Mastering Acquisitions 101 - Training for Beginners | Wholesaling Real Estate

Do here is talk about Acquisitions. So, we're going to do Acquisitions. And honestly, this is like my favorite part of wholesaling. And this is where I'm, I'm just unique. I mean, everybody's got like the really cool thing about wholesaling is you can do it however you want, okay? The way I do it is just what works for me. And if it gravitates towards you, do it. It doesn't mean it's gospel. It's what you need to do. But I got 21 years behind me. And that's what you got to understand is my difference. I market like a madman. But when I find that kind of needle in the haystack, which is what we do, you got to find a way to take it home. There's nothing worse than finding the right motivated seller and not getting the deal done. It is a heartbreaker. I teach you guys all about detachment, but in the beginning, you're very attached to all your deals. So you have to figure out how to market a madman. And when you get the right person in front of you, it is not selling. It is literally guiding them, okay? You are not a slick car salesman. They don't want it. They want the complete opposite. I tried to be a slick car salesman. It's terrible. It doesn't work, okay? If I had a hundred sellers in front of me a day, I probably would do the slick car salesman. The reality is, you guys get one or two a week, and you got to make it count. Am I right? You got to make it count. When you're there, you put all that money, all that work, you go to events like this. When you have them there, you just kind of make it work. And all I do is, it's just like any other event you do in your life, a sporting event. Take baseball, for instance. You have to step up. You got to show up. And sometimes you're going to strike out. Sometimes you're going to hit a home run. You just can't get down with it. You got to engage. So the most important thing you can do is be yourself. If you don't understand that, you've got to walk out of here. Stop trying to be other people. Just be yourself. Every person is unique. God put us all on this Earth. Find out what your superpower is.

So we're going to go through it. So acquisitions, we're going to break down how to qualify a seller, how to get the signed contract, and how to get the lowest price in wholesaling real estate. Because the biggest mistake I see in beginners is you overpay for properties. Why? Because you got so excited, you got a lead, you wanted to get the yes as fast as possible. You get all excited, you jump on the live, and I'm happy for you. And then I tell you, I go, "Here's where the work's going to start." How many cash buyers would you call? I go, "I called two. I didn't get really good, good feedback." You overpaid for it. Next. And I just keep going down the line. 90% of the complaints when you guys have, I tell you, is you overpaid for the property. So pay attention to this part. I think it'll bring a lot of value to you. And you just got to understand how to connect when you get them. Because I promise you, once you find a motivated seller, you'll be like, "Oh my God." I remember the first time I showed Zach a motivated seller. He's like, "That was crazy." All the hard work goes in before. When you're there, you just, you just help them out. Think about when you go with your buddy to grab a drink or something like that. That's how you have to think. They don't want this formal, slick. I never wear anything like this when I go to a homeowner. Funny story is, I used to have, uh, I bought an old UPS truck and I wrapped it. "We Buy Cash Houses." Guy, one of the worst decisions I ever made, man. I lost more deals with that truck when I pulled up because it embarrassed him. The neighbors saw him. I'm like, and then I tried to park this thing. I got towed so many times. I think I paid five grand. I just gave up on it. It's a great idea. Plus, my daughter did not like me dropping her off at school in it.

So I'm the type of guy who pushed the volume on like absolutely everything. So we have to start. How do you become really good at anything you sell in life? You have to have a belief, okay? You guys know my Enterprise story. Will Ferrell. It's like my life mission there, okay? I thought Enterprise gave me the tools to be successful. They didn't. The tools are inside of me, okay? The funny thing is, you guys ever go to a car rental and they, they say, "You know, we're going to sell you this like insurance type of deal." It's ridiculous. I used to tell the company, "It's the most." I go, "The reason," and I was one of their top sales guys. I go, "This is the most ridiculous product." They have their own insurance. Like, "Why do we keep making people take stuff?" He goes, "Because we make money doing it." You can't just do stuff to make money because you're not going to get far in life. You got to help people out. If you don't believe in what you do, there's nothing I can say to help you out. If you don't think you're helping people, there's nothing I can do. So you have to start with a belief. The mental acceptance of a statement in which you hold true. But belief alone is not enough to make you a great salesperson. And I remember, I'm not here to tell you about sales, okay? Here's the difference. A great salesperson has conviction. And I found this out the hard way. Most of you having a belief in here, okay? A belief is just an idea in your head. It's not tested. It's not pushed. Everybody has thoughts, right? Millions of thoughts go through your head a day. Which ones do you act on? So you have to decide what your belief is. My belief was simple, okay? Once I found my belief, I got laughed at because I wrote it on my bathroom mirror. Don't do it in a Sharpie marker because it doesn't come off. Do it in an erasable dry marker because you got to look at yourself in the mirror every day. And if you look at it every day like, "Okay, now I know why I'm doing this. Now I know why I'm doing this." I wanted to escape the matrix. My, I hated my job. Was such 12 years I put up with the most torturous boss ever. I made him so much money, and it was just thankless. Every day, treated me like crap. Treating my employees like crap. I said, "I just didn't know any other." I was told to go to college, do this. The problem is, I didn't believe in anything I was selling. And that's why I knew I'd be good. And that's how I found wholesaling because I believed in it. So let me ask you, what is your belief statement? That's the hard part. What's your belief? I'm testing you now because you got to have a belief. Why are you doing it? For my family? Yep. It's for my family. For my mom. Okay, so you're going to sit down and work right now. You got to have a belief, and it's got to be very personal to your heart. There's no point in, like, we get one life. You got to go all in when you do it. And if your belief is like, if you say, "I'm just doing it for the money," leave now. It's not going to work because the money is going to be hard in the beginning. So if you're just here for the money, you don't get it like, right away, you're going to quit, okay? You got to have a belief. What's your belief? "I just want to be free and not a slave to somebody else." Okay? Because they control my time, just everything. So you just, you got to go deeper in your beliefs, though. So my belief is, I did not want to repeat the same mistakes my father didn't spend no time with my children. Listen, you blink when you have kids. You guys have young ones. Who's got young ones? They, they wind up 24-year-old kids quick, very fast. And the best way to raise your kids is to lead them. Show them. Stop telling them what to do. Show them what to do. We are a big society where we tell people what to do, and we do what another thing. Okay? I used to tell them what to do. Instead, I go, "Hey, let's just show them what to do." Okay? It's not easy. I'm not perfect. I'm not like this superstar father. I just, I decided to make a change in my 30s because everything before that, I was always the same loving husband, a good guy. I just, I wanted more. And I, I didn't see anybody in the corporate world really making it. And then when they want to ship me all over the country, I started to get my kids started in schools. It just, I couldn't make it work. So what I like you to do is, you got to write down your belief. And you got to just, if it doesn't stop or skip your heart a little bit, it's, you got to go deeper. Some of you guys just have general statements. Some people say, "I want to earn more money." If I give you a dollar, you're good, right? Because that's what you asked. The quality of the questions you ask in your life will dictate the outcome, period. And you have to constantly search. Remember I talked about busy yesterday? You people say busy. I hear the word busy is code for broke. When I hear it twice, I know you're really broke. We kept busy because we want to, like, that's a human thing. Let me keep busy because I don't know what to do with this nervous energy. So we do stuff that's easy. That's, um, subconscious. All the programming your parents did to you, your family, everything you do. Here's the really cool part. You have the choice to do whatever you want in life. Just because you grew up in a bad element, it doesn't matter. Like, let it go. Just move on, okay? So work on your belief. If you want to talk to me about, tell me what your belief is. And if you can't write it on your bathroom mirror, and your significant other doesn't believe it, you're going to have struggles, okay? And I was my. So my belief is, I wanted to spend more time with my kids. I wanted to go to all their activities. And the only way I was going to do it is so I can control my time. But I will tell you, controlling your time means you're going to work harder. Everyone thinks it's easier. You're going to work harder, but you got to be going somewhere. Nobody got anywhere by doing easy things. Everybody who's led a great business or anything like that has had massive struggles, but they endured it. And that, there's no difference in what you're doing, okay?

So here's the difference. Conviction. Have a belief. Make sure it's strong. Make sure you lock it in. It doesn't just have to be family. You can have financial goals. One of my biggest goals was, I told my wife when we made it, is when I pay off the mortgage. I wasn't aiming high enough. But like, you got to get somewhere first, okay? Little did I know, I could pay off the mortgage every month going forward from that. It took me a while to do it. I made a lot of mistakes along the way. But like, that was my goal. That's when I decided, "Hey, I'm going to make it." But it got me out of the hole. And that's what I fought for, okay? And they'll change as you move on. Conviction is that unwavering belief, okay?

