The deal that is presented on the table at the beginning of negotiations, isn’t necessarily the best deal you can get. You need to know the right questions to ask to make the deal not only more appealing for yourself, the buyer, but also more appealing to the seller. If you can somehow create a win / win situation for both the buyer and the seller, then you will have 2 motivated parties to the transaction and the deal will go ahead. But how do you find these great win / win deals?
It’s all in the questioning. No deal starts off perfectly, if it does, then you probably didn’t create the best that situation that you could.
The types of questions that you want to be asking the vendor (seller) need to be open ended. What I mean by this is that they need to start with the words why, where, how etc. Don’t let the answer be a yes or no, the seller needs to offer you more information than just a yes or no. Examples of such questions could be:
- Tell me more about that
- Can you explain that further?
- How can you help me get into this property?
There are places, however, for closed and straight forward questions too though. If you don’t ask some of these questions, then you may never know the answer that you are looking for. Such questions could include:
- Would you be interested in renting this property for $190 per week instead of $180?
- What is the best price you can do?
- Do you offer vendor finance?
- Can I have a 90 day settlement?
- Can I put down a 5% deposit?
- Can the vendor fund the deposit?
Another good strategy in questioning is to pretend that you are the other party. For example. Instead of you being the purchaser, pretend that you are a tenant wanting to find out about properties in a particular area. You may request a list of all the 3 bedroom properties available in a particular area. You could ask about the rental values and heaps more questions about various properties. This could give you some inside information.
2 sensational questions to ask a real estate agent when looking for a property are:
1. What properties have you got on your list that you haven’t been able to sell for a long time?
2. Which properties are being offered at a discount?
These 2 questions are fantastic to open the door to purchasing properties for a discount. DO NOT just go to an agent and say that you want to purchase a property at a discount, they will not take you as a serious investor.
When analyzing a deal, you need to determine what it will take to make this property into a cash flow positive one. You need to look not only at the purchase price, but also at the rental value and the finance arrangements. All aspects of a deal need to work together to get the best deal and make it a positive return for you. Property investing becomes about the numbers, not the properties themselves. You should never become attached to the property, it is the deal that you are doing that will make you money. Don’t just buy a property that you would like to live in, because quite frankly, you are not going to live in it. Buy one that will appeal to the masses.
Once you have a property, of even if you are analyzing one, ask yourself questions like how else can we improve this property to make more income or how can we increase the value or cash on cash return? These will all make your property more profitable for you and hence allow you to own more of them and build your overall portfolio.
All deals are possible, just keep asking the questions in different ways until you hear the response you want to hear. Sometimes you may need to change the direction of your questions and be a bit creative with your deals. As I said earlier, if you can somehow give both parties what they want, then you will have a winning deal.
Just remember, there are a lot of opportunities out there, not all of them will work for you, so move on. Great opportunities come along at least once a week.
I hope you have benefited from this article and that it will give some people the confidence to ask questions, different questions, to strike better deals on their real estate purchases. If you want to know a fantastic strategy that gives you cash flow positive real estate deals every time, then visit the www.toolsforwealth.com web site and look at the product reviews for Rick Otton’s Wrap Pack and Rent to Own as well as Hans Jakobi’s Super Secrets to Real Estate Courses. All of these products are truly brilliant and allow every average person to get into real estate investing with little or now money of their own.
About The Author:
Mandy Nield is a recognized authority in the area of investing, and strongly believes that financial education is the only way to creating long term wealth. If you want some strategies to create wealth now, go to her product review site at:
http://www.toolsforwealth.com. The only way to change the way you are living now is to change what you are currently doing. Get educated now!