Deal or no Deal?

With my everyday dealing with fellow investors
and my students, one question seems to stand out
as to cause the most problems…

“Is this a good deal?”

At first glance, this is really a tough question. It
appears to rank among questions like, “What do
women really want?” or “Which came first, the
chicken or the egg?”

Truth is, it’s not really that complicated.

Let me explain…

In order to determine whether you have a winner
or not, simply ask these questions:

What is the property worth? You have to determine
the property’s value. If you have access to the MLS,
that would be great. Otherwise, you can have a
licensed realtor run comps for you (”Comps” is short
for Comparable Market Analysis or CMA).

It ain’t rocket science. If you know how much the
property is worth, you can immediately compare that
to the asking price, factor in repair costs (if needed)
and the amount you’re looking to pocket and from
that alone, you’d be able to see whether it’s a winner
or a weener.

How much do you owe on the property? Now this
may be a little tricky as you wouldn’t want to offend
your seller. You can go around this by casually asking
“How much are your payments on the property?” and
then following it up with, “Do you still owe a lot on it?”
This way, the question appears a lot more “cushioned”.

What are the repairs needed and how much? Most
sellers would probably tell you the house is in great shape
even if it were missing the whole roof just so you’d go
ahead and ink the contract (either that or I’m just paranoid
like hell! Ease into this information by asking your
seller, “If you were to buy this house again and wanted
it to be your dream house, what would you fix or
upgrade?” This way the question revolves more around
the seller and thus you have greater chances of the seller
opening up.

Otherwise, just go visit the house and look around and
see for yourself. Don’t forget to bring your camera.

Will you sell for what you owe on the house? By
asking this question, you can find out how motivated the
seller is which in effect allows you to come up and use
creative financing like a ’subject to’ or a ‘wrap around
owner financing‘ or something like that.

Of course if they don’t owe anything on the house you
don’t need to ask this question (like ‘duh’!

What’s the least you would accept if I can pay all
cash and close quickly? This one question has
allowed me to make an extra $5K on my very first deal.
It was a $135K house and the seller is only asking for
$60K. I looked around and found out that the house
needed a lot of repairs (eventually costing me another
$18K). Even so, I thought it was still a great bargain so
I pursued it. But just as we were about to close the deal,
I just thought about asking the seller, “What’s the least
you’d accept if I can pay all cash and close quickly?” The
seller hesitated for a moment before saying, she’d go
for $55K. It took every ounce of my willpower not
to jump around with joy when she said that.

Since then I have always ALWAYS asked this question
before closing a deal. Trust me, it works wonders!

And that’s it! Just 5 simple questions and you’ll be able
to know for sure whether it’s a deal or no deal.

Tomorrow, I’m going to share with you some scripts
that I and my Virtual Assistants use to speak to prospects.
You can take the scripts and use them for yourself or
make some modifications. It’s all up to you.

So please do expect that email tomorrow.

Talk soon.

Tim Mai

P.S. This guy flipped 5 houses in ONE hour. No BS.
Go HERE to see for yourself.