Learn The Tactics & Strategies Steven Morales Used To Lock Up 17 Contracts In 5 Days Over The Phone

Steve Trang: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disruptors. Today we have Steven Morales from Tampa, Florida. He's gonna share how, the tactics and strategies he used to once lock up 17 deals in five days and more than 30 deals in one month. Kinda crazy, crazy numbers.

If this is your first time tuning in, I am Steve Trang, founder of the OfferFast Homes app, the only only MLS for off market wholesale properties, and I help entrepreneurs create businesses that support their family, lifestyle, and goals through mentorship. I am on a mission to create 100 millionaires. I get asked all the time how I'm able to get so much done, how is they focus and motivated. So I'm gonna be doing a little mini series on how to get more done in less time. If you wanna join me on the Zoom calls and productivity, please please go to disruptors.com/time.

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Steven Morales: I'm ready.

Steve: Alright. First question softball is what got you into real estate?

Steven: Man, what got me into real estate? Let me tell you. When I when I first started, you know, I was working four jobs, and I was tired living paycheck to paycheck. I was going through actually some tough times in my life, you know, divorce, raising a kid. So I was working four jobs, a grocery store, a dishwasher, a bar back, and a gas station attendant.

I'm like, this can't be my life.

Steve: Is that what you were placed on this planet for?

Steven: It's like, why am I doing this? This is not my purpose. How long am I be stuck here? You know, I I tried the college thing. My very last class in college was actually a business class, and the professor didn't own a business himself.

So I'm like, I don't know if this is for me. Right?

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: But during the bar back, you know, job, I actually met a lot of, you know, wealthy individuals. This one guy real really, caught my attention. I'm a big car guy, traveling cars, all that stuff. And this guy came in a different car every time. And, you know, he's like, hey.

I do sales and real estate investing. I'm like, what is what is, I've done sales before. At that time, I was also doing door to door. But he said he was doing real estate investing at the time. I didn't know anything about real estate investing.

I thought you needed a lot of money, and I kinda researched it when I got home. And I came across wholesaling. You know, it's like you really just put the you're flipping paper. You're not flipping the actual house. So, I have a strong sales background.

I'm like, this is something I could probably do. I took a job at it.

Steve: When was this that this is all going down?

Steven: 2015.

Steve: Yeah. So 2015. So just put context in it. Just five years ago. Not that long ago.

Seems like for a long time ago. Yeah. But not that really long time ago. So you're working four jobs. Yeah.

Like, what were your hours like?

Steven: So during the day, during the week during the day was the grocery store. Right? At night during the week was the dishwasher. During the day on Saturdays and Sundays was the gas station attendant. And at night during the weekends was the bar back.

So Wow. I dropped one of those, got back into door to door. You know, having four jobs is is is tough. And, you know, people first starting out, I don't care what kind of situation they're going through. There's, like, no excuses.

If you wanna make something happen, you can make it happen Yeah. Regardless of your circumstances. So

Steve: So you check out this car this real estate things like, ah, that might work. Well, what'd you do next?

Steven: I the first thing is I went to YouTube, real estate investing. I came across a lot of wholesale videos. I didn't really know what wholesaling real estate at the time was, but I I quickly realized, like, all you really gotta do is find a motivated seller, you know, put under contract, and, you know, find a buyer and just assign, and that's pretty much it. So Do you

Steve: remember who you were watching back then? I didn't even know who was who was supposed to be. You know what? One of

Steven: the first names I came across was actually, Cody. Cody Sperber, clever investor.

Steve: Gotcha.

Steven: He was big on Periscope, and I actually,

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Steven: I learned a lot of free stuff through him in YouTube.

Steve: Yeah. So Alright. So you're learning stuff. What will happen next?

Steven: So what happened next, actually, I think there was a contest, on, YouTube channel. And whoever put the best comment in, I think it was actually one of Claire investors' videos. Somebody posted a check. Whoever put in the best comment, got, like, a free course, just the basic stuff. Right?

So I poured my heart and soul into that comment. I ended up winning.

Steve: When

Steven: I found out I was the winner, I was actually working at the grocery store. I'm like, holy cow. I won my first course. And at that time, I didn't have much money. It was a big thing for me.

And I'm like, what can I do with this course? It gives you the basic stuff. And, you know, even though a course is great, there's a lot of great education out there. But if you don't have the right guidance or you're not around the right people that are actually doing stuff that you wanna do, it could take you a long time.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: So I didn't know what I was doing or it's a wholesale house. I didn't know anything about marketing, anything about, you know, anything. Really, I didn't know what I didn't know. And it actually took me eight months to get my very first deal. Right.

And I didn't know I didn't have, like, a fancy CRM. I didn't know anything about cold calling, direct mail. I just kinda drove around for dollars. My first drive for dollars, lead was was a deal, and it was a $7,000 deal. You know, that that's a long story.

So let's talk about let's

Steve: talk about that. Right? So 7,000 your first deal. That was driving for dollars.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Alright. So you're driving around, you

Speaker 2: find it.

Steve: What'd you do? I mean, because driving for dollars is not a new concept. Right?

Steven: Right.

Steve: But driving for dollars is not enough. Like, you drove. You identify the house. Then what did

Steven: you do? So what I did next was actually my brother and I were driving for him for dollars. Right? And then it was a vacant distressed property. I went to the local tax records.

I looked up the mailing address. We hand wrote letters to these distressed homeowners or distressed properties homeowners. Hey. Came across your house. Would you like an offer?

We wrote hundreds of them, like, hand wrote them, because I couldn't afford direct mail and all that stuff. I was trying to be resourceful. And this guy ended up calling us back. And, I was using Zillow at the time for comps. I didn't know what MLS was.

I didn't have PropStream or anything crazy.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: And, he actually ended up accepting our offer. And the funny thing is that, you know, I was so excited. Heck, I got my first deal. It's under contract. I signed it to somebody I met at a local REIA.

They didn't have any real estate experience either. Okay? So this was the person that, they bought it, but they didn't really know what they were doing as well. So, you know, the funny thing is, I actually assigned it to this buyer. And before it closed, they actually started renovating the property.

And I'm like, that doesn't seem right.

Speaker: I I

Steven: know I don't know much about wholesaling, but that that doesn't seem right to me. So the the homeowner calls me, like, yelling, yo, what's up with this? The floors are gone. This and that. I'm like, what do you mean your floors are gone?

Yeah. You guys start flipping. I'm like, oh my god. I had to make a prayer because I was I was swimming pools. I didn't have an LLC at the time.

And even though I encouraged people to get an LLC, you don't need one, it's not mandatory. But I I didn't know what I was doing. Right? Thankfully, the house was vacant. I told the homeowner, hey.

Look. Like, this is my partner. They're gonna be taken over. I'm assigning to them. Everything cooled down.

But it was a huge learning experience to really vet who you're doing business with. And I'm still really good friends with that person till today. They're doing great things, but Yeah.

Steve: It was a rough

Steven: person deal.

Steve: But that's something that, I mean, people don't talk a lot about. Right? Like, they talk about how to find deals. Like, right now, sourcing deals is, like, the cool thing. Right?

We're talking about how to find deals, process, and so on. But we don't talk a lot about the challenges. Like, having a buyer that you wholesale the deal to that hasn't closed yet, that starts working on the property, that can cause a lot of legal

Speaker: Yeah.

Steve: Problems.

Steven: Yeah. I was afraid I was gonna lose everything when I barely had anything, you know. So it was learning experience for sure. So you

Steve: got that deal closed? Mhmm. Okay. What'd you do after

Steven: that? $7,000 deal. You know, we we kinda figured more about Podio and, you know, some other marketing methods and stuff like that. I got been verified..com. I didn't know about it at the time until after I closed the deal.

Started networking more. Something that really changed, the game for me was when I started surrounding myself with the right people. Mhmm. You know? Because the people at my four jobs, they just wanted to do things.

We weren't heading in the right direction. So when I went to these RIAs, I started rubbing shoulders with people that are actually doing big things, learned a lot of new things.