So here's what's going to happen. You're going to go out, and people are going to go, "Hey, Clive, what do you do for a living?" "I'm a flipper." "A flip houses?" "Ah, you're you're one of those scammy guys, aren't you?" "Yeah, yeah. It's a bad." "Yeah, his market's pretty rough right now with interest rates, aren't they?" "Yep." "Yeah, terrible." So here's what happens. People are going to shoot holes in you. It's, it's the, everyone's coming at you with an arrow. It's like, you just, like, you just start to learn. Like, stop weaving, just take it. I go, "I don't care. I got enough here. I can take it all on." People are going to attack you. One of the hardest things you're going to have to get, the truth is, your family's first. It's crazy. I'm not talking about your immediate family. Usually, you're sticking with your kids. Like, "Hey, Dad, Dad can do anything." It's when you go to your siblings, your aunts, your uncles, your parents. My God, your parents are like, all they want to do is put their arms around you and keep you safe. And the reality to be successful in life, you actually have to do the opposite. As a parent, okay? I, so there's this, you know, people talk about, uh, if I make a ton of money, am I just going to give it to my kids? Listen, studies prove when you just give people stuff, there's no appreciation for it. It doesn't work. It's a problem. When you make kids work for it, it's different. I never bought my kids cars. I'm not going to say I'm not going to give, like, an inheritance. I'm going to build a legacy, and I want my kids to like, take it over. But that's a personal choice. I don't dictate that to anyone. But if you just give your kids stuff, they're going to be in your basement till they're 40, I'm telling you. It's like a new generation. You got to have hungry. I was fortunate enough. It's like, I want the hell out of my house as fast as possible. Sorry. I was just one of those guys. I wanted to be on my own. How I did it was a long journey. My conviction was, look at it as your suit of armor. Have your belief, your, right here in your heart. You got to protect a little bit because people are going to attack you. And if you revert back to your old self, you're going to go right back to what you did. It's so easy. The minute I remember when I was 18, I read my first Tony Robbins book. I was so excited. I go, "My God, you can live life." Like I was an 18-year-old kid. I was like, and I went out and tested it on my family. They just destroyed me. And I just kind of slumped down and go, "Yeah, I just got to be like everybody else." I didn't understand conviction. And if you don't have conviction, you're not going to survive in this business. Conviction. That's like, I don't care if I tell you, you got to get to the other side of that river. And you ask me, your conviction goes, "If I got to swim, I'm doing it." Like, if they take the bridge away, they do this. And I have some weird stuff like, because it happens all the time. You have to have conviction, or you're never going to make it. A belief is just a thought that you haven't proven the action on. Conviction is your vehicle. You're going through. So if you're going in a military battle, you want to go through the, the other line, you got to go through with a tank. That's your conviction. Does everybody understand what I mean by conviction? A lot of you have beliefs, and you just, like, you let other people, people that don't want the best for you, destroy you. And I hate it, okay? The reality is, 95% of this world's walking around just going through the motions every day. You've decided to do different. Don't let other people take you down. You have to have conviction. Your conviction is your your absolute commitment. I don't care what happens, I'm getting this done. And people have commitment, they, they get stuff done. Here's the secret in wholesaling. I'm going to show you every strategy. Mean, Zach's going to show you everything. At the end of the day, it's you. Do you have the capacity to do what you want to do? You can do anything you want in this business, okay?

So conviction. Here's what conviction will do, especially if you're inexperienced. It will make up for your deficiencies. It will kill your doubts. It's going to make up for your lack of experience. And most importantly, the bottom one, your old traits. It'll keep your old traits on your new path. Meaning, when you get, get wildly uncomfortable, and you start to get a little nervous about it, you want to just keep going back to your old self because why? It's so comfortable. It's like that warm bed you slide into. Let me ask you, when you guys wake up in the morning, who goes, "I am so excited to get out of this bed and get going"? The day. I'm like every other person. I don't want to get out of bed either. And you know, I go back. If you look at, um, if you look at the stoicism, people from 2,000 years ago had the same exact struggle we do. So you can learn so much about it. If, if you look at Marcus Aurelius, amazing man. If you study him, one of the most powerful men in the world struggled to get out of bed 2,000 years ago. Could get anything he wants in life, and still wasn't motivated to get out of bed. We have the exact same problem here. So you just got to get up and go, okay? But this conviction, this is what's going to stop. If you just have a belief, all these will destroy you, period. Because you don't know what you're doing. And like, it was amazing. A lot of times, the story when my son started wrestling, he wasn't that good when he started. I was, I was a much worse wrestler. But like, he started out in high school, and he was really committed to it. And if you guys ever know something like, you don't know what you're doing, you suck at it in the beginning. But like, he went out there, and the coach used to tell me, he goes, "Man, your son's attitude's amazing. He just goes out there and he gets his butt kicked." But then after a year, it like, it came around. It's the same thing, guys. If, if you don't have a good attitude when you go into it, you're going to get stuck. So conviction. The secret to wholesaling success. You must have a belief. Sellers will actually feel your conviction while confronting your own beliefs. Sellers will actually feel and connect with your convictions while confronting their own beliefs. Do you understand the statement? This is 20 years for me to figure this out. Sellers feel if you have conviction to help them or not. If you're just like, "Listen, I want to buy your house cash. What's the least amount you'll take for it?" Dude, get out. I don't, I don't need you. Sit down and talk to them. Pull up. Have a cup of coffee with them. Make it easy. They know your conviction because you're going to send out a vibration, and they're going to either accept it or reject it even before you open your mouth, okay? Like, one of the things I teach you when you show up at an appointment. Here's a tip. Get rid of your paperwork. You're scaring the hell out of them. Leave it in the car. Just go and talk to them. When you go see your friends, do you bring a big notebook? You ever met with a lawyer? It's horrifying. CPA? They bring these stacks of books. I'm like, "Oh my God, here it comes. I'm getting a root canal." Okay? Now, here's, here's the real challenge. The sellers' beliefs. They got a lot of problems. "Well, I'm not here to judge you. I'm here to solve them. Help you solve it." Okay? So they want to know conviction. You can replace that, and you can call it confidence. That's the difference, guys. You have to have it. I've been doing this 20 plus years. I'm telling you, the biggest struggle you guys have is in your head. It's not your market. It's not your competition. It's all in your head. And when you get arrows slung at you, it sucks. Corey, how many arrows did you have slung at you when you started in the first 90 days? You, you just like, it's so easy to quit this business. And I watch so many people quit. I'm like, "It's not the business. It's you. You just got to, you just got to show up." Okay?

