You can make a profit from the deals you find, even when the deals aren't a fit for your real estate business. Here are five tips to make sure you get paid for your time.

1. Sign up the deal!

This is the most obvious way to profit from every appointment you make.

2. Turn your "junk" into gold.

Take the people you meet who just are NOT a fit for you and refer them to people in your network who CAN profit by the referral. This builds value into your referral network.

For example: You meet with a seller who really would do better to refinance the house. You simply say, "I can see it's not a fit for me to buy this house. Your best option really is for you to refinance the property.

Here's the number of a great mortgage broker I know [give him the number], and if I remember, I'll ask her to give you a call next week to see if she can help out." Then pass the seller's name and phone number on to your mortgage broker.

Over time this will encourage your mortgage broker contact to pass leads to you, such as buyers whose loan fell through. There is a motivated seller now!

3. Get information on local market conditions.

Use the meeting to get information for the resale market AND for the rental market. Find out:

• What are rental and resale prices like?





• How long are properties staying on the market?





• What types of properties are MOST in demand and what types are LEAST in demand?





• What is the PERCEIVED market conditions according to the sellers?

4. Learn from the appointment

This is the ultimate way to leverage yourself. What went well with the appointment? What will you do differently next time as a result of what you learned on this appointment? Make sure you take five minutes and debrief yourself IN WRITING!

5. Future Deals

Follow-up, follow-up, and follow-up with all of these sellers.

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