When you meet someone for the first time, you probably ask them what they do for a living and they probably answer you. It’s helpful to have a succinct, thought-out answer to that question if you’re a real estate investor. The following are examples of how you might respond to someone who asks you “what do you do for a living?”

The following answers are meant to be memorized and practiced out loud, in front of a mirror, making them your own, until you can repeat them in the queue making it sound casual.

There are two versions: one is for investors who are not looking for private money and the other is for investors who are looking for private money.

No Private Money

“Sometimes people need to sell a house quickly or they’d rather not wait for a real estate agent to sell it or a landlord to sell it. My company helps those people by buying their houses outright. Then we help people, often people who find it difficult to buy a house in the traditional way: buying the houses from us. This often means that we rent or provide flexible financing to buyers.”

with private money

“As you may know, the company I work for buys and sells real estate. When we buy real estate for cash, we use private lenders. We pay our private lenders 6-12% on promissory notes secured by the single-family homes we buy. When we find an offer we’re considering buying, we call our private lenders and offer to make a loan secured on that property. They can decide whether to invest or pass on that offer right then and there. Do you know anyone? Isn’t that getting a steady return on 6 to 12% on your retirement or other savings?”

Of course, these are just examples. Adapt them to your own unique business practices, but definitely memorize and practice your investor elevator pitch.