Owner not providing asking price??

Question

We currently use virtual assistants to screen calls from our marketing. Huge time saver for those that haven't done it yet! These leads are a combination of probate, driving for dollars, absentee, etc. The VA's seem to do a good job getting mortgage info, PITI, current rent, repairs, reason for moving, but they normally fail to get an asking price from the seller.

Does anybody have any creative ways to get an asking price from these leads? I don't remember having this problem when I used to screen the calls myself but I can't seem to put in a script a place that works for other people.

Thanks

Michael Grant · Answer

@Rick Harmon . It's a scripting problem.

I'm not going to do your homework for you, or provide for free on a public forum, no less, however you are pretty close.

Take my comments seriously and not as critism.....

Lol however, no help at all what is the point of posting anything on a free forum if you're not going to provide any help.

@Davey Wilde starting off saying hey I think I got a scripting problem.  Hey Davey I would think your problem lies in the due diligence. From what I see most people dont know what their house is worth like they dont know what their car is worth or the price of tea in China so someone still has to call to find out how much this stuff is.  This does make since though

"you re-engineer your sales conversion process, you'll probably discover that your VA's questioning has failed to introduce trust and comfort (aka rappoire) into the conversation.

Hmmm.... Iffe

I suggest designing a system that allows for making proposals that do not require the seller to provide a figure. Just don't make their stating a number a criteria for making an offer."

So take it as the VA gets the vital stuff out the way and pretty much should be motivating you to go back to a seller and propose your own numbers to a seller for the simple reason it lets you kno that your number is solid and gives you legs to stand on because you can do what your VA can not.  Which yes is due diligence go look at the property work on good comps build rappoire and importantly recall and negotiate especially since most of the time you are not going to have your VA do this questioning for you.  What if they offer to much what if there is more dam then is disclosed its just a lot of room for error and the VA in most instances isnt going to put the property under contract you are... So here you go the creative way is to get on the phone and get to negotiating.  Good luck to you and good job reaching out so you can keep crushing it.

Thanks,

Mike

Jim Hopsin · Answer

my favorite part about posting on forums is telling people that i am not going to provide any information to help.  instead, go to my website and pay me $400 for 27 whole minutes!

therefore, build a better script.  Rick H.   i did a good job, right ?

Rick H. · Answer

You have much to learn. If you think $1,000+ / hour is a good use of my time then you are indeed, very naive. You gave no idea how many people want free advise, waste the time if others, then never follow thru and  implement.

Much better chance of people utilizing something they had to exchange for value, especially money. I never expected a single individual to use the service so I've been pretty surprised at the response. I would expect that you not a can prospectfor anything ins costing money.

Brian G. · Answer

@Davey Wilde you are in the right path... Better yet, have 3-4 scripts for both types of sellers you described. Sometimes the "circle-talk" could lead to an almost silent conversation (how uncomfortable for a seller). I usually have several topics or questions in front of me to support and validate my "But Mr. Seller don't you agree that nobody knows your property better than yourself. It will be unreasonable for me to define the value of your property. I can really throw some ridiculous numbers but honestly I do not want you to hang-up on me".

Now regarding VAs... Maybe you can start screening how they handle the calls. A possible solution here is to record yourself on the phone and then listen how this compares to your VAs calls (ability to float from conversation a-to-b-to-c). I would also call my own VA and ask to "role-play" with me. You can play "difficult-grumpy" on the phone and note/recognize their abilities of attempting to obtain a "number" from you. Keep all recordings, compare, measure and improve. Perhaps you can even incorporate this into your VA in-house training program. Just an idea.

Davey Wilde · Answer

Thanks for all the responses! We've been receiving too many calls to handle on our own so using a VA was the most logical and cheapest option. The big downside appears to be the lack of rapport/knowledge when screening these calls. I guess time will tell. It's now apparent I have overlooked the fact that many of these home sellers don't actually know what their house is worth. I think I'll make two separate scripts for handling this objection. One for the sellers that don't know how much their house is worth and another for the "..you called me, make me an offer" seller. I'll keep you updated if I find anything that works.

