The Marketing Technique to Use If You're Broke

“I’m broke” he told me. He said he maybe had $200 dollars and wanted to get a deal within a week.

Now getting a deal in a week is not easy at all. Especially if you’re starting cold and don’t have a solid pipeline of leads flowing in every day.

So the first thing I did was of course bring him back to reality. Second, I gave him the plan I would use and here it is: First, I would write an awesome marketing flyer. And I would make sure to offer a free special report on the flyer. I would make the special report timely. It would be something like “How to sell your house lightning fast… before the end of the year… while paying zero fees”. Or something like “The secrets of selling your house before January 1, 2010… without using a Realtor.”

Here’s what you do next…

Once I had written a flyer which would capture homeowners attention I would then go down to my local Kinko’s or FedEx store. In my area you can make black and white copies for 5 cents. Assuming you have $200 to spend, you can print off a whopping 4,000 flyers.

Once I had my 4,000 flyers I would choose my target market. I would choose the bread and butter neighborhoods where I wanted to own houses and do deals. If you’ve been investing for any time at all, then I’m sure you have your “farm” and know your area well.

Then, on a Saturday morning I would wake up at 6:00am, drive to my target area and start putting the flyers on people’s front doors. I would put out at least 2,000 flyers for the day. Then I would wake up at 6:00am on Sunday and pass out all of the remaining flyers.

Now, since we know that real estate is a numbers game…

I like my odds of getting a deal by passing out 4,000 flyers in a single weekend. Best of all, someone you give a flyer to might have a cousin or brother who needs to sell a house and you’ll also get referrals.

Sounds like work doesn’t it? I know. That terrible thing called work. But do you want to be rich and enjoy the good life (whatever your definition of the good life is) or do you want to be lazy and spend 2010 in the same boring job you’ve had for the last 15 years?

I don’t know about you, but as long as it won’t kill me and it’s not illegal or unethical then I’ll do whatever it takes to buy more houses and make more money.

So take $200 bucks and spend an upcoming weekend hopefully getting a deal. And even if you don’t get a deal, you’ll get lots of practice talking with sellers and putting together offers… which will give you more confidence and help you in the long run.

Photo: morissette.martin

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.