Robert Ringer Quotes

“As Legalman injected one problem after another into a deal, I would say things like, "That's a very good point (not problem). I'm glad you brought it up."

I would then proceed to state (not ask) a number of ways that we (not just Legalman) would (not could) handle (not solve) that particular point (again, not problem). But never did I directly challenge Legalman.

My attitude was that it was assumed by everyone involved that there was going to be a closing, and that the only purpose of our all being present was to work together to 'handle' the normal 'points' that are inherent in every closing. Just business as usual.”

“Based on firsthand experience, it was apparent to me that the most relevant factor in my ongoing dilemma was my posture, a conclusion that produced the Posture Theory, which states: It's not what you say or do that counts, but what your posture is when you say or do it.”

“Being liked was not much of a reward for being poor and disrespected. By the same token, money and respect were more than enough consolation for having a pack of insecure neurotics dislike me.”

“Cornerstone No. 1 is the Theory of Relativity, which states: In order to settle on a rational course of action (or inaction), one must first weigh all pertinent facts in a relative light and carefully define his terms.”

“Cornerstone No. 2 is the Theory of Relevance, which states: No matter how interesting or how true something may be, the primary factor to take into consideration is how relevant it is to your achieving main your objective.”

“Cornerstone No. 3 is the Mortality Theory, which states: Given that your time on earth is limited, it makes good sense to aim high and move fast.”

“Cornerstone No. 4 is the Ice-Ball Theory, which states: Given the apparent, ultimate fate of the earth, it is vain and nonsensical to take oneself too seriously.”

“Every person has the inherent right to 'self-proclaim' – to announce, at any time he chooses, that he is on any level he chooses to be on.”

“I call this second phenomenon the Better-Deal Theory, which states: Before a person closes a deal, it's human nature for him to worry that there may be a better deal down the road.”

“I carried a second card in my wallet that contained yet another literary masterpiece, to wit: Closing deals is so much trash, if you, my friend, don't get no cash.”

“I had known many real estate agents who spent day after day discussing multimillion-dollar deals with other agents, seemingly achieving fulfillment from their conversations alone.

They steered clear of the excruciating effort it takes to secure a listing directly from a seller, let alone the time and energy it requires to locate a buyer for a property, implement a marketing method, and close the sale.

Such an agent limits his efforts to sending out tenth-generation copies of scanty information about properties furnished him by other agents. It's a lottery mentality — hoping upon hope that some agent with whom he is dealing will somehow get lucky and close a sale — and then, the ultimate hope, a small piece of the commission will miraculously filter its way down to him.

I'm not saying that a real estate agent should never work with another broker or salesman under any circumstances. That would be ideal, but not practical.”

“I then whipped out my file of pre-typed contracts (which I never referred to as contracts, for reasons you should by now understand) and said, in a matter-of-fact tone, something to the effect of, "I like to keep things simple, so I just use a one-page 'understanding' to summarize the deals I'm involved in."

Here again it was a matter of word choice. Whether a document is called a contract or understanding has no legal significance whatsoever, but psychologically it can make all the difference in the world to the person sitting on the other side of the table.

Contracts scare people; 'understandings' sound innocuous, especially if their purported purpose is only to 'summarize the deal'. This was a delicate and critical moment for me, because if I failed to get the owner to sign the understanding, I had wasted a lot of time, energy, and money.”

“If the mathematics fell within my value parameters, I then told the owner that I would have to personally inspect his property 'before making any commitments'. With this latter statement, I had managed, for the third time, to set the stage for recasting the roles of intimidator and intimidatee before the owner and I had even met.

I could not possibly be a real estate agent, because there was no such thing as a real estate agent who was reluctant to 'make a commitment'. A normal real estate agent works on any deal!”

“If the secret to not bluffing was to have staying power, and if wealth was the backbone of such power, I recognized that I would have to find a substitute for wealth — at least until I reached a point where I possessed significant financial resources.

Common sense told me that the only logical substitute for money was determination. The nice thing about determination is that it's just as available to you and me as it is to a billionaire.

I simply drew an imaginary line in my gray matter and said to myself, "This is where the intimidation stops. Beyond this line, all bluffs get called.”

“If you're over twenty-one, you are certainly aware that one of the most commonly used intimidation ploys is to make a person feel guilty for concentrating too much on his own well-being.”

“In reality, the degree of financial desperation on the part of the seller is the single most important factor in determining how makeable a deal is. The more financial problems the seller has, the more success you'll have in keeping Legalman off the playing field.”

“In summation, if someone feels the psychological need to hold court, that's his business. Your job is to mind your business.

Don't allow yourself to be intimidated by someone else's knowledge — or apparent knowledge. What another person knows or doesn't know will not affect your success one way or another, so from your standpoint it's an irrelevancy.”