So sellers' beliefs, and they got a lot of beliefs, okay? "I'm just here to support them." When I do it, okay? This statement rings truer than anything I've ever done in wholesaling. You have to care more about your sellers' interests than they do. I know it sounds weird. You're going to meet people in the most screwed-up situations. I don't judge anyone. I actually, I get so much value from dealing with sellers' everyday life problems. I am a psychologist. I'm a welfare worker. I deal with animal rescues. I've had more pit bulls left in my yards trying to figure out what to do with them. I had a lady with 46 cats. I've documented the story. I just tell her, "Love is her cats." So what do I do? I focus on cats. I'm not a cat person. I got a cat in my house. Can't stand it. But we do what we got to do for the kids, right? Her biggest thing was cats. When I met with her, I walked in, my eyes burned. The cats were, it was just, I got like, I walked out, and I said, "I don't even want to buy the house. I don't, I don't like you need help." That was my focus. I was like, "Let me just help you." Spent six months with her. Got her daughter involved. I said, "You need to come down and check Mom out." Like, I go, "I think she's dying from the cats." So she got like ammonia poisoning. She was losing her hair. They got her in, got her treatment. She goes, "Listen, we just need to sell the house. You're the only one that gave a crap about my mom." And here's the difference. Here's what set it off. I stopped by one day and dropped off a bag of cat food. That's it. $5 bag. She goes, "Do you do that?" I go, "Yeah, I'm just, you know, I know you love the animals." It was, it was easy. I was looking at a house on the street anyways. And remember, I spent seven years. That's all I did was talk to people. And when I did that, I go, "Listen, can I get your daughter's phone number?" She goes, "Yeah, I'll give you my daughter." I got her daughter. She was up in Gainesville. I said, "Listen, we need help with your mom." I genuinely wanted to help the lady more than the, I didn't care if I bought the house. And if you can take that attitude with it, when a sudden and done, the daughter goes, "Oh my God, I had no idea it was this bad." She goes, "How much you make an offer?" I go, "I told your mom I didn't want to buy the house. I don't know what I'd do with it." She goes, "Just give me an offer." "$15 G work." She's like, "Done." I did the land value because I thought the house had to be knocked down. I sold the house. I still made a $46,000 assignment. I sold it three days later. I didn't want to deal with it. And I sold it to a lawyer. And he's like, "I love projects like this." I go, "I think the house should be knocked down." It's very, I don't know if you know when animals, especially cats, um, I've dealt with ferrets. When they pee on the concrete floor, it penetrates it, and you, you can't get it out. No matter. I've tried sealing it, sanding it. It's hard to sell a house when it smells like cat urine. And so I'm like, so I like to get rid of problem houses, make a lot of money. But I focus on the relationships. If I didn't take this attitude, I would have never bought the house. She met with 16 other people, realtors, wholesalers, you name it. I was the only one that gave a crap about her cats. That was her belief, her conviction. It was her cat. So find your sellers' beliefs. They don't have much conviction. I'll be brutally honest with you. You have the conviction, and that's what penetrates through you. What you do with CER? Um, part of my agreement was to help. Um, so these are cats. You do not like. They are wild. Fair. They were scary, man. And she had a wooded thing back, and the cats like, they chewed holes everywhere, and they just, it was like a, it was, it was a real problem. I mean, between, I don't know if cats get rabies or not. Like, so I brought in a professional to help. Um, and she goes, "They just want to know the cats are taken care of now." I, I go, "Listen, I can't guarantee what's going to." I don't lie. You are not going to like. These are not rescuing a cat's different than a dog. I mean, my cat alone looks at you, swipes you, like, blood starts pouring down. You. I'm like, hands off. Cats are very different animals. So, um, we brought in an animal rescue, and it took them two weeks to get all the cats. And we had to get her out of there because they had to trap the cats. And, you know, they do what they have to do. Like, I like some of them find homes, but they, reality is, it was very unhealthy. It was dangerous for the neighborhood. All the neighbors thanked us. But this is the difference. Is you have to care about them like that. And that's the difference in what I do. You're going to meet the most crazy situations when you meet with sellers. So yes, you have any? Yeah, we're, we're, we're going to dive into that. And it's, listen, whenever you can get belly to belly with someone, you get more of a connection. When I talk to you like this, when I'm sitting behind a desk, desk in a studio shooting a video, it's like, most you, like, most of you have only seen from here. I, so Zach, we should come in, set up our desk and do like, we do the live show. And they like, "We'll just stay here." And we'll have like pajama bottoms on the bottom. But I don't wear pajamas under it. But it's like, uh, it's like Kevin O. Ever see he's like a jacket. You're like, "Down was like, oh my God, it gets hot in those studios." It's like uncomfortable screen. And a lot of times, Zach, like, he's kicking me under the desk. He's like, "You're going on too long." It's just who I am. I'm an extremely empathetic person. It's like, I care. So we'll, we'll talk about it. It is more challenging to do it virtually, but you have to be even better with your vocabulary. So the one thing I can tell you, this is, listen to people's vocabulary. I have studied this carefully because most people talk subconsciously. They don't even know what they're saying. Take your in-laws, take your, your parents. Start listening to the words when they use the word busy, or, uh, "I'm going to try." When they say, "I'm going to try," H, like it means you ain't doing it. Like, I, I, I've been around in life 53. I translate. So you know how you have the cheat words in real estate? We used to have cheat words. When they say it's, it's "comfy and cozy." What's that mean? "Comfy cozy" for a realtor, right? Unique nightmare. Yeah, it's like, "Thank you. You're kind of giving it to me." Unique means. I remember when "motivated seller" was like the most amazing search term in Craigslist. Now everyone's a motivated seller. Now everyone's a cash buyer. They figured out the cheat codes on it. So now you got to learn to dive into people's vocabulary. It's crazy. And what I did is I made a little cheat sheet. It goes, when they say "trying," it means they're wasting your time. And they say they're busy, it means they seem like they have a lot of money, but they have none. And they just keep going on. Busy people just run around. They do everything. They're control freaks. I'm a control freak. It takes everything I have to step back and let people do something. Sometimes that grates me. He's like, "That, I got it." And after a while, I'm like, "God, I got a 19-year-old kid telling me I got it. I need to wake up." I will constantly remind you, lose your ego. You don't know everything. I don't know everything. I learn every day. If you learn till the day you die, you did really good in life. Most people shut off at 33. And I was lucky enough to have an epiphany to go, "I, there's got to be something better than that." Would you agree? Most people, 33, they're set in life. That's the way they're going to operate. If you want to do different, you have to think differently when you do it. So, um, okay. The person that cares the most about helping their sellers will be the buyer. End of story. I get more deals to come back to me and go, "Listen, if it comes competitive with another wholesaler." So let's talk about this. You guys ever go to deals and other wholesalers go to it? You got to find a way. Don't trash talk your competition because it's, it makes you just look bad. And I just, I just, woo. Like, I tell you what, you know what? Go ahead and meet with him. Do me a favor. Just call me when you're done, or can I swing by like 15 minutes afterwards? So I use the term. I love Will Ferrell because I like to laugh. Uh, Will Smith. Either you're first or you're last. Be first and be last. The best impression you make when you first meet someone, and at the very end. Everybody forgets in between. You guys won't forget, but that's what it is. So when I say, "Go, I'm meeting with two or three other people." I'm like, "Okay." I go, "What time's your first appointment?" "10 o'clock." I go, "I tell you, let me swing by at 9. We'll talk." All I do is build rapport. I don't even talk about price. I got to tell you what I know. You got these other appointments. You okay with them? She goes, "Yeah." She goes, "I'll tell you what they say." Now, listen, I'm not going to, I don't bid other people. I don't give a crap unless. But if I have a cash buyer who's going to pay me 20 grand more, I will bid because it's common sense. It's just a business decision. And then I accidentally show up at the last one. She goes, "He offered me this, this." He goes, "But they weren't really as nice as you. You were very nice to me." And like, "And that's where I connect." Every she goes, "I go, well, you know what they offer." And then sometimes I have to walk away from deals and I don't get them. I know when a young wholesaler, don't get me wrong, there's a lot of 18, 19-year-old wholesalers. They overpay for the property. I'm like, "There's no way in hell." Sometimes they surprise me. But I go, "I tell you what, give it a shot. Let me know how it works out." And I would still want to connect with you. Mind if I call you and stuff like that? I know that deal's going nowhere. I go, "I'm going to tell you the truth." And honestly, if you can get that swing the bat, I'm all for it. I know it's not going to work. I've done this long enough. And then I just wait. And guess what? The market's brutal to people when they do it or when the wholesaler has no money. Nothing's happening. So easy to come back. Have you ever done a follow-up call where somebody overbid a property, it failed, and you come back? You told them the truth. You will do better by doing that. Do not be one of these people that manipulate people on contracts and then I know I have to trim the price. It's the game's not played correctly like that. There will be times you have to get reductions. But if you start out and go, "I'm just going to give her what I want, and I'm just going to come back and beat him up at the closing table," it, dude, you will not last doing that. You are going to be in such fights, and people are going to bring in lawyers. You don't want to do it. So the person that cares the most about helping out their sellers, they will be the buyer.

Qualifying questions. You guys, I beat this to death. MCTP. It's very straightforward, okay? Probably the most critical. I'm not going to go deep into this because you guys already know it. Most people when they call you or you call them, you have to get through the qualification. Number one, are you selling your house? If you're doing cold calling, that is a different segment. You're just trying to qualify people. If you haven't even shot, then you go into qualifying. My favorite one by far is time frame. This will never steer you wrong. "Hey, Mr. Seller, if I buy your house, where are you moving to?" "I don't know. I haven't even thought about it." What? Okay. "90 days?" Like, "I'm just going to build rapport and kind of test them on price and move on." They're just not ready. Okay? Let me ask you, have you ever sold your house and never had a plan to move? It's impossible. The average person needs 90 days. You know what the two most stressful things in people's lives are? People hate moving. Ever move? It sucks. I've moved 15 times, guys. I'm a professional mover. I know exactly who to call, how to do it. I tell, "Don't unpack the boxes. Let's go." But most people, when you get in some of these houses, 30, 40 years, it's like shocking. I'm like, "What do you mean the attic's full?" And I've made some mistakes like making commitments. I'm like, "Man, people are packrats." Do you know, like, one of the number one growing industries like the storage space? You know why? Because people like to hold crap. Listen, none of that stuff's going to help you in life. Like, if you don't touch something in six months or it doesn't have massive sentimental value, get rid of it in your life. It's, it's not going to help you. You just, you got to fix in here. Everything around you is not going to help you, okay? But here's the problem. Every seller was like, "No, no, no, no. I'm, I'm emotionally attached." Like, "No, no, no. I can't." It's like, and if you ever dealt with hoarders, it is actually an addiction, and you, you can't fix it. I hate hoarder houses worse than anything. They're really rough. You can't see them. And when they take the stuff out there, you're like, "Oh my God, the walls are covered in mold. You can hear the rats running through." You're like, "I need a $30,000 deduction." It's like, but it's such an intervention, and it is, it is worse than whatever you do with that. So, okay. Qualifying questions. I'm not going to go because this to me is kind of standard now. The conversations. This is the important part. I always talk to you guys about tonality. So we're talking about when we do people virtually, you got it. Like, if someone's talking softly and quietly, if you're doing virtual, you're not, not going to do a physical appointment, you have to go nuts with this part. Do you understand that? They are only judging you by your voice. 70% of communication is non-verbal. Eye contact, how you move, where you walk, what you do, okay? I love to see people in person because I can tell just by your eyes. Number one, if you're listening to me. Number two, if you agree with what I say. You don't believe me. There's a million books out there. Look at when people look up, when they look down, when they look aside, it's all subconscious, okay? Tonality, speed, posture. Not so much on the phone, but I tell you what, people can tell when you're not, you're slouching down, you just start to like, slow, slow down when you do it on the phone, okay? And word timing is everything. This is the part you have to perfect when you do it virtually. It's, there's a lot of timing. You guys ever had that awkward pause with a seller? What do you do? What do most of you do when you got that awkward pause? Say you make them an offer, and then they just go, "H." What do you do? What do most people do? You keep running your mouth. You never let them make a decision, and you make them nervous by doing that. That was me. Just shut your mouth. I don't care if it takes two minutes. Let them spit it out. Because you're trying to like, you're trying to soothe them, right? If you're an empath, birth, and you're trying to soothe everything, just shut up. Just let them speak. You need a reaction to progress any type of negotiation. If you don't get a reaction, you can't proceed with the transaction, okay? Don't ever blame your C. Regardless of what they say or think. This is a tough one, okay? For those of you like, "I'm not a, I don't care about politics." But if like somebody has up a certain person and you don't like them, if you're going to make a stance and walk out of there, you're not going to last in this business. I don't care. I vote human. How's that? Like, I don't, like, we all don't got it right. But stop like, don't get your, don't mix religion. Don't mix politicians. Just go in there and buy the house. People will make weird statements to you. People will say stupid stuff. Don't hold it against them. You're there just to help them for one thing. If you're going to, to make a stance on a customer when you know they're hard to get, you're not going to last in this business. People unfortunately will say stupid things, and some of them are derogatory. You just got to go, "Yeah, whatever." You know, you're in a position where we only have so many customers. We got to make them count. I'm not talking about risking your safety or anything, but I'm just telling you when they say stupid stuff, go, "Yeah, whatever." Just blow it off. Conviction, right? Suit of armor. Don't let them, don't let them break you up. Never attack or talk bad of your competition. Your sellers. I used to do this for full disclosure. It's, it's, it makes you look bad when you talk negatively. It's like gossip. So if I talk negatively about Clive behind his back, and he gets back to him, it becomes a problem, and then you start this war. Same thing's going to happen if you do that, okay?

