The Real Estate Negotiating Bible With Kris Haskins

Episode 388: The Real Estate Negotiating Bible With Kris Haskins

 

One of the most crucial aspects of real estate investing is negotiating. After all, this is business, and in business, negotiating is what leads to success, as they help you build better relationships. If you are planning to get into real estate investing or trying to improve your skills, then this episode will help you get that one-up with your deal-making and more. Mitch Stephen is joined by Kris Haskins, owner of TheRealEstateRoundup.com, to share with us his book, The Real Estate Negotiating Bible. Taking the mystery out of negotiating a great deal, Kris takes us inside the book to explain the secrets to getting a seller to accept your discounted offer. He shares some of his different strategies, including the words and phrases that real estate investors can use to get into the minds of homeowners and persuade them to do the deal. Whether it is a lease option or buying at a discount or whatever you got, Kris’ wisdom has got you covered. Don’t miss out on today’s discussion for some valuable information and tools to add to your negotiation toolkit.

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This is now 1000Houses.com show. I moved from being RE Investor Summit to 1000Houses.com. I’m getting used to it myself. I’ve got to pay homage to my sponsor, TaxFreeFuture.com. If you do not have a tax-deferred or tax-free retirement plan or account where you can grow your funds and postpone or put off taxes indefinitely, you have no idea of the tool that you’re missing in your tool belt. Please check it out. You won’t believe what your financial advisors are not telling you. We’re going to tell you what they’re not telling you. We’re going to tell you why and then it will make perfect sense. You can make your own decisions. Check it out. I’m here with Kris Haskins. I’m about to hit my 400th interview. I never dreamt that people would care that long about little old Mitch Stephen.

Where are you at?

I’m in San Antonio, Texas. I understand you are in Hampton, Virginia, about 30 minutes from Virginia Beach. Is that where it is?

Yes.

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Tell us about the young Kris Haskins, how you grew up and how you got to real estate.

It’s an honor to be on your show. I’ve seen so much and you’ve done a million things and you’ve contributed to the real estate investing community.

It’s been my pleasure. At some point, it’s not all about the money anymore. You’ve got to have a higher reason. Dave Ramsey, they do the primal scream when people get debt-free. What I like to do is ring the bell when people fire their boss or no longer needed a job. That’s what turns me on. I don’t know why I write songs. I don’t know why I’m an entrepreneur and why real estate. When you have a passion for something and it bubbles up, you’re very fortunate to find your passions. I’ve been able to find mine. Later on in life, when the passion wasn’t the dollar sign and I needed more, I found a passion for trying to help other people quit their job. That’s what I like to do.

We need more people like you to teach this stuff in this crazy world.

It’s not the one-offs. It’s not the people that I deal with directly because you’re offering to help people too. Maybe you’re a better fit for them than I am. I don’t care who you pick. Find your passion, keep doing it and get after it. You’ve got to get out there. Find that financial independence only financially is the keyword for a lot of people so you can get funded. You can be the real person you’re supposed to be. It’s hard to be that guy when you’re broke in the streets. You can’t do anything. Let’s get that one little part solved so you can get onto the good parts.

Isn’t it weird how we all think that this big pot of money is the end of the rainbow? When you get there, it’s like, “This is the beginning of the rainbow.”

That pot of money can cause you more problems than you had before if you don’t have the right foundation and the right thought process of it. If I may be so bold as to say, get a Christian outlook on everything because we’ve got to do things for the right reasons and the right way or else it’s all for nothing.

I was a little boy in Lynchburg, Virginia. I went to HPC University. I went out to New Jersey to be in the music business for a while. I saw that I was living a destructive lifestyle. I went broke after getting a $200,000 publishing deal. I was making $100,000 every few months. It was crazy money. I went broke with $80 in my pocket and living on my friend’s couch. Finally, I went, “I have to figure out how money works.” After that, my quest for financial literacy began in 2004. Here I am looking back. Now I can only use stuff. I can make a dollar.

The music business is very tough. The person I talked to had the same story.

The old business or the little business model?

It was an old model. The new model killed everything for a lot of artists. Songwriters aren’t making any money and the performers have to perform now to make money. Music is for free. It used to be you went out and you bought an album and you bought the album for one song. Maybe there were two songs on that album that you knew and you learned another twelve songs that you fell in love with. These writers had all these other opportunities and other things. It’s all about morphing, which is the same thing in my real estate career. I started out years ago. It’s not the same business by a long shot. Me and my friends I joke around, “Remember the good old days, you could buy a house and create a note on it, then sell the note for 90%. You got a big old fat check right in the mail.” Those days are over. You grew up in Lynchburg. What about your family, your upbringing? You got in the music business and then what?

My dad made $30,000 a year. I thought that I need to make $30,000 a month to live. It’s amazing how my mind changed. My brother went from the music business to the real estate business to make a bunch of money. I thought earning money was the key to success, which is not. Now we’re a bunch of houses paid off and cashflow coming in more than I can spend a month. My mission was born where I get to raise people’s financial literacy through real estate investing and entrepreneurship. I do that every day. We build houses and all that other crazy stuff. The real fun is helping other people get paid and see that there was a whole life outside of being at the hamster wheel of making money.

