Real Estate Negotiation Tips That Turn Motivated Seller Leads Into Deals

Tom Zeeb (00:00)
I’ll tell you what, let’s talk about that third part, that persuasion piece. In fact, I think if I give people three specific persuasion or negotiation techniques that they could hear right now, practice in a second and then use them immediately, would honestly, it’ll radically change your success rate as a real estate investor. All right, that’s a big punchy statement, but I think we’ll be able to do it. ⁓

Quentin (00:19)
Let’s go, I got my pen and paper ready. Yeah. Yeah.

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds and I am excited to be here today. I have another fantastic guest and listen, I wanted to go real in depth with this gentleman, find out what his strengths are. Listen, he gave me one word, negotiations. One word negotiations. So I am excited to learn about negotiation tactics, but also what I understand about negotiation, sometimes just getting people off their own way.

getting people unstuck out of their own head. And so I’m excited to glean from this gentleman, learn more about what it is that he does. And I want to introduce you all, I should have went over this last thing, but I think I’m gonna get it. I want to introduce you all to Mr. Tom Zeeb Mr. Tom, how did that be, sir? Zeeb! Oh, man, Zeeb. Mr. Zeeb, I apologize. Look, that’s what happens when you get cocky. When you get cocky, you’re ego, there you go. So Mr. Zeeb.

Tom Zeeb (02:42)
⁓ Zeeb Zeeb! ⁓ Sorry, we didn’t take that one bit.

Not alone, almost everybody misses

pronounce it’s cool man.

Quentin (02:55)
Well, listen, I appreciate your grace, How you doing today, Good, man. I’m so glad you’re doing good. So glad that you’re here. And Mr. Tom, I am the type. I like to dive right in, right? So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. Also, you can give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got into the space that you’re in. We love the hero’s journey, man. And then tell them a part of the world you’re in, because they like to know that geographically. So what you’re doing, your origin story, and where you are.

Tom Zeeb (02:59)
doing great. Good to be here.

Gotcha.

Quentin (03:24)
Mr. Tom, you got the floor,

Tom Zeeb (03:24)
Okay.

Currently I’m in Sarasota, Florida, moved here from the Washington DC about five years ago. And I focus, I primarily focus on wholesaling real estate deals because sometimes I rehab, but I don’t love rehabbing. I like having done it, but not doing it, if that makes any sense. ⁓ Sometimes I focus on buying holding and we’re kind of taking what…

Quentin (03:40)
Yeah, absolutely.

Tom Zeeb (03:48)
We sold off in DC and reinvesting down here in Florida. But primarily, I like to find deals, put them under contract, negotiate great deals, and sell them to other investors.

Quentin (03:58)
Yeah, I love it, man. How did you get into space, man? Where did the passion come from?

Tom Zeeb (04:02)
Yeah, passion came from a day job that I no longer wanted to have.

Quentin (04:07)
Yes, sir.

Tom Zeeb (04:07)
Yeah, I’m sure many people feel that way. The frustration of being told what to do and having a boss and having to show up at particular times and whether you worked all day long super hard or not, you made the same amount, which of course was never enough. So it was a combination of factors. And then I basically kind of snapped one day and I snapped it a good way, but I said, oh, what am going to do? I had no idea. was 113 grand in debt. And I said, how do I get out of this legitimately?

Quentin (04:25)
Yeah.

Tom Zeeb (04:36)
with you know without a gun or white powder how do I get out? I had no idea so I just walked in my boss’s office and took two weeks off to go on a giant adventure trip with my buddies because you know what what better thing to do than stick your head in the sand and ignore the problem go and have some fun. We went to India and we went white water rafting and I’ve

Quentin (04:39)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tom Zeeb (04:57)
It was a very rough class five wrap and I couldn’t stay on the wrap and I went flying over the edge and I got sucked underwater. And that’s why I had a bit of a kind of a reawakening. I’m like, yeah, things are going to change. I got to get out of this. I got to do something different. I got to become an entrepreneur. I know this is in me. I’m going to do it. But then I got back home and nothing changed. was still I had the job. I had no more time off. The debt had gone up from the cost of the trip. It was all bad.

Quentin (05:06)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Tom Zeeb (05:24)
until somebody’s hand to be a copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad.

which I’m imagining probably a good 90, 95 % of you listeners have read. Yeah, it’s one of the basic texts of our type of business.