So the conversation, tonality, speed. I already did this, okay? Let's keep moving. Follow-ups. This is where a lot of people like, "Hey, Rick, how do we do the follow-ups?" Shocking statement here. Sometimes a seller is not, may not be ready for the appointment. This is a lot of struggle in the beginning. I will tell you, if you have someone that you think is even slightly motivated, there's two schools of thought in motivation. There's the house motivation. What do I mean by if the house is motivated? Anybody? Yeah, house needs some love, man. It needs help. Okay? Nobody wants a crappy house. Nobody says, "I bought this house to be a crappy house." Okay? But life happens to people. Stuff happens, right? So they're not proud of it. That's one of the reasons. Alita. The other one is a motivated seller. The seller themselves. "I got to get my son out of jail. I got to do this." Now, if you ever have the beautiful feeling of when both come together, it's the easiest transaction you ever do in your life. If the house is crappy, and the seller just wants to get rid of it, it's easy. That is a unicorn to a point. I'm just going to be honest with it. It's usually one or the other. Nine times out of 10, the house is motivated, and the seller needs work. And this is where the follow-up comes, okay? I know when you got a leaky roof and a hole in it, especially in South Florida, you're eventually going to have a day of reckoning. You have to fix it. You can't survive with this code violation. It's going to come down to everyone, and you're going to have water pouring in your house. It's just a matter of time before you can't live there. So I'm going to follow up that person until they completely, completely block me, or they, or I buy their house. That's my attitude. If the house is motivated, you have your job is to stay on. And remember, you have to have a stronger conviction than your seller. You have to look out for their interest. I walk in the houses with giant holes in the roof. I've had extension cords running from the neighbor's house, and I have fleas eating me alive. And she's like, "I'm good." I'm just like, "My God, you know how many times I've infected my own house?" When I started this business, I brought roach eggs in in my shoes, and my wife used to like, get stripped down in the garage. "I'm going to hit you with the hose." I've infected multiple houses. You ever had, you know, they're just like, you bring home some nasty stuff from these houses. So we want to help people out. And like, when I see a lady's hair is falling out, and like my eyes are burning, I'm like, "This is way past the house. People have issues. The house is just a symptom of what's going on with people." 330 million people in here. You think people have issues? Guys, you guys are the exception. For the most part, people are just going through life every day, and then something critical happens. Somebody dies. They got to make a quick decision. A house. If you're prepared to help them out, amazing things can happen, okay? Sometimes the seller just wants too much for the house. That's fine. Guess what? When they decide to put the house on the market, and you know the house is crappy, ask the realtors in here, what happens to the crappy houses on the market that are listed for retail? And people are brutal on them, right? Yeah. Hey, here's my favorite. "Can I get some feedback on the house?" "That's a piece of it's like, like, hey, that's just the truth." It's like, the market is brutal. I've had houses where we've just spent every nickel, like some of the ones we over-rehabbed, and people like, "Just not my style. I wish you would have put in gold in this." Or like, people, they're human beings, for God's sakes. So that's the other problem with fix and flip is trying to predict what people want is really hard. So we try to make it vanilla, right? We do white, this white, that. It's not fun. Everybody customizes their house. So when they go to sell their house, guess what? They put $50,000 into it. How much more do they want? When they put $50,000 in their house, I need another $100,000 for it. Like, "I don't even think I get you $50,000." Nobody likes this scrap. I've seen the craziest stuff in houses. I took one of my own houses and built like a custom coral aquarium. And with the sell, I go, "Crap, what am I going to do now?" I gave it away. I found, I, I, I found a guy. I got him started. He took everything. I go, "I just didn't want to do the work for it." So the $50,000 I put into that, I go, "Listen, take it." I go, "I might call you down the road." I love this business, but it's, you know, I love the house more. Okay.

So we call must follow up until they're ready to sell at the right price range. When they're ready to make a decision. This is the hard part is the follow-up. Okay? Now, follow-up, you can make simple. Technology is absolutely amazing. So one of the things is I love text, obviously, phone calls. But you guys sometimes overlook. If you're doing a local market, just stop by and talk to people. It helps. I'm going to tell you a true story. It's a weird one, but this is how long I've been doing it. I had an old man. He had a house. Extremely rundown. I mean, perfect. He was motivated. The house was motivated. He goes, "Rick, you just need to help. I want to move into this retirement home. I have enough money. He goes, "I have to take the proceeds from the house and I have to sign it over." And they're going, like, "I go, this is what you want to do?" Brought in a lawyer, brought in everybody. I cut a deal, okay? Took three months to get it done. So what I did is, once a week, I just

Stopped by. He was a really nice guy. He was lonely. Now, he had a big, four-bedroom house. In the back bedroom, he had a window AC unit. I knew it so well. Stopped by. He poured me a cup of coffee. We talked. Why? Because the neighbor next door is a realtor. She was pounding him like, "You don't need to do this." And she actually walked in when I signed the contract. So I had to keep contact. It's a pain in the butt to stay in contact with somebody for three months, especially if you're under contract. But a lot of you guys are getting sniped on contracts. People sometimes, people will sign multiple contracts. Contracts. It's unethical. It's ridiculous, but they do it.

Bottom line is, I stopped by for, I swear to God, like 10 or 12 trips. And I guy, and I no one. I knocked, nobody answered on the door. And then I, I went around. And then the bottom line is, I noticed the AC unit was running in the back. He was super cheap. He never ran it. I go, "Man, I think there's a problem." I talked to my title company because I was really tight with. She goes, "I think you got a problem." I go, "Should I call the police?" I go, "He usually has the door unlocked." And walk in. She's like, "Don't walk in." So I called, uh, a friend of the police. Like, "Don't walk in." So the bottom line is, we went there with the police. He was dead with a cell phone in his hand, right at the door. I was the only one that checked him. And his brother lived four houses down. You know what he did when he found out? Once they took the body out, he went and raided and stripped the whole house. And then I got in a legal battle. And because I did the right contract, I recorded, uh, I had a deposit, I did everything. I was able to enforce it, and it worked out. It worked out well.

So I'm just telling you, I care about people. I know patterns. And when people stop answering doors, they f... Sometimes we are the last contact with people, and I help them out. And I was like, "Man, I got to buy a dead man's house." Like, I, someone's going to buy it anyway. It was run down. And then at the end, they want the money to go to the daughter. They want to go to the drug rehab. She goes, "Listen, well, my uncle told me I could buy the house." I go, "If you want the house, you can have it. Like, I'm not here to screw up families." She goes, "No, I, I just, I want the money. I don't want to do with this project."

The bottom line is, guys, it's follow-up. I have a lot of people that I'm waiting to get a contract. I just stop by, drop off a can of dog food. I do this. Simple thank you cards go a long way. You can stick in the mail, 55 cents, you're done. Whatever the, the postage rate is. You've got to understand how follow-up works. And a lot of you, when you get under contract, and we all complain about sellers ghosting us, you guys do the same thing sometimes. You go, "I got four other contracts to work on." Someone's got to babysit contracts because there's nothing worse. I lost a $150,000 deal because I trusted someone to babysit it. I didn't do my correct due diligence as owner, and I lost the deal. They filed bankruptcy two days before we got the approval on a short sale property. And you know what? I asked my assistant at the time was helping me, and I didn't manage her very well. I don't know. I always follow up. I always follow up. All she did was send emails, and the guy never opened the email. Goes, "I just thought you guys went away." I'm like, "You just learn as you go through the business." So follow-up works on both sides. You got to understand that.

So the appointment, some of you are doing it virtually, which we're talking about. Some of you do it physically. You have a huge advantage if you can do it in person. But some of you got to do it virtually. You got to understand that. Set up a time that works. What's the goal of the appointment? You got to understand this. The goal of the appointment, if you do it virtually or you do it in person, you have to progress the seller in their decision process. That's your only job. You are a guide. So if you're, so it's like a, if you had a, a paved road here, who's a Wizard of Oz, right? The yellow brick road. You got to keep taking them down that road. When they sway off, your job is to bring them back around. You constantly have to take me down this road. And if you don't know the road, that's part of the problem.

