Its all about relationships

[Scott Robinson]

I want to share a wholesale experience from this week, a common scenario for many probably:

I got a call from a young lady about a letter we had sent her aunt.  She proceeds to let me know her aunt is in the hospital and the house is scheduled for auction in just over two weeks.  I listened while she talked and expressed my empathy and concern for her aunt.  Over the next 3 days I spoke with her mother and texted them while they tried to locate the foreclosure paperwork.  I was always patient, caring and as informative as I could be.  The first amount they send me is just over $60k, sounds good so far from my analysis but, it is not the final number.  Later that night I find out the actually amount is $115k+, so there goes any possibility of wholesaling the home.  I gently explain that the aunt owes more on the home than it is worth in its current condition and unfortunately buying is not an option for me.  They thank me profusely and let me know a couple of people came to the house offering $90k but "acted strange and creepy", hanging around the house all day after being asked to leave.  They appreciated my patience, kindness, let me know how helpful I had been and thanked God for bringing me to them.  But I haven't done anything, never met them in person!  I took their compliments to heart and appreciate everything they had to say, but still I didn't DO anything.

The above story is to demonstrate that the way we listen and talk to people has a huge effect on their desire to do business with us and what the general public thinks of investors.

Have a great day.

[Lenzy Ruffin]

The very first homeowner I sat down with was a lady who called one of my bandit signs. I don't do bandit signs anymore, by the way. I went to the house and we sat down and I asked her to explain the situation to me. It was me, the homeowner, and her granny (that's what she calls her). An aunt who was living there had died, which removed an income, then the homeowner lost her job, so the house ended up in foreclosure. 

When she finished talking, I asked her was she selling the house because she wanted to or because she thought she had to. She told me she thought she had to because she was in foreclosure and couldn't make up the payments. I told her that we were now going to have a totally different conversation than the one I'd gone there to have. I told her I didn't even need to see the house anymore because there was no need for her to sell it. She had a job now and could make the monthly payment, it's just all the back payments and penalties she couldn't do anything with. I explained to her that there are programs to help homeowners keep their homes and gave her the website of the organization in Maryland that runs those programs. I explained to her that the bank doesn't want to take the house back and that they would work with her to keep it and that one of many options available is them modifying the loan to put all the back payments at the end of the loan, basically extending the length of the loan for however many months she fell behind. 

I made sure they understood that there was no reason to sell the house and I gave them specific guidance about what to do to keep it. And I told her not to be calling any more bandit signs because a different person would have told them something totally different because that house is in a great neighborhood and it's almost paid off. Granny said she felt like God sent me there to help them. The homeowner asked if she could hug me and proceeded to squeeze all the air out of me. I didn't make any money, but that experience was more enriching than if I had made money. I could tell those folks had not been sleeping well at night (been there myself) and I knew they were going to sleep well that night knowing that their problem was not anywhere near as bad as they thought.