Quentin (05:33)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Tom Zeeb (05:39)
Yeah, and

that gave me ideas. It like fueled the way I was feeling when I was drowning. And it gave me a way forward. It didn’t give me any how to, but it gave me a direction. And that’s when I found a local real estate investors association. That’s when I started doing marketing for deals. then one thing led to another, and I had a nice string of deals and goodbye job and hello business. And it’s been 25 years now.

Quentin (06:52)
Thank you, man. Thank you for the story. ⁓ man. But no, man, I thank you for the journey, man. I thank you for telling us where you are now and how you got there. And as you was talking, I was actively listening. And you say you moved from D.C. to Florida. Look, I’m looking at my own notes. Like, what did I write here? Day job.

Tom Zeeb (06:53)
I’m hating myself, but yeah. ⁓

Quentin (07:13)
kind of didn’t want to have it there. didn’t, I couldn’t get the word out. But the day job that she was in, you didn’t want to have it kind of snapped. Like I’m gonna take two weeks, went to India with some friends, had an underwater experience, right? An underwater experience, right? Right, right. But you came back and still things didn’t change overnight. But Rich Dad Poor Dad book, like so many others, planted a seed.

Tom Zeeb (07:25)
You could call it an experience. It was definitely an experience.

Quentin (07:37)
that just started to eventually get water and originally germinate. then, man, and I love how you said it kind of gave you that feeling of being underwater. it, it, it, man, I love the way you synthesize that, but that’s 25 years later and here we are, here we are. And so Mr. Tom, thank you, man. Thank you for walking us through the journey. Cause I often say destiny has no wasted moments, right? Destiny has no wasted moments. Like,

Tom Zeeb (07:44)
you

Yeah. Yep.

Quentin (08:04)
that we borrow from the journey and it leaves breadcrumbs to how we got to where we are. And we borrow it from our mindset. It reinforces our why and knows why we are passionate the way we do. We work with the way we do sometimes even rest the way we do. It just seems to align things because we look at the journey and we realize where we are. And so Mr. Tom, I would love to know what has the journey taught you about yourself? Has it taught you discipline, resilience, innovation? What has the journey?

reinforced in you, Mr. Tom.

Tom Zeeb (08:34)
definitely discipline because when you’re off on your own, you no longer have any top cover. You no longer have anyone telling you what to do. There’s no daily plan given to you and you have to figure it all out yourself. Suddenly your boss, your employee, your everything in between, your janitor, right? Yeah, you have to do all of the roles and that’s all right because that’s what you signed up for. That’s what you chose. some people I think

Quentin (08:53)
You’re right.

Tom Zeeb (09:01)
collapse under that discipline. And, but I wanted it because I wanted the lifestyle that went with it. I didn’t want to go to an office. I wanted to work from home. I wanted to be able to work from all over the world. now, know, 20, 25 years ago, that was a more rare thing. kind of, you know, everybody’s digital nomad these days. Everyone’s got a recording student in their pocket. These days, there was a time when that kind of stuff was a lot more difficult. I never told anyone when I was gone. You certainly, even when social media had come out, I didn’t probably stay in because

Quentin (09:17)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tom Zeeb (09:29)
People would assume if you’re out of town, you’re out of touch, and then they wouldn’t do the things you needed to do in the deals. Even my son-in-law’s attorneys and stuff like that would go, well, you were away. I would never tell anyone I was away. Total opposite of now where everyone’s kind of bragging about it.

Quentin (09:42)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I’m with you. I’m old school. I still don’t tell nobody when I’m at. Listen, like I’m with you. I don’t put all my stuff off on social media. Listen, I was born and raised, if y’all can’t tell, in Baltimore, Maryland. Like, yeah, I have this certain environmental trauma. I don’t tell people when I’m gone. You know, but anyway, that’s a whole other podcast. But no, man, but I appreciate it, sir. I appreciate you taking us through the journey. I appreciate your reflective answer to that.

Tom Zeeb (10:00)
I understand.

Quentin (10:11)
question and I love it. It’s definitely, it’s definitely a new era. Um, but I, you, you have found the way to, I wouldn’t say master, but maybe master, but you, you found a way to be your own boss. I’m sure you have rhythms, you have systems in place. You’re thriving. It’s been 25 years. And so some people, haven’t got there yet. So I would love to know from you, how does adversity look in your world? How have it, cause adversity creeps up in every small, in every business owner, right?

