Negotiating With A Mobile Home Seller Over The Phone: Tips For Building Rapport

Talking to sellers over the phone seems to be a difficulty for a lot our new students. For some reason there’s some type of fear there because they’ve never done that type of thing before.

A big mistake with talking to sellers over the phone is sounding unconfident. You really want to sound as confident as possible when you’re dealing with sellers over the phone because that’s an easy way to drop the ball and lose the deal.

So we took a trip down to Las Vegas, Nevada, where we met Elijah Rubin and Jennifer Cornado at the MGM Grand. They are amazing real estate entrepreneurs.

They’ve done over 750 flips in properties and wholesaling. They are a dynamic duo. Jennifer is behind the scenes doing the systems and building the business, while Elijah interacts with the buyers and sellers.

In this blog they’re going to give you some of their best negotiation tips when dealing with buyers or sellers over the phone.

Tip #1 Mirror and Matching

It’s not about what you want. It’s not about the ego. You’ve got to meet the seller where they are and try to build as much report as possible. We want to create friendships first and we can lead with education.

One of the ways to Elijah likes to do that is by mirroring and matching the energy of the person over the phone.

“So when you have somebody on the phone, you want to mirror them. Kind of like, are they from down south? Are they a fast talker or a slow talker? And we want to match the energy.”

“Mirror and match them because people like people who remind them of themselves. The more you’re like them the more receptive they are to listen to whatever you’re saying on the phone?”

“Pro tip for you guys. One thing I really like to do feels funny at first. But this is one way to build instant rapport and see if they’re open to talking more. Or if they are the type that’s dominant and needs to take control.

I say something like ‘Hey, how’s it going Samira? What did I catch you doing?’

If they respond and explain to you what you ‘caught them doing’, then that means they’re open to talking to you like their friend.”

“You can have other people that will talk about their dogs, their family, their work, or whatever you caught them doing. It will tell you a little bit more of their personality or whether they’re open to talking.”

“Some people are going to respond, ‘Oh, nothing, what’s going on?’ Those are people that are going to be more straight to the point. They’re not going to be open to having the extra conversations about themselves.

So you just want to get more to the point like ‘Oh no worries. It’s only going to take a couple minutes, and this is what we’re going to talk about.’ You want to be more straight to the point, if they’re more straight to the point.”

Tip #2 Poke the pain

Many times, when you’re talking to a seller, they are interested in selling the property but they’re also in the middle of indecision. So, what you want to do is to help them make that decision by asking what their the pain is.

And you want to make sure you get a couple of layers deep on that pain. So, ask multiple questions, be authentic and be curious about this human being’s life situation.

It’s not enough sometimes to just ask how much money they’d need in order to feel comfortable selling the home. Because there’s a lot of sellers out there that don’t want to say a number.

You need to have a conversation, and be curious, because otherwise you’re just going to get surface level answers like ‘I just wanted to get an offer.’ or ‘How much are you going to give me for it?’

“You have to ask multiple questions. Something like, ‘Outside of price what will make you want to sell the mobile home today?’”

“Or sometimes you have to do little lead-on questions. So what you can do is say something like ‘Why are you thinking of selling the mobile home? Are you tired of dealing with the neighbors over there? Haha!’

Doing that little ‘Haha!’ at the end can diffuse their defensiveness and they’ll open up like ‘No, no, no the neighbours are fine. It’s these other reasons.’ Reasons like ‘I’ve got these bills,’ ‘my wife is leaving’, or ‘I inherited this property.’

Whatever the reason, now you’ve diffused them. Now they’re going to talk about the real pain part. This is how you give them a reason to open up that dialogue with you.”

“And when they don’t want to give me a price or a number, one thing I like to do is I just try to go with the ridiculous.

They’ll say something like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know. You called me. I don’t know. You tell me what number.’

I’ll come back with, ‘Well how’s a million sound?’

They’ll reply, ‘You’re not going to give me a million now!’

