Hey there, Josh Brown here.
I want to tell you something that took me a long time to really internalize — and something I heard Cam say recently that stopped me in my tracks because it was so simple and so true.
He was negotiating on a deal near his place in Florida. Small waterfront property. Inheritance situation. He’d already told me he was at $400,000 on his offer — and he knew there were probably people who’d pay more.
His next line was: “But she’s gonna like me the best.”
He wasn’t joking.
He meant it.
And he’s right.
The Thing Scripts Can’t Buy You
Most real estate investing content is about systems. Lists. Dialers. Follow-up sequences. Offer formulas. All of that matters. I’m a marketer — I believe in systems more than most.
But there is one thing no system can manufacture for you, and it consistently closes deals that the highest offer can’t.
Trust.
When a motivated seller is deciding who to work with, they are not running a spreadsheet. They are asking themselves: do I believe this person? Do I feel okay handing this over to them? Will they make this easy or make it hard?
Those are emotional questions. And the answers come from how you show up in the conversation, not from what number you write on a contract.
I’ve seen it happen more times than I can count in nearly two decades around this business. Sellers take less money from someone they feel good about. That’s not a soft, fluffy idea. It is a hard competitive advantage — and it’s one most investors leave completely on the table.
What Transparency Actually Looks Like
Here’s where Cam said something that I think a lot of people in this industry misunderstand.
He doesn’t win sellers over by being warm and charming. He wins them over by being overwhelmingly transparent.
There’s a real difference.
Charm is surface-level. Sellers who have been through something hard — a death in the family, a foreclosure, a divorce — they can smell performance a mile away. They’ve probably already had three investors call them, and they’ve already been on the receiving end of someone who was enthusiastic right up until they wanted a bigger discount.
Transparency is different. It means telling the seller exactly where you stand. What you can offer and why. What the process looks like. What’s realistic and what isn’t. It means having a genuine desire for the outcome to work for both parties — and being willing to say that out loud.
Cam put it this way: the seller has to win. He has to win. And just being that candid about it — openly acknowledging that you both need to get something out of this — is unusual enough that it makes you stand out.
Think about that.
Being honest is unusual. That’s not an indictment of the industry. It’s an opportunity for you.
The Screen Door Guy
Cam told a story recently that stuck with me. He was having work done at his place, and he said something to the guy about showing up when he said he would and returning calls. And the guy’s response was basically: yeah, I do well.
Cam’s take was simple. You don’t have to work harder to win. You have to be legit. Communicate. Show up. Be transparent. That combination — by itself — makes you likable. And likable closes deals.
This isn’t unique to real estate. It’s human nature. We do business with people we trust, and we trust people who do what they say they’re going to do. The difference is that in real estate investing, the bar is so low that basic reliability and honesty actually separate you from most of your competition.
That’s a ridiculous advantage if you choose to use it.
What This Means on the Phone
If you’re making outbound calls to motivated sellers, here’s what this looks like in practice.
Don’t perform. Don’t run a script like you’re reading it. When the seller tells you about the situation — a mom who passed, a house they haven’t been able to deal with, a payment they can’t make — slow down. Acknowledge it. Mean it.
Ask questions because you’re actually curious about their situation, not just to qualify them faster.
When you tell them what you can offer and why, explain your reasoning. Don’t hide behind a number. “Here’s what I can pay, and here’s why I’m at that number” lands completely differently than just lobbing out a lowball and waiting.
And if the timing isn’t right — if they’re not ready — say so. Tell them you’ll follow up. And then actually follow up.
That last part is where most people fall apart. Be the person who calls back.
Motivated sellers move through denial, anger, bargaining before they ever get to acceptance. The investors who do deal after deal aren’t always the ones with the best offer. They’re the ones who were still in the conversation when the seller finally got there.
The Data Gets You In the Door. You Close It.
There’s a reason we built the Real Estate Data Feed the way we did — motivated seller lists, pre-foreclosures, tax delinquencies, absentee owners. The data is the fuel. It gets you in front of the right people.
But the deal gets done in the conversation. And the conversation gets won by the person who shows up as a real human being, tells the truth, and actually gives a damn about solving the seller’s problem.
That’s not a soft skill. That’s the job.
If you want to get in front of motivated sellers right now, the Real Estate Data Feed gives you a 7-day free trial so you can pull lists in your market and start making calls today. Get the data. Then show up like the person the seller is going to like best.
Stay Sharp,
Josh Brown