Speaker: And,

Steven: you know, for those of you guys doing business with family, you know, just make sure everything's clear up front. You know, I was doing business with family in the beginning, and the business just kinda fell apart. And I had to start all the way from ground zero again, you know, keeping my mind's going through some tough times in my life. And the business that I got one deal, it fell apart, you know. So I was back to where I started.

Steve: Well, let's talk about that because I think that's a really good point. Right? You know, I I tell people all the time, you know, don't do partnerships. Right? And and that's hypocritical because I have a partnership.

Right?

Steven: Yeah.

Steve: But I always say if you don't do partnerships, but if you're gonna do a partnership, get a really good prenup, which is an operating agreement. Yeah. Right? So if you're gonna if you're gonna assist in getting a partner, then have a really strong operating agreement drafted by an attorney that knows what he's doing. So everyone knows what happens in the event of a divorce.

Yeah. So let's talk about your incident with with family.

Steven: Yeah. So, you know, it's just, it didn't work out and not nothing too personal or anything. But, basically, when we we parted ways, I knew I had really good sales experience. So for those of you who don't know me, I have really strong sales experience from multilevel marketing to door to door to phone sales. Right?

Cold calling around the country, high net worth individuals trying to sell them stock information, kinda like illegal off of Wall Street. And I learned a lot through that. So, you know but I was still working the four jobs. I I thought I could be a little bit more secure doing the nine to five thing, but it wasn't it didn't fill my cup. It wasn't forming.

So after business fell apart, I I didn't give up. You know, I actually went to another local meetup, and I came across, my very first mentor there. He was looking for something called, you know, acquisitions manager, go on appointment, stuff like that. I didn't know too much about what acquisitions was. I just knew that I was really good at sales.

In 2015,

Steve: no one really did. Yeah. I was

Steven: I was really good at sales, so I told him I I want to try it out. I would go on appointments. He kinda took me under his wing. I learned everything. And then, I I just you know, throughout the whole time, I was going through, like, you know, I don't wish a a divorce upon anybody, but there's a lot of, like, bills that go into that, legal's attorney's fee, stuff like that.

So I was just trying to, you know, use my skill set to fit in a good company that provided me some great opportunity to make some great money. You know? So I money, you know. So I I really excelled at the acquisitions position. I jumped between a few companies and, you know, I just kept rolling.

I just kept rolling.

Steve: So we were in the Closers Olympics.

Steven: Yeah.

Steve: Right. You wanna talk about that experience?

Steven: Oh, the Closers Olympics. Let me that was such a great event. Shout out to all the guys that put it together. And, you know, a lot of people say there's a lot of controversy. It wasn't perfect, but it was such a great idea that they came up with because nobody out there is putting some of the best in the country doing live calls.

Steve: Right.

Steven: Like some people they do they record their calls on the social media and all that stuff. You see what happens after. You don't see what happens during. But to be put on the spot Why? Like live calls and I was really excited.

I got the call. I'm like, I'm all in. I wanna be the first one up. I just wanna be the first one up because I like to send the tone. And, you know, we're in 2020.

In the past five years, I've closed deals, you know, in person, on stage, over the phone. So for me, it wasn't you know, I didn't feel pressure. I was more excited and I kinda just, like, actually had fun throughout the process. I was actually kinda, doing the commentary for the the judges while I was on the call. I was like, this is what's gonna happen and this is gonna happen, and it happened.

So Right. I had a great time. It was a great learning experience, not only for myself, but, you know, to provide relief for, families affected by COVID nineteen and just for the audience to pick up nuggets from, you know, all these closers. They can take bits and pieces

Steve: I think, you know, it was, Elijah, Keith, Quinn, Aaron, they did a great job. And Jen and, Annalise and,

Steven: Yeah.

Steve: And, Andrea. So there's and and many more. They all they all did a great job. I think it was obvious everyone that watched though, like, you know, you and I were the two best. Right?

I think it was obvious for everyone.

Steven: Something I took away from you was the cliffhanger, voicemail. Yeah. And I love how you start off the conversation negative. I mean, everybody has their own flavor, their own style, and it everybody's making it work. But you were the most patient person, not only Closer Olympics, that I've probably met, you know, in a long time Yeah.

Especially with the guy that was, like, throwing death bombs at you. You were just kept your composure, kept cool. So it it was really, really cool to watch.

Steve: Yeah. It was great. And, you know, I I think looking at going into it, you know, I was looking around, I was like, well, who are the favorites? Like, well, Steven's probably number one. And I think that one of the things and RJ surprised the hell out of all of us.

Oh, yeah. I think one of the big things was you kinda saw we're all closers. We've all done deals. We've all done lots of deals, but not a lot of us have done deals in the spotlight. And that was, like, that was kinda like the x factor to see how this goes, and you've totally blew me away.

Like, you were totally calm and collected like you've done it on stage before. So I thought that was pretty cool. So at some point along the way, in your career, you got 17 deals in five days. I don't know a lot of people that have done that. Right?

And marketing aside, what I really care about is what do you do as far as, like, pre call, during during the call, whatever? Like, what are the things that you're trying to do to make sure you maximize the opportunity for each and every call?

Steven: Yeah. Something that I have the mentality of I rather call somebody too much and lose a deal than call too little and lose a lose a deal. So what I noticed is I'm like, dang. You know, 70 contracts, five days. Like, I impress myself.

I'm like, what what did I do differently? And, really, the the key is relentless follow-up and time commitment from homeowners. Because a lot of times, investors were like, you know, seller says, hey. Call me tomorrow. You know, the investor calls the next day.

No answer. But what I realized what I did is I started getting a time commitment out of somebody. Mhmm. I said, hey. What's a good time I can call you tomorrow?

Oh, just call me tomorrow. You know, know, do you have a specific time? No. Just call me tomorrow. Do you prefer the mornings, afternoons?

Call me in the mornings. Okay. I'll call you at 9AM. I assume, like, that's okay. And they said, okay.

Great. Mhmm. So the thing is, a lot of people don't realize, and I I've I've learned a lot of this from door to door, phone sales, all that stuff, is when you make, the homeowner make their own time commitment psychologically, they are gonna be a lot more responsive when you call them back. Yeah. So when I say, what's a good time to call you tomorrow?

Oh, call me at nine. Okay. Great. I'll call you at nine.

Speaker: Mhmm.

Steven: Now you're gonna get some sellers that they tell you call me at nine. They don't pick up the phone. What do you do? So what I do is I call them three times for two consecutive days, and it looks something like this. I call let's say, mister Smith says, hey.

Call me tomorrow at nine. I call at 09:00. They don't answer. I will, call them, obviously. They'll see a missed call.

I will leave a voice mail, and I will text them. Mhmm. Only the first initial phone call per day. Okay? So I call, leave a voice mail, and text at nine.

I call them again at twelve, or I call them between five and six. Most of the time, I do those different, angles because people are either going home or, you know, leaving to work. Right? So I'm more likely to pick somebody up within three times a day. I do that for two consecutive days.

If they still don't answer, I use a Google Voice. I use a Office line, whatever I gotta do. A lot of homeowners, like, if they will see your phone number, they will get to a point where they're just gonna start ignoring it. Like, oh, this guy, you know, they just try to brush you to the side. The funny thing is when you get them online, like, I'm not the type of guy that says, hey, mister Smith, how are you?

Like, in reality, a lot of people when they call each other, they say, how you doing? Like, in sales

Steve: How are you doing today?

Steven: A lot of prospects don't don't really care how you're doing. So I just say, hey, mister Smith. Hey, this is Steven. I know I've been blowing you up. Hey, listen.

If you don't wanna sell, I can completely understand. Otherwise, if you'd like to get an offer and move forward, I'd love to show we can help you out. Yep. Okay? And they almost get embarrassed because, like, dang, you caught me.

Mhmm. But keep in mind, like, you guys have to have the mentality, like, you have to be willing to lose due by calling too much rather than too little.

Steve: Well and you brush over that really quickly, and I want to really emphasize that point. You're really kind of person that feels like you're gonna be bothering somebody. You're have a really tough time with this business. As a mentor

Speaker: Yeah.

