When it comes to purchasing a pre-foreclosure home from a reluctant home owner, there are often three things you need to reassure them about in order to clinch the deal. These are: reassuring them that you are legitimate; persuading them to sell their home; and convincing them to sell to you.

1. Reassuring the home owner that you're legitimate

Chances are, the home owner you're dealing with is being inundated with letters, phone calls and people wanting to make an offer on their home. Some of those contacting the home owner will be legitimate real estate investors just like you, but others will not be so credible. Receiving a stack of letters - some pushy and others rather dubious looking - is bound to make a home owner sceptical of even the best-intentioned property investor. They may be so put off by all the communications they have received that they may be reluctant to even speak with you.

On that basis, you may need to make a special effort to reassure the home owner that you are legitimate. So be professional and open about your intentions. Provide credentials, references and details of your background. Above all, treat the home owner in a respectful manner so they have every reason to trust and believe you.

2. Persuading the home owner to sell their home

Okay, so you've managed to convince the home owner that you are above-board. Now you need to convince them to sell their home. Even though it's often in a home owner's interests to sell their home to a property investor during pre-foreclosure, the stress experienced by the home owner, and their emotional attachment to the property, may detract from their ability to be rational. Consequently, you need to spell out why it will benefit the home owner to sell the pre-foreclosure home rather than let the property go into foreclosure. For example, emphasize how they will avoid the stress of foreclosure... how they will avoid the damage to their ability to get credit in the future... and how they will get a better deal (e.g. more equity from the sale) if they sell their home now.

3. Convincing the home owner to sell to you

Finally, you need to convince the home owner to sell their property to you. In other words, they need to believe that they will get the best deal by selling to you, rather than to any other buyer. While the price you are offering is likely to be the biggest factor, there are also other factors likely to influence a home owner. If you have proven yourself to be particularly helpful, and can add value to the deal in other ways, you may be able to clinch the deal without budging on price. The key is to understand the home owner's "hot buttons" - what can you appeal to on an emotional level that will incline them to sell to you over any other potential buyers.

By persuading a home owner on each of these three fronts, you're more likely to seal the deal on terms that work for you. In other words, if you position yourself as someone helping - rather than selling - the home owner, and you really do help them, you will be in a better position to get the property at the price you want.