Sometimes, the best deals take time.
I once worked on a deal that took over a year to close (15 months, to be exact).
But here's the thing: it wasn't actually that much work. All those back-and-forth emails probably added up to about an hour of my time, total.
This deal taught me something important: great opportunities don't always happen in your first conversation with a seller. Or even your second or third. Sometimes it takes months or even years for them to finally agree.
So why does it take so long?
It's not because you're doing anything wrong. The problem is simple: you're the buyer, and the seller doesn't trust you yet.
They figure you're trying to get the lowest price possible (which is true), so they're naturally suspicious of anything you say.
Here's what I've learned: you can't always convince a seller to take your offer. They need to figure it out on their own. And if you push too hard or give too much advice, you might actually make things worse. This whole process just takes time, sometimes a lot of time, but it's often worth the wait.
A lot of real estate investors give up after a seller says “no” the first time. They think the deal is dead and move on. But that's a mistake.
Most sellers have a difficult time accepting a big discount on their property. And it makes sense, especially if they're emotionally attached to it. They need time to get comfortable with the idea.
Bottom line? Patience pays off in negotiations.
Patience In Action (A Case Study)
Let me give you an example.
One day, I got a submission on my buying website from a woman who owned two adjoining parcels of vacant land that she wanted to sell. This was the data she gave me:
(Note: Several sections of this correspondence have been blurred out for privacy reasons.)
The property looked interesting enough at first glance, so I did some research to get an idea of what the property was worth.
Not surprisingly, the seller had a pretty over-inflated perception of the property's value. This was how I responded to her:
She didn't like my offer (and her response was actually quite polite). She thought her properties were worth $12,000 – $17,000, and while this may have been feasible back in the height of the market (when lots of people were doing lots of stupid things with real estate), I knew this was still way off base by today's standards.
This was my second response to her:
Most sellers act like their property is worth way more than it really is. They talk as if they possess some special knowledge that you don't have.
After I sent my offer, she stopped responding. It was clear we weren't even close on price.
A few months went by. Then she emailed me again:
I learned this negotiation trick from another investor years ago (and honestly, I was actually low on cash at the time anyway). When a seller comes back to you like this, they're basically admitting, “You were right, I was wrong. Please buy my property.”
This is your opportunity to offer even less if you wish (remember, you were ready to go the first time, and they ignored you). It also sends a clear message: “Take this offer now, or it's going to be lower next time we talk.”
As you can see, lowering the price even further still didn't result in acceptance, but keep reading and you'll see how it unfolded later the next year…
This was her response…
At this point, she was still wearing her “investor” hat and hadn't quite hit the point of true motivation yet.
Let's see what happened 6+ months later…
So, let's review. This seller initially thought that her properties were worth $12,000 to $17,000, and she was willing to accept as little as $10,000 for both.
Now, she wants to sell both (plus an additional parcel that she doesn't want) for a grand total of $1,000.
That's a 90% drop in her asking price over the course of our conversation.
The Ultimate Negotiation Technique
There's an important lesson in the chain of emails above.
It's quite possible to negotiate a deal down to exactly where you need it, and it doesn't require any clever play-on-words, psychological mind tricks, fear-mongering, or intimidation towards the seller (I've experienced all of these things when I've tried to sell properties, and it isn't fun).
The only real negotiating technique I used here is patience and follow-up. I knew what the property was worth to me, I knew what it was worth to the market, and there was really nothing else to say about it.
And this is exactly where Stride can make a massive difference.
Most land investors understand the power of follow-up, but few consistently apply it.
Why? Because doing it manually is time-consuming and easy to forget.
With Stride, you can send offers to sellers with a single click, have them tracked and signed digitally, and even see the moment a seller opens the contract to review it.
If the seller doesn’t sign, Stride will automatically follow up on your behalf through email, text, or any other method you choose.
This type of automation keeps your offers top of mind for sellers, ensuring that no potential deal slips through the cracks. It’s the kind of quiet, persistent system that works for you in the background, so even if it takes months for a seller to finally come around, your follow-up never stops.
You'll also notice that while I was confident about where I stood, I didn't need to be mean about it. I always maintained a blend of patience and kindness in my communication, which resonated with the seller over time.
Do you think she would have continued to come back to me if I had been mean to her? Did you notice how she never snapped back at me, and I never snapped back at her? It was a relatively pleasant, year-and-a-half-long conversation.
A lot of people have this subconscious idea that the relationship between a buyer and seller is inherently hostile (as if one party has to conquer the other).
It's pretty common for me to encounter buyers and sellers who have a chip on their shoulder from the moment I say hello. However, when I come across them with kindness, no matter what happens, it ultimately builds trust and shows the other party that I'm not their enemy. I'm only here to make a deal with their blessing, and it's okay to say no to me.
What It Really Takes
Any good negotiation needs to start with a buyer who is confident about what they're willing to offer for a property and only playing the game by those rules, not being seduced or strong-armed into a compromised position that isn't going to work out in their favor.
It also requires a mixture of patience and kindness, exhibiting understanding along the way. Remember, the goal ISN'T to swindle a person out of their property!
Even though my offers are what some people would consider “crazy”, the fact is, I don't want to buy from people who have other, better options. I really don't!
I want to buy from people who either:
- Don't care enough to hold out for a better deal, or
- Have already tried their best to sell it, and they've determined that there are no better options than working with me.
If you're in this game with the right attitude and you don't allow yourself to get pushed into a price that you know doesn't make sense in the long run, you'll find that there's a lot of negotiating power at your fingertips by simply waiting it out. If you have patience, you'll get what's coming to you.