So guys, don't take it. If you're doing it virtually, I'm fine with it. I'm just telling you though, if you're doing your local market, shut your ears. Virtual people, a local guy, if they're P, they'll kill you. Like, there's just, there's no substitution for human, like, being. Meeting everybody loves to do it. So but you have to progress them in this process. If you're not progressing them, you're not doing it. Honestly, how do we progress them? Number one, yes. Ah, that's an awesome, right? Sometimes the yes ain't the greatest thing off, right off the bat. Two, no is good. It's good they made see, you understand that this is the decision. You know where most people stay? Right here. Let me ask you, if someone doesn't make a decision, is that a decision? It is. You ever dealt with anybody in your family goes, especially as a kid, Mom goes, "Hey, can I go, you know, can we go out and go fishing?" She's like, "We'll see." Maybe. Dude, that was code word for like, "I'm, uh, I just don't want to break your heart right now." Over and over. After a while, I was like, "We'll see." Maybe. Maybe to me is torture. It's the worst place. You guys hear me talk, it's the friend zone. You ever been in the friend zone? Like, "Are we, listen, either go to the prom with me or don't. Like, make a decision. I'm okay either way." Most people don't want to hurt your feelings, and that's the honest to God truth. But your job when you meet with someone is to get to a decision. And I tell them in the process, "Make it. We'll make a decision. And if you say no, I'm okay with it. I'm okay with it. But you have to make a decision." If you don't keep them on the hook to make a decision, they will not make a decision for you. I've been through so many human beings in this. It doesn't matter. You got to have them make a decision.

Okay, how do we get them to make a, a decision? You have to condition them. If you let human nature follow, you're going to wind up with a maybe. You need to get an, an ultimatum, and you need to do it nicely and sweetly. Okay? Most of you guys I talk to, like, "Man, it was the perfect appointment. Was great, but they told me they'd get back with me." Okay, well, did you condition the seller? "What's that?" Okay, read the statement. "Listen, seller, before I come see the house, I don't want to waste your time or mine. I'm usually very busy." I hate that word, but that's what I use with sellers because they're used to that. Okay? "I usually come look at the property once. So before I come by, I just want to make sure you're ready to make a yes or no decision on selling the property. If we agree on everything, I'm okay with." So I'm doing this on the phone before I go. Now, if you go in person, before I even look at the house, I go, "Listen, remember what we said about making a decision? I'm going to spend as much time as you need, but at the end, can we agree to make a decision of yes or no? Either you love working with me or, Rick, you're just not a good fit to move on. I'll be fine either way." And they go like this, "Yes." Human nature is, when you get a commitment like that, they are forced to make a decision. Now, 70% of the time, they'll give you a decision, but they'll still even wimp out on this. It's shocking. And what do I do? I hold you accountable. "Hey, remember, remember that discussion we had? You said you'd give me a yes or no." He's like, "I truly don't know." I go, "I'm just, we had an agreement, right?" I just look, and you got to look him right dead set in the eye. It's weird. And just shut up and let him answer it. If not, you're going to sit there in the friend zone all day long. It's okay to get no, and but that, that's it. If you get a maybe, it means you didn't do enough work beforehand. You have to condition people and set it up. Any good salesperson says, "Listen, the last thing I want to do is spend an hour with you to give me a maybe." They just optioned you. Like, you feel so violated when people do that. It just absolutely drives me nuts. Okay, you keep. So we're going to talk about all the options here you can do with people, and I'm going to show you how to work it. You have to work towards a decision with people. Okay, remember, we're not slick salesmen. I don't have 200 people coming through the door. I want to close every one of them. I get one or two, I got to make it count. Okay, so you want to keep progressing the path. When you do it, you will have people that do it. I'm going to show you techniques on how you can talk to them. But remember, guys, I don't want you to be slick-talking salesmen. When you find the right motivated seller, they like, "Yeah, you told me I have to make a decision." I, I get it. And sometimes I go, "Listen, let me talk over the wife. Give me an hour, and I'll give you a hard decision." That's better than like, "I'll get back to you later." "I'll get back to you later" is like, you, I'm never getting back to you. So you might as well, you might as well make a hell marry at that point because you're never getting back in front of that person when you do it.

So, um, so when you're on the appointment, once again, if you're physically there, it's just like you're buying a car. You got to walk around it. You got to impress. You got to do everything. Even when I looked at properties on MLS, the brief time I did it, if you didn't get the code from your realtor from the other realtor, like, you make them very uncomfortable when they don't walk through the property, right? Aren't you a little suspicious when someone wants to buy a house and they never look at it? It's like, unless it's a very, you know, New York, California buyer, most people like to test the house out. Your sellers, some of you guys virtually, you freak them out. "What do you mean you buy the house? You won't even look at it?" You're like, "Let them know someone looked at the house." I don't care how you got to do it. But let me ask you, would you sell your house never seeing the person, just like, and they knowing no one ever looked at your house? You'd be like, "Is it ever going to stick?" That's what most people think. So if you're doing it virtually, you want to insinuate that you have looked at the house some way, somehow. Maybe you have boots on the ground, maybe you've looked at it online, maybe there's pictures on a FSBO. But sometimes you can over-insinuate people. Like, "I'm going to buy the house right now. It's 50 grand." But Rick, you haven't even seen it. I go, "It's good. We'll show you ways to kind of work with it when we do the breakouts because it's a little bit more detailed conversation for virtual."

Building rapport, it is everything. When I say rapport, does anybody know what rapport means? It's just relationships, guys. That's it. Okay, here's how you look. If you can have conversations with people, if you can sit down like you're having a cup of coffee, you're having a beer with your friend, if you can get to that level, that's how you connect. You've got to be different. You've got a lot of competition. You've got to be different. Okay? If you are purely transactional, you send out really bad vibes to people and freak them out. Like, you ever have, you ever been somewhere with, like, it's so salesy, it's like, "I just give up. Like, I'm out." I get this a lot in when I do furniture. I hate buying cars, but I go, "I seem to go through it every time." It's like, "Come on in, buddy." It's like, you're so, they're so greasy. It's like, "I just want to focus on the car." It's like, "I kind of know what I want." And by the end, I'm like, "Damn it, I bought it." Like, they were really good with it. So here's, here's a key statement I'm going to make to you. Use transitions. Okay? What's a transition? A lot of you guys when you start out, you talk too much, like I do. You've got to get out of it. And so if you find yourself in the, so you're going to build amazing conversations, and what happens is you start to become friends with your seller, and it works. The problem is now you got to step out of the friend zone and you got to get the business. I used to struggle horribly with this. Use a transition statement. Ready? Um, transition statement. Anybody can help me out? I've taught this online all the time. What's your transition statement? Yeah, to her. I'll just ask a question. So, do you guys understand? Is when you start talking, you get really connected with someone. We have the tendency as humans to like, "Oh my God, did you see that football team? Did you see this fighter?" And you get so into it because you're like, "Man, I'm connecting with it." And then you go too long, and all of a sudden, guy goes, "How this guy's here to buy my house." He's like, "I like this stuff, but they actually want you to get to the point too." So when you start to get uncomfortable or people like getting into the negotiations, it's awkward. Like, I don't care how you do it. It's like asking somebody out for the first time. Like, some people just over. You just got to ask. So use a transition to say, "Listen, I could talk to you all day about the Miami Dolphins and how they've broken my heart, but I have a purpose. We want to talk about your house. I'm going to spend some time with you. Do you mind if we get down and ask you some personal questions?" Doom. You get into it. Okay? So when you get into that, you do that, that stops you, and now you're in a negotiation. Negotiations is everything. Okay, how do, how do we get the neg, how do we get to the negotiation? You have to use a transition statement. Okay? Now, purpose is, start the purpose of the transition statement is to start your negotiation process. Avoid your internal resistance to avoid this because that's what we all do. You're uncomfortable. It's scary. It's fine. They're only going to move forward, or they're not going to move forward. That's all that's going to happen. And you guys get so nervous. You have to practice this transition statement. So we'll practice this when we do, uh, breakouts. Okay? Make sure use statements, and you'll learn to do this. Like, "Listen, if, when I buy your house." So a lot of times when it's going well, I go, "Listen, when I buy this house, I start to make us what I call assumptive statements. I'm going to buy this house." And you'll see when to do the closing, and you just start talking to them, and you condition their mindset. So listen, this is, this is the key part. Now we're in the negotiations. This isn't hard, guys. I'm teaching you the basic mechanics. As you get more experience, you will completely customize this. But my goal here is today so you don't screw it up. So you build amazing rapport, you get into the transition statement, and then we get in, we make the offer. And this is where everyone's like, "How much do I offer? What do I do?" And you guys, everybody found online, they go, "I'm going to calculate the MAO." Right? What's MAO stand for? Dude, don't even waste your time on that. Like, "Are you kidding me? You're just going to hang." You should know what your limit is, and whatever your criteria for your company is, like, "I'm not going to go past that." But here's the problem: is most of you start slightly under the MAO, and you want to know why you can't negotiate? It's ridiculous. You know why you do it? Because you're trying to get a yes from your seller. You're programmed like a realtor. If you want to get a listing from the house, you want to get a yes, because ours isn't as fluid. We need a contract price. We need it to stick. So if I start out on the MAO and say it's 250, and I start at 230, like, "Now 230 doesn't work." What are you going to do? 235, 240, 250? You look like an idiot when you do that. It's terrible. The reality is, you're all trying to guess what your seller's price is. You have no idea. I've learned this the hard way, time and time again. So I teach the LA, the least allowable offer. Okay? What's offer? Can, can I get to where I don't get kicked out of the room? But it freaks me out. So when I first started this, whatever I did is whatever offer I was going to make, I minus $50,000 off of it just to protect myself. And they started taking it. I'm like, "Holy moly, I figured this out." So if you start, so if the property's 250, stop offering 230. You built up amazing conversation. This is going to get a little weird when you do this. Go, "Listen, um, would you take one?" I got like, 130. Is something you'll do? I take the stress off the seller and put it on me because they freak out. All I'm looking is, I want them to say no. You have to go for no. Why? Because you're playing the game now. It's negotiations. Okay? You have some people roll over for you. When they roll over, make it super easy for them. Okay? But when we get to this part, when you, to, you're looking, what are you looking for? You're looking for the counter, the reaction. Why? Because I want to use your intel in the negotiations. So what people will do is spit out their subconscious answer. "Oh, I can never take something that low. Me and my wife said we can't do anything more than 175." Now, what's my range? 175 to 130. I've just eliminated that entire. You just saved yourself two weeks of negotiations. I used to sit there two weeks, three weeks, take forever. Just go for no. Occasionally, you will get hung up and you will get kicked out. That is the cost of this transaction. But people really tear me up about using the go for no. It is more efficient. It'll get you faster where you want, and you'll get a more desired result, and you'll help your seller out much quicker. The reality is, you guys want an instant yes. You want that gratification. It doesn't work this way in this business. You have to fight for it. Now, you've built amazing conversation. When you do the go for no, it's going to drop. You're going to lose credibility. Now you got to work it back. That's the negotiation. That uphill climb. Is it easier to go up in price as opposed to down in price? That's just how it works. And the reality is, if the MAO was 250 and you 235, the seller would go, "I can get 265, 270 out of this guy." You suddenly become the pawn in the game. When you set a low number, you lower the seller's expectations, and you can actually put a deal together. I did, guys, 10 years it took me the hard way to find this out. People like, "Oh, that's rude. That's so aggressive." Somebody did an expo of AO like, "Look how terrible this Mr. Jin guy is." You can take a snippet at anybody and tear them up. The reality is, you're actually helping it. And you guys don't have to overthink how to negotiate. And you'll become very advanced. You'll do very advanced stuff. But in the beginning, if you'll just get into that transition, use the go for no, and build it back up, and work your way back up, you need that subconscious price in your brain. I would love for every seller to sell me their price. They don't. What percentage? It's all over the board. How many sellers tell you the price? Yeah. And when they do, do you think it's their bottom line number? Absolutely not. So why do you guys keep fishing on the same one? You've got to understand it.