Steve: Every time I've heard that, I mean, I've started giving up on people, and this is terrible. But if someone says, like, I don't want to bother them, and I tell them that that's what you have to do is, like but it feels feels really uncomfortable. It's like you're dead to me. Like, every additional energy spent here and that sounds really horrible, but that's just experience.

Steven: You gotta be you gotta, you know, tell the truth, though. Like Yeah. In this business, even starting out or you're maybe, been in it for a few months, like, rejection is something whether you're brand new or experienced you're gonna come across.

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Steven: The thing is, like, are you going to accept it and let it roll off your back or you're gonna take it personal and run away? Mhmm. You know, no matter what company or in business you're working with, sales is key for any company, and rejection just comes with sales. Right. So the more no's you get, you closer to her yes.

And I never get offended. Like, I can talk to anybody on the phone. If they reject me, they say, no. I don't take it personal. They don't understand the business.

It's not me. I'm I'm a nice guy to them. But

Steve: They're not rejecting Steven. They're rejecting the the the process.

Steven: Yeah. That's the way my mindset is. That they say, hey, you're a scam, this or that. It's okay. Mhmm.

There's somebody out there that wants to sell that I can speak with. I don't have to spend time on somebody that doesn't believe in it. So

Steve: Yeah. Awesome. Okay. What else are you doing, you know, pre call, during the call, whatever, to to to to hit that hot streak?

Steven: Yeah. So follow-up relentlessly is a a big thing. You know, a lot of times when people answer the phones and even if you call from different numbers, you gotta get creative. You know, if you're in their market or you have boots on the ground in that market, put a sticky note on their door, send them an Amazon gift card to their mailing address. Like, you got a one time we sent a pizza to this guy in the hospital Yeah.

And, you just gotta get super creative. But the biggest thing for me was really the time commitment, you know, getting an exact time and really calling at least three times a day. You know, when when this all started, Steve, was there was, a huge a huge land deal in Tampa. Right? And right across, there was, like, some townhome development, and that company bought that land a $100,000 more than what this guy was asking.

He said, call me next month. I'm like, I'll call you next month. I was super excited. $100,000 deal. Easy.

I called him next month and he sold to somebody else. Yeah. And I'm like, I called this guy exactly when you want me to call him. Here's another big tip is if anybody ever tells you call me in two weeks, call me in a month, you guys have to slash that time in half. Right.

Worst case scenario, they're gonna be like, hey, I told you call me in in two weeks. Oh, no problem. Once they're checking with you because situations may change, I'll call you in a week. Alright? If I would have called this guy in two weeks and checked in, he probably wouldn't have sold it to other guy and worst thing they can say is no.

Right. People also have to accept the fact that the worst thing somebody can say to you is I don't wanna sell my house and you move on to the next lead. So I had that mentality, now I'm gonna start slashing all these times enough. If they say call in two weeks, that means a week. Right?

If they say call in a month, that means two weeks.

Speaker: Yep.

Steve: Now if

Steven: they say call me tomorrow, don't call them the same day. But if it's beyond a week, I slash that time in half, and I always, you know, make sure I don't lose that deal. So Yeah.

Steve: So was there anything you did on the phone? You know, like, do you have any, is there anything you you do do that you think differently than most call callers? Because, like, everyone calls. Right? Yeah.

And we all pretty much use most of the Sanskrit. A few of them are different. Is there anything that you think you do differently on the call

Steven: to separate yourself? Something that I love doing is, you know, a lot of people ask, hey, at what point should I build rapport or this or that? Something that I love to do is that in the beginning of the conversation is I like building rapport. And I don't even have to try. Anybody that's new or advanced doesn't really have to try.

So what I like to do is basically, if mister Smith calls in and ask me, I please have the address of the property, 123 Main Street. I copy and paste that address onto Google or if depending what CRM you're using, it's gonna show there, and I name a nearby street or landmark. Mhmm. So let's say 123 Main Street is next to the Bucks Stadium in Tampa. Hey.

Hey. Mister Smith, isn't that next to the Bucks Stadium? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah.

They just signed, you know, Tom Brady, Gronkowski. Are you a football fan? Something so small like that, if you have recorded calls and you listen to them, you're almost gonna sound the homeowner get a lot excited about it. Just simply because you find some common ground.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: So the way I build rapport is I find common ground by naming a nearby street or landmark. Okay? If there's no landmarks, find a nearby street. But now you can relate to that person, and that's gonna open the door to talk about football, to talk about, you know, if you see a museum, a church, a school, name that, and that'll just gonna open the door. Now every conversation is different.

You don't wanna drag the whole thirty minutes about the Bucks and all that stuff. You always want to redirect them back. So I'm like I was just

Steve: going to ask you, how long how much time are you spending in that in that time?

Steven: Only a couple of minutes. Because some people, they make the mistake of, you know, building rapport for, like, fifteen minutes, and the person has something to do or they have somewhere to go. So I like to redirect them back to the questions I've answered. Every conversation is different. Every homeowner is not gonna be the same.

So I build a rapport and say, hey. Anyways, can you tell me a little bit more about the property? How many bedrooms, bathrooms, condition? I let them vent and vent and vent. But I love building that rapport in the beginning.

My approach, for those of you guys who watch the Closers Olympics, I'm very systematic, but I'm just myself.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: I will never pretend to be somebody I'm not. I'm always even though I wanna get these questions answered, I will always be myself, and I will always redirect them back to, alright, this is the questions I need answered in order to, you know, make an offer.

Steve: Right. And so what's your opener? Like, when you talk to somebody, when you introduce yourself in the call, what does that sound like?

Steven: Somebody's calling in, I say, hey. This is Steven. How can I help you? Yeah. You know, some people, not to say it doesn't work, but some people won't care about your company name.

Some people won't know my company name until I send them the contract.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: So I I find it a little bit more effective when I have that mom and, you know, mom and pop approach. This is Steven. How can I help you? Hey, Steven. I got this postcard in the mail.

What is this about? Oh, yeah. The reason you got that is because we must have bought a property nearby. Were you interested in selling? Mhmm.

Once they say yes, then you tell them about the process. And, Steve, something real quick I'll tell you is that, something that I also do a little bit differently than most people is I love setting the expectations upfront. Like, I let them know, hey. The way it works, our process is very simple. What I'm gonna do is just ask you some basic questions about the property.

That way, I can go and evaluate the, the property right over the computer. Yep. It takes about seven minutes. Does that make sense? So right off the bat, they know that I don't have to go on the appointment.

It's all done over the computer, and it takes about seven minutes.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: Because if you call somebody or they call you, and they're busy picking up their kids at the grocery store wherever and they're they don't even have seven minutes, they're not gonna be engaged with you. So you gotta let them know it's over the phone and it takes seven minutes right off the bat.

Steve: So are you doing more

Steven: inbound or outbound? More outbound. I I find outbound's really crushing right now. We have a few cold callers

Speaker: Mhmm.

Steven: And they're putting in leads and, you know, it's going it's going really good.

Steve: So we have your outbound, they're warming people up, and then you guys go and call.

Steven: Yeah. They wanna cold call the the list we pull. They wanna make sure they're interested. A lot of people think that people that say, well, I'm not really looking to sell. I just wanna see what my house is worth.

That's not somebody that's an interested lead. There's gonna be people that say, I'm not really looking to sell unless I get the right price. Mhmm. You don't know what the right price is. You don't know what their motivation is unless you go through script.

So I train the callers to submit those leads in the CRM.

Steve: Gotcha. Okay. So a couple of process questions that we I hear all the time. Right? So cold caller calls, warms them up.

Alright. So, Steven, this is a lead. At this point, are you closing on the second call or is there a third call?

Steven: So as soon as they get somebody interested and they submit it in the CRM, the acquisition specialist will actually call them Mhmm. And say, hey. I believe you spoke with my assistant, you know, John, in regards to your property. Yeah. Yeah.

I did. Okay. Great. Did I catch you at a good time? Mhmm.

Great. Well, hey. Great news is I'd love to make you an offer. There's a few few more questions I wanted to ask you. Did I catch a good time?

