Non-Motivated Seller

[Tiese C.]

Good Afternoon,

I have received my first call from my first absentee owner DMM campaign.  However, the owner of this particular property owns it with her 2 siblings.  She said there is a tenant in the  home and just wants to see what they could possibly get if they were to sell. I asked her what does she think the home is worth, of course, her response was that she didn't know, but yet, she does know what the prices are for homes sold in the area.  I've explained to the homeowner that I would not be able to give her an exact offer since I'm not able to see the inside.  There are health issues with the tenant, right now, where it would not be a good time to get inside. 

I've told the seller that I would follow up with her this evening.  She lives in NC, one sibling in Richmond & I forgot where the other sibling lives.

How do I proceed with this?

 Any suggestions is totally appreciated.  Even if this doesn't turn out to a sale at this time, I am loving the process.

Thank you!  :-)

[Steven Leigh]

Don't make assumptions about motivation. You can not know for sure from one call whether they are actually motivated. 

I had a seller who said he absolutely wouldn't take less than basically market price and I should just take him off my mailing list, etc. About three weeks later we are under contract for about 50% of market value.

Sellers are very defensive in the first call, and they aren't going to give you the whole story right away. They could be way behind on taxes, need the money desperately, etc. and they won't show it because they are embarrassed or they are trying to be good negotiators.

So the way I would deal with it ask her if she's thought of listing it with a realtor? Has she thought of just holding onto it? She may start to give you some reasons why she doesn't want to do those. Those could be motivation clues.

Otherwise, you can just say call me if you get to the point where we can start looking at the property, and can I follow up with you in a few weeks?

She may need to come to terms with how much she actually needs to sell, and you might get a call within the next few days where she starts to tell you more of the real story.

In the meantime just move on to other leads and schedule a followup reminder.