CLOSED! Listed on-market for 3.75M, closed at 2.9M. Not a typo — Here is the story:

CLOSED! This was a wild one. I just closed a 175-Pad RV Park in the Mid-West. This deal was listed on-market for 3.75M, and closed at 2.9M. Not a typo — Here is the full story:

The listing caught my attention immediately: $21,000 per pad seemed like a deal. But it had been listed on the market for over 9 months. We both know what that means…

I called the listing agent, and found out it was listed with a realtor. TLDR — It’s uncommon for residential realtors to list commercial Real Estate. Never mind an RV park (Real Estate + Business Acquisition). Upon speaking with the Realtor (who was really hard to get ahold of), I asked for the basic financials. You know…The Rent roll…T-12... And after following up for two weeks, I finally asked if she could set-up a seller phone call. To which, she did. Before the call, she casually mentioned, “The seller would love to owner finance.” Strange, because that wasn’t in the listing.

Immediately I hit it off with the seller. He’s also a Veteran and lives in North Carolina. I asked him basic questions about the financials of the RV park, and wah-lah, I confirmed that 3.75M was over-priced. But, at this point, instead of telling him it’s overpriced and moving on with my life, I asked him to put himself in my shoes.

This is powerful because it does two things: one, it softens the fact that you just told him his property is overpriced. And two, it hopefully gets him thinking. After all, at one point, he was a buyer. And one thing is for sure — we all want the same thing when buying Real Estate.

"So, your agent mentioned you’d be interested in owner financing. Are we talking pawn-shop terms, or what?” I joked. Humor is my go-to icebreaker with sellers—it works every time.

He laughed and replied, “Well, I just owner financed the store out front at 4%. I’d probably be willing to do that here too.”

For context, interest rates for this type of asset was sitting around 8%. This gets better.

I followed up with: “In a perfect world, how much cash would you need down?”

He said, “Look, Since you seem serious…I’ll tell you this.… I owe $620,000. If I can get my payoff, I’m happy.”

Wow. That’s when I actually got excited. But here’s the golden rule: never show it.

I closed the call with this: “Look, I have your financials now. I’ll make you an offer. But before I do… I want you to know that it’s going to be low. Very low…”

Before I go on, I want to emphasize that last part. By telling the seller, “It’s low,” and then leaving it at that, I planted a seed in his mind. Now, he’s left to wonder: “How low is this offer going to be?” And trust me on this—he’s running scenarios in his head. “If it’s this number, I might do it. Anything lower? No way.”

But here’s the beauty of it: he’s expecting it to be really low. So, when I come back with my offer, there’s a solid chance he thinks, “That’s actually better than I imagined!”

At this point, I had the financials and ran them through underwriting. That’s when I pulled out a “pro move” I’d only heard about but never tried myself. I called the Realtor and explained to her that I was unrepresented. And that I’d allow her to represent me, if we can get the purchase price down. This is critical, and does a few things:

1. She now has a dog in the fight. (Legally, she has a duty to represent me).
2. She is financially motivated. Now she doesn’t have to split her commission, which really lit her up.

I asked her if she’d be willing to cut her commission for the deal. Savage?? Not really.. think about this: If the TOTAL fee of the deal is $300,000. She has to split that with the buyers agent. Meaning that her fee is $150,000. But because she’s willing to work both sides of the deal, she will happily take $200,000. And now she’s actually motivated to get a deal done.

I then presented the seller with my offer of $2.9M. I framed it like this: "Because you’re owner financing, you’re essentially my largest investor in this deal. And at the current cash flow, the numbers just don’t work to cover the mortgage unless it’s at this price.”” This set-up a perfect response from the seller. “Well, we both know that my rents are low. I have not done a rent increase in years”. Bingo.

This pigeon holed him and provided a great opportunity to ask for a “interest only” period. The term “interest only” is used in banking when you pay ONLY the interest portion of the loan (no principal). So, you’re not paying down the loan balance, but the monthly payment is much lower, allowing you to get cash flow and get enough speed to get the airplane into the air. I asked for 4 years of interest only, knowing that he’d probably counter. (I was right, and we landed at 3 years).

My offer was accepted at 2.9M with owner financing terms (that are WILD).

• 75 Loan-to-value (LTV) meaning 25% down ($725,000)
• 4% interest rate (fixed)
• 3 years of Interest only (IO)
• 30 Year Amortization
• True 15-year Balloon

This one was a blast! I got to put a ton of my “tips and tricks” into action—many of which I’ve picked up from podcasts and conversations with others in the game. And honestly, I couldn’t have drawn it up any better. Just the owner financing alone forced a ton of value.

If you’re interested in learning more about my real estate sales strategies or want to stay updated on my current deals, be sure to subscribe/follow me! Want exclusive insights? DM me to grab a free copy of my new Ebook on How I got started in Real Estate. I recently wrote it to share how I got started in real estate, and it’s 100% free.

I’d love to hear your feedback!