Screening Sellers Over The Phone

[Jordan Solomon]

One thing I'm somewhat unclear on, even after all the books/courses on wholesaling I've read, is how to properly screen sellers over the phone. All of these courses give you scripts to follow and tell you what questions to ask, but don't really tell you how to analyze the results.

My question is, what information do I REALLY have to know in order to answer the question "could it be a deal?" I know there are no guarantees if I get to the visiting-the-house stage, and that taking the time to visit houses that don't turn into deals is an inevitable part of wholesaling, but I'd like to minimize that as much as possible and avoid visiting houses that have virtually no chance of becoming a deal. Otherwise stated, what information does one need in order to weed out the so-called "tire kickers" -- sellers who are unlikely to sell at the kind of discount needed to make a deal possible?

Thanks!