That’s when I’ll tell them, ‘Of course, I’m not going to give you a million! That’d be ridiculous. And I don’t want to give you a dollar because that’s ridiculous too. So between a million and a dollar, where do you need to be? Off the record.’

Say that one too, ‘Off the record.’

I mean we’re still on the record, but you know it makes them feel comfortable so say something like ‘Off the record where do you need to be? Give me a ballpark range?’

Then another thing I like to do, and Jennifer is really good at this too, is I like to give them the ballpark range. So, if I wanted to quote them something like $40,000 to $60,000, instead of saying ‘Would that number work for you?’ I’d say, ‘Between $40,000 to $60,000, how does that make you feel?’

See that’s another thing when you’re getting to the pain. Sometimes it’s the number. Sometimes it’s the feeling that they don’t want to move out of the property.

So digging deep into the pain, once you understand what that is, you’re able to then use that pain to figure out how you can help them overcome that pain.

If it’s the money, how can we get you the money? If you need to relocate, how can we get you there as soon as possible? And making sure you’re asking these questions so that they understand what success looks like.

That’s so true. A lot of the time the sellers are either moving in with a friend, moving in with a family member or just getting a whole new apartment or house themselves.

So show them that you’re not against them. You’re bringing out the pain, but you’re there to bring them solutions that comfort them too.

Tip #3 Paint the perfect picture

Most people are pretty pessimistic. It’s just the reality. When you were a little kid you thought the world was going to be great. Then bills hit you, life hits you, and you’re always thinking of the worst thing that can happen.

So what you want to do is disconnect people from the issues around the property and get them to think about the future once all their problems have been solved. You want to use your dialogue with them to learn about their hopes and aspirations once the deal is closed.

“If you’re able to, disconnect them from the property and say something like, ‘Hey, once you sell the property, Tommy, what’s it going to look like with those headaches behind you?

You have your new property set up. You have money in your account. People aren’t calling you and you’re not dealing with the stress and agony. How’s it going to feel when all of this is behind you? Tell me what it looks like? Where are you guys going to go first? What are you going to spend the money on first?’”

“The idea is to start with the end in mind so before you’re even really getting down to the contract, to all the details, you’re already getting them to the finish line in their minds.”

“And so, this technique, Elijah, every time that he says that this technique, I already know it’s like 80% to the close. Like if you can get this point across it’s really helpful because now, they’ve already experienced success because he’s painted the picture.”

“So, you hit them with the pain. You learn that they need to sell the house for XYZ reason. You haven’t discussed price yet. And you still want to get to the price.

So you say, ‘Okay, Mr. Seller. All right. So assuming that we agree on price, assuming we agree on numbers, we meet and we sign contracts. Assume I communicate through the whole process and you’re completely comfortable with everything I say I’m going to do. Everything is done and the 30 to 40 grand is wired into your account.’

Notice I inserted my price range into their minds and got them connected to that number. Then I add, ‘When everything’s done there’s one thing I’m going to ask for. That’s the only non-negotiable item.’

I build a little bit of suspense, then I say ‘So what it’s going to be is I’m going to need a testimonial recommendation letter from you saying you were pleased with the results I’ve provided and that you will refer somebody to me in the future. Is that something you can do for me?’

If they say ‘No’, then it’s clear they don’t want to do business with you already. If they say ‘Yes’, then they mentally agreed to do the business with you. And if they say, ‘Well if you do a bad job, you’re going to get a bad review right?’ then you can both laugh about it because they’ve still mentally agreed.

And that’s how you’re able to paint a picture before you’ve even discussed price.”

Where to learn more from Jennifer and Elijah

So hopefully you guys got all of that and you’ve taking notes.

If you want to learn more from Elijah and Jennifer you can check out their Facebook group called Consistently Closing.

Or you can text Elijah at 59224 and you’ll get a link sent right to you as well.

One last thing we want to leave you with is a book recommendation from Elijah and Jennifer which is Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind.

So check that out as well guys it’ll change your whole mindset around money and your mindset around sales.

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