Remember, you’re a problem solver!

To be a successful real estate investor, you need to be great at solving problems.  In fact, your income will be directly proportional to your ability to help a seller overcome problems associated with real estate.

This often means developing creative offers that give your seller everything they need yet still allows you to make a profit.  Oftentimes, price isn’t the only thing that will determine whether you’ll buy a house.  There may be a non-monetary challenge that the seller is facing, and if you can work in a solution to that challenge, you’ll stand a better chance of getting the deal.

For instance, I was contacted by a seller who had inherited three properties.  She was living in one of them, while the other two were vacant.  She wanted to sell the properties, and then use the cash to buy another home to move to.  The problem was that she needed a couple months to find another house to buy, pack all of her stuff and move.   She had been in touch with several other investors who made her cash offers, but they all wanted her to vacate by closing.  I was able to work a deal with her where we would close on the three properties all at once, give her enough cash to pay for her next property, and hold the remaining cash in escrow to be paid once she vacates.  In addition, I put her in touch with a realtor who started her home search right away.  It was a simple gesture, but one that turned out to be the deciding factor for her to sell to me.

Another time I met with a seller who was very firm on his sales price.  In fact, the amount that he wanted was a good $40,000 more than made sense for me to pay as a cash offer.  In my early days as an investor I would have simply said, “sorry, I can’t do it” and moved on.  This particular duplex would have brought in some serious cash flow if I could structure the proper terms, so I came back to this seller and said I can pay his price if he would accept my terms.  I ended up making him an offer where I gave him the sales price he wanted, paying half of the price at close, with the other half paid in one lump sum 5 years later.  Since he didn’t need all the cash at close, this was an acceptable solution to his problem.  It also allowed me to borrow a smaller amount of private money, so my payment was really low.  I have over $1000/mo positive cash flow on this property and it was all because I was able to solve his biggest concern in a creative way which still allowed me to make it work as an investment.

Remember this next time you meet with a seller.