The Science of Flipping
Why You’re Not Closing Seller Leads (Even If They're Motivated) | Jason Sager
Fri, 6 Jun 2025
In this episode of The Science of Flipping, I sat down with Jason from MotivatedSellers.com, one of the top lead generation companies in the game. We got real about what it actually takes to convert a motivated seller lead—spoiler alert: it's way more than a couple calls and a text. Jason breaks down why 27% of their leads close within a year, but 64% of those don’t go under contract until 90+ days after the lead comes in. We dive deep into real data, proper expectations, why follow-up is everything, and how you can stop blaming the leads and start closing more deals. If you’re running PPC, buying pay-per-leads, or thinking about lead gen in any serious way—this episode is your wake-up call. 🧠 Key Topics Covered: What separates real lead converters from amateurs The “30-touch” rule to get a contract Why 64% of leads don’t close until after 90 days Cost per lead and how to budget effectively The ROI of proper follow-up systems Why speed-to-lead and nurture systems win How solopreneurs can compete with big acquisition teams Why flexibility in exit strategies (Novation, Subto, Burr) changes everything How to treat every lead like gold—even the $30 nationwide ones Tips for getting started with motivated seller leads 🔗 Guest Info – Jason from Motivated Sellers Website: https://www.motivatedsellers.com Email: [email protected] Instagram: @motivated.sellers -- -- Thank you to Mando for supporting today's podcast! Stay Fresh, Stay Confident with Mando! Tired of body odor? Mando Whole Body Deodorant keeps you fresh for up to 72 hours—pits, feet, and everywhere in between. Grab the Starter Pack and get $5 off (over 40% off!) with code [COLBY] at ShopMando.com. Smell fresher, stay drier, and boost your confidence. Get yours today! -- This episode is brought to you by MotivatedSellers.com – America’s leading pay-per-lead platform for real estate investors.Whether you’re doing your first flip or your 500th deal, there’s one thing you need more than anything else: motivated sellers that are exclusive to you. -- About Justin: After investing in real estate for over 18 years and almost 3000 deals done, Justin has created a business that generates 7 figures in active income through wholesaling and fix and flipping as well as accumulating millions of dollars of rental properties including 5 apartment buildings, 50+ single family homes, and 1 storage facility Justins longevity in real estate is due to his ability to look around the corners, adapt to changing markets, perfecting Raising private capital, and focusing on lead generation which allows him to not just wholesale and fix & flip, but also accumulate wealth through long term holds. His success in real estate led him to start The Entrepreneur DNA podcast and The Science Of Flipping podcast and education company, and REI LIVE where he’s actively doing deals with members. He has coached and mentored thousands of aspiring and active investors over the last decade. Connect with Justin: Instagram: @thejustincolby YouTube: Justin Colby TikTok: @justincolbytsof LinkedIn: Justin Colby
Chapter 1: What does it take to convert motivated seller leads?
What's up, the Science of Flipping family? I am back with another incredible guest. Now, it's important because we all want motivated sellers. That is what we are in the game of. It doesn't matter if you're single family, apartment, storage. We want motivation and we want a seller.
I have Jason here with me from MotivatedSellers.com and they're the leading industry expert on trying to find motivated sellers for us investors.
Justin, first off, thanks for having me. Excited to be here. But yeah, motivated sellers, that's all we do. Motivated single family or, you know, four and under real estate people looking to sell. We target the top five categories as our main thing. You know, everything from divorce to probate, pre-foreclosure, tired landlords, and health and safety issues. People need to move.
That's what we're targeting. And it's so exciting to see how our investors are converting. But all we do is leads. It's mostly from the Google platform, whether it's pay-per-click, YouTube, some display ads. But everything's going through our Google platform for the most part. And we bring the leads in for the investors.
So there's plenty of competition in your space, just like mine, right? As an investor, I have a lot of competition. And no difference in your space. You have other competitors that, you know, do what you do. What separates you in general from the competition?
I'll give you a little example on this with the competitors, right? A lot of our competitors, I know them. They're good guys. I look at it as you go to a street. And if you're going out for a drink, you can go to a place where there's a lot of bars. And everybody wants to drink. There's more people who want to sell, and there's more opportunity in real estate and investors than there is.
So we can't provide our investors enough leads. We send out about 500 leads a day, and we're asked for probably about double that. What makes us different? We use the entire Google platform. Our leads start at $150 per lead right now. We just started a national promo for leads just across the country that are $30. That'll probably go up to $50 pretty soon. But we do that.