You wanna make sure you caught them at a good time. Mhmm. But the most key thing is anytime somebody in acquisitions is calling a lead back that came in from a cold call, homeowners hate repeating themselves. Like, if you start off like it's a brand new lead, they'll be like, I just told your assistant all this stuff. Why do I have to repeat myself?

Right?

Steve: Right. So

Steven: I say, hey. Is it okay if I ask you a few more questions about the property? I see here, Johnny puts a three two twelve underscore feet, fair condition. Can you tell me a little bit more about this or that? So acknowledge the notes the cold caller put in there, the virtual assistant, and ask, is it okay if I ask ask you a few more questions?

Yeah. That way, it just starts it off positive and lets people know, hey. I I saw information you put in there.

Steve: Yeah. I agree with that wholeheartedly because we had to make changes too. What we like to add is, you know, I I understand you already talked to Steven. Mhmm. But what I found is it's better if I get the information from you directly.

Can I ask you some more questions about it? And they're like, yeah. Okay. If it's better, if I if you ask the questions again, then let's do it. Yeah.

But just explaining that process goes a long way. Because if you don't, like you said, they get, like, I'm tired of wasting my time. You guys are not professional.

Steven: They're mad. Yeah. They're like, I just literally told your assistant everything you're about to ask me. So that little tweak can ask you a few more questions, acknowledge the notes. It goes a long way.

Steve: Yeah. That's awesome. Okay. So the acquisition person then, they're trying to close it on that call? Yes.

Gotcha. Okay. And another thing we're talking about on the show is virtual. Right? Like, you're really big on virtual.

You wanna talk about that?

Steven: Yeah. I mean, I will only go on an appointment unless I actually plan on renovating the property Mhmm. Which, you know, that that's whole story. I actually did my first flip last year, made $0, and now I have a few flips that are profitable. So I won't go on the appointment unless I'm planning on flipping the property myself.

There's gonna be homeowners that, you know, they need face to face. The thing is you need boots on the ground. I usually like to have agents go on those appointments for me, And I give them a good cut, whether it's an investment lead that they need to negotiate. I give them 10%. If it's a signature, I'll give them 3% of the assignment fee.

But I like to give them enough where they're motivated to actually go on these appointments. But everything, you know, especially through the COVID nineteen situation, like, some people went out of business, some people just stopped, some big companies that relied on face to face just stopped. Mhmm. So having the skill of locking up somebody over the phone, asking the right questions, building rapport is super key. You know?

Steve: Alright. So you wanna talk about because you said you've gone face to face too. Yeah. Right. So, I can tell you, like, as our organization, you know, our targeted wholesale fee is 15,000.

Now we're typically around 14, maybe high thirteens. But once COVID hit, everything's over the phone, it got closer to 11. Right? So we saw a $2,000 per deal difference, going from belly to belly to to virtual. So you wanna talk about your experience to between belly to belly virtual.

Do you guys track what differences?

Steven: Yeah. I mean, over 90% of the deals that I lock up and close are all done virtually. What I usually find is that, you know, when it comes to really analytical meet face to face. They need to review the agreement. Right?

Some elderly people, you know, they need face to face. Sometimes we have people that agree on a price, and they're ready to go. They just may not have a computer, Internet access, so we send an agent to go on those and, you know, get it locked up. Yeah. So but I try to capitalize on every opportunity whether, you know, if they're okay with doing virtual, I'll get it signed.

I have to walk through DocuSign or whatever. But if they need to meet face to face and they want too much, we try to get the listing. So I I'm the type of guy that even though they want full market value but they're motivated, that's not a lead I'm just gonna toss away. I always wanna refer those leads to agents as well.

Steve: So let's talk about that. You're licensed? I'm not. Who's going?

Steven: I I connect some agents to my city. So

Steve: Okay. Yeah. Cool. Tampa or I guess what markets are you even in?

Steven: Tampa. So right now, we're in Tampa. We're also doing some commercial in, you know, Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Georgia.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: But I love Tampa. I've lived in Tampa for a long time. Actually, was born in Puerto Rico, moved to Tampa when I was five. Didn't know any English. Now I speak Spanglish, but I've seen Tampa just grow.

Steve: Right. And

Steven: I've I've, you know, nurtured and developed a lot of great relationships in Tampa.

Steve: Gotcha. Okay. So if it's retail, you're sending an agent.

Steven: Yeah. Gotcha. Exactly.

Steve: Okay. Anything else? Any any any big, tips you wanna, for these guys that are trying to do virtual? Like, any any, like, one, like, one or two, like, you guys make sure you're doing this when you're calling people to lock up deals over the phone.

Steven: Oh, my biggest thing when locking up deals over the phone and this is something that some people take for granted. Maybe they they don't wanna mix it up, but this is just what's worked for me to skyrocket my conversion. Mhmm. I don't send out contracts unless the homeowner's in front of a computer or email. Some people say, oh, just send it.

When I get home, I'll I'll take a look at it, and they never hear from them. Right? Right.

Steve: So They go dark all the time.

Steven: Yeah. It's crazy. It's something I'm like, hey, company policy is we don't send these out unless you're ready. No problem. I don't wanna rush this.

We move out your pace. What's a good time I can call you back? And let's call me at 06:00. Or you call me at 06:00, and and we get the deal. So, I have this thing called marination mode.

Okay? Marination what? Marination mode.

Steve: Okay.

Steven: So this is what I do to make sure people commit to sign contracts once they agree to an offer. Right? So let's say mister Smith agreed to an offer. Hey, mister Smith. You know, it looks like, you know, you want $1.50.

I'm not sure if that's a price we can do. But here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna speak with my partner, my boss, my manager, whatever you wanna say. If he gives me the green light, is this something you're ready to move forward

Speaker: today?

Steven: Once they say yes, you put them on hold. People are really quick to jump, especially new investors are quick to jump. Once the offer is accepted, they send the contract. And the thing is, what I've realized in sales and my experience is that sellers will get sellers remorse. They'll be like, man, that was too easy.

Maybe I could've got more with an agent. Is am I doing the right thing? Mhmm. But if you create hesitation, you feel uncomfortable like, man, I don't I don't know if that's a price we can do. But if it is, I got you with my partner, but if it is, is this something you're ready to move forward today?

Once they say yes, you put them on hold. In their mind, they're like, I hope he accepts my accepts my offer. This is gonna work out.

Steve: You're having them talk themselves into why this is the right thing.

Steven: They're motivating themselves and hoping you accept the offer. Okay? And the thing is, once you get back off of hold, I say, hey, good news, mister Smith. This is Steven. Looks like we can do that price, and I start assuming the close.

The next step is I'm gonna email you over an agreement so we can review the agreement together. What's the best email for you? Mhmm. Right? I don't wait till they speak.

I assume because remember, they've already committed to moving forward. They've already accepted the offer. Yeah. They want you to move forward. But once you get back on the phone, you have to assume the close and send them over an email.

Get the email, make sure in front of a computer have access to their email. A lot of people, they really think they need a computer, just computer, but that's why I say, when's a good time time you'll be able to get in front of a computer or access to your email? Because DocuSign is just a link to a portal you can access anywhere. Oh, I'm on it right now. Okay.

Great. I sent over the email, upload it to DocuSign, send it. I sent over the email. Take your time and review the agreement. I'm gonna stay on the phone just in case you have any questions.

Mhmm. Something that I used to do, Steve, is I used to read the contracts to people word for word, and I've noticed they got impatient, try to brush me off, just a variety of things. Like, people can read. If they read it on their own, some of these people that they're so used to DocuSign, you've already built enough trust and rapport, they'll sign it, and it's a done deal. Right?

So I let her I let them read it on their own. I make sure they accept the offer. I create urgency. Right? I put them on hold.

I get back, and I assume the close, and it gets done very, very well.

Steve: That's awesome. And that's that's a really good point. Right? Because you got some of those high d personalities that, like, just, like, leave me alone. And you'll undo a sell by talking too much.