Tell us a little bit about your success and to what level in the business have you got to. Do you have one million, 500,000, 15 houses? It doesn’t matter what we say because there’s always a bigger gun out there. It’s not about volume and mass. It’s about balance and being happy and have more than enough. Hopefully, you can share some of it with the people that are up and coming or need some immediate equity.

I don’t know about you, but less is more in my opinion. I’ve got under twenty units. I’m not the guy that’s trying to get. I don’t even desire to have 100 units. It’s not my thing. I enjoy doing other things.

What would you say you have?

I won’t disclose but under twenty units.

It’s not about the volume. One time, Ron LeGrand told me, “You need to quit doing so much money and make big money at the ones that you do and have a life.” That was his last thing.

I’m telling you, that’s something. Even the people I meet, they’re looking for more. I’m like, “Let’s talk about what you’ve got first before we talk about what we’re going to do and how much more are we going to get you.” You know this stuff.

We want to talk about negotiating. What are we giving away free?

We’ve got my Real Estate Negotiating Bible. It’s a bestseller on Amazon. I will give it to your people. We’re going to give it here for free. When I was coming up, I was like, “Where are the negotiating books?” They do have negotiation books, but they’re mostly talking to agents or somebody that’s to buy a house to live in. I looked and looked. I’m like, “Why don’t I create the book to show investors how to go in there and get the deal, whether it’s a lease option, buying at a discount, subject to, on finance?” We’ve got tons of little words, covert phrases, and different strategies as you go through the book. I use it like a study guide for negotiating. I’m going to use the lead-based paint crutch, which we would use for the abatement of the mold. We’re going to use the sexual offenders in the area, whatever it’s going to be. Make sure that paints a clear picture of what we’re going up against with our sellers.

I find that there are two things that you can never stop studying. That’s the other thing. It’s real life and a man has a family and he’s got this. We’re going to push through because life is not a picture book. You know how a news show sets up around here? We’re trying to get it done from where we’re at and how we’re at. I never finished looking for private money. I never finished learning about negotiating or trying to hone that skill because those are the two things that no matter what business you’re in if you can get a handle on those two things, you can proliferate.

You’re right, houses and private money.

Tell us where do you start in negotiation if someone’s never studied negotiation. This is the first time it’s crossing their mind that they should hone up on that skill before they start.

Start with the DISC analysis. Figure out who you are. I remember Louis Farrakhan saying, “How can you put something out in the world when you don’t even know who you are?” I am 99% an I. You drive me in a room, I’m good. I could talk to anybody, but some people are introverts. Some people, want to get right to the point. Find out who you are first.

Everyone needs to do that. I like to color-code people. They have the color code thing and I’m like, “Are they blue, green, yellow, red?” You should know how to talk to them, which is a whole other thing. We start off by figuring out who you are. Once you start to understand how to figure out who you are, maybe you can start to figure out who you’re talking to so you’ll know how to talk to them.

Everybody’s looking for this thing, how we can program other people, but it doesn’t work until you’re who you are first. You’re a geek and you’re an introvert. You’ve got to know how you communicate first, then you can turn it around. Do some Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

Is DISC a free little thing you can do and take a test or it costs you per test?

There’s a fee. I paid $200.

For one time you take the test and you figure out who you are, that’s $200 well spent.

I didn’t know what I was until I met Eric Thomas. He kept talking about it. I’m like, “If it was good enough for Eric Thomas, then it’s good enough for me. Let me pay my $200.” Now I know. If you look at my graph, it’s 30%, 20%, 99%, then it goes back down to 40%. I’m sure you’re probably an I too.

What is an I?

I am a creative person. I was reading some of it.

What does it say? There’s a whole bunch of different categories. The simplest ones break it down into four groups, so you can get a handle. Blue was very touchy, freely giving, not concerned about money. They need to have a higher reason. Reds were engineers, needed numbers, graphs, and charts. They live for the day. They don’t care about the future. They want immediate gratification.

D is Decisive, I is Interactive, that’s me, S is Stability, that’s my wife and Cautious is C. That’s DISC. You’ve got to learn who you work with, who you are good with, so you can get them.

It starts with figuring out who you are. Let’s talk about negotiating.

The next is being a consultant. I go in there and I remember starting off what I call it deal-itis. I don’t know if you had it, but whenever I met a homeowner or seller, they could smell it. They knew I needed this deal. “I won’t be able to pay my light bill if I don’t get this deal, Mr. Seller.”

It’s that negotiating place.

It’s a bad posture. I walk in there and I don’t even know if I’ll buy your house. I don’t even care if I’m going to buy your house. It’s funny, they want to give me the house even more. I don’t even care. “I don’t know if I’m doing this house, but I’ll let you know.” “Please, take it.” We want to consult people. What are we going to do? Sometimes I’m not the best. As you know, we’re not the best option for everybody. Sometimes I’m like, “List it with a real estate agent. You’ll make more money. Try to rent it out. Keep it and cashflow it yourself. We’ve got enough houses. I don’t need another one. I don’t need another house. I will buy this one if it fits into the category of my scope of what we do, but I’d rather you try to keep it and make some money yourself. Do something that’s going to make you more money as opposed to me trying to cut your throat. There are enough houses out there that I don’t need to do that.”

