Identifying Motivated Sellers

This is episode number 2229. Jill and I are here to talk about how to find sellers who need to sell their land regardless of price.

I have two points.

Isn’t that why we’re here?

Yes, that’s it.

Can you find a seller of land who wants to sell their property for a retail price?

That’s easy. That’s everyone.

That’s everybody, except for a couple of people who live there.

They don’t want to sell at all, or they have a make-me-move number. Those are my favorites. It’s not even retail. It’s double retail.

We’re in the business of buying real estate inexpensively or as inexpensively as possible and selling it for more. If you’re a part of Land Academy, you already know this. The target is 20% to 25% of retail. What’s the trick to find these people who are willing to say, “I just don’t want it anymore?”

I have two things.

Jill and I are talking about, “What does your seller need?” It’s “What does your seller need?” week. After all, we’re here to serve these sellers during the transaction to get them what they need at a price that we want, so we can take over the asset for consideration and resell it for more. This is a much more sensitive topic. I wrote all of these topics myself. They came about because Jill did an advanced training session. She talked about her role in all this as a person on the phone creating the real estate deal from which there was no real estate deal prior to that phone call. All kinds of things came out. It dawned on me that there’s a lot of back and forth on this topic.

We’re going to try to make it simple. I’m going to. Your seller needs some stuff. He might need a retail price, then you don’t care. Your seller might need to make sure that if you’re buying a house, the basement gets cleaned out. We can help with that. Your seller might be dead. We can solve that, and on and on. We already talked about the title. Next is what a successful land investment month looks like. I’m going to walk through a regular month. It’s honestly not what you think. It’s not making $1 million that month. That will come.

Next is why need drives real estate decisions, not want, and why it’s so predictable. Next, we’re going to interview a longtime Land Academy member, Michelle Bridger. She’s always a pleasure to interview and to be around. Finally, it’s about how not to shame yourself for underperformance in your business. That came up in Jill’s little session, too. We’ll talk about that.

Did I cover that and I forgot, or is that something you quietly wrote down?

There are people who just kick themselves if they’re not on budget.

I don’t think I have that problem.

It’s not you.

I’m going, “What am I doing wrong?”

In our fifteen years together, I’ve never seen you shame yourself about anything.

I don’t think so.

Each day on the show, we answer a question from our Land Academy member Discord forum. We take a deep dive into land-related topics by popular request.

Josh wrote, “Quick question about hight calls, as Jack has coined them. PATLive took a call from a seller who was insulted by the offer and asked to be removed from my list. The caller used an anonymous number, so I can’t call back anyway. I’m curious if it’s recommended to still call these sellers back, assuming you do have a callback number, and try to put a deal together. Is it best just to respect the request to be removed and leave them alone? Thanks in advance.” I might listen to it and then decide. If I have missed calls, first of all, I call them all back. That’s rule number one.

Rule number two, and you have these recorded through PATLive, which is nice, Josh. I might listen to them and get a gauge for it. If the person’s like, “I’m going to die here. It’s been in my family for four generations. It’ll be in my family for four more,” then I don’t need to call that person back. They’re like, “If you think your number makes sense to me to sell this property, you’re smoking something. Lose my number.” If you don’t have enough deal flow going on right now, I might call them back.

It’s cool because when you call them back the next day, they’ve forgotten all about you. You might be calling from a different number. Either way, they don’t remember the number. You can catch it like, “Just so you know, I got your message the other day. I’m taking you off my list, but I just wanted to confirm, is it only because of the price?” See what they say.

I’m going to disagree with Jill, but I’m going to explain it in the topic. I preface all this week. I’m going to say it 100 times. Jill is amazing. Her superpower is pulling real estate deals out of thin air when talking to people on the phone. She goes at it like this. “The more contact that I have with these people from a verbal standpoint on the phone, the greater chances that I have to create a real estate deal.” This is professional sales. That is her focus. I learned this while listening in and eventually participating in advanced training about this topic. Most people are not like that. I include myself in that group.

You know what it is, Jack? I go into every phone conversation with this in mind with these sellers. If there is any real estate deal to be done with this person, I will smoke out the details. I decide if I want to do it or not. That’s all I do.

If there's any real estate deal to be made with a seller, uncover the details then decide whether you want to move forward or not. Share on X

That’s what makes you a superhero at this.

If there’s any deal to be had, I’ll figure it out.

We’ll talk about this in a second. This episode’s topic is how to find land sellers who need to sell their land regardless of price. This is exactly what Josh was saying. My take on it is that your job is this. Just like we teach, in my part of the business, find a great location to sell property. Buy and sell land and houses. They may or may not be in the same location. The process is the same. Get priced offers out to these people who are logical sellers. You’re going to generate a response.

In ten years of doing Land Academy, I have not solidified it or quantified it like this. Your job is to separate, quite simply, the people who respond to you who are interested in selling their real estate for personal reasons. They’re not interested in debating. Everyone is interested in calling back and debating the price, except a few people. Those accepted few people are the ones that you need to focus on and try to buy their land. Jill wouldn’t agree with that because she’s a pro at this. Not everybody out of the box is a professional salesperson who generates relationships and then steers them toward helping them, whatever they need. That’s what Jill has been doing since she was out of high school.