So how does it virtually look and how do you handle it?

Tom Zeeb (10:42)
Well, there’s days you don’t feel like doing anything. There’s days you get distracted. There’s days maybe, you you have a medical issue or something, family issue. want to deal with it. Life throws a lot of different things your way. I still, the way I handle it is remember that I have to have carve outs, time carve outs. I have to carve time out.

for my business at the schedule that I have it at. So there’s like three solid days a week I’ve to have a large chunk of time. The other days of the week, I could have smaller chunks of time, it’s fine, but I have to have those chunks of time because things have to get done and I got to be moving that ball ahead. Which is interesting though, and it was what I want people to think about is that the same issues that come up that derail you or.

take your eye off the ball or out of focus, are the same things happening to owners of properties, which is what turns them into motivated sellers because they can solve their problems by selling their property to you. understanding how that happens to yourself is also understanding why it happens to others, which helps you communicate them, which is the beginning of good negotiating.

Quentin (11:43)
that was smooth. that was smooth. So, so man, that was smooth. So now we got to get into some negotiations. I mean, that’s the one word you use to kind of land what it is that you did. And so talk to me a little bit about the word of negotiation.

Tom Zeeb (11:46)
That’s right.

Well, this negotiation is the middle piece of, it’s the connecting piece, that middle part of doing real estate deals. First, you got to find them. Then you got to know how to do them, how to exit out of them. And I think people oddly get obsessed with exit strategy. I’m a rehabber. I’m a landlord. I’m a wholesaler. I’m a, I do syndications, whatever. That’s an exit, right? There’s a process and it’s good. It’s interesting. You got to have it.

But how many people that don’t focus on the marketing at the beginning to find them, but they really don’t focus on that middle piece. How do you make the deal? Because you’re not getting a deal from your marketing. You’re getting a lead. And that lead, if I were to give it a temperature, it’s lukewarm at best, probably a little cold. Cold or lukewarm? Well, it’s your job to turn up the heat, to take that lukewarm lead and turn it into a red hot deal. That way you actually have a deal to do.

And yet I find that barely anyone talks about that middle piece or they’re afraid of that middle piece or they have a dislike or discomfort with the thought of that middle piece of negotiating because they’ve been burned by high pressure cells in the past. But negotiation is not high pressure cells. That’s the problem. People think it is. It’s not. I would argue it’s specifically not high pressure cells, although admittedly there’s some overlap. So I understand why people get confused, but then they they want to throw their baby out at the bathwater.

Quentin (13:54)
We’re to come back to this negotiation because I want to ask you a question and I want to put another word in there with negotiation tied together. But before I do that, I want to know when it comes to your business, what’s the next real goal? What are you looking to solve at Scale Next? What’s next for you?

Tom Zeeb (14:09)
My wife and I, are shifting, taking what when we had sold everything off and moved.

we are looking to reinvest that in a different kind of buy and hold. We’re looking for self-storage facilities. That’s just what we chose because, you know, I was kind of tired of tenants and then I was, you know, when odd things come up, like suddenly, you know, your tenants are told they don’t have to pay rent because of COVID. And then, you know, you’re still paying the mortgages on the properties and things turned upside down fast. I said, I think we’re going to find a better way on the next round.

Quentin (14:41)
Did your people say you? Nevermind, That, yeah, right there. my gosh.

Tom Zeeb (14:44)
Yeah, know. Water under the bridge. But yeah, that happened

to me. At the moment, since that happened to so many people, those are motivated sellers now who for a couple of years lost a lot of money. And I know it’s been an extra few years since then, but that pain is still there. That loss of money is still there. And the fed upness with it. So tired landlords from evictions or being unable to evict for a while has become right now, I think it’s currently a great area for people to focus in on.

Quentin (15:12)
Loving. All right. So let’s go back to this negotiations, right? Because I love when you was talking, there was something that I was kind of extracting from that. And I always like to talk about this, but I’m going to ask you this from this perspective. So the word is relationships. So because you talked about just the communication of it all, you were saying it don’t have to be this high, high risk, high strategy sale process, right? That you are negotiation. So talk to me about the correlation between negotiations and relationships.

I’ll talk to you a little bit.

