Are you Marketing Consistently? Updated
**Scroll down for my update**
Hello everyone I hope life is treating you well and you are embracing it for all it’s worth.
I wanted to share the marketing strategy I will be implementing starting this week but before I do, I wanted to bring a few things up that may possibly help some of you newbie’s and perhaps even some of you who like me, have been working to be successful in real estate investing and become discouraged.
I’ve been slacking big-time with my marketing and it’s bugging the heck out of me but I know how to fix it and will. I’ve posted articles on how you must be consistent with your marketing or plan to fail and obviously did not heed my own advice. To the folks new to investing, please know having a website is simply not enough. Networking on Facebook is great but you will rarely, if ever get a motivated seller to contact you that way. You’ve got to implement a direct marketing plan and keep it going. Look at your budget and be realistic about how much you can afford to spend monthly. At first, it’s not so important how many postcards or yellow letters you send out, you’ve got to consistently send them out and make sure you followup.
While I’ve been somewhat successful in making some money with the virtual investing out of my area, that’s been sporadic which is why I’m moving my focus back to my local area of Hampton Roads Virginia at least for the time being.
Here are my resources and the game plan to implement a consistent monthly marketing campaign:
I will be using postcards and split testing with yellow letters and of course doing testing and tweaking to see what works and what doesn’t. I’m a Cris Chico Virtual Wholesaling student and have been tweaking some of his postcard templates he has in his course. I got a new toll-free number (888) 91-SELLHOUSENOW through Grasshopper.com, (Thanks for the resource Shae Bynes). What’s cool with Grasshopper is that I can create unlimited extensions so I can create different messages for motivated sellers, another message for cash buyers, ect…
I am signed up with Usleadlist and receive their list every 3 months. For those of you who don’t know, Usleadlist specializes in targeting estate homeowners with equity.
I’ve been receiving lists from them since Summer of last year. Each list varies in size but the total number of leads I have through them currently is 1418.
400 of the newest leads will go out this Thursday, 22 July with the following batch of 400 going out 5 August, the next 400 will go out 19 Aug, then the remaining 218 on 2 September. By the time September rolls around it will be nearly time for the new fall list to come out and I will also do follow-up mailing with the 400 leads I’d sent out in July.
I’ve also just signed up with Realquest with their Unlimited county data access plan. Under this plan I can download up to 4000 absentee owner records monthly and unlimited access to comps. Hell no it’s not cheap and not to mention being locked into a contract for a year. But considering the fact that I will be getting all those leads monthly, I am determined and confident that I will find more than a few deals.
So add an additional 400 mailings to absentee owners for 22 July along with the Usleadlist mailings which will be 800 direct marketing pieces every 2 weeks.
I’m in the process of teaching my daughters and nephew how to upload lists and create postcards through Click2mail so there are my “Virtual” assistants. They need the money and know that I am not treating this as a hobby and happy to help. I’m also training them to be property locators.
Lastly, I’ll be stepping up my game with making offers on REO’s. I’ve got the awesome resource of my buddy Steph Davis Flip This REO eBook and her expertise in that area, plus a great realtor who is also an investor and understands the mentality of a wholesaler.
I’ll make sure to update ya’ll on the struggles as well as the successes. Of course, with persistence and determination will come success! Thanks for reading.
To Your Ultimate Success
Bill “Dollar Bill” Lassiter
**7/27 Update**
I received 4 calls so far from the 400 postcards I sent out last Thursday, 7/22. One call was to ask me to remove them from any future contact and I did, the 1 call was not a motivated seller who wanted full market value, (I referred her to a realtor and asked that she call back if anything changes). The remaining 2 may be potential deals and both have lots of equity. I’ve scheduled appointments to take a look at each home and meet with the homeowners. The interesting thing to note is that with each seller I spoke with, I shared the fact that they or someone in their family was retired military.
Here is an excerpt of the postcards I just recently sent out:
“I am a private real estate investor. Retired from the US Air Force with 20 years of service. Local homeowner and member of the Hampton Roads community since 1976.”
Since this is a big military community I wanted to try and establish a thread of commonality with homeowners. Hopefully more leads will call. I’ll keep ya’ll posted in these 2 potential deals.
Bill
Wow love the honesty and yes consistent marketing is a must. I find it hard to market when I get myself so busy with a rehab or a short sale. I have a team of lady investors that I work with this helps to aleve some of the added pressures of being a 1. It also helps when Im doing a rehab if Im painting and a floor needs washing 2 is then better then one. So this has helped. Keep up the great work I have done 800 letters at one time and had maybe 2-3 calls. I have also had that unfriendly call telling me not to put things on their door. She then proceeded to tell me to put it in her mailbox which is not allowed by law. When I asked her address she wouldnt give it to me so I couldnt respect her wishes. Sometimes those calls get to you even when you feel strong but you pick up the pieces and remember that they really do need our help and they just dont realize it at that point. In a couple months there mind may be different. I have more success with people that are closer to auction. My assumption is that they want to know what to do but its such a hard decision. When the pressure is on the deciding gets easier. Enough blabbing from me thanks for the post
Andrea
Thanks for the comment Andrea.
I think the next step for me will be to outsource some of these tasks which will free me up to do other things within the business. Again, thanks for your comment and thank you for your support!