Okay, yes. It, it just all depends. So if you've built a robust cash buyer list and you have good clients, my favorite thing in wholesaling is when I'm negotiating and say he says 175, I'm still going to negotiate and play with it. I can usually get another 5, 10% in there because I know it's not about, you know, just this human nature. If I already got a guy locked in at 200, it's a fun game, man. It's a blast. When you don't have a cash buyer locked in, you are somewhat guessing. That's just the truth of it. And you won't always get it perfect. Nobody gets it perfect. I've never gotten it perfect, but nine times out of 10, I get it right. Why? Because I've done it a long time. In the beginning, I was all over the board. I contracted everything, but you figure it out after a while. So if you prime your cash buyers and they know what they want, and you know that guy will pay 200 for that type of PR, it's just a fun game, man. It's like, let's see. But I, I don't want to lose it. So if I have a locked-in deal and say it's 175, guy goes, "Don't ever come back." That's it. I go, "Here's what you do." Instead of saying yes, go like this. You have to hesitate. You have to think about it. You have to be a little bit dramatic. Okay? And you go, "Listen, if I could do the 175, it's going to be pushing it. My partner is going to kill me. You got, will you sign the contract right now?" You got to get something. When they ask for something, if you don't, you are going to be the pawn in the game. Okay, guys, these are simple conversations. I don't take advantage of little. I have a little L to give me a price. Like, they give me a price is super cheap. I go, "I like that number. Let's get your lawyer involved. I don't want it to come back on me." But you get people play games with you. And just have, when you have a cash buyer built in, it's so much fun, isn't it? When you know what a guy will pay, like, "Okay, so if I can get another five or 10 grand, I can do that." 10 times a year, that puts another 60, 70,000 in my pocket. Okay? In the beginning, I didn't know how to do that. I just met with sellers, and I tell this guy, "Make 10 grand." He makes 30 off me. I'm like, "I didn't care. I wanted to be the best at meeting with sellers." And that's what I've done. I figured out disposition. I go, "Don't worry, I'm going to come back to this part of my business. Figure it out." Okay? So what, any questions at part is this? I mean, I, I will go in the amazing is you got to understand, you got to have deep conversations, really high-quality conversations. You got to use the transition to get out of the friend zone, and you got to get down to business. Come to negotiation. Stop offering close to MAO. It's not going to get you anywhere. Reverse wholesaling, right? Uh, you, it's, it's a game. You just got to dance with.

So what he's talking about is reverse wholesaling. So when times get tight, sometimes like 2009 to 11, all we could do was reverse wholesaling because here's what happened. When prices are dropping in a market, it doesn't matter what it is, it could be real estate, it could be stocks and bonds, whatever. When it's dropping, let me tell you, when a sharp kitchen knife falls from a roof rafter, who wants to grab it while it's falling? Nobody. They want it to hit the ground and bounce up. And that's what they're all waiting for when they do it. So reverse wholesaling is, if I do that, I talk to someone, I go, "Listen, I can't do 175. I just, I can't." I go, "I tell you what, can you do any better?" Just kind of, I go, "Can we just think about it?" And then I go, "He goes, no, no, it's hard. 175. Mom, do it." I'm going to go back and just rip through my cash buyers and I'm going to have very private conversations. Like, "Go, listen, I got this nice 32 over here. I might be able to do like 195. I told you 200, would you do one?" And I just start working. And the guy goes, "Listen, 180s, that's it. I'm not going to move anymore. I got to make some money on it." Then I'm going to go back, I'm just going to try to squeeze another three or five grand at it. Worst case scenario, take the five, move on. You're struggling to pay your rent, take the money, move on. On, you're struggling to pay your credit, take the money. You're not going to get hurt. You're going to get experience, and you keep moving forward. My first deal, I think I made $1,500. The hardest transaction ever did in my life, but it got me in front of you guys.

