What If A Home Seller Goes Dark On You?
There are a lot of reasons why home sellers may go dark on you, but the two main reasons are they get preoccupied with something or they lose interest. After they’ve gone dark, it’s really important to be able to get their attention again. Following up with them with phone calls, text message blast, and emails is important, but if a home seller has gone dark on you they aren’t responding no matter what you send or how many times you send it. Below is one simple message that you can send to get home sellers who have gone dark to reply to (we’ve had some good success with it): “Hey John Doe, I need to get the check to you…give me a call”. You’d be surprised how easily this simple message will get the home seller engaged again! They will usually reply with something like, “What check?” “The check for buying your house!”, you reply. The good thing about using this simple message is that it’s entirely true. You are trying to give them a check for buying their house. (Of course, in order to be able to leave a home owner this type of message, you need to rei skip trace the home owner first). Money talks, so when you make it clear you have a check you’re trying to get to the home seller you’re sending the message that you have the ability to put money in their pockets and mean business.
Powerful Tip On Following Up With Elusive Home sellers
What do you do if a home seller ignores your direct mail and won’t answer the phone when you call? Better yet…let’s say you knock on the door and they still won’t answer you, but you’re almost sure they are living at the property… If you’ve done everything you can do to contact home seller and they haven’t responded, make sure you send them a contract. A lot of your competitors are mailing the same properties that you’re mailing, but not all of them will take the extra step of sending the home seller a contract after they’ve mailed and called. If the property you are trying to acquire is a really sweet deal and you still don’t get a response after you send the home seller a contract, then send them another contract as a follow up. We have gotten deals when the home seller ignored all of our marketing materials, phone calls, and they pretended not to be at the property when we dropped by to talk to them about making an offer, BUT they didn’t ignore the contract we sent them and that is what led to us getting the deal! So, if you did your due diligence and rei skip trace the homeowner and still were unable to contact them, make sure you follow up by sending contracts. In our competitive market every little extra bit of work you do can go a long way. Taking the extra step of sending the homeowner a contract can make the difference between getting a good deal and not getting a good deal.
What If The Homeowner or Heir Is Incarcerated?
Every once in awhile you’ll come across a property where the owner (or heir) is doing time in prison. You can still buy the property, but there are a few extra hoops you’ll need to jump through in order to get the deal done. Find out where they are incarcerated The first thing you’ll need to do is find out what prison the owner or property heir is doing time at. You can find out what prison they are at by looking at your state’s department of correction criminal justice website. On this website you’ll be able to get their DOC (department of corrections) number along with the address of that prison. Contact them and make an offer You won’t be able to initially drive down to the prison to visit them because in order to visit an inmate or correspond with them on the phone you need to get put on their visitation and or phone call list. You will need to either send them a letter or an email through JPAY (click here to learn about JPAY) that has your contact information, so they can reply to you, telling them you are interested in a house they own. Make them an offer on their property, and make it clear that you can put some money on their books if they agree to sell. Follow-up with them You may need to have several conversations with them so that you can explain all of the details that will be involved with buying their property, so be prepared to either talk to them over the phone or visit them in prison. If you decide to talk to them over the phone, then you will need to accept their collect calls when they call you. Whether you visit them in prison or talk to them over the phone, you can overcome any objections or concerns they may have about selling and get them to accept your offer. After they verbally accept your offer, the next thing you will need to do is send them a contract in the mail which they can sign and send back to you. These are some general guidelines to follow when you’re trying to buy a property from an incarcerated homeowner. Learn more through our coaching calls Acquiring a property from someone who is in prison is uncharted territory for many investors we speak with during our weekly coaching calls. If you’re interested in learning more about how to cash in on properties that are owned by people who are incarcerated, you can find out more during our weekly coaching calls by becoming a client and using us as your data provider. Click here to view or plans and pricing. We offer weekly coaching at no additional cost to all of our clients that enables you to ask questions, listen to success stories, and learn about the intricacies that are involved with closing complicated deals, such as when the homeowner of a property you want to buy is incarcerated.
