[Part 2 of 3]
Pipelining is a common sense technique of following up every single viewing, sometimes for a year or more after the initial viewing.
A salesperson would have a pipeline of prospects; this is normal. But most investors never follow-up a property or viewing after either the initial viewing or when an offer is declined.
Even if on initial viewing the property was not right for you, it doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be right for you in a year at a 30% lower price.
It is very likely that there would be little or no motivation when you first view a property, so you wouldn’t want to buy then anyway. This should actually only be the start of the process, but for most investors it’s the end of the process.
A lot of your profit is in your pipeline, and if you don’t nurture your pipeline, follow-up your pipeline, check-in every 6 to 8 weeks if vendors have changed their mind, have sold or if their circumstances have changed, then you’ll be leaving hundreds of thousands of pounds on the table.
The more advanced skill in pipelining is creating a long, protracted pipeline process intentionally rather than rush into closing deals where you overpay.
This is not an offer, offer:
This is Not an Offer, Offer is an advanced offering technique that allows you unconscious permission to offer a VERY low offer without offending or upsetting any agents or vendors, AND have your offer taken seriously and/or put forward.
Most investors are worried that low offers will offend estate agents and therefore often don’t offer low enough, if at all. In fact it is said that if you’re not embarrassed about your offer then it is not low enough.
When offering there are likely to be two variable scenarios.
Scenario I. is where you make the offer to the estate agent
Scenario 2. is where the estate agent follows up and asks you want to offer you’d like to make
Scenario 1.
You view the property and tell the estate agent exactly when you’ll follow up and make an offer or give feedback. This should not be longer than 48-hours after the viewing and ideally by the next day afternoon.
You call the estate agent and give feedback. Tell them what you liked and what you’d like to see more of, then give specific feedback as to why the property is not for you (too small, a little out of ideal area) and then you state that you won’t be making an offer because of these reasons.
Then you intentionally pause.
One of two things will happen after this pause.
1. The estate agent will push and ask you for an offer, or what you would offer if you were to offer. If this happens then this is fantastic and you’ve been given permission to make a very low offer.
You then state that you won’t be making an offer, but if you were, and now that the estate agent is asking, you will offer ‘X’.
If the estate agent baulks, or is a little shocked, simply reply that you thought that might be the case and that’s why you didn’t want to make the offer. But as you were asked you wanted to be honest. However in many cases this will be the first stage of making your low offer.
2. The second thing that may happen after this pause is nothing, and so you will need to push the conversation and use that this is not an offer, offer technique.
Simply say because of these reasons I’m not going to make an offer, but if I were to make an offer my offer would probably be around X, because you know that the estate agents like to get honest feedback.
If the estate agent does seem a little off with your low offer simply state that that’s why you aren’t making the offer.
Scenario 2.
The estate agent calls you first and follows up, asking you if you like to make an offer. In this instance you simply follow step one of
scenario 1.
Stick around and look out for the 3rd and final part of getting on the right side of estate agents!