Once you establish that posture, take us through the steps when you’re going in to talk to someone.

We throw it out there. Once they know that I don’t care whether we’re going to do the deal or not, that’s when I can be the consultant. We say, “Can we help you? Do you have any equity?” If there is equity, I’ll recommend them to a real estate agent or we’ll buy it. I don’t care. If you want to crack quick closing, no inspection, as-is seller, we’re your guys. If you have time and you can have the real estate agent bringing people in and out showing the property, then I’m not your guy. You want to get fair market value, we’re not the people, I can’t help you with that. If you’re looking for an all-cash cold, close quickly at fair market value, we’re not your guys. If you’re looking for somebody that you can give a discount to and close quickly, we are your guys. If you don’t have any equity, we’ll try to take over your payments or buy with a lease purchase. Once again, if you don’t have any equity, we’ll do owner finance. We would try to pay the mortgage and wrap it up with a subject to.” Those are the different strategies that we have as we’re listening to them talk. The main thing is you’ve got to get to know him for me. I’m sure some guys have different opinions, but I get to know people. The more you get to know them and they like you, they’ll do business with you.

That’s probably a fact. You say, “I don’t know if I could buy this house. I have a lot of houses right now.” Let them know the, “I’m not desperate” posture, then you go in. What you’re describing to me is you’re collecting information. I need to collect information now, but it’s not all about the house. There’s information about the person you need to know too, like what language do they talk about. If you ask them what they do for a job and he says he’s a civil engineer and he helps stable it so we don’t collapse when they fall over, this guy is probably going to lead non-numbers, a lot of calculations and a lot of graphs and charts. If the man says, “I’m a minister at a church and I teach the kids,” that’s a whole different way of doing it. I’m going to see if there are parallels here. I like to ask a lot of questions that have nothing to do about the deal. “Do you go to church around here? I see the kids that were in soccer. Where did the kids play soccer? What league do they do? Are you the coach? Do they have a good team? What grade are they in? Where do they go to school?” I try to get them talking because they’ll tell you things.

I love divorces. When people are divorced, I’m like, “I want to keep my marriage together. If you don’t mind, why did you get divorced? What can you recommend to me to stay married? Let’s talk. Let’s get off of the house because the house isn’t going anywhere.”

The whole point of the information gathering for me is to figure out what angle I have a chance at, where it makes sense business-wise. The personal information is, what does this person like? How do I talk to them? There’s the, “What do they need? What does this guy want out of this? What’s the end result?” You established you’re not desperate. You’ve got three sheets of viable information. The fiscal sheet, the personality sheet, and then what this guy wants, what his dream is, or what they’re trying to accomplish by selling this house.

We’ll be going to it. I didn’t know how deep we’re going to get into regarding the programming of ourselves. I do have a technique. The lead technique, it’s identify the problem, agitate the problem, and then be the solution to the problem. That’s the whole scope of what The Negotiating Bible is about. I need all my audience to know that if you don’t have a problem, entrepreneurs can’t help you at all. You have to identify why we’re here. What brings us here?

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Every business is solving an issue. It solves a problem or you’re not needed. There has to be an issue that you’re solving. We buy situational properties or we buy properties from people in situations, but there is a situation somewhere. We’ve got to figure out what the situation is. When you’re buying, where do you get the money to fund these houses?

Private lenders. We’ve got a bunch of cash, but I still use private lenders too. Private people, ordinary people, mom-and-pop that have a low rate of return somewhere in some markets or other investments. We give them a high rate of return and they are happy to finance our real estate deals because they can drive to draft through it, go in it if they want to. Usually, they don’t, but they like to sometimes come by and we’ll get a beer or something. This is a people business. How’s the secondary? I should do a book on that. Forget the house. It’s all about the person. Every person that I bought a house from had to give me the house. Every house that I bought had to get the money from somewhere before I had money. Somebody had to loan it to me. It’s relationships. Private lenders, we turn them, take their money, and get a self-directed at Roth IRA. Thank God I learned from some masters. Lonnie Scruggs, RIP. He’s my mentor from 2006. He taught me that. I’m so thankful that he taught me. He sat me down and said, “Kris, I’m going to tell you something that should be illegal. Self-directed Roth IRAs.” this is before the 401(k)s and the checkbook and all that crap, then everybody knows I’m a dinosaur.

I knew Lonnie Scruggs. I wasn’t best friends with him, but I read his book Deals on Wheels. I since wrote my own version. It’s called Wheels Estate. Here’s the honest to God’s truth. I’ve been taking a little sidestep here, but it’s all about the story. My partner and I at that time, Sam Madrid, we’re driving his little Flintstone mobile. It was a Toyota Tercel with a broken air conditioner. We were listening to this guy. He says, “I’ve got to make a run down through. I’ve got to collect. I’ve got to do this, that, and the other.” It’s right down there where we like to eat at that restaurant. He says, “I want to pick you up and come because I got this new cassette tape.” This is how long ago it was. He goes, “I want us to listen to it while we’re doing it and see what you think.” I get there. The tape he has is this Lonnie Scruggs’ Deals on Wheels. We were listening to it and we were driving. We were listening to side A from the very beginning.

