The real estate business essentially revolves around one thing: closing deals. After all, that’s where the money comes from. You can spend days thinking about a niche to work on or how to analyze a deal, but at the end of the day it is about making offers and closing deals. Many investors get caught up on where to find deals and how to work them. Fortunately, there are many different ways to generate leads. Everything from Craigslist, the MLS, direct mail and networking meetings can get your phone to ring. It is what you do at that point that really matters. If you are in a rut and looking to generate business, look no further.
Everything starts by taking action. While it is true that some things you do indirectly generate leads, you need to work on making offers and closing deals. If you are not careful, you can spend a whole day planning and analyzing instead of doing things to move your business forward. There are very few deals that would be considered a slam dunk, if any at all. Almost all will carry at least some degree of risk. If you wait to find an easy deal, you may be waiting a very long time. The alternative is making firm decisions, and moving forward confidently. Call the Realtor and ask what the story is with a property you saw. Contact the homeowner and find out where the bottom line is. You can’t wait around for deals to fall into your lap. You need to put yourself out there and take action. Regardless of the market, there are numerous deals to be had. You just need to be willing to take them, and be equipped to handle them.
One of the ways to find deals is by solving other people’s problems. Too many times we look at deals from a buyer’s perspective. We think about how much profit we can make and what is in it for us. Instead, think about them from a seller’s point of few. Everyone selling a property has a problem they need to solve. A distressed seller may be looking to avoid foreclosure or short sale. A homeowner may be recently widowed or took the property over through inheritance. In the initial conversations, you need to find out the seller motivation and what problem they may be having. Making small concessions to the contract, closing date or purchase price may help you get more deals done. This all starts with finding out what the problem is and being willing to solve it.
Finding more deals is all about consistency. The real estate business can be very streaky if you do not stick with it. You may be working on a half dozen new deals today, but unless you keep the momentum going your pipeline will quickly dry up. Regardless of what you are working on, you need to constantly look for new deals. If you are working on a direct mail campaign, you can’t give up on it after just a few weeks. If you are having success with contacting for sale by owners, you need to stick with it. Every week you should do something that generates leads. From there, you need to take it a step further and turn those leads into deals. Give yourself sixty days when trying a new lead source idea. You may struggle for the first couple of weeks, but you could start to see results if you stick with it.
The real estate business is a numbers game. Working on more leads gives you a better chance at success, but it doesn’t guarantee it. You need to treat every lead individually. It is not enough to simply make an offer and hope it gets accepted. To close more deals, you need to make smart offers. You will also want to learn how to negotiate a deal that works in everyone’s favor. Very few deals are accepted on their initial offer. Sometimes you may even get a cold rejection without any explanation. This doesn’t mean you should just give up and walk away. A majority of deals are gained or lost strictly on how you follow up. Reach out to the seller a few days after the offer and see what is going on. If they don’t reach back to you, follow up again in a few days. Things can often change with a seller over a few days. Do everything you can to convert the lead into a real deal.
There isn’t much that separates you from the other investors in your area. You need to find the little things that will give you the advantage over your competition. Sticking with your lead generation ideas and following up is a good start. There will be times when you get frustrated and annoyed, but you need to fight through them. Develop a lead generation system, and continue them every day.
Closing a deal can be, in some ways, very addicting. It is something you will want to experience over and over again, and it is there for the taking. Successful real estate investors not only find deals, but constantly work on getting them closed.
