A California Deal? The Columbia Lady

I've been mailing to probates, out of town owners (mostly landlords,) and free and clear property owners here in California since Oct 2008. I've had hundreds calls to my info line, had hundreds of conversations on the phone and had 30 meetings with sellers over the last 4 months.

Columbia Lady
One of these is a nice little lady who is 79, living in Orcutt, CA. She has her heart set on a specific price that is actually a little above market value right now.
When I met with her in November, we worked out a plan for me to buy her house on terms, that is, make payments to her over time, that would allow me to pay her the price she wanted for the house. I didn't get her to sign that day because she had to wait and talk to her brother in Columbia. She is moving to Columbia to be with her brother and his daughters so they can take care of her as she gets older. She also wants to die in her home-land. Our initial meeting was on a Wednesday & we agreed to meet up on Monday at her house to sign the papers and get started.

The Friend.
Over the weekend she was able to talk to her brother, but also a couple of friends, people from church and a realtor who told her that she couldn't sell her house like that and they were sure it was a rip-off. When I showed up Monday she had a friend come to the door to basically run interference for her. The deal was on hold.

International Politics.
I called mid December and she still wanted to sell me the house, but the political situation in Columbia was not good and her brother said to wait. She also mentioned that since deciding to sell her house and move away, people from church and the neighborhood were coming around all the time. She never knew she had so many friends!

I called mid January and she was planning on waiting until later in the year...

Houston, We are Go...
Then, out of the blue she called last Wednesday when I was in Orlando at the RoopDoran high equity training seminar and said that she was ready to sell me the house! Great!
The price was good, terms were good and she was ready to move to Columbia. We set a meeting for Tuesday (yesterday,) to meet. Another weekend in between...

Return of The Friend.
She talked to the 'friend' again and when I called yesterday she wanted to wait and meet on Thursday and maybe this 'friend' could come to the meeting too... Sure, I thought, anything to get this deal moving forward again...

So, tomorrow is the day for the next follow up. I doubt the friend will sit down and talk with us anyway. I'm just going to remind her that the plan we put together fixes her problem and let her decide when she wants to move forward. I've already burned up a lot of time on this deal anyway.

What have I learned, you ask? Good question.

• Get them to sign. Even getting an option at full retail would be better than getting nothing signed at all. Get it signed and amend it later.
  
• Tap into the emotions, the non-financial reason for wanting to sell. The only reason I am still talking to her is that she knows I understand her problem and she knows I can fix it. Otherwise, she wouldn't be calling.
  
• Be active enough that each single deal isn't the make-or-break deal. I did this in VA too. I'd get a deal in the hopper and burn it up with laser focus. All my energy and attention was on that deal. Anything to move it forward. Like a kid with a magnifying glass, burning ants on the sidewalk. Ease up a little there Tiger... Remember the 40 other deals on your desk? Work them all and see which one bubbles to the top tomorrow...
  

More deals this week, but pray for this one anyway. Columbia Lady needs me to fix this problem for her. And I could use the money.

Cheers!
Taylor