Regarding your question, in the beginning I used to clean the homes myself. Though, I found that the experts cleaned them a bit better than me which was definitely needed with the types of clientele I was working with. Now, I do have a few cleaning crews that I work with on a regular basis.

About the amount paid, it really depends on the job – some jobs are tougher than others. For me, it’s very important to work with folks who are really good at what they do, honest and charge a fair price. The rate you pay will differ from area to area and with each potential contractor. It’s best to interview potential candidates comparing what each has to say and offer. Then, go from there. What has really paid off for me is the knowledge gained from these experts – the education alone is priceless.

Before doing anything, it’s very important to know what types of clientele you’re working with (or want to work with) and get to know what they’re looking for. I do things a bit differently from others – I know of some investors that put homes on the market “as-is” and don’t do any fix-up work. Though, they work with a much different type of clientele than I do.

Hope that helps, thanks for stopping by!

One question: Do you clean the homes yourself or hire a cleaning company to do that? If you hire them, what amount do you usually pay?

I was just wondering for my own MH investing.

Thanks so much!
Leann

At first, I was a bit scared about the move to WordPress. I took a whole weekend and immersed myself with the books I bought on the subject. To my surprise, it wasn’t as complicated as I thought it would be. And, I’m glad I took yours and Shae’s advice – I can definitely see how useful it is for us bloggers (even though I thought Tumblr looked pretty fun!). Thanks for stopping by!

p.s. I’m working on a new video for my little project; I’m pretty excited about it. I’ll definitely be sharing it with you gals once it’s finished!!

Yes, it’s definitely important to be prepared when the topic of what you do comes up. I think the key really has to do with timing.

Even when I first started out, I still brought up what I did after the relationship was created. Though, that is just my style and way of doing things. There are others who prefer to use authority and professionalism and bring up what they do in the beginning – it works for them. Neither way is right or wrong – you just need to find what style works for you.

I’m not sure if you watch television, but the show “The Office” is a very good example of these two different styles. If you’ve seen the earlier seasons, you may recall the selling styles between Michael Scott and Dwight Shrute.

While Michael Scott tends to create the relationship first and find out more about the other party by exploring similar interests (apart from business), Dwight Shrute is all about business and uses authority to sell himself. Both have different styles that work for them that have made them successful salesmen.

I guess the bottom line is that you really have to be yourself and find out what works for you.

I will admit, there was a fellow investor I used to work with on some deals in the past who had a more professional and authoritative selling style. Though, I found at times our styles clashed. With some of the deals we worked on, the sellers refused to work with this particular investor (due to differences in style) and just wanted to work with me as they got to know me and preferred my style. In the end, I had to pass on a lot of deals we had worked on together due to this issue. And, we eventually parted ways.

In any case, I hope this has been helpful. Personally, I’ve read a lot of sales and negotiation books as I’ve had formal sales training (via Fortune 500 corporations) when I was doing business to business sales.

If you have some time, you may want to check out some of these types of books. If you’re interested in learning more about the different types of sales styles, one book I highly recommend is “Sales Dogs” by Blair Singer. It helped me tremendously. Other than that, I do have a list of book recommendations here: http://adventuresinmobilehomes.com/category/book-recommendations

Hope that helps!