I start from the very beginning with him. I said, “Have you heard this yet?” He goes, “No. I don’t want to have to explain it to you. I want you and me to hear it and discuss it as it rolls along.” I said, “Okay.” We’re driving around getting our list of chores done and listening to it. Lonnie Scruggs is about as country as you get. Even if you can’t understand Lonnie because of his accent or his vernacular, but he’s the simplest man in the world and put it to you simple, which is good. I needed that because I’m a simple man too. About halfway through the tape, we were listening to the tape for a while and we saw a mobile home park and we said, “There’s a mobile home park. Let’s pull in there.” We started driving around the mobile home park while we were listening to him. We see this little for sale sign. One of those ones you buy at the hardware store, black with the fluorescent orange, red, or whatever letter and it’s in a window.

We stopped and we get out and her name is Betty. I’ll never forget it. She had an oxygen machine she was dragging behind her and she had the oxygen in her nose and she’s smoking a cigarette. I thought, “This isn’t smart. This oxygen can blow up. I’m not sure, but I’ve seen on TV where it’s not good.” This is back when they had titles. It looked like a car title. We gave her a check for $1,500. I’ll never forget this. We got in the car and as we were driving off, I was looking at this thing. I’d never seen a title to a mobile home. I was looking at it, and the cassette tape says, “This concludes side A. Please flip it over for side B.”

I looked at Sam and I said, “I hope there’s nothing on side B that we’re supposed to know.” He goes, “It’s too late now. We’re in the mobile home business.” I bought 180 mobile homes that year. I never did hear side B. One day, we were in a convention and Lonnie Scruggs was there. He and I were at the bar talking and it was one of that big foyer of a hotel in the bar. It had no walls. As we started talking, it got funnier and funnier and we kept one-upping each other. These stories of audacity, things that have happened. Before it was over, there were 200 or 100 people gathered around. It was a lot of people and we were laughing our butts off. He was a funny man.

Troy Titus, he used to be our teacher around here. He was the main mentor teaching people that no cashflow strategy. “Buy a house and get negative cashflow of $100 to $200 and then sell the house in a year to make $20,000 profit.” How stupid was that?

 

I admired him because he could have buried that and didn’t want to be associated. He was out there trying to help people and showing them. It goes to show there are very good cons out there too. There are people that are great at everything in the world. There are also people that are great cons.

Lonnie Scruggs was a master. It goes to show you that you’ve got to make sure you keep business up and up. I’m sure he could have done some stuff too. He probably let Troy get by with a lot of stuff because he was an attorney and he did millions of deals, but you’ve got to always make sure you get your stuff in order.

Private money, this is dear to my heart. I have $24 million out in the street from private people. Not $1 from a bank.

Is that from retirement funds or mix of cash and everything?

One of the reasons why I’m associated with TaxFreeFuture.com is I was helping many people convert from not regular IRAs and Roth and everything to self-directed so that I can help them with their ROI, with their rate of return and their peace of mind to help them quit living by the ticker tape thing. Tell us about it from the beginning. You need some money for a deal. Let’s say you don’t have any money and you’ve got a deal, and you’re trying to figure out how you’re going to fund it. How do you approach private lending?

First thing is I’m getting older. I hate that this is the fact that it starts in your mind. I know it sounds cliché, but you’ve got to have in the mind, “I have something that you need.” I remember when I used to think that there wasn’t any money out there for me to borrow. It’s like, “Nobody is lending the money.” I remember when I had that mindset. Now, I’m on the other side of the equation. I’m like, “There’s so much money out here. There’s just not enough good borrowers.” Not enough people to know what they’re doing.

Someone offering a strategy that makes sense instead of, “Why don’t you give it to me, and let’s gamble that I get to where I’m going?” No, that’s not a good plan.

It’s the problem. There’s so much paper out there. I want to tell anybody that’s reading this, there is way to get more money than you could ever borrow in the system. Look at Mitch. This guy has several million.

To your case in point, I had so much money that I couldn’t find enough houses that fit my parameters. I had to start a hard money loan business to keep it in my court. It’s about half and half. I got $12 million out in my own houses. The other half I couldn’t spend because I had too much. I had to go loan it out to my competitors who found houses before me so I could keep these people in my court. If I didn’t do something with their money, they’re going to go off and 50% of the time lose it. I feel people like you and I are community service because we help them retain their principal.

That’s funny because that’s the path I’m headed to now. Moving people, poking people out with money. There’s so much. First of all, let’s stay in the mindset. There’s so much money out there. I keep telling my friends, “When you walk out of the door, there’s wealth everywhere, from the lawns to the electrical poles.” I can’t drive five seconds in my neighborhood without passing million-dollars’ worth of real estate. I want people to know that there’s wealth everywhere. First thing, you’ve got it in your mind. Second is open your mouth. Third, you’re going to have a presentation. I don’t know what you use, but I don’t ask people to loan me money based on the words. You do have to have words, but the creator of the universe had words and they put them on paper. I figured that is good for me too. I’m going to put it on some paper and show somebody what I’m doing. They might loan me some money.

