Taking calls - perfecting your process
Investor · Virginia Beach, VA · Member since 2013 · 84 posts · 26 votes
My yellow letters are starting to generate calls, and I'm working through the best way to work them. Some of these questions might be dumb, but I'm certain others have dealt with the same-
Do you keep a pen/paper handy to jot notes? This is easy in an office environment, but when you are at home, in the car, etc do you just keep a pen in your pocket?!
How do you ask the address in a way that doesn't make you look stupid? Obviously I mailed the letter....seems like the seller expects me to know the address already...
Which leads to this - how do you talk price on the phone without knowing anything about the specific property in advance? If I'm at my computer I can pop in the address quickly and get a feel for value....but without a computer how do you handle this? My list is based on Assessed value of 100-200k....but that's all I know prior to looking up the specific address in question.
If the caller seems to be a tire kicker, what questions do you ask to try and confirm?
Thanks!!
Great questions. What I do is always try and pick up the phone call even if I am out since that is a warm lead. Then I let them know that I am out of the office and don't have the info on that particular house and will have to call them back but will need some information from them to give them a fair offer. So I let them talk about there situation to see how motivated they are, then I let them tell me about the house specifics such as bedrooms and bathrooms and condition of the property. After getting the info I tell them I will call them back with an offer. And yes it would be good to always keep a note pad and pen or write this on your smartphone if you have one.
Great questions Thomas just to get that out the way. Whatever sort of marketing investors use at some point we'll be caught off guard (unless you have VAs handle this) with a call from an owner responding to our inquiries.
I for one keep pens and paper everywhere in my office, car, kitchen, bedroom. Also if you are at the computer utilize that. Its ok to ask for a refresher due to the fact that you have sent out quite a bit of inquiries, apologize if you will but you need to know what property do they own. Some times you may have sent the letter out and not get a reply for several months later. Sure you have a record of it somewhere but maybe not within immediate reach.
It's happened to me a number of times and I try to set up a meet and greet asap. Give yourself 24 hrs at least if you need to refamiliarize yourself with the deal and re-check the comps, come up with a strategy or two(one for backup). As time goes on and you gain experience you may be able to meet the same day. Whatever you choose to best fit you and your business policy. You definitely want to schedule an appointment to see the property as soon as possible.
Some times people give off the appearance of being tire kickers but they just need some more convincing. Basically they want to know what are they getting out of the deal. Look at the glass as half-full because they did respond to your inquiry. Imagine how many other letters etc they may have received yet they are replying to yours.
Presuming you are looking to purchase residential property its about comps aka (CMA) within 1 mile radius of very similiar property type, number of bdrms/ ba and number of sq ft of living space (a high 65% or 70% of the ARV minus rehab costs) to get the MAO. That's the maximum allowed offer on the subject property when its all said and done giving you room to profit nicely....
Kudos,
Mary
http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/100531-yellow-letter-issues?page=1
Here is something from: @Derek W
"Hi, this is Derek"
"Uh, yea, I just got this post card in the mail..."
(Interrupting I say...)
"Oh, you're the one! Haha. Thank you for calling. Let me explain really quick why I sent you a post card. I am a local land lord and I am looking to buy another house. I drove around to my favorite areas and wrote down addresses of two types of houses; ones that I wish I could own, and ones that need me. So you either have a pretty house that I would be proud to be the owner of, or a house that's needs lots of work that I feel may need me. I then searched the public records at the tax assesses office to see who owns the house. Then I sent you a post card. Let me ask you, is your house one of the pretty ones I wrote down, or one that needs my love?"
Then I shut up and listen.
You can basically use the parts applicable to get the address out of them
What I would do is to get and keep a laptop in the car ready to go. I would install it on a mount like the police use. Then while you are saying some preliminary stuff to the caller on the phone (hopefully on a blue tooth <g>) - you can be pulling the car over and pulling the property up on the screen. I have all Macs now but there must be some kind of PC application which will also sync a laptop with your office computer - so when you grab it to leave the data is always all the same.