The whole point, and then I’m going to talk about my two items here, is trying to figure out if there is a deal to be had. That’s it. Do they need the money? If they do, I’ll uncover what it is. If we can agree upon the price, we’ll move forward. I said this in my training. I’m not here talking about anything. I’m just trying to get to the bottom of it. If they do want to sell, I’ll uncover whatever is going on.

The Power Of A Wide Net & Early Screening

Maybe I can solve it. Maybe I can’t. That’s it. My two things are this. I thought about the topic and how to find these land sellers who need to sell, regardless of the price. It’s two things that you have to do. One is what Jack is great at. He casts a wide net. You have to do that. I don’t need to go into great detail because if you’ve been tuning in to this for a while, you know what that is.

It’s a letter campaign.

It has to be a wide net and price-right.

It is tens of thousands of offers.

It pulls the right people. The mail does its work. You have to cast a really wide net and let the mail do its work. Number two, you have to do very early first contact screening of these people. Get it right out of the way.

We’re saying the same thing.

The wide net goes out. Everybody self-selects if this applies to them. They pick up the phone. They call. I answer. My job is to quickly, efficiently uncover if there’s a deal there, and if it’s my kind of deal. It’s two parts, not just, “Yes, I want to sell. Make me move.” I’m not doing that. “For this price, it’s yours.” That’s the wrong person.

If there’s anything else going on, my job is to quickly, right out of the gate, go, “What’s going on? Why are you calling me now? Tell me about the property.” “Jill, here’s the situation. My husband just passed. I didn’t even know we had this fill-in-the-blank thing. I lost my job. This goes on. My car blew up. I don’t know.” Maybe part of it’s for me, too, because I try to soften and befriend them in the conversation quickly so they feel comfortable talking to me. That’s a lucky thing. I’m not perfect.

You’re a natural at that.

 Thank you. I’m lucky that I can uncover that stuff. They can say, “All right.” They’ll tell me things they would be embarrassed to tell people. I’m a little shocked sometimes at the things that they tell me. That’s my job. I want them to feel comfortable. I want them to trust me. That’s part of transparency. There’s a lot that goes into it, like transparency, my tone, my demeanor, and how I try to be comforting and just listen. They’ll say, “Here’s what’s going on. This letter couldn’t have come at a better time. Here’s why.” Now, we’re all on the same team. That’s my mentality, too. I’m going to give you money to help you get out of whatever jam you’re in. I’m going to get your property. It’s all going to work out great for everybody.

I don’t agree. I didn’t know that I didn’t agree with you until the advanced training. Here’s the undertone and what happened with the advanced training. I’m going to preface this by saying that without Jill, I certainly would not be anywhere near where we are financially. She completed this entire business model. It’s one of the key reasons that Land Academy works. I’m not advocating that you change a thing.

Don’t worry. I can’t.

Sales Approach: Natural Talent Vs. Strategic Separation

What I’m saying is this. There are a lot of people who are tuning in to this who may or may not be in the Land Academy. This came out in this advanced training. They’re under their breath or in the back of their mind, saying either “I want to learn how to be like Jill,” which will never happen, I can tell you right now, or “I want to stop.” I know this because everybody is asking for all these recorded calls. Everyone wants a recorded call with Jill. I don’t want you to do that anymore.

Learning sales or having sales in your soul is either in there or it’s not. I don’t have it. I can do it, and with a reasonable amount of success. I did it for decades before Jill and I joined forces professionally. What I want you to say is this. My job is to very nicely and simply separate the people who respond to my mailer and melt down a 10,000-unit mailer to 8 or 10 people who don’t care about the price of the property that they’re about to sell you.

Learning sales or having it in your soul is something you either have or you don’t. Share on X

We do agree.

Jill, I have to tell you. The whole message that we’ve been sending in Land Academy for a lot of years, and I’m not saying it’s incorrect, is to be like Jill, have a magic wand, and relate to everybody. The message we’ve been sending is that if they call you back, even if they’re angry, there’s a real estate deal there. What ends up happening is if you don’t have raw talent, because I don’t have anywhere approach to your raw talent at that, then you feel bad that you didn’t create a bunch of real estate deals out of a 10,000-unit mailer.

Here’s where I disagree. It is my turn to say, “Hold on.” That’s just how I do it. Your way is going to be different, but the goal is the same. Quickly, efficiently uncover if they’re a viable seller, however it works for you.

Do you want to sell it or not? I’ve done that. That works. It doesn’t work with a 92-year-old woman. This is where Jill shines because she’ll read where they’re coming from. If I get 100 phone calls back on a 10,000-unit mailer and theoretically say, “Do you want to sell the property for the price that I sent it or not?” There’s a predictable percentage of people who are going to say, “Fine. What do I have to do?” That’s not Jill’s approach.

Her way is going to get a much higher mailer yield and a higher percentage. I’m not advocating that you use my approach. That’s an extreme approach that I don’t think will be effective for all. I’m not advocating Jill’s approach, which is extremely effective for people who are lifelong salespeople. Those are two ends of the bell curve. Where you want to be is in the middle somewhere.

Figure out what works for you.

Like what Jill said, read the room, read the phone call, find out where the seller is coming from, and quickly assess if they want to sell for your price. Join us in the next episode where Jill and I talk about what a successful land investment month looks like. You are not alone in your real estate ambition. We’re Jack and Jill, information and inspiration to buy undervalued property.