Overcoming Real Estate Fears: An introduction

PART ONE: Overcoming Real Estate Fears: An Introduction What do I mean by overcoming real estate fears?Calling home sellers can be a scary idea...or it can be a lot of fun.I have a question for you...When you have got a prospective seller's phone number and you're picking up the phone to call and "test the waters" for a first contact or to present a verbal offer, does it sometimes bother you?Do you get freaked out?Do you start thinking about exactly what you're going to say, how you're going to say it, how to deal with any and every possible contingency, how to "convince" or "sell" the seller on doing a creative real estate deal with you... etc.?Do you ever get NERVOUS when you're dialing the phone?         You know that feeling when you just start getting anxious for no logical reason, and you just CAN'T control it?         Have you ever had to actually HANG UP because you were so darn freaked out... and you just couldn't follow through with it? OK, now another set of interesting questions...         Have you ever called a seller back after a first chat/offer, and started talking to the person, only to realize that he/she was in a COMPLETELY different mood from the last time?         Have you ever had a seller "turn cold" on you all of a sudden and be "not interested" in your creative real estate offer?         It's almost like you're talking to a different person from the person you built rapport with (hopefully) and it makes no sense to you... right? And finally...         Despite some weird feelings, have you ever worked up the nerve to call a difficult prospective seller, gotten the seller on the phone, had a great conversation full of all kinds of possibilities...but when it came time to get some agreement over something hammered out, you froze up because you didn't know what to say?         Or even worse, have you ever gotten to the end of a conversation on the phone or at the house, after a long time investment of exploring the seller's needs and the house itself... only to have him/her answer with:    "Well, maybe... call me Friday afternoon... OK?"    or...    "That really doesn't sound like what I want to do,         but thanks for asking... (silence)"...?         Have you ever had one of those conversations where you could just TELL that something wasn't right... and that, even though the SELLER had a problem you were offering to help SOLVE, he/she wasn't going to be taking you up on your creative real estate offer, or calling you back at all anytime soon? Me too. So why all the problems?         What is it about these particular few minutes just getting the information and finding out the motivation of the seller that constantly ends in problems for beginning real estate investors? I mean, you are calling someone who wants to sell their house about SELLING their house! Hello, where does all this anxiety come from? I personally think that this issue comes down to a few key DEEPER ISSUES. And I think that if you don't have these other issues "handled", you're going to keep running into problems... and NEVER even know WHY... ...which sucks.         I mean, it's bad enough to keep having a particular problem and not figure out how to solve it... but the idea that the solution is in doing something you would never think of is a little bit maddening.         In other words, I think that this is all about understanding the problem, and actually PREVENTING it from coming up... rather than trying to "solveit" in the moment. Let me put it this way...         If you're dialing the phone, and you're starting to feel nervous, then it's already too late to solve the problem. No quick fix will help you.         Or if you're on the phone with him/her and you have just fired across the bow with something like, "Well, Susie...I understand all that you're saying, but if I were to pay cash and close quickly what is your bottom line to sell this house?"                        OR "Well, Susie, now that you understand what an Option Agreement is and we've established that you no longer want to be a landlord but ALSO want to get full retail value selling your house, and want to do it yesterday with no headaches and no real estate commissions...I think I can help... do you now feel ready to make a deal with me? and she says "Um, well Mr. Investor, I do need to  sell the house BUT...X,Y,Z...let me call you back in a few days/weeks/next Christmas and tell you my answer then"...          And you start to get that sinking feeling that what should be a GREAT deal because you KNOW you can help her out and get this thing done, is dead in the WATER because you know she's blowing you off.          You confused the seller or worse you sounded so "slick" she was ready to run for the hills. At this point IT'S TOO LATE. There's no "magic pill" now. The answer is PREVENTION. Let's get this handled. See Part Two: Overcoming Real Estate Fears- 4 Techniques to Calling Sellers Confidently