Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to the RV Park Mastery Podcast, where you will learn the correct way to identify, evaluate, negotiate, perform due diligence on, renegotiate, finance, turn-around and operate RV parks. Your host is the 5th largest owner of RV and mobile home parks in the United States, Frank Rolfe.
You're so close to getting the contract side, you've agreed to a price. Now, all you need to do is get that seller to sign the dotted line, and you have that RV Park under contract, yet you can't get the seller to sign the darn thing. You can't get them over the hump. So what do you do, how do you get the seller to grab the old pen and sign that contract and get it back to you? This is Frank Rolfe of the RV Park Mastery Podcast, we're gonna be talking about how to create seller urgency. How to move the seller forward at that final moment when a combination of sellers remorse, procrastination, all comes together and you can't get the pen to move and you can't get your deal signed up, let's first talk why it's so essential to get it signed up because we all run under a huge sense of time urgency. I have a plaque on my wall, which is the earliest thing I ever put on my wall in my very first office, back in 1982, when I started my billboard company. It says 'Time Kills Deals'. Now, what it means is we're all racing the clock, if you find a deal, there's always somebody who might steal it from you up until it's signed up, and just in life in general, we're all racing the clock because we all ultimately time out and die.
So assuming that you always have the sense of urgency, you don't like letting things sit, when the seller says, "Well, let me think about it a few more days", the problem is during those few more days, somebody else may get ahold of that seller and suddenly that RV park goes to them and not to you because maybe they offer more money or maybe they just bond more with the seller, so the worst thing you can do is to let it go on for some period of time where the seller, even though everything has been agreed to, doesn't sign your agreement.
So what can we do? How can we get the seller enthused and excited? And get that thing signed. Well, the first thing you can do is to be enthusiastic, that is the number one motivator when you're trying to get something signed up, because your old mom and pop seller, the guy that developed that RV Park from scratch, but has over the years and maybe lost little interest lost some of the energy, you can reignite that spark if you're enthusiastic, just saying things like, Man, I am so excited to be the next person to take everything you've created and take it to the next level, that is a huge turn on for them because it's an affirmation that everything they did was worthwhile, and that you respect what they did, and you will be a good steward of the property, and so when you're excited excitement is absolutely contagious. Think about things in your house, maybe you had some kind of kid come over to your house, some family member, niece, nephew, right? You have something that you never had any interest in in modern years, maybe an old electric football game or something, and then suddenly they wanna play at it, and they're so excited about it, well, you just can't wait to get it out of the closet and take it out of the box.
Hasn't been open in 30 years. You know why? Because their enthusiasm. It gets you enthusiastic. So if you really wanna get a seller to sign something, just be excited and enthusiastic with the concept of you taking over and operating the property, the next thing you can do is set an artificial deadline that's mutually beneficial. So if you say to the seller, you know what, the window for financing right now is really good, we don't wanna lose that window, let's get this thing going, because I talked to the guy doing the loan and he said, You know what interest rates are a little dicey right now, but if you can get the application in here real quick, I think we'll be fine, it can't be where it's only beneficial to you, that's not a motivator to the seller, that means nothing to the seller, but when it's mutually beneficial, then that is something that can again, urge them on. So if there's anything out there that that's true of, and financing is typically the best one, try and come up with those kinds of items where you can say, in a team work way, "hey team member, we need to get this going because here's how great would be if we do it, we don't wanna miss this window of opportunity."
Another thing you can do is get them involved in your turnaround plan. So get them involved, say, "Hey, you know, when I work on trying to improve the marketing to the property, what are some ideas on how we could do that because just because they're selling it doesn't mean they're fully out of the picture, they're always gonna be tied to that park emotionally, they're gonna drive by that thing five years from now, or 10 years from now, they want it to be doing incredibly well, because they want, this thing, this little baby that they created to prosper. So start them thinking post-sale, because that way in their brain, they've already effectively sold it and they won't hold back on signing the agreement, because as far as they're concerned, they've already signed it, more or less mentally. So start asking them questions about things you want to do with the property to get their input, they love it when you reach out for their input, it excites them and it excites them to go ahead and sign the agreement because they wanna see you do it. And they wanna be a part of that. Now, you may say to yourself, and now wait a minute though, I don't want them all up in my business on everything I do, well, they tend to lose interest, to be honest with you, after the fact.
I once bought property, and the guy said, "Here's what I wanna do. I want to get lunch with you every week to go over the progress." It was a really good deal for me. So I said, Well, oh, okay. I mean. Sure. Why not? And what do you think happened? We had a lunch, then a few weeks were skipped, we had lunch, and they never called me again to do it. Because after the fact, they just kind of lost interest in it again. But was it a good motivator to go ahead and get the person to sign the deal? Oh yeah, absolutely, it is. So start thinking what you can do to make them think after, post-signing, because once they're comfortable with how the world works after they sign it, then they're more likely to sign it. Also, the key item in getting someone to sign the agreement, the most important factor really in doing RV park deals is simply bonding, having a good, healthy, friendly relationship with the seller, oftentimes, a seller will not sign at the end because they feel like they don't really know you, they're not really sure you're to be trusted, either financially or with the property, and it's particularly true if they're gonna carry the paper, because this is a big deal to them, this is their entire life savings on the line, and often when it comes time to sign it, they start thinking, Well, do I really know everything about this person?
So when people start telling you things like, Well, I don't know, I wanna think about it a few more days, see if there's some way you can bond with them further, either over the phone or even better yet in person, because bonding is the magic ingredient that makes a lot of people feel comfortable enough to go ahead and sign the agreement.
Now, I've got a million bodin stories. So bonding, I have found to be the most powerful item that exists in the RV park business, but if you're looking for a good question to start off, bonding would be something like, Tell me again the story of how you own or came to build this RV park. Get them talking about their life, their relationship to the property, be a good listener, not a talker. When they bond with you, they don't really wanna hear from you that much, they wanna see if you are a nice enough person who will listen to what they have to say, But bonding with the seller, if you're trying to get them over the hump to get them to sign, bonding with them is absolutely essential, because if you don't bond with them, if they don't like you, they don't trust you, they're never gonna sign it. And if they don't trust you, they're certainly not going to ever carry paper with you. The whole point of getting someone to sign is you can't be too pushy. Instead, you have to go ahead and create the framework, but they have to make the decision to push the Go button, you can't grab their hand and force them to sign the agreement, but there are behavioral mechanisms you can do to make it easier for them to sign that agreement.
So give those ideas a test drive and see if you aren't able to get that seller over the hump and get them to sign your RV park contract. This is Frank Rolfe of the RV Park Mastery Podcast. Hope you enjoyed this. Talk to you again soon.