There's no question about it: brokers are one of the most important ways to find RV Parks to buy. But to get to the top of the pack, you need the brokers to see you as a good prospect. In this RV Park Mastery podcast we're going to review some methods to earn the respect of the brokerage community.
Episode 158: How To Earn The Respect of Brokers Transcript
In our 30-year career, we found that brokers are the number one source of RV park deals to buy. But there's a lot of people who know that and go out to brokers on a regular, consistent basis looking for their listings, wanting to talk to brokers, want to get offers in, want inside track of what would this guy take? And when working with brokers, it's absolutely essential that you garner their respect to get at the top of that pile. This is Frank Rolfe with the RV Park Mastery Podcast. We're gonna talk all about how to earn the respect of brokers, how to get ahead of everybody else so that brokers are more open to showing you their listings, including their pocket listings and working with you.
Now, the first thing you have to know about brokers are like anybody, they're just in it for the money. That's what everyone is in the world of real estate. You buy parks to make money and brokers sell parks to make their commission. So as a result, the number one way to earn their respect is to look like a buyer that can actually close. You might be the nicest person in the world, you might be the funniest person in the world, you might dress very snappy, but if the broker doesn't think you're a legitimate buyer but instead just a tire kicker, they're not really gonna want to show you much or spend much time with you because the way they see that, well, that's a complete and total waste of time to them.
So how do you then appear to be like a real buyer? How can you go and go to them and not have them put you in the box of somebody who's never really gonna pull the trigger and gonna actually buy something? Well, the first thing is to consistently bug them because brokers always respect determination. Now, I don't know if you've been to a big brokerage like a Marcus & Millichap office, but the way they're physically structured, you have these boiler pens of all of these people out there duking it out, trying to be somebody. And the ones who actually sell stuff, well, they get to have offices with big glass windows that look out on that pen of brokers to remind them if they don't keep selling, they're gonna be stuck back in that boiler shop operation again. And they know that they got out of that boiler shop and got that nice office with the glass window by being determined, by not stopping, by never giving up, by fight, fight, fight, make those calls, get those listings, and get things sold. So the number one way that you're gonna get a broker to respect you is to bug them.
Now, the next thing you can do to get the broker's respect is to give fast, honest feedback. Be honest with them. Tell them what you think. They hate it when you say, "Well, let me think about it." They want to hear instead, "Well, here's my initial impression of it," and then tell them the truth of what you think. You can say, "Well, I think that park is too small for me," or "I think that park is too expensive for me," or you can say, "I think that park is horribly overpriced and here's why," or "No, I don't think that's a good market at all and here's why." The fact that you can give a fast, intelligent answer to them means you know what you're doing because they know from experience the least likely buyers are the ones who have no clue because they can never make a formal decision and they can waste people's time tying things up, doing due diligence, even doing the financing contingency, and then walking the deal at the end simply because they really didn't know what they were doing and therefore didn't want to put down their hard-earned money on a down payment.
Also, I have found having a sense of humor helps because brokers typically deal with people that have no sense of humor who just stress them out. So if you can inject into the conversation something funny like, "Yeah, that RV park looks about as big a loser as the Chicago Bears were last weekend," just little comments like that makes you seem like a real individual because when you're a broker, all you hear is unhappy. Unhappy sellers calling saying, "How come my deal hasn't sold yet?" Unhappy buyers calling saying, "Yeah, I talked to the city and that isn't an RV park permit for 60, it's only an RV park permit for 55." But if you can be someone that could put a little humor in their day, that gives them a clue that you're a little more low-key. And if they have two buyers, one who's just a stress magnet and the other with a little sense of humor, they're probably gonna go with the one that seems a little more fun to be with.
Also, and this is a key thing, is you gotta think like Madison Avenue. You have got to constantly repeat your message so they remember not really your name, but instead they remember the message, what you're trying to buy. So if you come up with a mantra of the type of RV park you were looking for, if you just say, "Well, I want to get a turnaround RV park in Texas," and you call brokers all the time, "Do you have any turnaround mobile home parks in Texas?" And then two weeks later, "Do you got any turnaround mobile home parks in Texas?" And two more weeks, "You got any Texas RV parks that need a turnaround?" Well, they're gonna remember you as the turnaround Texas RV park buyer.
And when those brokers start remembering you by your mantra, not by your name, that elevates you as a buyer because all the time when they see something, they're gonna evaluate it based on, "Hmm, let's see, it's in Texas and it's a turnaround park. I think I'm gonna call that guy. That's the guy that buys only RV park turnarounds in Texas." So if you can distill your message down to a finite little bit of data like that and you can bug them constantly with it, and every time they show you something that does not meet the profile, they say, "Well, what about this RV park?" "I don't want that RV park. That's not in Texas." "What about this RV park?" "I don't want that RV park. That's not a turnaround." That's how you'll start to get somewhere because brokers know if you are absolutely determined to buy one certain thing, then you're gonna buy one certain thing. Remember that in any deal, there's all kinds of road bumps, things that pop up, potholes in deals, and only determined buyers will carry it all the way to the finish. Only that determined RV park buyer is gonna, every time you hit that bump, they scurry around and fix it. Appraisal comes in low. It's okay. You fight the appraisal. You go find a different lender who goes with a different appraiser. Lender says, "Oh, I'm sorry, I can't do 70% LTV. I can only do 65%." The determined buyer scuttles around and finds a way to come up with the missing capital.
That's what you need to be, though. You need to be the person that they think can actually get the job done. And it doesn't hurt, as long as we're talking about building that personal relationship with the broker, if they're local, to even take them out to lunch or take them out to dinner. Because even though it may seem to you bribery, it's legal bribery. Basically, you're just spending a little money out of the old pocket to create the environment in which they remember you even more. And maybe at that lunch or dinner, you can spread little personal stories about yourself, learn a little bit more about them. Most importantly, once again, educate them with exactly what you're trying to buy because when you convince that broker that you are a real seller, someone who will really pull the trigger, someone who is determined to get the job done, you will always, always rise to the top of the pack. This is Frank Rolfe with the RV Park Mastery Podcast. Hope you enjoyed this. Talk to you again soon.