The level of success you have in your business is going to be directly related to what you think is possible for you. One of my favorite quotes is the one below by Henry Ford:
“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”
– Henry Ford
As I mentioned in some of my live trainings, most of the Real Estate deals I purchased early on were listed online by Realtors. That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t doing a ton of different high energy tactics like cold calling and door-knocking though.
My problem was that I didn’t believe that I was good enough to help the desperate and motivated sellers that I was meeting. So I kept losing every appointment I went on.
If you’ve read my first book, “Broke To A Quarter-Million” you’ll know that I had quit my full time job office job to be a full time investor and was in the process of getting my real estate license. The same month that I passed the test and received my license was also my 3 year wedding anniversary. This happened to be 2 weeks after my former wife and I filed for divorce. This divorce left me with an empty bank account, no income and living off of my little brothers charity for the next year.
I had only gotten my license as an agent as a way to check MLS. Not as a source of income. In fact my friends will remember me telling them that I hated the thought of selling houses back then. Once the divorce started, I no longer had a partner to hold up the finances and had to reconsider sales.
During this year that real estate license that was originally just supposed to be for me to have access to the local MLS, became my only source of “potential” income. I had to go from being an office “bean-counter” to a master of sales and the clock was running. I quickly became buried in credit card debt, loans to family and a shrinking self-image as a man who lost everything that I had associated with “who I was”.
Sales was not my first choice.
It was my only choice and I was terrible at it. In that first year as a real estate agent I only earned $17k and was struggling financially, but I had committed to myself and to my brother that I was going to become a “master of sales”. The next year I switched the brokerage I was with to join an investor friendly brokerage. This broker owned over 300 rental units in Boston, was doing over 100 deals per year and was only a few years older than me.
Over that next 12 months he hammered into my head the importance of booking appointments and negotiating “in person”. He sent me on over 100 “motivated seller” appointments all over the state of Massachusetts. Any time he wanted someone to go on an appointment, even last minute he new I would be the first to take it.
I took every free course, read any book that mentioned sales and took appointments any chance I got. I learned as much in the appointments as I did in all of the free trainings he offered. I could see my conversion rate increasing. It started slowly at first with 20%, then 25% then 30% and by the end of my first year with him I was closing 35%-40% of every appointment I went on. That year I earned $90k just as an agent even though I was splitting my commission 50/50 on the leads he sent me.
I am so thankful for that second year as an agent, working for an investor friendly broker. It was the hardest I had ever worked in my life and I felt like I was failing more often then I was succeeding most of the time, but by June I had earned more that I used to earn in an entire year and by August I had nearly doubled that figure.
What I learned is that the most important part of real estate investing is not just being able to find motivated seller, but it was also booking appointments. Equally as important was negotiating and closing those appointments.
Action Step:
If you are a licensed real estate pay close attention to this article and practice it. If you are a wholesaler or investor on the buy side, make sure whoever is going on your appointments has read this article!
Booking Appointments: How To Do IT Right!
This is where the rubber meets the road. If you’ve been running great marketing campaigns then people are calling you back. This is the time to book an appointment. Once you’ve gotten them hooked, you want them booked!
There is no other conversation that wants to happen. The best place to talk to the seller is at the property of interest. If you’re meeting anywhere else, you’re missing out on the big opportunity. If you’re talking over the phone and hung up without booking an appointment you have missed an opportunity. Every phone call must be aimed at booking that initial appointment.
The simplest conversation is “what is the best day/time for us to meet at the property?”, I can meet you there at 2:00 tomorrow. What’s the best day for you? If they ask you to give them the offer over the phone here is my standard response, “The only way to give you a price is by going down and taking a look at the property. So what’s the best time that will work for you?”
Whatever their objection is, always come back to, “the only way for me to give you an offer is for me to get down to the property and evaluate it in person.” What’s the best time for you? Can you do tomorrow at 2:00 o’clock? Wednesday at 2:00 o’clock? What’s the best day for you for me to come down there?” And keep aiming to book that appointment.
We run cold-calling trainings on Monday so “Tomorrow and Wednesday” have always worked for my teams, but it can be whatever day/time works for your schedule and the seller. You can check out some of our live cold-calling sessions at www.GualterAmarelo.com where you can register to join us for our wholesaling Mastermind and some hands-on training!
If you have experience with booking appointments I want to hear what has worked for YOU and what I may have missed. Share your feedback below and if you know a real estate investor who is complaining about having no good deals, share this article with them!
As always, Cheers to Your Success!
