I Left Thousands On The Table!

By | November 9, 2014

After years of investing in real estate and flipping dozens of properties I came to believe that I was a great negotiator!

I made countless offers on bank owned properties (listed on the MLS) without any emotion involved. When my low ball offers were accepted I felt like a real winner. When my offers were declined I felt it was the banks loss and I was on to the next!

I honestly believed that I had the market cornered and had it going on until I met my good friend Roosevelt
.

I noticed on twitter one night that Roosevelt had a multi-unit property listed for around $9,000. This was a great deal that I was unable to find listed on any site. I was wondering how he found this before me.

Without wasting any time I invited Roosevelt to lunch to discuss what deals he had available. We met at Panera a few days later and hit it off!
We shared all the same goals and learned that both of us are not afraid to take action to achieve them. We both love investing in real estate but we had very different investing techniques. Roosevelt was doing something that I learned years ago in seminars but never once took action on due to my own limited thinking. I only made offers on bank owned homes listed on the MLS and Roosevelt
only made offers on off market properties buying from very motivated sellers.
I was taught to do this but I had convinced myself that no private seller would ever sell me their properties for the price that the banks sold them for.

I was really wrong and was leaving thousands on the table!

Now there is nothing wrong with buying properties off the MLS. There is money to be made this way. The problem is that you are also competing with EVERYONE for those same properties.

Roosevelt’s technique challenged me to make the same crazy offers on properties brought to me from private sellers.

I took action immediately by placing “Cash for Houses” bandit signs
around Cleveland and ads on Craigslist. Within a few days I received a call from a very motivated seller with a junker property she wanted nothing to do with!

I asked how much she was asking for the home she told me $4,000 or just make me an offer.

This screams motivation!

When I viewed the property I realized why she wanted it gone. It was a disaster!
I called her and told her I really wasn’t interested and she would get a better offer from someone else. She insisted I make her an offer so I told her I’d pay $900 for the property and to my surprise she blurred back $1000 and it’s a deal!

I was shocked she would jump on that offer so quick. I didn’t waste any time. I wrote a contract and handed her a check for $1000.
I marketed the property all over Craigslist.com and 10 days later I it sold for $2500.00

Due to my limited thinking I would of never made offers like this to a private seller in the past. I only made crazy offers to banks competing against countless other investors for these properties.

Once I realized how much time was wasted bidding against the other investors on the MLS I switched my technique to marketing towards motivated sellers and buying off market deals!

I still make countless ridiculous offers on each lead that comes in but now I land even better deals as I’m not bidding against the rest of the marketplace.

Never assume you know what offer other party will accept. If you are not currently marketing towards motivated sellers with off market deals them you must begin!

What’s the best deal you ever negotiated?

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