@Bryan - Good point. Sellers that don't give much information over the phone haven't actually turned into hot leads for us. Our VA won't have any idea about the price of the home but maybe it's worth looking into using a different service because I like the idea of testing the water with houses that have sold to help get them to a price. Thanks for the input.

@Alisa Q - I love the concept. Its true.. we do only have so much money available and can only help people that fit our model. I will definitely put this into our script to see what type of results we get.

@Rick - I was hoping to use this forum as a platform to bounce ideas off other investors. I can appreciate you not wanting to share any information.

@Michael - Great points. The asking price will become apparent when I get on the phone to negotiate our offer. It sure would make it easier to pick the "hottest leads" to follow up with first if I had an asking price but maybe that's a question for me to ask when I know the market for their house.

Rick H. · Answer

It's a scripting problem.

I'm not going to do your homework for you, or provide for free on a public forum, no less, however you are pretty close.

We've gone to exhaustive effort to write and re-write scripts, have outside experts review for the "head trip" stuff and continue to tweak. Also, I insist on using professional inbound telemarketers, not VA's.

There ought to be a flow to your intake so that the callers does not feel they're being interrogated.

Many sellers don't want to put a price out for fear they will accidentally state a number lower than a buyer would have offered.

If you are stuck on a particular step (this IS a process, of course) you have probably not fully completed the prior step in the process. Never fails to reveal more of what I missed.

If you re-engineer your sales conversion process, you'll probably discover that your VA's questioning has failed to introduce trust and comfort (aka rappoire) into the conversation.

I suggest designing a system that allows for making proposals that do not require the seller to provide a figure. Just don't make their stating a number a criteria for making an offer.

If you take my comments seriously and not as criticism, you may discover other holes in your conversion, too.

Alisa O. · Answer

Hi Davey,

When the virtual assistants ask the owners what the asking price of the house, do the owners refuse to name the price or they don't know?

If the owners refuse to name the price, your assistant can tell them that, "you are an investor and in the business of Buying properties, not providing free estimates. Because you work with many sellers, you allocate funds to the most motivated and to people who need to sell right away. Based on the price the seller names on the phone you can quickly determine whether you can help them or not. What is the lowest amount of money they would accept for the house without having to do any repairs and not dealing with buyer qualification and inspection and a whole bunch of things that decrease value and prevent closing?"

If they still don't name the price, move on. They are not motivated. Next! But keep sending the direct mail until you learn that they sold the property, lost the property, don't qualify or got their senses together and became motivated.

I would actually ask the price first, before I ask about the mortgage, PITI, rent, repairs and etc. My first question would be why do they want to sell and how I can help them. The goal is to quickly build rapport and find out whether they are motivated and you can do something to fix their situation. Who cares what the PITI is if they are not motivated and would not sell?

If they don't know, I would ask them to visit open houses in the area and then call you. If they can not do that, have your assistant ask them whether they would sell for the balance of outstanding mortgage. If there is no mortgage, your assistant can ask them how much do they need for whatever the reason they are selling. By this time the rapport already should be built. You would need to figure out if there is potential and enough spread to spin your wheels based on the prices in the area. If there is, I would quickly call them back and schedule appointment.

I hope this helps.

Alisa

Brian G. · Answer

@Davey Wilde are the reasons for moving strong enough? If so, do they understand whats going on in ther market? After building rapport I try to go over recently sold around their inmediate vecinity and verify if they agree that their property is somewhere around those numbers. I never say the first number. If they refuse to give a number "sometimes" I input them into a call campaing of 7,15,30,60 days. By the 3-4 call some have warmed up to a number (its imperative to capitalize on prior notes in order to increase rapport). Then we go over repairs, etc. If there is no motivation from the start I still keep em in my distribution list but I must move on to the next call!

Owner not providing asking price??

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