So I think that's great. And then one thing we we're also talking about was you're really excited about negotiations. What are those things you wanna talk about as far as negotiation? What, like, fires you up?

Steven: Oh, man. You know, it's fine. I don't give offers. I say this all the time. I don't give offers.

I give offer ranges. Mhmm. So, you know, anybody when you speak with the homeowner, you're gonna get a lot of, oh, I don't know how much I want. You tell me you're the expert. That's a lie.

Now, homeowners may not know how much they want for their house, but I can promise you they know the the least they're willing to take. Otherwise, we'd all be locking up deals at a $100. Mhmm. So here's the thing. The way I love to give offers or offer ranges is I anchor price first.

And a lot of people feel uncomfortable about anchor pricing because I don't wanna insult the homeowner. Like, an anchor price is not your offer. Mhmm. It's a way to check how motivated is this person. So let's say, for example, air v is 300, your max is $1.50, and you see a property sold for $50,000.

Right? Hey, mister Smith. Are you familiar with, ABC Street? Yeah. What about it?

There's a property here on 123 ABC Street that sold for $50,000. Then you'd be quiet. One of two things are gonna happen. They're either gonna say, f you. That's crazy.

You're wasting my time. And if that happens, I say, I'm not saying that's what I'm gonna pay you. I'm just giving facts to the neighborhood. I I started off really low. Right?

Or another scenario might say, hey. Hey, you're crazy. I'll never do that. I really need a 100,000. I won't take a penny less.

And you got yourself a big juicy deal. Right? But the thing is you have to somehow check on their motivation because some people, they want an exact offer from you, but you have to start off

Steve: low. Alright.

Steven: If you start off low, anything above that low number is just gonna be a lot more attractive.

Steve: Yep.

Steven: The goal is to get the homeowner to show their cards before you show yours.

Steve: Yeah. I love it. Yeah. I mean, we do we also love throwing investors on the bus. I mean, we just say, you know, investors in the area paying between x and y.

Steven: Oh, yeah.

Steve: And then they're like, oh, it's ridiculous. Like, yeah. I know those those guys are scumbags. Yeah. We would never offer that.

Anything else? Any other negotiation tips?

Steven: So off ranges, if they still don't want like, if they still don't your number

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: If my max offers $1.50, something that I also do religiously when I give offer ranges, I say, hey. No. In order for this to make sense to us, we probably have to between 50 to a 140. I always you know, I try to make a $10,000 on every single deal. So if my max offers $1.50, I know investors are buying for $1.60.

But the reason I say $1.40 is because no homeowner I spoken to says, yeah. I'll take the 50. Done deal. I always shows like that, but it's not. Right?

They always say, well, if we can do some number closer to that or maybe they might want more a little bit more, you're still making that 10 to $15,000 in your safety net. So I will always give a range where my max offer is 5 to $10,000 underneath my max. Mhmm.

Speaker: At

Steven: that point, the homeowner's negotiating with themselves. It's creating a win win situation, and they've showed their cards first.

Steve: Yeah. I love it. Love it. Alright. So, people are loving this nugget.

And, I guess, Derek Torquilas, hopefully hopefully I'm saying his name, is correct, is saying that he just sold a house, where the seller's name is, Steven Morales.

Steven: Oh, that's interesting.

Steve: It was funny, actually. I did a deal a long, long time ago, before I even met Carlos where the seller's name is Carlos Reyes. So actually having my cell phone, Carlos Reyes, the guy I bought his house a long time ago, and Carlos e Reyes.

Steven: That's fun.

Speaker: So I

Steve: don't get confused. Guys, whatever questions you guys have, you know, please fire away. So you talked about door to door sales, and we talked about Donnie, Donovan Ruffin

Speaker: Mhmm.

Steve: Started in door to door sales. And we talked about, I forgot, toxic tone.

Steven: Oh, man. Don't get me started on toxic tone. Toxic tone, you're watching this.

Steve: He's probably not learning. He's already figured out sales. He's already mastered it.

Steven: Yeah.

Steve: But you talk about door to door sales. Let's talk about how door to door sales, you know, not framed you, but, you know, prepared you for this industry.

Steven: You know, it kinda happened all by mistake because I saw an ad on Craigslist. Account executive makes 6, you know, 6 figures a year. I just showed up. And I'm like, hey, I'm selling Internet and cable door to door. I hate door to door.

I'm like, I'm the type of person that slams the door in these guys' face because I'm not interested, and now I gotta apply to be one. At the time, I was like, you know what? Let me just let me just give it a shot. Like, what was I I need this to happen. Let me just give it a shot.

Door to door taught me a lot. Taught me human psychology. I mean, it's like the best approach because you're right there in front of of the customer's face. Right? And you really gotta sell them on why they gotta go with yours instead of, theirs.

And I ended up, you know, before that, the multilevel marketing, which was good and then, you know, not so good. But I went door to door, and I was actually very good at it. I was always number one. They promoted me to, manager position. I recruited teams.

I taught people. And it just taught me a lot about, you know, communicating with people, doing takeaways, reading their body language, human psychology, not sounding too thirsty and jumping on it if they say yes, you know, those kinds of things. After door to door is when I started a phone sales company. We would cold call high net worth individuals around the country, try to sell them stock information on real estate, gas, you know, all the stuff like that. And, you know, my door to door skills kinda transition pretty smoothly on to over the phone.

It's different approach because all they can do is hear you, not see you. Mhmm. But I was always number one on that. Right? And then when I came across real investment acquisitions, I just it all worked really well because door to door is where it all started.

And I was really uncomfortable. Like, I was the type of person that slammed on people's face. I don't wanna buy it. Not interested. So to be on the other side of the coin really taught me a a lot about the approach it takes to convince somebody.

Steve: Where are you? I can't read you. I know you're not a c personality. You're not s. Are you I d, d I?

Where where are you?

Steven: I don't know who I am.

Steve: You don't know who I am. You don't know who I am. Okay. I'm just curious just because naturally introverted or extroverted?

Steven: I don't know. Kinda like a mix.

Steve: Yeah. Because Donnie is pretty introverted. Yeah. Right? And I'm on the introverted scale, but everyone says, like, to be a good salesperson, you'd be extroverted.

Not necessarily. Yeah. So what are your thoughts on that?

Steven: I think it I you could be a mix. You can be a mix and still make it happen. You know? It's just like sometimes no matter what business you're in or what you're doing, there's gonna be moments where you don't wanna do something, but you have to do something to make it work. And when you get yourself out of that comfort zone, like, you hear it all the time, comfort and growth don't mix.

That's 100100% true. Mhmm. Like, it doesn't mix. But in order to get better at something and perfect your craft, you gotta do stuff that you don't like. So

Steve: Right. So how did you get good at sales? I mean, it just get thrown into the fire and and door to door? How did you get Door

Steven: to door threw me into the the fire. And the thing that was tough is that it was straight commission. Like, I I really had to make it work at that time to pay some bills. And I just figured out because at that time, I was still working the grocery store. Right?

I was transitioning. But the grocery store taught me a lot of good customer service.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: And I just kind of used my customer service in front of people's faces, and they just felt good. And the thing about sales is that, you know, in my eleven, almost twelve years of doing sales, I will always be upfront, honest, transparent. No matter if it's a customer, a business partner, whoever it is, I will always be the most upfront, transparent, honest person. And sometimes I tell sellers stuff they don't wanna hear. Yeah.

Like, if somebody says, oh, well, you know, John Smith offered me this much. I'm like, man, if I hire you, I will go take that offer, man. You're wasting your time with me.

Steve: Yeah. And I

Steven: knew in my head, like, this guy's offering too much. That seller actually came back

Speaker: Right.

Steven: And he felt embarrassed when he called me back saying this guy didn't close. I'm like, well, in my head, I'm like, he didn't close because he offered too much. Right. Some people lock up a deal just to try and renegotiate the day before closing. To me, I don't really see, like, unless it's 100% necessary.

Like, if you're gonna lock up a deal just to lock it up in hopes you're gonna renegotiate to get lower, I think that's unethical because people are going through distress situation. Like, there's times we might get lower offers anticipated. That time, you have to renegotiate. But, you know, I I'm always honest. I will tell sellers, like, if that's a good price, go take it.