“Legal power is essential in the Jungle, but from a self-esteem standpoint, performance power is a real high. Nothing beats the feeling, in your heart of hearts, of knowing that you really do deserve to be handsomely rewarded because you provided great value to the party you represented.

I wanted to make it as difficult as possible for a seller to pass the giggle test if he claimed I had not earned my commission. From now on, it was going to be obvious to both the buyer and seller that the initiation, progress, and conclusion of the sale were due primarily to the efforts of The Tortoise.”

“Legalman would immediately begin to implement the 'he-we-I' evolution strategy. At the outset, he would talk in terms of he (the seller) in discussing the property and the closing.

Then, in a relatively short period of time, the word he would subtly evolve into we (i.e., the seller and Legalman).

At that point, the seller was no longer in full control of his destiny. Nay, it was now he and Legalman who were making the decisions.

Finally — you guessed it — Legalman, in a galling display of arrogance, would magically transform we into I (as in Legalman). Some things in life are inevitable, and Legalman's 'he-we-I' evolution strategy is one of those inevitabilities.

From that point on, it was entirely Legalman's deal. The buyer and seller had been reduced to nothing more than bothersome but necessary bystanders to Legalman's closing.”

“My attitude was unyielding, solidly backed by the wisdom of the Bluff Theory, which states: The secret to bluffing is to not bluff.”

“My objective at these buyer-seller meetings was to display so much knowledge about the property and the closing of the deal that even the seller would be embarrassed to challenge my right to a commission.

If you're chuckling and shaking your head from side to side over that last comment, you're starting to get it, because my objective proved to be nothing more than wishful thinking.  Sellers always challenge agents' commissions.”

“Never state, in an agreement, what you want out of the deal before stating what the other party is going to get, because the other guy doesn't give a hoot about what you want.

All he's interested in is what's in it for him. This is especially true of people who insist that 'in order for a deal to work out, everyone has to be satisfied'.

Forget such babble; it's a fairy tale that will only cause you to drop your guard and lose some fingers in the process.”

“One of the most important words when it comes to mental-health maintenance is 'next'.”

“Over a period of time, I became adept at spotting non-serious buyers, because they all tend to talk and behave in the same manner.

For example, if you ask a non-serious buyer about his guidelines for purchasing properties, he will most likely tell you that he doesn't have any guidelines and that he's 'willing to look at anything'. But the fact is that most serious buyers do have definite guidelines, because they know exactly what they're looking for.

Another tip-off to a non-serious buyer is that he tends to dwell on questions of secondary importance, such as those pertaining to location, construction, and/or age of the property. As I previously pointed out, such questions are reasonable, but not until the buyer is first satisfied with the numbers and has decided that he has a definite interest in purchasing the property.

If the numbers don't add up, it doesn't matter where the property is located, how well it's built, or how old it is. Serious, sophisticated buyers get down to the nuts and bolts of the numbers right away, because they understand the mathematical guidelines for evaluating cash flow — again, the key factor when it comes to evaluating income-producing properties.”

“Regardless of the business you're in, never allow yourself to be intimidated into believing that you aren't entitled to the same rights as the so-called principals in a deal. I say so-called because, from your standpoint, you are a principal.

If you have a vested interest in a deal, you have a right to protect that interest, regardless of the size of your stake relative to the other players' shares. Just don't expect the other principals to agree with your viewpoint. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.”

“Regardless of what business you're in, when it comes to sales or deal-making, it's critical that you to build a detailed record of your involvement — not just to use as a last resort in court, but as a constant reminder to all the principals involved that you are/were instrumental in making the deal happen.”

“Remember, the Theory of Intimidation states that the results a person achieves are inversely proportionate to the degree to which he is intimidated. By developing techniques to dramatically improve my posture, I positioned myself for accomplishing my ultimate objective — getting paid. 

In the final analysis, what I really did was separate myself from the rest of the pack by learning how to cope with intimidating people and thereby increasing my chances of actually receiving what I earned.

Specifically, as a closing drew near, I took three important steps to maintain my strong posture: I kept my finger on the pulse of the deal twenty-four hours a day so I could pinpoint the time and place of the closing.

I continued to nurture my relationship with the buyer in the hopes that, at a minimum, I would have his moral support. I showed up at the closing with my attorney, and counted on the Universal Attorney-to-Attorney Respect Rule as my insurance policy if all else failed.”

“Since the general population will never understand that an attorney is nothing more than a college graduate with a fancy certificate on his wall that grants him a monopolistic right to practice intimidation on civilians, you're at a decided advantage if you are among the minority of players who possess such an understanding.”

“Stressed-out individuals tend to press too hard for results at crucial moments, and the harder someone presses for a result, the less likely it is he will achieve it.”

“That's because time brings into play the Fiddle Theory, which states: The longer you fiddle around with a deal, the greater the odds that it will never close.”