Your seller's asking price... Is meaningless

[Ryan Dossey]

I do a fair bit of mentoring/coaching to help people on this site get started, grow, and go full time. One of the most common things I see is people NOT going to meet sellers because the asking price is too high. These end up being some of our best calls.... Why? Most of your competition is avoiding that call as well.... 

I met with a seller yesterday who told me that the last guy said he was only looking for "distressed" sellers. (This particular guy had a cashflowing rental owned free and clear) So while he wasn't desperate... He did want to sell. 

A call we went on today the seller agreed to an offer that was 65% of his over the phone asking price. The guy dropped THIRTY-FIVE percent on the spot. 

Here's why.... Their asking price is 9/10 times a number that "sounds good" to them. Its not typically based on fact, condition, or location. If you can educate a seller on the market, repairs costs, and explain why your offer makes sense... I promise. You WILL close more deals. 

You only fail if you don't try. I'd rather go on 5 useless calls and have my offers flop vs not even try. 

How bad do you want this?

[Hattie Dizmond]

Completely agree with @Ryan Dossey We meet with everyone who we qualify as being in position to sell to us, regardless of the asking price. In fact, the very first deal we met with a seller on - ever - was a FSBO. They were asking about 25% over what we could pay. I spent time both building a relationship with them and educating them on what would be needed to bring their house up to the standards of what today's buyers are looking for, what it would cost to do it, and what our business model is - so they would understand there was a max price we could pay. They were building a custom, smaller house and facing some health issues. They didn't want to do the rehab and needed to move quickly. After all the discussions and explaining, they agreed with our price. Done.