling David Spade's typical car sarcasm yet humorous tone. So guess who's become the go-to expert at stopping foreclosures? Yep, it's me. Shocking, right? It's your— if you're tangled up in that foreclosure web, let's chat. I promise no pressure and all privacy. And who knows, maybe I can actually help. Spoiler: I totally can.

I kind of like that.

Hey, that's actually not bad.

You know, I think this is super helpful to have, like, if you had different templates, you know, to switch it up, different tonality, see what works. Like, for anybody in any part of their business, it's always really beneficial to see what marketing method is working best, what list is working best. So why not with like your messaging? So that's super, that's, yeah, that's really cool.

And like you said, hey, it'd be cool to have a couple different templates.

Oh, there you go.

Give me 10 different templates, right?

Oh, that's awesome. Super quick.

No brain power. No brain power. So guys, this is it. Like, I'm kind of trying to change your mindset, and it's not just me. That's like preaching to you guys. This is me too. I used to come off and just say, hey, do you want to sell? Do you want to sell? Do you want to sell? And I would approach it like that. And I would— it was like a numbers game for me. I was trying to do as many texts, as many things as I want. But if you want to be most successful in this business and lower your marketing spend, you have to be strategic. You got to be like a sniper. You got to go and really make the most of what you have. So definitely don't approach, I would say, this working with pre-foreclosures, people in probate, people in tough situations, divorce, with not being sensitive to their situation. You want to be sensitive to what's going on. Okay, so, uh, that's pretty much it. That's all I want to kind of tell you guys is if you want to go out and work pre-foreclosures, auctions, probates, divorce, any of those really sensitive topics which cause people to probate, they need to sell. Pre-foreclosure, they need to sell if they don't figure it out. And we know that they, they're going to sell or they need to sell. It's just, yeah, we don't—

we—

you shouldn't attack it or target it without, you know, being sensitive to the situation. As chatbot has— as I say chatbot, it's— but it's ChatGPT. I don't know why I say chatbot, but same thing. But yeah, Landry, do you have any questions? Like, for someone that might, um, like putting ourselves in the position of a new wholesaler or a new investor, what, what questions do you think they would have? Or the audience that's watching this live, what questions might you have for us?

Yeah, yeah. Post your guys' questions. Well, I'm wondering, so like for example, when I first started working for Batch, it's been over 3 years now. Right before that I went out, it was like right when COVID had started. Yeah, like right in the beginning of it. And I went out and I would just to get a feel for like what people were doing before I started getting into the software side of things. I went on and knocked on some doors and we'd go and knock on people in pre-foreclosure. And there was somebody that I think I've told you about this story before where they wouldn't have their parent come to the door as like a kid that answered. And he's like, we'll sell our house for— he threw out some super outlandish price or whatever. We couldn't get ahold of the actual owner. And then it actually did foreclose a couple days later. So I guess for anybody, I know it's really easy to get all caught up in the hypotheticals and everything, but also just some of those really big things to remember for people that are getting started out? Like, what if somebody is not interested? Is there anything you can do to— like, how often would you follow up? What other actions would you take if somebody is just not having it or in denial or whatever, if you're really trying to provide value for them and really try to make sure that they don't actually have their property foreclose?

Yes, yes. So this is the key, everybody. Listen to this because this is what— again, I'm diving into the marketing aspect of of the business because I know how important it is to say the right thing and have the right message. What I would do to answer your question, Lindsay, like I used to when I was new, I would just send out like a text blast to the pre-foreclosure list, like maybe once or twice. And if they weren't interested, maybe I'd throw them like and I'd follow up like every whenever I just got to it. Like, I just wasn't thinking that I thought about, but I was really just tried like 2 times to get a hold of them, right? But a lot of the gurus and the experts at marketing are like, hey, look, these people go in and out. They, they, they don't decide if they want to do anything until like the last minute a lot, because that's why they're in pre-foreclosure most of the time. They weren't able— they're not like able to take care of things immediately. Right. A lot of them don't take the action immediately to pay their mortgage if they can. Maybe they put other things in front of it. But anyway, The key is to follow up with these people until the house is foreclosed on or sold, or they catch it up and they tell you they caught it up, right? Yeah. Like, I'll give you an example. I used to mail when I first started.

I mailed.

Yeah. And I thought mail was like you would send out like maybe 1, 2, 3 mails. So it's like 3 months. And then if you didn't get anything, it's like, well, whatever, I guess didn't work. There's people that mail and they'll mail consistently to the probate, the pre-foreclosure list for years, years. They'll just keep going until that person sells, like I said, or they find out what's going on, the situation, they talk to them. But if someone's like, no, leave me alone, that's probably not— for me, I wouldn't stop now. I would not stop talking to them. I would just be like, hey, totally get it. And my next message would just be something empathetic as well, being like, hey, just checking in. I know this can be a tough time. Here for you.

Right.

Yeah. Uh, so that, that's to answer your question. If, if they're telling you to leave, you could call them at the wrong time. Um, it could just be a bad day, but, you know, following up and being consistent with it is the key to getting those kind of deals and not just trying to get lucky with like one or two hits like I used to when I was really bad, right, at marketing in the beginning.

Yeah, just having that consistency and figuring out a flow I think is important for people kind of getting started.

