Quote from @Kieron Osullivan:
Quote from @Jerryll Noorden:
Try to change the way you think/approach success.
Said it before, will say it again.
A lot of people do this:
Hey… I have 3 wives, 4 girlfriends on the side, 5 dogs, 6 jobs, I can only devote $200 every 5 months, and I have only 2 hours/month available to work on my business… how do I become successful?
Instead, you need to realize that success (or the universe, for that matter) won’t bend backward for you.
Instead of asking how to become successful based on your limitations, you need to turn it around.
First, you need to determine what it takes to become successful!? Then, use what you have to get what it takes to become successful.
If success takes 12 hours a day, $3,000/month on marketing, a solid education, knowledge of marketing, and deal-making—then that is what it takes.
The reason most people struggle is exactly this.
Understand this.
You can’t target motivated sellers. It is absolutely impossible. The reason why? Because no one—and nothing—can predict when someone becomes motivated.
Circumstance (like foreclosure) does not imply motivation. Motivation is an emotional response to a circumstance, not the circumstance itself.
To fully grasp this, you need to understand what a motivated seller actually is.
Many people think a motivated seller is anyone who wants to, needs to, or HAS to sell their house.
That is wrong.
A motivated seller has only one characteristic:
Anyone willing to sell their house below market value. The reason why does not matter.
Take someone in foreclosure.
Do they have to sell? YES.
And if they don’t sell, aren’t they going to be in trouble? YES.
Are they willing to sell below market value? NO.
They’d rather burn the house to the ground out of pure spite than sell to you at market value—let alone at a discount.
Once you understand the basics, you’ll soon realize that the ways everyone tells you to get motivated seller leads are factually, universally wrong.
Not an opinion. Just pure facts.
You can’t target them. They target you.
"You can’t target motivated sellers. It is absolutely impossible. The reason why? Because no one—and nothing—can predict when someone becomes motivated."
I can: when a person is starving and hasn't eaten a meal in days they are motivated to find food themselves or buy it from someone else. If they dont, eventually they die.
If I want to sell food i would target starving people because they are motivated by the avoidance of starvation and death.
This is what motivated means according to the English language dictionary:
provide (someone) with a reason for doing something.
Someone whos home is being foreclosed, where they have defaulted and an auction/sale has been set is being given a reason to pay the debt back. If they cant pay off the debt there homes will be sold, they will lose all equity, tarnished credit history and be homeless.
A wholesaler can come in and potentially save credit history, setup a deal to keep them in there home and even structure a deal to get the homeowner some equity back.
The wholesaler/investor would never know this opportunity existed if they di not find a record/notice/document that indicated the home was being foreclosed on. The lead gave them the knowledge and motivation to potentially make a substantial profit and help the borrower.
This is why people buy leads and lists consisting of records showing people are in the process of losing there homes. The process motivates them to sell.
If they are not motivated to sell to a wholesaler for a lot cheaper because of the legal process they are in, what has made them sell it for less?
No, you can't.
I am going to take a lot of effort here and write something for you and everyone to finally change the way you think.
Pick 1000 people from your favorite Foreclosure list and ask them:
“Do you want to sell your house or would you rather keep it?”
1000 out of 1000 will say: “I rather keep it”.
Now take 1000 people from your favorite Tax Lien list and ask them the same question:
Do you want to sell your house or would you rather keep it?”
They’ll say: “I rather keep it”.
Ask anyone on any of your lists the exact same question and the answer will be the same. You are going after people who explicitly rather keep their house than sell it, to try to convince them to sell it. Really really REALLY Stupid, no?
This is equivalent to buying a list of vegans, to try sell them baby-cow burgers.
Now, Hold that thought…
I’m going to give you facts, not opinions. After reading this, do whatever you want with it—but don’t argue with me (please). It will fall on deaf ears. I really am not going to go back and forth on this.
Let’s start with actual numbers—YOUR OWN data.
If foreclosures were truly motivated, it wouldn’t take 5,000 mailers, calls, or texts to get a contract signed.
Your food analogy? You clearly don’t understand what a motivated seller is.
From your writing, it’s evident you believe a motivated seller is simply someone who wants to, needs to or has to sell their house (hence your foreclosure example).
The truth? A motivated seller is anyone willing to sell below market value, no matter what the reasons for selling are.
Let’s take your example—someone in foreclosure.
- Don’t they HAVE to sell? Yes.
- And if they don’t sell, aren’t bad things going to happen to them? Absolutely.
- Are they willing to sell below market value? Absolutely not. At least 3,000 to 5,000 to 1 says NO!
These people would rather rip out the cabinets, take the fridge—hell, even burn the house down out of spite than sell at market value, let alone at a discount.
Let me simplify it for you:
5,000 mailers for one closed deal = 0.02% success rate.
That means your failure rate is 99.98%.
So, can you really sit there and tell me you can target motivated sellers when it takes 5,000+ attempts to close one deal? (Rhetorical question—the answer is obviously no.)
Numbers don’t lie.
Your opinion doesn’t change mathematics. The numbers are what they are.
If you could target motivated sellers (which is different from finding them), your failure rate wouldn’t be 99.98%, right? Right!
Now if you are a good sport, let's talk about your clever reference to the definition of motivated “according to dictionary” and let me show you where you went wrong:
First:
Motivation is an internal state that drives people to take some of action or make a decision. Yes. So in your/this case, this would translate to, “Yes, they decided they want to sell their house.. They agree to sell their house”.
Sure, but you are missing the most important part. Coming to the decision to sell their house, is NOT the same as willingness to sell below market value. And there lies the grounds behind the fact that you can’t TARGET them. Remember, finding them, and targeting them are two completely different things.
Second:
Many people like you think that “circumstance” implies “motivation”. But that is wrong. Circumstance (like tax liens, foreclosure etc. etc.) does not in ANY way imply motivation. Motivation is an emotional response to a circumstance. Not the circumstance itself. So yes, although the sensible solution to a foreclosure is to sell fast for cash, the emotional response however is to find ways to keep their house not sell it.
I hope this makes you see the error in your ways.
I’ll repeat—I’m not here to debate this. Believe what you want. But this isn’t a contest of who’s right or wrong, who’s smart and who isn’t.
You can have that trophy—I truly don’t care.
My only intention was to correct a completely false narrative about lead generation, and instead, I’m met with pure and complete ignorance. But I won’t lose sleep over it.
Really, man… Keep sending mailers to the foreclosure list. I truly wish you the best of luck with that (not being sarcastic, I just truly don't care what you do with this knowledge... but I do hope you use it wisely).