I’ve got PowerPoints where I explain it for you, and you can plug and play. I’ve got the blank one where once you learn the pitch and you want to do it yourself. You can do it yourself if you want. The one for the introverts, I did the one where you plug and play. Turn on the computer, turn it around, and sit with them while they watch it. You don’t have to do anything. That was one thing. You need some steps. I don’t like to beg for money. I never ask for money. What I needed is a chance to explain to someone what I do. I’m going to go real into depth about the money I have and what I’m paying. I’m not going to tell them who it is, who I’m getting it from because I need them to ask me.

They’ve got to be curious. If they aren’t curious, you got nothing.

I’d say, “I’m borrowing this money at 8% and I’m getting it for these many years.” I’m describing it. “I’m giving this entity a piece of collateral and it’s worth this much. I only owe that much to him.” “Who’s that entity?” I’m going to make them ask me and then I say, “Lean back, take off your glasses, cross your legs. They’re regular people. They’re sick and tired of the stock market and they don’t like 1% anymore. I figured out that they’re not even keeping up with inflation. Why? Do you know someone we can help?” Eight out of ten times, it’s like, “Yes. Me.”

We use the same thing where I ask people, “Do you know anybody?” I don’t want to ask them, “Do you know anybody?” Nine times out of ten, they go, “What about me? I’ll do it.” If they say they don’t know anybody, they’re broke.

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That’s brilliant too because it goes right along with your negotiating. When you ask someone, “I want to meet with you and talk about borrowing some money from you.” They get in a boxing stance. If they even accept the offer, most of them make it a big excuse. I learned that from a headhunter or a businessman. When he wanted his competitor’s employee, he would call that person and he wouldn’t say, “Do you want to come and work for me? I’ll pay a $10,000 more.” He says, “I need a person that’s as cognizant and as good as you. I need a person like you and my business. Do you know anybody? I’m willing to pay?” He knew the magic number. He knew what they made and he’d say, “Do you know anybody who wants to make about $60,000 doing what you do?” You teach this, you have eleven audio modules that you have out. It’s a full-fledged course. How long does it take to get through this to glean what you need?

The good thing about that is you have to think about our educational system. Think about college. I went to college and then you’ve got twelve years of school. The good thing about real self-training is you can get through things quickly. I put together there about eleven hours of audio and I’m condensing real estate negotiation since 2007 to now into these audios, into this module. It’s all live. Nothing’s scripted. I’m going into the homeowners. I’ve got a recorder, setting it on the table, and going back and forth getting these deals.

That’s cool because one of the fears people have is, “What do I say? How do I handle objections?” When you have a recording of a live situation, they’re getting it right from the horse’s mouth. Real-life, uncontrived and nothing’s planned. You have not given yourself a soft landing spot and I’m sure you fail sometimes in these negotiations too.

The good thing about it is I’ve recorded many of them. I was able to pull out the ones where we bought houses. I didn’t get them all. I don’t remember how many we closed on the audio, but some of them did. We fail, but then I was able to go to my studio. I narrate it with you. I’m walking with you, listening to this and telling you why I said this, where I’m going, how I’m setting up the future take away or how we’re going to program ourselves to see what they’re thinking. Why did they sell them? What are you going to do with the money? There are a lot of questions you’ve got to know.

The part you said about college, you spend four years and $100,000 in college. Five years and $120,000 or $150,000. Why do people undervalue this education but they won’t separate from $20,000 to $25,000 or $30,000 to save their life? It’s completely wrong. I’m not a big fan of the college stuff these days. I didn’t go to college. There are some things you’re going to have to go to college for like a lawyer, doctor, or some other things. If that’s not you, you can shortcut an education 1,000 times over. Everything you need to know to find out more about these real estate negotiating techniques, go to 1000Houses.com/kris  and add a code “Mitch” to avail the discount of worth $100 in the coupon code section.  What’s one of the most important things to know about negotiating in this course?

Don’t be scared to lose the deal. In my opinion, he who cares the least wins.

As a matter of fact, that’s part of the tactic. If you have a lot of time and a lot of competitors, you’ve got to walk away and see if they cave in to your demands. Let them sit for 24 to 48 hours. If you leave things right and you know how to negotiate right, you leave your door open so you can come back in 48 hours. Come back in and say, “The price I wanted, they’re not going to do. I can still do a little bit more.” We let them simmer for a little bit.

Rarely do I do it. It does happen. I go in, somebody says, “I love you, Kris. I want to sign the paperwork. Let’s do the deal right now.” What are you doing thereafter an hour? Does it happen to you frequently?

No.

I’ll create that crazy offer we gave them. “What do you mean? Are you going to give me $2,000? You’re going to take over my payments and I’ve got to keep the loan in my name?” Much has to go through their head before they agree that you’re a great guy.