You know? And he actually came back and respected the fact that I said, hey. I'm not gonna make an offer. I know I don't know who these others guys are, but I'm not gonna make an offer that I'm I can I can't execute on? I'm sorry.

So if I were you, go take that. And, a quick tip for you and your listeners here. Just because somebody says a property is under contract doesn't mean, like, it's closed, it's funded. Right? So sometimes you'll follow-up the leads and say, oh, we got it on contract, and then the whole source is like, oh, man.

It's dead dead deal. No. What I like to say is, hey. That's great and all. Did you get the funded yet?

Oh, no. No. We're closing. Alright. When?

Oh, you know, know, July 30. Okay. Great. I'll call you the day before and the day of July 30 just to make sure the funds went through. Otherwise, I'd love to help you out.

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: And some deals I've actually revived just simply by calling the day before Mhmm. Where the wholesaler backed out or the day of it didn't close and Right. I saved the deal.

Steve: Yeah. I love that. I mean, we like to ask, you know, when that's great. That's awesome. When are you guys closing?

Mhmm. And you'll really test how much to really

Steven: Yeah.

Steve: Attach to other investor. Because you might find out, like, yeah. I mean, I'm gonna go with that guy, but I don't like whatever about this contract or I didn't like this about the guy. I was like, oh, really? And they find that there's still an opening.

Very cool. Alright. We got some questions here. Roland Hamilton right now, he's using DealMachine, Powerstream, BatchLead, sending out a bunch of text. Can you drop some gems on how to tweak my process and crush it?

That's really a systems question. I don't know if you wanna answer any systems questions.

Steven: As far as make, like, systems?

Steve: Yeah. Tweaking system. I mean, I think it's kinda hard to kinda do all of it. I would say the one thing is you you've got something coming up. You're doing a workshop.

That might be something that PR would be more helpful for him.

Steven: Oh, yeah. That's right. So July 20 through the twenty second, I'm gonna be having a live virtual three day event. And for those of you guys that see my courses or planning on getting them, the course is included for free. You know, for more information on that, they can go to, realadvisors.com/mastercloser.

But it's my first three day event, only on acquisition sales negotiation, that stuff. Yeah. And also

Steve: Yeah. I think you guys are crazy for how little you're charging. How much do you spend on marketing?

Steven: Oh, man. Between 5 to 10 k. 5 to 10 k.

Steve: Alright. And then Michael Sanders, well, just wants to know what kind of marketing channels are you using?

Steven: Oh, I love cold calling. I love being proactive in that approach.

Steve: Sales guy.

Steven: Yeah. The thing is if you can train your cold callers to cold call as if you're cold calling Yeah. And they become really good at it and they you recruit more and then that person teaches the other person, it just works out really good. You know, SMS and cold calling are my favorite ways right now.

Steve: Awesome. Claudio wants to know, can you talk about your mental approach towards handling daily rejection of business but staying fresh and motivated mentally?

Steven: Great question. So to prepare myself mentally, I think of it this way. Alright. I'm gonna call the seller. The worst they can do is say no, say f off, you're a scam.

And I can just I have the power to hang up the the call, and I move on to the next lead. It was really uncomfortable for me in the beginning to, like, just I got a lot of no's. I'm like, is this regular and wholesaling? Are you supposed to get a lot of no's, or am I doing something wrong? But, you know, as you grow in this business, it's just part of the game.

You're gonna get no's. You're gonna get rejections. Just keep in mind, like, the more no's you get, the closer you are to yes. That's mentality you have when I door to door. And, you know, that that's really it.

And that really comes through repetition. Yeah. People don't get good on the phones overnight. It takes repetition. Yeah.

Yeah. Calloused.

Steve: You know, like, I was talking to somebody and they're talking about, like, man, we hired this great agent. You know, like, they they get this guy's making $200 a week. And, like, for me, when I was focusing on strictly traditional, like, man, if I can get someone doing $200 a week, I'm in a good spot. Here, in wholesaling, $200 a day, like, why aren't you working? Right?

That's the question. Like, where are you? Right? And so going back to your your your answer for Claudio, like, you gotta develop callous. Mhmm.

Right? You gotta develop a standard and it sucks. You're gonna get beat. But as you get callous and get better at it, then just that rejection is just a part of life.

Steven: Comfort and growth don't mix.

Steve: Exactly. You don't

Steven: have to just do those things that feel uncomfortable but it's gonna benefit you at the end of the day.

Steve: Yep. So Daria wants to know if someone wants retail and you refer them to a realtor and get a referral fee, is that illegal if I'm not a licensed agent?

Steven: You have to set up properly. You know, agents are it's funny because when they go to real estate school, like, they're more taught about the laws than the actual sales process. Than anything really.

Steve: It's just the laws. Just don't do's. Here's a list of don't do's.

Steven: Yeah. So every every market's different. I mean, they're getting strict on some losses. It just depends on market, but I would definitely lean towards a savvy agent in your area to structure that properly.

Steve: Yeah. So I would say that it is I think it is illegal throughout the country. However, what you can do is you can have, a referral program. Right? Like, look, I'm gonna send you some listings, but you're gonna send me every opportunity to look at.

Mhmm. Right? I get first look in everything. So you guys can do that. It's a it's a buddy program, and that'll be completely legal.

What happens if the v VA gets a seller motivated? Then I step in to negotiate and I'm inexperienced. What if the seller has a change of heart? So what would you say? You know, like, so the VA has called them.

Mhmm. Sounds motivated. You get on and the seller has changed your heart. What would you do?

Steven: Well, the first thing I would do is again, I'm very upfront. So I'm like, hey, when you correct me if I'm wrong, mister Sur, but when you spoke with my assistant, you were interested. What's changed since then?

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: You know? And they're they'll they'll tell you or they're you know, typical people like that, they just switch. A couple of things may happen. You wanna make sure that you listen to how the cold caller approached that lead to see if it's actually qualified lead because sometimes cold cars, you know, they just submit leads, just hit their numbers and stuff. So you wanna make sure that you actually have good callers asking the right questions.

Anybody that I talk to, has to be interested in selling because I've trained my cold callers to get quality leads. I don't wanna talk to people that say, oh, I'm not looking to sell anymore. And if they do ask that question, say, well, just a few moments ago, you spoke with my assistant. What's changed since then? Mhmm.

Steve: You

Steven: know? And that goes in general. They're gonna get a lot of leads that, they're interested at first, and then you follow-up, and they're like, we don't wanna sell anymore. And that typically happens when there's, second person of influence. And usually, we like to say with those people is say, hey.

You know, when I first spoke with you, you were interested in selling, and now you're not. What's changed since then? A big word I like to use is what's your deciding factor. Mhmm. That like, every time I use that, they open up.

So at first, you were looking to sell. Now you're not, mister seller. You know, I don't know if anything's changed, but what would be your deciding factor between moving forward or not?

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: Is it, you know, higher price? Is it something you're uncomfortable with throughout the process? You wanna figure out what it is.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, so you're saying, like, you you've you've dropped that question and, like Yeah. You've gotten, like

Steven: A lot of objections that I come across, I will always pull up deciding factor somehow, some way, if necessary, just to it's just a good way of asking the homeowner without sounding too salesy, too pushy, like, what is it about this that you don't feel comfortable about?

Steve: Yeah.

Steven: What would be your deciding factor? Some people say, well, if you give me a higher price, well, guess what? Now we're back to negotiations. I'll run some comps, whatever. Or some people might say they got another offer.

Some people might say they have an agent. But you wanna find out what is it about this person. At first, they were interested. Now they're not. You throw that question out, they're more likely to answer it correctly.

Steve: Gotcha. Grace Jo says she still slams the door on people. And, Chris Jefferson. What was it? What does he call himself?

LeBron? The LeBron James?

Steven: The LeBron James.

Steve: Yeah. Says don't bring out the golden gloves. I already told him, Chris, I'm not fighting him.

Steven: The golden gloves.