I got it. So reverse wholesaling, we'll talk a little bit more. What we want to do is get into, um, the real fun part of this. We're going to roleplay. Break this down, and we're going to test you guys. You got to, you got to get some practice. And here's why I find this miss. You all say you practice, you don't. Because I can tell when you do. I can tell if someone jumps on live if they've worked on their craft or they're not. You can tell. Most people say they do, they don't. And staring at the mirror doing it, it's a good dry run, but eventually, you have to find someone. The best thing you do is find a stranger because they're, they're, they're going to be honest with you, and you're going to find your tendency, and they go, "You did this, you do that," and you just work on it. If you can't be vulnerable and understand it, you can't progress and move forward. AKA, your spouse. You're sick of another. They don't really tell you the truth. They won't tell you if you suck at something. You got to get somebody else to do it. They'll do it all the time. So, um, so let's talk about, I'm going to go through this. We're going to break out in the roleplay. So I'm going to go through kind of quickly so we, okay, that's right. So you guys hear about the three methods we use to cite and negotiate and move people along the path. So good cop, bad cop. What are the other two? Ol, what else? We'll leave that as a mystery. You can figure that out. So, so there are about three to four main closing techniques that we talk about on just basically everything we do, right? And so this is my favorite one. It's called the good cop, bad cop. The reason why it's called a good, good cop, bad cop, this has been done by the FBI, CIA, every intelligence operative for the past. That's always me. I don't know why I'm the bad cop every time. So why does it work? Why do they keep doing it? Because for hundreds of years, it does work, and we use it in real estate. Hing. So there, there's a bad cop, always a good cop. Everyone knows, watch the CIA shows, right? The guy that's really sweet, and the guy that's mean, and the sweet guy gets information out, and you blame everything on the bad guy. "Hey, I hate this bad guy. He's so mean. Just give me the info." And it's sweet like that, right? And so this had, I've honestly, I started developing this because I got so upset at lowballing. The slow just kicks me out of the house. And you know, I like lowballing like to make a lot on the deal. And so this has been personally for me, my top technique for closing deals every single time. I make over $50,000 on. I do this one. He does a little different. He doesn't like the good cop, bad cop personally for him, but it matches my personality because I'm kind of more to the point. So what we're going to do is I'm just going to tell you what it is, and then we're going to do a little roleplay together of me and him just showing how it works. Uh, but honestly, this is it. When I lowball a motivated seller, if any of you guys lowball a seller and the seller just flies, says no, it sucks, it's terrible, and they say, "Get out of my house." If it's just too low, and they think you're wasting your time, the person that gives the offer first in negotiation usually always loses. And that's pretty much sales 101. And so what I like to do is I like to not give my offer. I like to blame someone else. And so for example, you have the good cop right here. If the deal will sell for 150, and he offers 100, he'll make 50,000, which is great, right? Here's the issue. If he offers the good 100 grand off the bat, he gave the offer, he lost all his leverage. Seller says no, boom. And if it's too low, you can kicked out or negotiate from there. Here's the cool part. What the good cop is going to do is say, "Hey, this is the bad cop. This is what he offered." And it's kind of like a, you're testing the guy. You're seeing what they're going to be. So here's how it usually works. I'm talking to the seller and say, "Hey, your seller, I was talking to my partner Rick about this, and I show him the pictures of the property, and he told me he was looking to buy the proper for $100,000." He said, "I just shut up. I, I didn't say a word." I, I made a very awkward pause. Mmm. I just gave up his leverage. Guess what happens? The seller says, "No, no, I can't do 100. Let wait too. Get out of my house." "Hey, hey, that's him. We just kicked him out. He's not even here. We can't blame him now." I just found out he just showed his hand. He's on 100. And so me as the good cop, I, I'm like, "Hey, hey, hey, w-no. I can't do 100. Of course, I'm not. He's crazy. Rick's nuts. He wants to loel for the house. He's super cheap. I get it. I, I can't go back to it and say, 'Oh, I'm going to buy for a high price.' Like, what works?" "Oh, no, no. I got to sell. I, I 130." Like, "I can't do want Rick. He's crazy. He's going to kill me if I get this thing for 130." Like, "He's, oh my God, he wants to buy this thing for 100." And two new me, he's not here. I don't really want to go drive around and go to three other houses all day. I'm kind of right right now, you know what I mean? Can we just meet the middle? I mean, that sounds logical, right? That makes sense. What, 115? That makes sense. Shake on it. Boom. The reason why this works so well is you don't give out your leverage. And the coolest part is, if the seller accepts the 100, they so say, "Oh, Rick says he wants buy for 100." And they say, "Okay, that works." Then I can flip the script. Now I'm bad cop. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Rick, he always overpays. He buys, he always overpays. I can't even do 100. Are you kidding me? That's, that's what he said. I'm close to like 70." And you can kind of flip it on anyone and get the best price on the deal. The problem is, if you just do a regular lowball offer out there, you lose your leverage, and you never know what the seller's lowest price is going to be. So what we're going to do is quick roleplay. You're going to be the seller, okay? And who's going to be my bad? I'm going to blame this on, I blame on Cory. Okay? So it's a little different virtual, but in person, it's probably regular. So let's go. "Hey Rick, how's it going? You know, this is a great property right here. You know, I love the wood ceilings and everything like that. You know, the flooring can needs some work, but it's not really bad. You know, I was talking to my partner Cory about this, and you know, he knew he needed some updating, but that's okay. And you know, he's looking at it, seems like a decent area for us to buy it. Seems like something we probably want to go buy. So when we purchased it, he told me he wanted to buy this for like $100,000." "You you nuts? Who is this Cory guy? He's my part. I'd get rid of him. He's terrible. I, I can't do 100. I talked it over my wife, we can't do 100. That's ridiculous. The door's right there, dude." "I agree. Cory's crazy." "Okay, well, I don't know this Cory guy. I'm just meeting with you. I, I told you, I agree with you. I like you. We've connected. But like, I'm, I'm a little on edge cuz 100. Like, can you do like 130 here?" "Course, my partner. Yeah, he's, you know, I'm the guy that comes to the house. Trust me. He's, he drives me crazy too, but he's the guy that comes with me on the deal. We do it together, right? I'm not buying this all myself. I have a partner. Usually, when we buy this thing, we're going to renovate it. We're going to do a lot of work to it. And frankly, I can't do it all myself. And so that's why I have Cory with me. He's a great guy. He's actually just had a kid, right? And so he's, I think he's a little, he's a little on edge right now, you know? Can you call Cory and see if you guys do like 130?" "Cuz talk to him. See, I'm here. Call. Decision." "Well, he actually talked to me about this problem, okay? And he told me he want to do." "Don't have Cory come here. I'll punch. Trust me. That's why I'm here today. And so he thinks it needs a lot more work. I get it. So 130, you said?" "Yeah, me and my have talked over that. Like, that's her, that's our number." "Here's the problem. I, I, I would love to do 130. That, if I could do it, I would do it. Here's the problem. You see the ceiling? It's like, it's kind of rotting a little, and we have to redo it. Bad. Give me, give me you and Corey's bottom line number. I, I want to get this thing sold. I don't want to meet with someone else. Can we find a number that that'll work? Like, I want to get this done." "See, I, I want to do 130. Cory's killing me right here. If I come back and do 130, he's probably just going to quit on me, and I can't do that. And he's doing a lot of the renovations with." "What I mean, can we just meet the middle? What, what's the middle?" "Well, you're at 130. He's at 100. Can you just do 115?" "I mean, I, I, I got three more houses to look at today, and we only have the money for one." "Fine. As long as, as long as I don't have to see Cory, I, I'll do it. But you got to get this thing done, man. You got to get this done." And guys, a lot of times is like, when I was training Zach to do it, he would go out in the yard and call the Cory, which was me. He goes, "D, just fake talk and just, just nod your, just, just keep going." "Yep, yep, yep." "Well, the way that happened is it's like, oh, well, 100. I have to go talk to my wife." "Well, let me do this. Let me go out. Let me talk to Cory a little about the property, give him update on it. You talk to the wife and see what you think of the 100, and then run out and then come back in." "That's it. You, you could deliver bad news without like having it like you deflect. Who's the giving the bad news, guys? This works in every other industry, but it works really well in what we do." "He loves it. It's not my favorite thing. Everything's personal. Whatever works for you works, but you understand when I was doing that, I like looking the eye, but to show the mental anguish I'm going through, I'll sometimes look away and just like the size. It's like I'm mentally struggling with this because it's like I want to help him out, but Cory is annoying the crap out of me right now with wanting to go so low. And I, I just mentioned some personal stuff, you know, maybe if I know he's a, you know, you have kids, I'm going to mention that he just became a dad or, you know, third kid, right? But like, just showing that like, oh, he's on edge, right? And just trying something that's relatable, you know, not that he's just a." The reason why I mentioned the kids with Cory is because it's real, and I'm not saying Cory's as greedy, like capitalist type guy trying to like money hungry guy. He's stressed out, the kids and stuff, and just, it's a relatable part. And if you can leverage any of that, it's great, and it's real. And this works virtually too. You just got to be more direct with your words, okay? It just, if you can blame somebody else, it's easier. Like, and the reality is, a lot of us do have partners, and some of you guys when you get salespeople, you can use this technique with them. It's one of the ways when you get near a number, it's going to work. They can call you and kind of figure it out out. Okay, so it works. "He loved it." "I'm like, God, you keep, what do you keep fake talking to me for?" "He's like, just shut your mouth. I'm getting a deal here. Just, just nod your head." "I'm like, okay." "I like and I hear him talking, goes, I'm talking to Corey now. I'm going to calm him down." And, uh, it works. So everybody understand this? It's, it's, it's basic, but it works. But it's worked for hundreds of years. Okay? If police officers use it, FBI use it, interrogation, it works the same way. Okay? It allows you to get leverage to move your seller down the funnel. You got to get to the decision. When he throws out the bad cop, he's just getting a counter offer. That's, that's the same thing.

So next one, the volley method. Everybody know this one? Okay. This is when your seller is just like, "I don't know." And you go, "Hey, Mr. Seller, I go, you have to be very careful with your words. I want you to learn this. If you use the word ask, offer, what's your price? They are trigger words for retail, high price, expensive. You need to use the word need. What do you need to get for this property?" And some are like, "What do you mean by that statement?" I go, "What do you need to get?" If you go, "What are you asking for?" You're, you're going to get killed. Okay? So a lot of times they go, "Hey, Mr. S, what do you need to get for the property?" Goes, "Here's the typical answer: I don't know. You're the professional. You're here. You give me the offer. You're Mr. Cash guy. Spit it out to me." It is a terrible situation to be in, and it's hard to get out of. Okay? How do you get out of it when they do that without using this? Okay, that's volume method. So here's how it goes. We're going to roleplay it real quick. I'll show you it, and I'm not taking credit for this. Somebody taught me this a long time ago in another industry, so it works on this industry, other industries, it'll work here. So just like this, "Hey, what do you need to get for that property?" "Not really sure." "That, not sure." "Well, listen, I know you don't know, but if you did know, what do you think that price would be?" Do you understand? It's just a volleyball game, tennis. All you got to do is rephrase the question and serve it back. Negotiation about who just walks away from the rejection. If you just say no and go, "You guys go get your, uh, your government list." I go, "You ain't getting that. There's the door right there. I'm not doing that." And you walk out. You're not cut for wholesaling. We're going to get rejected. We're going to get attacked. Okay? So you got to find a way to put a little bit of pressure back on them without them knowing it. Said, "Listen, Clive, I know you don't know, but if you did know, what do you think that number would be?" "I ain't got a bloody clue. You tell me." "Listen, I know you don't know exactly, but if you had to ballpark it, Clive, could you put a number on it?" Okay? So studies show if you can overcome two objections, you can usually get what you want in life. You got to go through two. Most people will never go through one. Okay? That's all the volume. All you do is rephrase the question. You see politicians are the best at it. Study them well. "I, I, I know this is a challenging problem at the border, and we have complexities, but let me, what do you think we should do?" And that's the, the art is, I just threw it back in your face, and you got to serve it back. Is it when somebody asks a question, you feel obligated to answer? Yes or no? See, you just did it. Do you understand that? It's the power. I love the volley method. "I know you don't know, but if you did know, what would that number be?" And they just look at you. Now, when you get to the third time, it gets awkward, and sometimes they're like, "You're pissing me off." "You're right. I'm trying to help you get out of your own way. Give me a number." Do you agree that 95% of the people know the exact number in their head to a point? They do. You've got to use the, the tips and the tricks to get it. Okay? This took me seven years to figure out this little clue. I was, somebody taught me it in Vegas. It was absolutely amazing, and it was in a completely different industry, and I love it. It just, I constantly serve it back. Now, little warning, do not use this on your wife because it won't work. Let me give you an example. How many times do ladies go? I go, "Listen, uh, hey, honey, where do you want to go to eat tonight?" They know the answer. They just want you to agree to their answer, and they do this to you all the time. They go, "I, I don't know." And then a guy was like, "I don't know. You know, we go to, you know, we go to, we go to the Waterfront. We go to Tide House." I go, "Give me some better solutions." And you keep going and go, and finally, I go, "Honey, where do you want to go?" "Let's just get to it, right?" I love my wife, but like, we do this all. Like, it is a dangerous conversation to ask where you going to go out to eat. It's like exhausting. It's like, "Where do you want to go?" Then why did you even ask me, right? You can't do that to her. Why did you just tell me you want to go there? We are complicated creatures. It doesn't just stop with marriage and kids. It's actually helps with people. Okay, next one, you ready? Scrunchy face. One of my favorites. This is where you have to invoke emotion when you work with people. Okay? Whenever you get to a negotiation, there is tension. Does everybody agree on that, right? If you buy a car, you buy a house, no matter, there is tension. The job of the salesperson, in theory, is to ease that tension so you can make a decision. Okay? So what I wanted