Tom Zeeb (15:40)
Yeah,

I think it’s all the relationship when you when you start to build rapport with your motivated seller. It could be with anyone. Negotiations general. We’re talking real estate here. So I’m an investor. I’m assuming probably most of us listening on it. You’re dealing with motivated sellers. So the

Quentin (15:51)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tom Zeeb (15:58)
When you start talking to them, that’s the beginning of the negotiation process because you’re trying to find information out what’s going on, why are they a motivated seller, what’s wrong with their life, what do they need fixed, what are they aiming to get out of this? Therefore, you’re pinpointing their problems and once you’ve pinpointed the problem, you can package up a solution that would work. Then you just got to get into the persuasion under it, convince them to say yes to you. But during that process of pinpointing, you…

you’re talking back and forth and you’re peeling off layers of an onion because you’re always asking for more. They tell you something, say, that’s interesting, tell me a little bit more. Or how does that affect? So that active listening with the right kind of return questions is digging down deeper and deeper through the layers. But it’s also, since they’re talking to you, they’re starting to trust you. They’re starting to like you, they’re starting to know you. They want to do business with you because the rapport is being built. And that’s the key. It really just comes down to having a conversation.

Quentin (17:32)
I told you at the top of show, that’s all I try to do is have conversations. And so I just think it’s so important in, if conversations is done right, there’s dialogue between two parties most of the time. I mean, it could be more parties most of the time, but there’s this give and take, there’s this understanding, there’s this time to talk and then it is time to listen. And so I love conversation. I love the way you just so eloquently talked about conversations within negotiations. Mr. Tom, is there any question or topic?

that I have not brought up that you would like to talk about? Is there any words of inspiration, education, motivation that you want to leave? Like maybe you came in with a message in your mind and you like wanted to make sure our audience heard it. I want to open up the floor so that message can be delivered.

Tom Zeeb (18:14)
I’ll tell you what, let’s talk about that third part, that persuasion piece. In fact, I think if I give people three specific persuasion or negotiation techniques that they could hear right now, practice in a second and then use them immediately, would honestly, it’ll radically change your success rate as a real estate investor. All right, that’s a big punchy statement, but I think we’ll be able to do it. ⁓

Quentin (18:33)
Let’s go, I got my pen and paper ready. Yeah. Yeah.

Tom Zeeb (18:40)
First technique and I almost always use it because you’re always asking people for a number. You know, how much you ask me for the property. So the first technique is flinching and flinching means yeah, you kind of flinched there for the queue. But I’m going to both video and even if you’re if you’re only on audio, I’m the flinching works either way. I’m going to I’m going to both you’re going to see it and you’re going to hear it. So flinching means any time anybody says any number to you whatsoever.

Quentin (18:51)
Yeah, I sure did. Yeah, I sure did.

Tom Zeeb (19:07)
I want you to act like you were physically attacked by that number. So, a number.

Quentin (19:11)
35.

Tom Zeeb (19:12)
Woo, 35. Yikes. Now, you’re smiling, but how did you feel when I flinched at your number?

Quentin (19:18)
I was like, I don’t think it was that big of a number, but maybe it was. Yeah. Yeah.

Tom Zeeb (19:22)
Maybe it was. The number’s not quite right. See, but

I said, you didn’t think it was a big number because we’re not also not, I didn’t say give me a price on a house or a car or a boat or anything. I just said, say a number. So without even a reference point to that, when I flinched, think, well, that number’s not right. Maybe it was a little too big, a little too high. I guess I need to come down. Well, that’s the common thing that most people think when somebody flinches at their number. So every time we as real estate investors,

ask somebody for, hey, how much you asking for the property or what do you want for the property? Whatever they say, don’t worry about if it’s spot on or way off, it doesn’t matter. You flinch because you want to tell them that that number is not acceptable to you. And they know it subconsciously without you saying it.

Right, that’s the first technique. Everyone’s capable of that. Let’s do number two. I’m gonna ask you another question again. Where’s the most fair place for two people to meet?

Quentin (20:06)
Number two. Yeah.

most fair place for two people to meet. In the middle.

Tom Zeeb (20:17)
Yeah, you’re

over there. I’m over here. Where’s the most fair place to me? In the middle, of course, right? We all know that it’s fair to meet in the middle. I’ll meet you halfway. What could be better than that? All right. You you came halfway. I came halfway. All right. We know that human beings just think that way. So what I want to do is engineer the middle to be exactly where I need the middle to be. This is called bracketing. I’m going to create a bracket, not a March Madness bracket, a bracket.