Steve: He's he's he's he's working out too hard on on Instagram. What is your tough, man. What is your why? My why,

Steven: you know, your your why may change. You know, in the beginning, it was because I I just want to have financial freedom. Once you achieve financial freedom, like, you know, now you gotta help others reach financial freedom. Not only like the family is taken care of, my son's like, family is taking care of all that stuff. And they were they were always my biggest why, my son, my mom, my dad, just my my whole family.

But, like, one of my biggest why's other than God and my family is helping other people get to where I am now. Because a lot of people go through tough situations and, you know, when they're going through those tough situations, they they can become a victim or they can use that, you know, situation to fuel them to succeed. Right? So the reason I'm so passionate about education, I still have the business running, but I also like to educate people exactly what it took me and what worked for me to get where I am today. Like, anything is possible as long as you have a a blueprint.

And, you know, you get some people that you lay out the blueprint and they spend money, they do everything, but they don't make a single phone call. And then they ask, hey, man. I've hit a wall. I'm losing faith. What's happened?

What's happened? Right? What have you done? He's like, I I build relationships with developers and brokers and this and that. I'm like, alright.

Cool. How many calls have you made? None. And I'm like, well, I can't you know, as much as I can lay out a whole blueprint for you, I can't do the action for you. So massive action.

And if people, you know, take massive action and they listen to somebody that's already, you know, gotten to a place where they wanna be It just, it's crazy. Like, it took me eight months to get my first deal. We have students now that in five weeks, they have projected profit a 185,000, like, simply just from following the formula and taking massive action. So I love seeing people start out new regardless of their situation. I always think to myself, what would I tell myself if I first started?

Because I didn't have that guidance there the whole time. Eight months to get a first deal, $7,000 changed my life, but I I can't imagine a $185,000 in five weeks what that would do for somebody. Right? So

Speaker: Yeah.

Steven: Just inspiring people to, you know, become financially free and just make an impact on people's lives, you know.

Steve: I love it. That's that's that's phenomenal. And, you know, part of that we kinda said, right, you know, how many dials you made. This goes back to that I was saying earlier, I might sound kinda like a jerk, but I was he told me, like, I feel bad calling people. I was like, this this is probably is not

Speaker: for you.

Steven: Yeah. I mean, you just gotta gotta be honest. You know, they gotta take the action. They have to make calls. You can't avoid not talking to sellers and become successful in this business.

You have to talk to hundreds of sellers. You're gonna get better at it.

Steve: Well, that's what Brian Daniel says. Right? Like, at at the end of the year Exactly. All you can look at is how many meaningful conversations that I have with sellers because that's the one predictor Exactly. Above all else.

And, you know, I I I've trained a lot of people, and it's crazy to me. Every once in a while, you you, you deal with people that see what you have. They saw you out. Like, I want to have what you have. Show me how to do it.

And you show them and they don't do it. It's crazy to me still that that that happens. What is your biggest struggle right now?

Steven: Man, my biggest struggle is I I get so much opportunity thrown at me that I gotta have the right people in the right seats. Like, a lot of people wanna partner up on on some things. And, like, I'm not just in real estate. I'm also in a few other companies, a drone company, obviously, the flips, an ATM company, like, more passive income kind of stuff. And, I just kinda, you know something that I really struggled is trusting the wrong people sometimes.

You know, kind of like you said, like, don't get partners. Right? But it's gotta be the right person you do business with. But really, you know, vetting, if you're gonna go into business with somebody and, you know, you gotta make sure that they are on the same page as you are and they're willing to work with you or else it's not gonna work out. Sometimes I trust people too easy, so I'm a little bit more picky about who's in my circle and I do business with.

Steve: So Yeah. And that's something that, you know, we've suggested. I I can't I think going back I think it's again. He says, you know, there's nothing wrong with dating for a little bit. Like, you wanna partner somebody, just date for a little bit.

Make sure they're the one before you put a ring on it. Right? It's the same exact concept. Left swipe right. Is that what he did?

Well, because when you partner with somebody, I mean, you're basically marrying somebody.

Steven: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? Like, this is you're you're putting your finances together. This is basically a marriage at this point.

Steven: Yeah. Right?

Steve: So there's nothing wrong with dating for a little bit. JV a couple deals together, hang out, spend some more time together, do deals together for three months, and then figure out that point whether you part don't partner the moment you find somebody.

Steven: Exactly.

Steve: What's your superpower?

Steven: Man, my superpower, I guess it's just, you know, closing deals. I mean, that's that's what I'm known this business for is, you know, I have a very systematic approach to just make people commit and sign on the dotted line, or it just it might seem easy for people looking at me doing it live, which now every Friday, I have this thing called deal desk where people submit their leads, and I I, you know, I get a verbal accepted offer or I set up where they can get it closed. Actually, we got a verbal accepted offer the last call last week, and these are just people randomly submitting leads.

Steve: So like closed Olympics again.

Steven: Kind of, except it's just me. Yeah.

Speaker: And

Steven: I've done that when I when we used to have live virtual events before the COVID mess, I called anybody out in the audience and say, hey. Bring up your Podio, your computer. Like, I'll call this deal. And they've got like, within a few minutes, they've accepted the offer, and they're ready to sign. Yeah.

And I've been doing it for such a long time where, like, it's just, easy for me. But to teach somebody else to do is a little bit more tricky. But that's what I really like to do is teaching other people to get to that point.

Steve: Well, and and the point you made, right, like, it could look easy because that's the same thing. You know, you watch Tiger Woods. Like, you just go out there and just make a call up. Like, how hard can it be? Right?

They make it look so freaking easy, but it's easy to discount all the time you put in all the rejection phase because you said earlier. Right? Like, you're getting rejected all the time. That's just the way it went.

Steven: All the time.

Steve: And so it's all through all those rejections where you can just get better incrementally 1% at a time. And then eventually after a few years, you get to this level. Mhmm. What is the greatest lesson you have learned?

Steven: The greatest lesson I have learned. I mean, my very first wholesale deal was a huge lesson I learned. Right? That that people you do business with, and that goes a long way, because I didn't know who I was assigning my deal to, and they started renovating the house, which you think that would never happen, but it did. And it put me in a deep spot.

But, you know, what it really comes down to is, you know, in the beginning, I was going through tough times in my life, and one of the greatest lessons I've learned from that is you can be a victim or it could be a victor. Right? You you can take that your situation and turn it to fuel to succeed, and you can make it no matter what you're going through. And I I think in the beginning, I I didn't have the right people around me, which kinda goes with one of the greatest lessons is, like, I was just around the wrong people, you know. Not to say they're bad people, but they rather just go party, go drink, go smoke when I'm trying to build a business.

And when I started surrounding myself with like minded people, like, everything changed. And I don't know if anybody else knows this, but in 2015, when I started, I saw nothing but, like, on my Facebook, I saw nothing but, hey, memes, hey, gossip, hey, BS. I'm like, dang. Like, I deleted that. That.

I was off social media for two years. Actually, February happened. I was off social media for two years, from 2013 to 2015. You won't find anything about me throughout that time. And, I made a new Facebook, and I only added like minded people, business people, entrepreneurs, real estate.

And some people can't do that. But I was so committed to be so focused and only look at things that I wanted to be like or be in their position or work with them were all now all my news feed is is business, real estate, you know, just good people. And you start getting mutual friend requests from people that know this person. So now, like, I'm just around the right people. I still have friends that don't do real estate.

I don't judge my friends off their bank account. But if I'm gonna be doing business with somebody, you know, I gotta be around the right people.

Steve: Absolutely. Brandon Lewis has an interesting question. So let's pretend you and I run a contract. Right? I signed it.

I'm happy. It's like, Steven, thank you for taking care of me. Alright? Mhmm. Two days later, hey, Steven.

This is Steve. You over my house? Or you you, you know, run a contract? I need you to increase the price.

Steven: You need to increase the price. What what happened? What happened, mister Trang? Is is I mean, we were at this price. What's changed between then?

You know?

Steve: You know, I talked to my daughter, and she said that I can't sell for this low.

