George Allen, one of history's greatest football coaches, said that winning can be defined as the science of being totally prepared. So how do you prepare yourself to deal with sellers?

1) Make sure your real estate education is up to par

Why go out in the world pursuing sellers if you are totally unprepared? Make sure you study and know the essentials of real estate investing. Whether that is knowing how to fill out a simple purchase and sales agreement, executing a lease option agreement, forming a land trust for asset protection or knowing how to use and protect yourself with a CYA (Cover your assets) agreement in the event that the seller claims that they didn't fully understand what they were agreeing to is very crucial.

A thorough real estate investing education should be an important component of your arsenal if you plan on succeeding as a real estate investor. It has been often said and rightly so "if you think education is expensive try ignorance". In Real Estate Investing making mistakes because of you not having a proper real estate investing education will cost you ten's of thousands of dollars.

The bottom line is be sure of what your doing and no matter how long you have been in the business you should continue to grow your education.

2) Understand entrance and exit strategies so that you can craft multiple offers on the spot.

You must clearly define the outcome that you want to achieve. You must always know your entrance and exit when crafting an offer to sellers. As a real estate investor you make money when you buy.

For example, when negotiating a lease option with a seller before making your offer you should know how you are going to profit in the front end as well as the backend.

3) Be prepared to listen to uncover the seller's true motivation.

Most people are prepared to talk but never are prepared to listen. How do you uncover the seller's motivation for selling if you are busy doing all the talking and not intently listening to what they have to say?

Remember you as a Real Estate Investor are there to offer effective solutions. How can you offer effective solutions if you don't know what the seller's problems are?

The bottom line is in the real estate business and as a real estate entrepreneur you make money when you master effective listening.

Effective listening enables you to make relevant offers to sellers that have a high probability of being accepted.

Having said that here is one way that you can use that will enable you to become an effective listener.

Asking the right questions then intently listening to the answer.

You must ask the seller the right questions to get them to "open up". When you get them to "open up" you build rapport which will allow you to uncover the seller's true motivation as well as understand their present situation as it relates to their property. Once the seller has revealed to you their motivation and given you a clear understanding of their situation, you are in a prime position to offer them solutions.