We have exceptional customer service. I'm proud to be a part of that as well. You know, I'm going to toot my own horn there a little bit, but we try to be super helpful for investors. Whether it's, hey, you know, I need help with the lead. I don't, you know, maybe it's give me a credit from a dispute policy or, hey, I got this lead and the person is motivated. I have no idea what to do.
And I'd be like, hey, you know what? I have the perfect guy for short sale, for subject to, for just give them a call and work the deal together, work something out.
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Chapter 2: Why do 64% of leads not close until after 90 days?
I can't believe like how we were able to make this deal work.
Yeah.
It's super exciting.
This episode is brought to you by MotivatedSellers.com, America's leading pay-per-lead platform for real estate investors. Whether you're doing your first flip or your 500th deal, there's one thing you need more than anything else, motivated sellers that are exclusive to you. That's where we come in.
At MotivatedSellers.com, we specialize in helping real estate investors connect with homeowners who are ready to sell fast all over the nation. Our platform is laser-focused on quality over quantity. using cutting edge digital marketing and partnerships with the biggest tech and AI leaders to deliver exclusive leads in real time. Not shared, not recycled, not cold.
No babysitting cold callers, no junk data clogging your CRM. Just motivated sellers directly in your inbox, phone, CRM, ready to make the deal. Over 2,000 active investors are already scaling their business with us. From newcomers to industry pros, our system is simple, scalable, and built for serious closers. Ready to stop chasing and start closing?
Go to MotivatedSellers.com to learn more about pricing, our amazing return policy, claim your territory, and get your first leads flowing today. Well, treating the people the right way will keep them with you for a very long time. What are you seeing industry-wide, right? So you guys are spending a lot of money every month driving these leads in and then you sell them off.
You're a pay-per-lead company, correct? Exactly. So I wanted to find that for some people. Instead of building your own Google pay-per-click campaign, you can just go to MotivatedSellers.com. And buy the leads directly. So I find that to be incredibly useful. I buy a lot of leads each and every month.
So super easy, um, industry wide and with, with the Google thing, at the end of the day, the most important thing is lead quality.
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Chapter 7: What is the role of customer service in lead generation?
I bet on your 90 days, if people can stick out 90 days, even if they're at the minimum, because leads can be more than 150, but if they go 90 days, way more than not, and this is my bet, would be really happy with it. Now, they might not go full-time with a huge budget, but they're going to be like, hey, I want these leads. I'm talking to people. I'm getting deals.
Well, and because at the end of the day, if you did it seriously, you're going to have real lead flow every day, every week, every month, and then it's just a matter of conversion. are you able to convert the deal and convert the list or lead? And that's why I tell the people like, When we go into any new marketing channel, so probably the newest I'm aware that we've tried was TV. Okay.
So I've never done TV. This year we did TV. Or the end of last year we did TV. So Q4 of last year we started TV. Okay. So I was like, dude, everyone, you know, people are doing it. They're finding success. Let's try TV out. I've done everything. PPL, PPC, direct mail, cold calling floors. I built my, like I've done it all. I've never done TV. So I tried that.
That's the most recent like marketing strategy. Okay. I said, if I can go 90 days and or up to six months and break even, it's a keeper. The reason being is because then I know over a longer runway, all those leads will turn into profitability. Right now, not everyone has the luxury of I'm 20 years in this business. Right. And so I just I have a team.
I have people like I'm different than a lot of people. But how I look at it is similar to how I believe most people should go do motivated sellers dot com for 90 days. If you break even from profitability's point, keep going because now you still have a database of leads that you can continue to work while also bringing in new leads.
That's where the profitability comes because you're bringing in the old leads that convert and still breaking even on the new leads. Over time, you look back at the end of your year, you will be up at a minimum of 3x because there's four quarters. So if you bring it, break even on quarter one and profitable for three quarters, you're going to be at a three X almost every time.
I guarantee it challenges getting them to go for 90 days.
That's it. I'll tell you, I'll, I want to see people making money in the first 90 days. That's it. I want more gravy after the first 90, but in that first month, I want to see some deals.
I got to tell you. That's right. But it's okay to me. I would say I would make the argument, make money. It doesn't have to be profitable, right? If you spent three grand, you don't need to make nine. Like if you did a deal and you collected a check and it proved system and builds confidence, then you got to keep going. It works.
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