Steven: Is there anything in regards to this process that your daughter may have questions about or isn't comfortable with? Or

Steve: she just says I'm getting ripped off.

Steven: You're getting ripped off. And and what makes her think that? I don't know. You don't know? So

Steve: She told me that this isn't gonna work. What

Steven: would be your deciding factor between moving forward or not on this property? Because we already have a legal binding contract. Technically, we have the rights to purchase a property, but I wanna make sure it's a win win situation. What would be your deciding factor between moving forward or not?

Steve: I guess if you can raise the offer.

Steven: Raise the offer. Okay. And what what kind of price were you looking at?

Steve: I think if I can just get 5,000 more.

Steven: 5,000 more. So, I mean, I always try to get deals juicy. If they wanna increase the price, which usually doesn't happen that much Mhmm. The thing is if somebody ever asked for a price increase, it's because they're shopping your price around.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: That that

Steve: For sure.

Steven: That that's it. Like but the thing is, like, I won't I won't increase the price. Like, you can legally go after somebody if you have a property in contract and they wanna back out. Right? You have the legal rights to purchase the property.

I'm not gonna take them to court if they're going through personal things or anything like that, but I'm never gonna increase the price. Yeah. I'm just gonna, you know, stick to my guns and say, hey. We have legal rights to purchase this property. What is it in regards to this whole process that your daughter or whatever?

Like, what's changed? What would be your deciding factor? But I've I've never really come across somebody that wanna increase the price. And if they did, I would ask them why, but I would stick to my price. You know?

Steve: Great answer. Okay. What is your favorite best or most interesting failure?

Steven: My favorite best or interesting failure excuse me. Favorite best or interesting failure. I've had a lot of failures, from assigning my first deal to the wrong person, to partnerships that didn't go well, to, you know, you know, when I first started doing the stuff over the phone, I kinda choked. I didn't know I sound like a robot. When I've, you know, people think that this script any script you use, you're not gonna master overnight.

Something that I sucked at is I sound like a robot. Like, I sound like a robot. And, let me turn this off. I sounded like a robot. And the thing is that, sorry.

I sound like a robot. And the thing is people would pick up that tonality like, this guy doesn't know what he's talking about. And I'm like, man, I I really suck on the phones. I sound like a robot on the script. But the thing is the more you practice it, the better you sound.

Where the real magic happens is once you memorize it, it sounds like a natural conversation.

Steve: Yeah. It's internalized.

Steven: Exactly. It sounds natural. So something I sucked at was just trying, to order perfect things like the first time, you know?

Steve: I I think that's great. You can't wait for it to be perfect. Yeah. Is there a book you've gifted more than any other?

Steven: Oh, actually, I love I got these three books that I just love. And whether you're good at, you know, negotiations, all that stuff, or you're really bad or you're just starting out, these books will benefit you. So number one is, how to win friends and influence people. It's like a sales bible.

Steve: Mhmm.

Steven: Number two is never split the difference, Chris Voss. Mhmm. Right? I mean, that guy was an FBI negotiator. There's there's some things you can pick up in there that you can use with homeowners.

Right? And one of my favorite books ever is The Art of Persuasion by Bob Berg. And what I love about that book is it focuses on making win win situations. Right? Like, you get what you want out of the situation, but it's a win win.

Yeah.

Steve: You know?

Steven: And it it's really cool when you start using that, not only in real estate, but, like, real life with their kids and stuff like that.

Steve: I'll have to check that out. Haven't heard that one. Dario Rodriguez wants to know where the odds of him flying to Tampa and then him spending a whole day with you.

Steven: Come through. You know, I'm a, I'm a humble guy. If I got if if I got time in my schedule and you're my city or if I'm in yours, I'll I'll be more than happy to, meet up and talk.

Steve: Man, you're so nice. Alright. So I'm gonna make a couple quick announcements. Just think about one last message I'm gonna leave everybody with. Sure.

So, guys, again, if you guys wanna find out about our productivity, I got some of you guys hitting hitting up. Like I said, you know, how do we run all these businesses, without going crazy, still spend time with family? Go to disruptors.com/time. And then our last workshop was a big success. So if you guys wanna find out about the next one, go to disruptors.com, disruptors.

From there, you can find out information about our next workshop. So

Steven: last thoughts. Man, I went by that fast already.

Steve: That's

Steven: crazy. Last thoughts. You know, if you guys want to, you know, keep in touch with me, the best way to, you know, follow me on official Steven Morales on Instagram, I'm having a three day live event, July 20 through the twenty second. You can register for that on realadvisers.com/mastercloser. And a really cool thing is this deal desk thing is going crazy.

So you actually have leads you want me to call live every Friday at 12PM Eastern Standard Time. Submit them on realadvisers.com/dealdesk.

Steve: Awesome. Any message you wanna leave everybody with? Something to think about as far as mindset or anything else?

Steven: If you guys, you know, if you think this is easy or you're not good on the phones, you know, I mainly talk about, like, negotiation, sales tactics. Like, be patient on yourself. You know, keep keep repeating what you're doing. Repetition, repetition, repetition is key. Role play with your, family, business partners, your dog.

I don't care. Just practice, practice, practice. And you'll get a lot better on the phone. And I think, in my opinion, in this business, the trickiest thing is acquisitions. Marketing is plug and play.

Selling a deal is easy if it's a deal. But, you know, convincing somebody to lock up and sign their contract over to you over the phone requires an art. And if you can master that art, your business is gonna boom.

Steve: It's a valuable skill. Let me ask you a question before we wrap up. Mhmm. How good were you a salesperson before we got a door to door sales?

Steven: Not good at all. So

Steve: you weren't good. You're the master closer. You're You're not that good.

Steven: I was horrible.

Steve: Right. So guys, I used to be an engineer. I was not a great closer. I think if anyone that watched the Closers Olympics saw us too. Like like I would argue Keith, Chris, we're the two best by far.

But

Steven: No comment.

Steve: You know, RJ was a distant third. But if you watch this, right, like, we were able to do what we do, and we're not naturally gifted salespeople. Right? You gotta do it. You rep.

So guys, if you guys are concerned, you're not you're nervous, you're not sure whether you can do this, you guys can do it. Absolutely, you can do it. All it takes is the right education. You know, you can learn from Steven. You can learn from

Steven: me. Mhmm.

Steve: And then reps. You can't shortcut. You just can't shortcut that process.

Steven: Do it. And make sure you get the right education. There's a lot of great education, bad education. I've been doing this for eleven years to a point where I got noticed by, published company Real Advisors. Yeah.

And I just signed a publishing deal with them February. Yeah. And, now I'm just teaching, you know, I the thing I love about them, they're, you know, Inc. 5,000 company. I just show up and do my thing.

Steve: Right.

Steven: You know, they do all the hard work, extremely hard individuals. Shout out to, you know, Domar Lee, Francis Bryan, all the guys out there. But finding the right education is hard nowadays because everybody wants to teach it. The thing what I suggest with that is check their track record. Yeah.

Make sure they're, you know, active in the business. Check their track record. Make sure that if they're trying to teach you how to close deals over the phone, they're willing to do it live Yeah. On stage or right there in person. So

Speaker: Right.

Steven: You know, make sure you guys have the right guidance.

Steve: I think that's a good point. So, again, you know, the reason I wanted Steven up here because you're a closer. Right? And everyone watching this episode, the focus here today was on sales and negotiations. And the message I wanna make sure everyone leaves here is you guys can do it.

You absolutely can do it if you invest in yourselves and put in the reps. Thank you guys for watching. Thank you. This is an awesome show.

Steven: Awesome. Thanks, guys.

Speaker: Shout out to Steve Trane. Real estate disruptors.

Steve: They cannot touch us. And, yeah,

Speaker: we're about to give you game. Shout out to Steve Train. Jump on the Steve Train. We about to give you game.

Steve: Already eyes flowing through my veins, and you don't have

Speaker: to look no further. See right here, you gonna learn everything. Shout out to Steve Train. Jump on the Steve Train. We real estate disrupt us.

See, we real estate disrupt us. Can't nobody