 

Part of it for me has always been don’t go there trying to make a bunch of money. Go in there to see if we can help this person solve their problem. Take your mind off the money because that radiates through your presentation. Someone’s there for the money. Hard negotiators are going to beat people up. I know people that are very successful that would do that strategy. I used to be in the car business way before. I hated that business because you had to close them. You couldn’t let them leave the lot.

What is the question? “What do you need to do to get this deal done now?” I’ve only been a car dealer once in my whole life. I decided to never buy a car again. I decided to lease. I’ve never been to a dealership. These guys, I feel bad for them.

Give us an example of one of your most memorable negotiating case studies.

It’s on the audio. Number one, asking the man exactly how much money he needed. When you know what they’re going to do with the money, then you can paint a picture in their mind why it’s okay for them to take a discount. I remember the guy that was buying a mobile home. I kept asking him, “What are you doing with the money?” He said, “I need to get a mobile home so I could travel the country.” “How much do they cost?” “About $50,000.” I got him. I know where he needs to be. I knew we could pay around $40,000 to $50,000 for the house, but he wanted $70,000.

Let’s be realistic. Now that we know what you’re going to do with the money. People are scared to ask, “What are you going to do with the money?” Why? Just ask. Don’t even think about it. Just ask, “What are you going to do with the money?” You’d be surprised what people will say. The guy needed to get a mobile home. I went out and priced. I found out that how much a mobile home he wanted, how much it cost. I looked them up. I brought them in. I said, “You can get this for $40,000. We’re willing to give you $45,000.” It was almost like a hand in glove thing. Most sellers think that they have more. They think their house is the best one on the market and it’s worth way more than what it is. You have to become a master at painting pictures, analogies, and being able to do research.

I had that guy. “I’m interested in having one too. My family likes to travel.” “You’ve got a picture? Let me see the one you want to buy.” I had his pictures out. I said, “That’s bad ass. That’s cool. How cool is that going to be when you get to drive this thing. I want to do it. I think the one I’m looking at, it looks like it has everything you’ve got, but it’s a lot less money.” I’ve been spending my next two hours learning RVs.

I like to use that on the contractor when they say, “That’s only going to cost my contract that came in.” He said, “That’s only going to cost $0.50 to fix,” or “This is going to cost $500 to get central heating and air.” I said, “Sign me up. Would you mind giving me his phone number? I need that guy to do my central heating and air.” “My guys, they talk to me so much more. Ms. Smith, would you mind if I use your guy? They will be a blessing to me.”

I learned a technique one time from a guy that I thought was clever. I used it forever since then. He would walk around the house and say, “Maybe there’s a crack in a window. In the doorjamb where the corner comes together, there’s a crack. The house has settled a little bit.” He would walk around. He would look up at those pack and put his hands on his hip. He’d sit there and stare at it for a minute. He’d never say a word and walk through the whole house and everything. He’d take his hands off his hips. When he got to something that was broken or messed up, he put his hands on his hips and then put his hands down again. He walks to the next room and then he’d find something else that’s screwed up. He put his hand on his hips and tap his foot.

Don't be scared to lose the deal—he who cares the least wins. Share on X

Lonnie did that craziness.

I might’ve learned it from him. You don’t want to go in and tear someone’s house. That’s where they live. You can’t say, “Look at how screwed up this place you live in.” That’s an insult. Be careful.

Never do that. I tell people, “Even if the house is a teardown, you’ve always got something positive.” My thing is even if it’s the worst house you have ever seen, at least it’s got potential.

That’s the bottom line. That’s like, “She’s nice. She has a great personality.” Let me ask you this. What other kind of coaching do you do? I like your style. I think your heart’s in the right place and you’re very well-grounded. What do you offer people that want to learn?

We’ve got a full coaching program. I hate social media, but I love what it can do. I can’t stand me on here. People watch millions of views, all this crap, but I don’t necessarily love it. I do it because it’s a necessary evil. It’s like you’ve got to exercise and veggies. To be honest with you, I felt like it’s a huge wave coming. If you aren’t going to do it, you are going to be irrelevant quickly.

I’m lucky that I got into it earlier. I started the show years ago, which was still not early to the game, but it’s not like now. It’s harder to get a massive digital footprint because people that have been on for years keep raising the bar. You’re competing with these people that have been on for a long time. I was not aware of even how big my digital footprint was until someone pointed it out to me. When I started my podcast, I had zero expectations. I didn’t know if anyone wanted to hear me. I didn’t know anything. My deal was I was going to try to find quality people. We do our best to research and make sure that the people that we’re bringing on are legit. We’re not perfect, but we do try hard. We try to do content.

The fact that there are some things for sale or a lot of people have things to offer, you take them where you leave them. The goal of this show is to help you find where you belong so that you can proliferate and to connect you with someone who speaks your language in that market you’re in. They have the same philosophy you have but has done it way more than you have and are willing to help you do that. Honestly, there are only 24 hours in a day. These people have to charge something. If you don’t charge something, we get people that are time-wasters.

Nothing is for free. I don’t want to deal with people that want free stuff.

You can get enough free stuff on the internet. You have to decide whether that’s quality stuff or BS. There’s a lot of free stuff. If someone calls you up and wants to negotiate the price on your modules, how’s that going to go? They’re going to use your own tactics against you.

