How do I prospect a multifamily property owner?
Identify plainly, say why you are calling, and ask about the owner's plans for the building instead of pitching a sale. Multifamily owners think in numbers and time, so listen for the date that would change their plan and end with a next touch.
Read the transcript
- I'm not selling. The building cash-flows fine, and I'm happy holding it.
- So what's this about?
- I understand. Still, a lot of owners are cashing out right now.
- Why not let me come by this week and show you what it could sell for?
- After every practice call, your card arrives: what worked, and the one thing to fix.
- The call trains four moves. Say why you are calling, before anything else.
- Ask what the building is to them.
- Find what would change it, and when.
- Play it back, and end with a touch tied to their date.
- An owner who says they're not selling is usually telling the truth,
- and leaving out the second half: until something changes.
- Press now, and you close the door on the next call.
- Practice it until it sounds like you.
- Each call runs as long as the conversation needs,
- and you can make as many as you want.
- Practice free at 10before10.com/try.
Drafted with AI by the 10before10 team, reviewed and approved by Grant Freer and Gia Freer, licensed Florida real estate brokers. Updated October 26, 2026.
What is really being said
A multifamily owner who picks up the phone is not waiting for someone to sell their building. They hold it for a reason: the income, a tax position, a family arrangement, a loan that is cheap to keep. They will sell when that reason changes, and the change usually has a date on it.
A loan maturing. A partner who wants out. A roof bill.
So when an owner says "I'm not selling," they are usually telling the truth and leaving out the second half of the sentence, which is "until something changes." Your job on the first call is not to find a seller. It is to find out why they hold, what would change that, and when.
Those are the ABCs of motivation in an owner's language: where, why and when become what the building is to them, what would move them, and the date.
Owners think in numbers and time, and they can hear a pitch coming from the first sentence. The call that works sounds like a person with a reason to call and a question worth answering.
What to say
These are examples in plain words, not a script. Say them the way you actually talk.
"This is your name, a licensed agent with your brokerage, and I work multifamily in this area. This is not a call to list your building.
I put together a review of what sold and leased nearby, with dates, for owners of buildings like yours, and you keep it whether you sell or hold. Have you got two minutes?"
Plain identification, the purpose before anything else, and an honest statement of what the call is and is not. The review gives the call a reason that survives a no. Your state's rules decide what else you disclose up front.
"Can I ask what the building is to you? The income, a business inside it, the tax side, something else? I ask because what I send an owner living off the rent is different from what I send one who runs a company out of the ground floor."
Purpose before the question. It turns a personal question into a fair one, and the answer tells you which owner you are talking to.
"Most owners I talk to are holding, and most can name the one thing that would change that: a loan coming due, a partner, a plan for the equity. What would it be for you, if anything? And when does that come up?"
This finds the condition and the date attached to it. If the answer is nothing, ask what would change it, send the review anyway, and set the next call to a day and a time next quarter. If the answer is a loan maturing next year, that date is now the whole relationship.
Play it back before you move on and get the nod. That is repeat and approve, and it is the moment the owner decides you were listening.
If the owner raises a 1031 exchange, name it as something their tax advisor handles, say you would want that advisor involved in any plan that includes it, and give no tax advice. Then end with a date and a reason: "I will send the review today and call you in the spring, a couple of months before the loan comes up, so you have the numbers before you have to decide anything." That is the next touch, tied to their trigger, and it is what separates a call from a survey.
What not to do
Do not give a value, a cap rate or a rent opinion over the phone. Owners will ask, and the honest answer is that you would be guessing. Send the closed sales with dates and let them see where theirs lands.
A number invented on a call is the fastest way to lose an owner who knows their building better than you do.
Do not treat "I'm not selling" as an objection to handle. It is usually a condition with a date, and the right move is to find the date and close for a day and a time past it. Pressing an owner who has said they are holding earns nothing today and closes the door on the next call.
Do not make claims about the market or where rates are going. What sold, when, and at what: those are facts with dates, and they are the only thing to put in front of a person who thinks in numbers.
How to practice it
Have a colleague play an owner who holds a twelve-unit building, has a loan maturing next year, and answers only what is asked. Identify plainly, say why you are calling, find what the building is to them, what would change it and when, play it back, and end with a touch tied to the loan date. When the owner asks what it is worth, decline to guess and offer the sales with dates.
On the fourth run, the owner says "talk to my manager" and you practice the one question you ask before you go. 10before10™ drills this call.
Honest answers
Related answers
Make one practice call. See your card.
A prospect who sounds real raises this exact moment. Ten minutes, in the browser, no account. The scorecard tells you the one thing to fix.