You is learn this method. You have to understand the IDE. The idea behind it is to transfer that tension from your prospect to you. Okay, I'm an empath. You know what that means? It means I feel other people's pains. This is something God gave me. Okay, I feel people when they hurt. It's a gift. Okay, thought it was a curse. If you can transfer that stress to you, you actually, I'm not going to use the word trick, but you invoke him to make a decision to save your butt. Okay, come on up, I'll show you.

So this actually gets to the to the offer. And, uh, and I learned this from someone else for full disclosure. And everybody learns this with, we we are obligated to pass these trades down. And so we get to the price. I said, and I get to a number. And this, and, and I, unfortunately, I did this by design and I didn't know I was doing it. I didn't learn how to leverage it. So I said, hey Mr. Seller, listen, um, I've seen the house and we got a few issues here, but I think it would be a good fit for me. But would you take 130?

I, man, I just, I don't know, man. It's, it's like there's a lot going on here and I, I, I want to buy it, but like, oh my God, oh my God, like, seriously? You like I tell you what I sent people. It's, it's so you can either stare at them with a blank face or transfer the pain because they're going through pain too. They're like trying to get you to make a decision. Like, and they'll go, you know, Rick, I, they go, listen, listen, we, we, we'll work this out. I can get it. When they start doing that, you, you've really done a great job. Okay. Some like, what is wrong with you? Like, some like, okay, it doesn't work on everybody, but for the most part, there is tension in every sales you do. Okay. And sometimes when you're working with somebody, you spend a lot of time with them. This is where you can leverage it. Some people are really good. Some, some of you guys are brutal with it. Like, you know, like don't be an actor, don't be a flopper. Like when you hit, you fall straight down. Just go, listen, I, I just, I want to make you an offer, but like, what, 100 grand? Do it. And I just scrunch my face up and I go, they're like, oh my God, this guy's in pain. Like I want to like help him. It's weird, but it works. I'm telling you, I've tested this out. I've done it over. I did it by accident in the beginning because I was scared and I was nervous. And then when I found out they are just as freaked out as you are, they're just not showing you. So when you show vulnerability, they're like, this is my guy. D, it's not my number. We'll figure it out. And then sometimes they'll put their arm around you. Like, okay, we'll figure out Rick. Stop stressing, man. You're stressing me out. I'm like, like crap, man, it works. Guys, I've been through thousands and thousands of appointments to test this stuff up. Has times changed? Yes. I will tell you the one difference between now and when I started, the speed of the transaction is different. We are in a TikTok system society. People want stuff faster. We typically deal with an older crowd. As the crowd turns over and younger people buying these houses, we're probably going to have to move with more speed. That's why I have a young man as a partner. He helps me figure that out because some of us old farts, we stick in our old ways and we have to learn to change. Lose your ego. If you don't understand that by now, if you lose your ego, you can constantly learn. Think about social media, guys. What's the number one thing people do on social media? Brag. Superstar. I'm a rockstar. We use it to our competitive advantage. If you don't do the same thing, you can gather so much intel from any of your competitors, anybody you want to do. It's so easy. Wholesaling, in my opinion, is the worst brag flex industry I've ever seen in my life. Okay, learn how to become rich. Stop trying to look rich, and your life will change. It is a sacrifice. Everyone that tells you it's like a get rich quick, occasionally people do, but pocketing 100 grand is not getting rich. You're not even close to it. It's a great start, but you got to learn how to do the action over and over. I made a lot of money. My first seven years, I, one of my biggest goals was, I told my wife, I go, we pay off the mortgage. I made it such a low goal when I think about it, but that it dug me out. Then you figure out how to pay it off every month and do it from there. So what are we want to do from here? I'm just thinking on time. Yeah, that's you got to give a price. That's you live the price and the expression at the same time. So if you do just, hey, listen, when you take 140 grand, like, take a hike. Like it's a very confrontational and you're like, they, they go, why is he struggling with it? And they already know like, man, he's reaching far. I'm probably not, I'm gonna have to meet him somewhere. And so you're trying to show some vulnerability because they don't, they expect you to be a stone cold seller when you get there. Like, you ever been that? Like, what's your price? What's your bottom price? What's price? What's the price? What's the price? That's transaction. That's not wholesaling. You can't do that. It doesn't work. It doesn't even work with Realtors. It's terrible. So what do we want to do here? So is is anybody want to try to scrunch your face with me? It works. I'm telling you, it works. I didn't figure this out on my own. I figured out with others. Okay. Um, so back to this, I'm not going to teach you how to sign a contract. It's pretty straightforward. Don't complicate your contracts. We provide you a basic one. You want to buy it, run it by an attorney, you know, the whole deal. When you deal with contracts, you give it to 10 different attorneys, you're getting 10 different opinions. I've been doing this 21 years. Make sure you're covered. Make sure you know your state laws, but get familiar that your title company is your friend when it comes to contracts. Okay. Um, um, and then I explain everything. And one of the keys do is when I go to get the agreement, I've done the hard work. I ask for permission. I go to the car, I grab my folder and I go over the contract with them. Okay. If you got a pre-filled out contract, you can freak people out. Now, as far as the type of contracts, some of you want to use your state approved contracts. If people are very anal and they want to go page by page and they maybe want to run it by a lawyer, you're better off using a state approved contract. They all accomplish the same thing, guys. Okay. You can put in inspection periods, everything like that. If you have a simple person, I like simple two-page contracts. Get it done because a lot of times I go, where do I sign, Rick? Where do I sign? I got time for this. But you still got to go over the contract. Okay. Here's the deal. Here's the price. Everything like that. Yeah. So we talk about that. What, what's, what's the farb bar? Now, how many pages on average? Yeah, you can, they get more complicated than that. And some people like they go, man, this is complicated. I'm like, this, I feel like I'm working with a realtor on [Music]. It so when you're over the phone, obviously the scrunch your face ain't going to work. Try it, but it's, it's not going to go through. But I will tell you, your tonality, your speed, and your pause, it's everything. It's, it's, it's much more magnified. Okay. The good cop, bad cop will work. I go, listen, my partner, he just stepped out of the office. I'll go, squeeze his arm, make someone the bad person, and that will get you through to get your contracts. And then you'll find your nit. Some of you like, I'm never doing that. I'm fine with it. He hates the scrunchy face. I love it. I hate the good cop, bad cop. I think it's annoying, but it works. Whatever gets you the desired results, what you need. You point to the data over the phone. You have to become a magician with your words to a point because you only, you have a very limited capacity. So you have to perfect getting rid of the ums, the butts, the okay. Find out what your stall word is. None of you know it until somebody else tells you. You know what my stall word is? Okay. Everybody? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. A lot of you arms, a lot of it's butt, and it's like, you don't even know you do it. When you're on the phone, you have to magnify it. So one of the key ways to do it is just start recording yourself when you talk to people. Get a transcript, and then when you see it written down, you're like, oh my God, did I say that? And you learn it. But tonality is everything. People get aggressive, they get loud, they get quiet. You got to do the same thing. Tonality to me and timing is everything on the phone. You do a throat clear. Like, God, yeah, you got to do that. Your mom, your cat, it could be anybody. Nobody knows the other person. That's the beauty of it. You don't want to talk to him. He's, he's a pain in the ass. Like, trust me, I'm saving you. I got to deal with a guy. Like, trust me, we were having a long. Yeah, I know it's gonna get worse. If you talk to him, like, okay, last one, go ahead. We, we, we're gonna do it right here, right now. So.