I love it when people ask me for a discount. First of all, I’m glad you’ve got the balls to ask. It depends on how I feel that day. Sometimes we can’t even do it at the time, but they need it right now. It all depends. Some of the stuff, I can because I’ve got a team that we pay. Salespeople, coaches, and all this stuff. We’ll work with people. Unfortunately, people that look like me, in my opinion, don’t have the same or haven’t had the same. When I first started, there was nobody that looked like me. Thanks to the internet, there are more people that look like me making money and making this stuff aware. I always say, “Back in the day, you’ve got to have the rich white dude.” Lonnie Scruggs was the rich white dude that I hung out with.

 

That’s one of the things about raising private money. People give themselves way too much credit in that equation. “I’m too tall. I’m too skinny. I don’t speak English that well. I don’t have any experience. I’m too young. I’m not the right color.” They make up all this stuff about them. Like what Kris said, you’ve got to get your mind first. Let’s start right now. We’ve got to take all those obstacles out of your way, all those limiting beliefs. You’ve got to take them out of your way. It isn’t about you. It’s about the deal. I tell this all the time and people probably get tired of hearing it, but Charles Manson should have been able to get the money for these deals.

If they’re good deals, Charles Manson could have presented them, no matter how many murders committed. You’re either going to get paid or you’re going to get this piece of collateral. Who cares? If it’s a good deal, it doesn’t matter. They’ll probably make more money if they got the property back. My point is it’s not about you. It doesn’t matter. It’s about the deal and a businessman goes, “You’re going to give me X amount of interest annually or I’m going to get that piece of property? If that piece of property speaks well, it’s right. I don’t care who you are. I’ll take that deal because I hope you don’t pay me. I want that house for that amount of money.”

People in my community, they don’t have the right information. If they did get it, it wasn’t delivered through the right vessel perhaps. The vessel is so big delivering a message. I can turn the TV on and someone looks a certain way and I’m turning it. If I see TD Jakes, I’m like, “What are you talking about?” It all depends on who’s delivering the message.

I had the honor of interviewing Robert Allen, one of my heroes. Nothing Down and Multiple Streams of Income, to name a couple of his books. He’s doing a book called The Four Maps of Happy Successful People. One of the main principles in that book was what you said. It says, “Any kind of success, it all starts from the inside out.” You’ve got to get your collective crap together and figure out where everything begins. It all begins right here. If you don’t have that, you don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell until you get it. I stumbled around for many years. I’ll be the first one to admit it. It took me a long time to figure that out. No one told me, they didn’t teach it to me in school. My parents didn’t tell me. I don’t understand what they’re teaching in school. I guess they’re teaching you to be the guy that does the job. That’s what they’re teaching you to be, worker bees. I want you guys to go to 1000Houses.com/kris and add a code “Mitch” to avail the discount of worth $100 in the coupon code section. I want you to go there and get your free download of The Negotiating Bible and then strongly consider purchasing these eleven real estate modules on negotiating their eleven audio modules.

You’ve got Kris right there in a room unscripted, unplanned. We don’t know what’s going to happen. He got these recordings so you can see how he’s handling the objections and you can hear his demeanor since the delivery, and glean from some real life. He may or may not want to answer this question, but I’m going to preface it with this. These get archived. It may be a long time that you are reading this from when we originally did it. Do you want to talk about the price of this and what they get? Know this, people, he has the right to change this price any day of the week. He has the right to add to this course, subtract from this course, put it on special, or raise the price because of ongoing reasons and expenses. What are you offering?

Generally, it goes for $297. We’ll give a $100 discount for your people that come in here. We’ll give it to them for $200 and we’ll give them a coupon code if they go to your site there. I don’t know what the code would be.

Quit complaining about how someone else got a piece of the pie and you didn't because the piece of pie is out there for everybody. Share on X

Go to 1000Houses.com/kris and add a code “Mitch” to avail the discount of worth $100 in the coupon code section. Instead of being $297, he’s going to get you these eleven modules for $197. I don’t know how you listen to a man negotiate for eleven hours and not learn $197 worth. I don’t care who you are. I don’t care if you’re a pro at negotiating. If you pick up one tiny thing that he does a little different than you do, then the $197 is well spent good. If you use that little nugget, chances are it’s going to make you a lot more than $197. I want to thank you for doing the special for the readers. Do you have a podcast?

My thing is YouTube.

Do you have a guest?

All the time. I’m going to get you on.

I’ll do the same for you. I’ll offer your people something special because that’s how it works. I fight to get you all something a little extra off, and then when I’m on his show, I’ve got to return the favor. I’ve got to give his listeners a little bit extra. This is almost a no-brainer. For $197, listen to eleven hours of a man talking to you about negotiate and show you how he does it. I’m talking to myself right now too. I’m going to get it. I’m going to listen to it because there’s no person on the planet who won’t glean at least one nugget out of it. That’s worth $197 for sure. I’d like to thank you for taking the time to come on.

It’s a pleasure meeting you. I’m honored.

Before we wrap it up, what do you want to say to the new guy out there that’s trying to find this up and get going?

