Deadly Mistakes You Can Avoid - Part 5

7. Chasing dead-end leads. Chasing dead end leads is very similar to dealing with unmotivated sellers and can be a tremendous waste of time and energy. Unfortunately, many people never really learn how to avoid it. Well I can solve this problem very simply. Pre-qualify every prospect that comes your way. n nI've found if you spend as little as five minutes getting pre-qualifying information out of a prospect, you may avoid spending hours and hours gathering details about a property you never have a chance of buying. And any time you can spend minutes to save hours, it's like putting money in the bank. Some students of mine have a tendency to take a phone call from a prospect and rush right out to look a house hoping something will develop. Especially if business has been slow. They'll be out there measuring for carpet and gathering useless facts before they even know if they have a chance to put the house under contract. What a crazy waste of time, especially when you know you should never leave your desk without a solid reason to do so. n nProperly pre-qualifying a prospect will help you to determine if further action is warranted. When making the initial contact with a prospect, you should ask yourself three questions to determine whether you can make a deal: n 1. Can I buy the house wholesale? n 2. Can I create a subject- to deal or seller financing or both? n 3. Can I option the house? nn nIf the situation doesn't fit one of these three models, you don't have a deal. It's that simple. There is no reason for you to waste any further time on the conversation, much less traveling across town to look at a house you'll never own. n nFive minutes is all it should take to determine if you can create a deal with the prospective seller. Of course, you'll have to take the seller's word on things like the condition of the house, mortgage balances, liens, judgements, etc. However, if the information seems reliable, and you feel the seller is motivated to pursue one of the three money-producing models we discussed above, then you should arrange a meeting and verify your assumptions about the viability of a deal. n nWhen I leave my desk, my chances of putting a house under contact are about 80%. By the time I ease the old Mercedes out of the driveway, I've fully qualified my prospect and I know I won't be just collecting a lot of useless facts. n nSo instead of being professional fact finders, we should get into the business of being professional offer makers. If you follow this pre-qualifying procedure on every lead, you'll save yourself a lot of wasted, un-productive hours and you'll start to find this business really coming together for you. nn nWell, I see I've ran out of space, so I'll continue this list of roadblocks in your next issue. Don't miss it. I'm just gettin' warmed up.n