Breaking the Ice with sellers

[Daniel Prieto]

Hello everyone,

I am a new wholesaler just beginning to get calls from sellers from my direct mail letters.  I got a call from an absentee owner yesterday about a property that he wanted to sell. I got his name, the property address, how long he has owned it, and that it's occupied with tenants. He seemed pretty defensive and just wanted to know how much I wanted to offer him. The call admittedly was a bit rushed.  A couple important questions I forgot to ask him were. Do you have a mortgage? The status of the title? Repairs needed? and why he wants to sell?

So after driving by and looking at the property, I called him back the next day to follow up and ask these other questions. At this point he just objected to answering any of these questions and basically insisted on an offer which I said I would not be able to give until I can at least get repair estimates.  He then said please do not contact me again.

My question is how do you address these kind of sellers? What is a good way to break the ice, and build rapport?