Real Estate Investors, What Kind of Closer Are You?

If you ask fellow investors what the most important and challenging part of the wholesaling process is, I imagine most would respond the same and say closing.

Before we go over the different kinds of closers, the first question to answer is, do you want to be a closer? Or are you a closer? The reality is that not all real estate investors are closers, but if you’re a one-person shop, you have to be one.

Selling and closing is a skill and, with practice, you become better at it, and it requires less effort.

Everyone has their style of closing, and the best salespeople sharpen the skill with practice and by learning new techniques.

I was told once by someone who thought he was the best salesperson ever that he could “close 90% of people who were ready to sign right then and there!” It sounds impressive, right? It does if said with confidence. Think about it though: if people were ready to sign on the spot, what would make sense was 100%.

No matter what type of closer you are, you must have confidence, even if you question yourself in your head.

So how do you actually close? By listening! You may already know the apparent motivation, but you need to discover the pain point and their emotional drive. You must speak to it, and there are different ways to do this. But at the end of the day, you should use one of these closer styles, as a reference, and find your own voice:

The Novice

You may be new at it, but you are still an expert, someone who researched and knows how to deal with the seller’s problem, either by first or second-hand experience. The key here is to make the seller feel sorry for you and sell to you because they want to help you out. This interaction makes the seller feel good about themselves. They sell their house and gain an emotional win.

The Compassionate

Compassion is the active desire to relieve another’s suffering. You cannot fake this, you either genuinely care about making a difference and helping the seller, or you don’t. People can tell the difference; they know when you truly care about them and understand their position.

I know an investor who focuses on the senior niche. He has personal experience with finding assisted living for elderly parents. He can, therefore, relate to and make a connection with both senior homeowners and their adult children. So he often gets the contract, even when other investors offer to pay more.

The Fear Monger

Many will defend that fear is a powerful sales tactic. It creates urgency or provokes a reaction. An example of this is a pre-foreclosure when the seller procrastinates, and you instigate the fear that they will lose their house, be kicked out and bothered by it for seven years of bad credit. You hope it’s enough to get them to act.

If you choose this approach, my advice is to end it on a positive note. When the seller signs the contract, they should feel relieved, since they successfully avoided their fear.

The Alpha

The Alpha is not afraid of being seen by the seller as “pushy” or “aggressive” and tells it as it is. This approach is not my favorite, but I know real estate investors who use it and close deals. It won’t work for every investor on every seller type. Often those that use this technique need to close fast, because other styles may win the lead over for being “friendlier.”

Some sellers will shy away from asking questions and take what is being said as truth, and just follow through. Personally, I believe that you can “catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,” or shall I say, catch more sellers with a smoother approach than by being pushy.

The Confident

Confidence is not the same as being cocky, as the cocky salesperson doesn’t close deals. Confidence is saying things in such a way that people will understand and believe you, even if the logic is a bit flawed, like the one example of the 90% instead of 100%. It just feels right.

The Dream Seller

This approach is almost the opposite of the Fear Monger. Instead of focusing on the fear, you paint the picture of their life after they sell to you. You are still appealing to their emotions, but more positively, and believe it or not, most people make decisions based on their emotions. However, for it to work, you need to understand and know what their dream is.

Whatever your style, and whatever the seller’s problem is, you are the problem solver, and the solution is signing a contract with you.

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