Keep an open mind. I’m thinking about myself. When I started, I was just on the grindstone. I’m embarrassed to say that I felt like I got mad amnesia from 2004. I don’t even remember my life in 2004 to about 2014 because I was on a grindstone. I remember a lot of them I used to tell me, “Kris, you’ve got to stop worrying about the deal.” As Americans, we have flashed this success image in front of our face all day long on social. It wasn’t as bad in 2010, but now social media is so much fake success. This image that we have of success and the average human in America, $10,000 to $15,000 a month in paradise. Generally speaking, it’s a paradise for the average.

I don’t think people in the top 0.05% of the world.

I think we have this whole Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Musk mentality that we have to grind so hard. We do need the grind. I’m not opposed to grind things. I’m up at 5:00 in the morning every day. Even though I don’t even have to now, but I was on a grindstone. I felt it’s a big blur. I woke up one day and I got more houses than I needed. I got my mortgages done and I didn’t enjoy it. I’m like, “I got up here and I don’t even know how it got here.” I would tell the people, “Enjoy the journey, embrace the journey. Don’t get turned off by the journey of becoming a better you. Look at a million houses. You’ve got to grind but enjoy the journey. When you wake up in the morning, thank God for another opportunity to buy another house. The Miracle Morning is a good book. I used to not sleep. I’m going to do a video. I finally learned how to get a good night’s rest. It’s all about what you think right before you go to bed. Don’t look at the clock as, “I only have six hours of sleep.” Look at the clock as, “Thank God, I have six hours.” That is when I got that paradigm shift. Once I learned that I’ve been able to sleep every night. I’m thankful. Instead of saying, “I’ve only got five hours of sleep,” I’m saying, “Thank you for the five hours of sleep that you’re going to give me.” When I hit that one, that helped me move on. I want your people to enjoy the journey.

When I was talking to Robert Allen, he surprised me because he’s one of those guys that is very well-known in our circles. I inadvertently did things that were against the grain. I never set million-dollar goals for myself. All I wanted to do was do better next month or be a better business next month than I was this month. I wanted to make it a little bit more next year than I did this year. I wasn’t comparing myself to anybody. One of the cool things that Robert Allen said was, “These people come and say, ‘I have a goal and I want to make $1 million a year. I want to make $1 million a week.’ I laugh at those people and blow them off. They’re never going to do anything. The one I want to hearsays, ‘I need to get to my first goal. My first goal is to do my first house.’” Here’s a guy that’s going to a good chance of making it.

He says, “I’m going to give myself a year to do it.” He’s giving himself enough time. He can get educated. He can figure it out. Once he does one deal, now, it’s the, “What are you going to do now?” “I’d like to do two in a month. I’d like to do two next year.” He said he always wanted to set goals that were easy to achieve, but they were out there enough. They were so achievable that he knew he would. You built up your confidence and your courage because you get these little base hits. You don’t get base hits by swinging for the fence all the time. I agreed with him 100%. I have a theory called the Moat Theory. Figure out what you need to pay your bills. Let’s work on getting that come in first. I know you want to be a multimillionaire. I know you want to do all this stuff. Let’s do the first thing. Let’s get it to where you don’t have to have a job.

If that means you’ve got to make $2,500 a month coming in, whether you get out of bed or not, then let’s focus on $2,500 a month. All of a sudden, there’s a goal that it’s ridiculous. In the United States of America, $2,500 a month coming in that you do one time, you set it up and it starts to roll. Is that so unbelievable? Is that so unattainable that you can’t get your mind around it? No, you definitely can do that. We take that chunk. Now you want to drive a nicer car, have a little bigger house. That’s up to you. If you can get $2,500 coming in, you can get $10,000 coming in. Check out TaxFreeFuture.com. If you are looking for a way to self-direct, have passive income, or to grow tax-free or tax defer your real estate career or your retirement, this is a very viable option. Thirty-seven video vignettes to show you. The ones I like the most show you how to take a little bit of money and make it to a lot of money relatively fast. It’s a well-kept secret, but it’s not a secret. Anyone in the world, these are the secrets that the rich and the famous use about how not to pay taxes and how to make a lot of money.

Here’s the thing, you’re all complaining because the rich can get rich and the rich don’t pay taxes. They’ve got the same rules you’ve got. You can play by the same exact rules, but do you know the difference between them and you? You’re not going and studying those rules. Change it. Quit complaining about how someone else got a piece of pie and you didn’t because that piece of pie is not there for everybody. Thank you for stopping by to get you some Kris Haskins and please stop by 1000Houses.com/kris and get you some free stuff over there you can also add a code “Mitch” to avail the discount of worth $100 in the coupon code section. Also, maybe you’ll learn a little bit about negotiation that’ll change your life.

 

Important Links

• 1000Houses.com/Kris  
• 1000Houses.com/Moat  
• 1000Houses.com/Livecomm  
• 1000Houses.com/100
• 1000Houses.com/101

 

About Kris Haskins

Retired from the music biz in 2003 because of living a destructive lifestyle.

Started investing in RE in 2004. Starting doing it the right way in 2007 and teaching and coaching in 2010.

 

 

 

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