How To Best Talk To Vendors As A Property Sourcer
A property sourcer has many tasks but none as important as getting the vendor contact right and getting properties to sell to your investors.
1. Always be on the lookout for properties – this is the lifeblood of your business.
Find properties through estate agents, owner listed properties eg. Gumtree, vacant properties, referrals.
2. Market to local area that you buy properties.
This is the outbound marketing that brings vendors to you. This can be leaflets, posters in shops, Facebook page, Google and Facebook adverts or the local community magazine. Anything that gets your name out.
3. Take phone calls/texts (or don’t)
This is when you start getting vendors contacting you. This is when it gets real! You can either take the initial call yourself or have a company do this for about £1 per call. You only need to get the main points, name, address etc
4. Check properties before calling vendor.
Now it’s time to go away and check out the property, the area and comparable prices. Get as much information as possible.
5. Call vendor and have chat working out what they ’need’ – arrange appointment to view.
The more touch points you can get, the better your conversion. Making a call to ‘I forgot to ask’ or ‘if you could tell me’ and then call them back again to make an appointment (see the number of touch points)
6. Go see property and spend time talking and building relationship.
When you see the vendor make the appointment at 20 past the hour, then it’s expected to be a 10-minute appointment. But I always allow 1.5 hours to sit down talk about them, then see the property and then finally discuss why they are moving and about yourself. Although I will not tell them to be there for that long I will say ‘I don’t want to intrude, I will be only as long as I need to be’
7. Go away and work out value and what to offer.
When you leave, tell the vendor you need to work out the numbers and what you can pay. It’s all very well having comparables from SOLD properties (not advertised properties on Zoopla) but now you know the condition of the property to make an informed decision. Don’t be forced to make the offer in the property.
8. Call vendor and arrange another meeting.
Call the vendor and make an appointment to view again. Go and see vendor and tell them your offer and back it up with figures (multiply touch points with vendor, even down to calling vendor before leaving your house, Next day to thank them etc)
9. Offer accepted – arrange solicitors (Offer not accepted go to point 13)
Now is the time to keep you deal alive, as a slow purchase can leave the door open to another buyer!
10. Find a buyer
Pass details to your list of WAITING buyers to get the right buyer to take the deal.
11. Push sale through
The squeaky wheel gets the oil, well a consistent and regular timetable to contact estate agents is a must – no less than weekly (daily is too much, of course). If there are missing documents, then make sure the seller knows and even go to the property to help them fill in the documents.
12. Get paid
The buyer will pay your fee, we take half up front and the rest on completion.
13. Offer not accepted – keep them in a file
I work on a 60% acceptance rate for direct to vendor sales, this leaves 4 out of every 10 properties that do not accept my offer. The thing is, I see it not as a ‘No’ but a ‘Not yet’, in 2 months or 6 months or a bad, cold and dark winter then their priorities change. But people have a short memory and you need to remind them that you are still around and that you would buy the property.
14. Call/text/email each month until they tell you to F’Off or the sales completes (not just a sale ‘agreed’ as 1/3 fall-through)
When someone tells you they have sold their property, they don’t really mean they have sold it. They mean they have agreed a sale and then the work starts and 1 out of every 10 sales falls through, maybe they are in a chain and their dream house is on the line. Who can help them? You can swoop in save the day.
15. Go back to start!
Now you have either sold a to an investor, it’s time to do it all again.