So You know, exactly. So, uh, Gaitano asked the question of what are their options other besides selling for people in foreclosure? Okay, so I can give you a couple options. Uh, Gaitano, um, there's loan modification. That was a lot of the things that they were able to do during the pandemic. I don't know how likely that is if they'll do, you know, loan modifications now. Um, refinancing if they qualify, but the problem with refinancing is if you're late on your payments, you're probably not going to qualify for another mortgage.

Right?

You probably lost a job. I don't know. So maybe somebody else can, you know, you qualify for when you refinance. I think you could probably get someone to help you on refinancing, like someone had better credit or something. You have bankruptcy, you know, you can file bankruptcy and see how— I've never filed bankruptcy. I don't know too much about it, but I know that's something you can do. You can sell the home, obviously, but that's not something like they want to do immediately. They're trying to look for different options. You can negotiate with the lender. Something that I told you guys about at the beginning was you can call them. A lot of people don't know how to do that, especially the homeowners. They don't know how to negotiate with the lender, but that's something you can throw in and provide that value. You can rent out the property, but the problem is, is if you're behind on your payments, you have the attorney fees and you have the mortgage that you need to get caught up or you're going to lose the house. And I'll tell you guys about this one deal I did. This is my, my second deal when I first started, like 2 years ago, there was this guy in pre-foreclosure and he was behind $12,000, right? So I said to him, I can catch up what you're behind and then I can just take over the payments and I'll buy your house subject to. And he's like, okay. So I got his house by catching it up and That was it. That's how I was able to get one of my first subject-to properties. So that's another thing. But they did— he has to sell that. You could let them stay, but, you know, the chance— you run the risk of them not paying you rent, right? So basically, if you're ever going to buy a property on subject-to and you catch someone that's in pre-foreclosure, you got to make sure they're out. Yeah, I had a big problem because I learned that after. And then when it was time for him to leave, he wouldn't leave. And then he's on title, or he like— that was, um, you know, it showed that he like had ownership. So it was kind of weird. They're like, how are you evicting this guy? And I was like, well, he's not, you know, I own it now on subject. Anyway, it's kind of confusing. Yeah, it was crazy for like my second deal. Yeah, so don't do that, everybody.

Yeah, I bet that was really confusing. You're like, I should have got this guy out.

The judge was like, I don't know what's going on. Like, even he was tripping. So, uh, subject to sounds cool, everybody, but if you don't do it right, it it gets really hairy quickly. But anyway, that's to answer your question, Gaitano. Hope that was helpful. There's many options, but really, like, what you want to do is explore the ones where they get to stay and help them. And if they can't, then you've established that trust and you're there to help them too, whether you buy it wholesale, buy it subject to, whatever, right? Love it. Cool, cool. Yes, you're welcome. Anytime. Cool. Any other questions, Landry, that you think they might have? Or it's been a good call.

Yeah, I think so too. No, I think that that's just right on the money. I think that that's the biggest thing with pre-foreclosures. I think it's just the way that you approach the conversation. And I love that tip about using ChatGPT, especially for anybody that isn't super good about putting those messages together. You can literally just have it type it up for you, gives you some ideas. And keeps it sensitive too.

So no, yeah, I just want to say one last thing. Humans are really interesting. Like ChatGPT, like it's amazing, and it was like such a big deal, I would say, when it came out like 2 months ago or like whatever it came out. But now like I've even forgot about it. Like, I'm like, oh, it's there, wow, we can do all this, okay, I'm gonna go back to my life. So there's so many tools out there, guys, that make your job easier, make this investing easier. But, you know, if you don't know how to use them, you don't know how to leverage them, it's, you know, you're spending a lot of time that you don't need to. Like, chat, like, like batch leads, like they get—

they—

you're able to skip trace that list within— you're able to skip trace within seconds. Like, that's amazing. Versus people that go on True People Search or OpenCorporates and they look up the L— like, who's the guy who owns the property or what's the number? Like, that can take hours. So just look at your time as currency. And, you know, you, if you spend more time doing something, you're obviously like you have the opportunity cost that you could be spending on something else. So yes, just know that everybody, that tools are there to help you and get to know them and use them.

Yeah, 100%. Like, don't let the reason you don't do this be because of software and everything. Like, don't worry about that. There's always people like if you guys use Batch, You can get into the community. I teach you how to use it. So don't let that be the reason that you don't take the action, because the systems are there to make your life easier. You might have to invest a little bit of time to get the, get the ball rolling and understand how everything works. But after that, get that out of your way and start focusing on talking to people and, and so on.

So yes, yes, 100%. So if you guys don't have Batch and you're watching this, use the promo code InvestorThrive to get 50% off. I think it's 50% off the first month, correct?

Yes, that's right.

Yeah. Yeah. It's not 50% off forever. That would be cool.

But, you know, yeah, just the first month. Yeah, I had some confusion with that recently. So yeah, first month. Yeah.

Use it. All right, everybody. Well, have a good one. Reach out to Landry for the community if you want to learn more about how to use Batch and reach out to me if you want to do deals the painless way. I'm here to help. That's why we do this. We do this every week because we believe that, you know, with more knowledge and more experience, you guys can do better and do more deals. So that's why we put in the time effort to help you guys out.

Okay, awesome. Thanks, guys.

Later, everybody.