Quentin (20:21)
Elmero. Yeah. Elmero. Yeah.

Yeah.

Tom Zeeb (20:45)
I you you say one number I Have a target so I need to make that target the middle. So I need to be the same distance lower than What you say I need to be same distance lower than my target price as you are above it So if I I asked you how much you asking for the let’s let’s say I need to get 250,000 like that’s the middle that’s where I need to be But I ask you how much you asking for the property if you say 300,000. Well, you’re $50,000 high

But of course, when you say 300,000, the first thing I do is go, ooh, 300,000. I’m going to flinch because you can’t forget the other principles. They’re all layered in. You’re 50 grand high. So to make 250 the middle, where do I have to go?

Quentin (21:17)
Yeah.

EW

Under.

Tom Zeeb (21:25)
Under your 50 grand high. gotta go 50 grand low. So if I’m aiming for 250 and you say 300 I’m gonna come in at I’m aiming for 250. I’m gonna come in at 200 except yeah, not exactly because I want to add the third Technique here. I would never come in at 200 because it’s just even it’s too plain. It’s almost too obvious. I You have to have a specific number. That’s the name of the technique. So I would offer you

203,579.

Quentin (21:53)
Mm.

Tom Zeeb (21:53)
And then I would have you go, yikes. I mean, like, what do you think of that number? 200 to 3,579.

Quentin (21:59)
What do I, I don’t know what to think. It’s numbers. it just, I don’t, can’t, I can’t really articulate, but it made me feel like that’s like what? Like for me, I got to do calculation. It kind of slows me down. I got to calculate like, wait a minute, what? I got to decide if I’m hearing that number is really low. Like, wait a what is that number? That’s what I’m thinking. Yeah.

Tom Zeeb (22:13)
Thank you.

What is that number? then

therefore, you know, normally people hear it, they stop. It’s a bit of a pattern interrupt because they go, well, that’s interesting. I didn’t expect that. But then they start going, well, why is he so specific? He must know what he’s doing. He must have a formula. He must have experience. He must know exactly what’s happening, which is what you want them to think. And you get them thinking that they take your offer more seriously because you use the specific number, even though for the most part, you just pull it out of thin air.

Quentin (22:23)
Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yeah. So what do we title that? So flinching, brackening, what would you, what would we name that?

Tom Zeeb (22:50)
Specific numbers. Always use a specific number. Because it’s much more believable to the person that you’re not just spitballing a number, you’re coming up with exactly what you think you need and you’re the expert, so it makes you look more of an expert.

Quentin (22:53)
Mmm.

This was, that was, that was three points. Like you said, we could use immediately. Those are easy implementations, easy implementations. I love that. man. This is, this was great Mr. Tom. Listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you,

Tom Zeeb (23:04)
I’m

every time. Yes.

I would go to my main website, TractionRealEstateMentors.com. Click on the guides button and there’s a whole bunch of free downloadable guides on different elements of marketing and negotiation. Same thing on my YouTube channel. So it’s TractionRealEstateMentors.com.

Quentin (23:38)
man, thank you so much. Thank you for the tools you gave. Just thank you for your narrative, for the way you just walked us through, just and simplify some things for us, especially when it came to negotiations. Let me say three things to you, sir. First, thank you for your time. You could have been doing anything in the world, but your time is precious and I appreciate it. Thank you for your time. Secondly, thank you for your narrative, for your story, for your topics. I believe that stories are premiums and the way we deliver our message, they come out in stories.

Tom Zeeb (23:52)
You’re welcome.

Quentin (24:05)
and they hit people right in the heart and soul and plant a seed that they can use that literally could change their life. So thank you for the things you talked about. Thank you for your delivery because I believe you planted some seeds. Lastly, thank you for your perspective, the way you think, your mindset and bringing that mindset to this platform. I appreciate you, sir.

Tom Zeeb (24:23)
My pleasure.

Quentin (24:24)
Absolutely. Well, listen, y’all heard Mr. Tom. Check him out. Check him out in the show notes for sure, please. And whatever you do, make sure you’re subscribed here because I promise you we continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Tom. So, sir, thank you again. Everyone else. You have a fantastic day.