Any Success "Door Knocking" (literally) When Approaching Owners?

Question

Good Morning BP Community,

There is a rundown commercial property in my local downtown that I want to buy so badly, I literally want to drive to the owners house and knock on his door.

I feel like this could be a big turn off and come off as too aggressive/confrontational. I also do not have the financing in place to do the deal and would be interested in pursuing seller financing with the seller as the building requires additional capital investment.

Has the community had any success with this strategy? Any advice would be sincerely appreciated.

Sincerely,

Kyle

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

Nothing wrong in my mind knocking on the door.. that's the only way we bought distressed assets for many years.. since hardly anyone does it.  you need good manners and sales techniques.

short of that since your dialed in on one specific property.. here is a little trick that has worked for me in the past.

I have my attorney write them a letter...  IT WILL GET OPENED AND IT WILL GET read..  very professional and to the point.

I have bought many a property with this technique... And how I stumbled on it.. was someone did it to me.

I owned a Timber plot in Oregon and got a letter form an attorney representing a client that wanted to buy it from me.. I liked the professionalism so much that we made the deal.. and now I use it as one of my arrows in my quiver of acquisition methods.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

@Jeff Filali  my sales career started at 14 selling fuller brush door to door... LOL... and man I was good.. humbly speaking.

I was making 40 dollars in 2 hours of door knocking after school... 3 days a week in a 1.13 minimum wage environment.

it was then I learned the value of commission sales and never looked back..

Jeff Filali · Answer

Have you mailed them anything, called him, or contacted other ways yet?  I promise you if he owns a property I wanted to buy, I would have knocked on his door for sure.

In my 20's, I bet I knocked on 100,000+ doors and sold a lot of home improvements and insurance.  Door-to-door sales has become a lost art.   Its very rare to see anyone who door knocks anymore for any industry.  Even back then, most people never succeeded, because they couldn't take rejection and gave up too quick.  But those who stuck to it and perfected their sales abilities, all did very well.

Remember the worst thing that can happen is they say NO.  Which just means not now.  Sure they may be rude, or upset, or yell at you... Who cares, you'll never know unless you try.  If you've never cold called someone like that before, I would suggest doing a few others before approaching that one you want.  Just to get the hang of it, and build your confidence.

Hell, if it was closer to me, I'd go do it for you.

Michael Quarles · Answer

IMHO....

EVERYONE is a front door. So learn how to meet and greet.

I intentionally listen to sports radio and new radio every morning so I have the "topic" of the day when approaching a conversation. I also pay attention to female  purses and shoes.

There is not an easier way to break ice then by acknowledging a females purse or pair of shoes in a way where she feels safe and appreciated.

For men, you'll find having ammunition to join or begin a conversation regarding news or sports makes the conversation process much easier.

And OMG it is super easy.

One thing you should do is set a minimum commitment daily to chat with an "X" number of strangers. I like cue cards and business cards. write 1 thru 10 or 20 or 30 on the cue cards and the days date and carry at least that amount of business cards with you.  Then while passing out the Business cards write who the person is on the cue card.

you'll find that when you go out of your way to actually accomplish this exercise buying houses will come very easy. If it not easy you should consider a career change.

Lastly stop your daily routines.

have lunch at different places, get gas at different gas stations, different stores, different everything. If you walk into a spot to buy something and know anyone there you're in the wrong spot for prospecting.

Jeff Filali · Answer

@Jay Hinrichs I started off selling whole house water purification systems.  Then after 9/11 slowed home improvement way down, I went into selling Life/Health Insurance for several years, and also later sold Kirby vacuums at one time after leaving L/H.  Good times, where I earned my bones.

If you can succeed at direct sales, you have job security for life.  Every young aspiring entrepreneur should get a job in direct sales right out of high school, and learn to sell.  It would give them a head start on their future success.

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

@Jeff Filali  could not agree more.. all these folks that think they can make a bunch of money wholesaling with no sales skills are really in for some heart ache and blowing what ever marketing money they have.. if you have no closing skills your taking huge risk trying that advanced strategy..  I always say go work on a car lot for 6 months before you send out your first yellow letters.. and or listen to Quarles pod cast you think that dude does not know how to sell.. LOL

Sara K. · Answer

Have you started with sending a letter?

I don't like strangers knocking on my door, I'd be more perceptive to a letter. But everyone's different, of course.

Glenn Treadwell · Answer

I have never knocked on doors in regards to attempting to purchase RE, but I would be humble if I did.  I am new to investing so haven't had a reason to do so yet. I did have a RE agent write me a letter once since he was interested in purchasing my house and land. After receiving his letter (I was curious what he would offer) I called him and he offered $70K, then quickly went to $90K.   I wasn't interested much at that time in selling so I told him thanks for the offer I would think about.  A few weeks later he comes to my house and hands me a packet and he say's this is an offer on your property.  I did not open it and I asked him how much was his offer and he said $70K.  That irritated me since he had went up to $90K verbally over the phone.  I handed him back his packet and he huffed off speaking inaudibly but loud enough so that me and my 4 year old daughter could hear he was mad which irritated me and I told him angrily that I didn't have to sell.  He never came back nor called again. I later sold it for $95K.  I would have sold if he had been more personable.

Any Success "Door Knocking" (literally) When Approaching Owners?

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