Newbie Marketing by a Newbie

Hi REI Community,

That’s right…I’m new, so that means that I’ve been spending the last several months with my nose in the books, my ears to the podcasts and writing my thoughts/ideas in my business journal.  Additionally, I’ve spent a dozen Saturday mornings attending local investor meetings and classes, while walking properties in an effort to build my network, develop my marketing strategies and attain that first deal (actually second deal, my wife and I bought our first rental property last year).

Anyways, all of this education, networking and thinking has forced me to narrow my focus, while at the same time broaden my horizons…I know, it’s crazy.I’m new, so my network is small (but growing) and I’m tired of the exhausted MLS.  Don’t worry, I still recognize the MLS as a source, just not the best.  So, I’m really trying to adopt two or three alternative strategies to find promising leads.

Enter, “driving for dollars.”  I heard of this technique a dozen times in a dozen different forums, but I never really believed it.  However, I was at an investors club meeting one Saturday morning discussing techniques with a more experienced investor and he highly encouraged it!  Basically, he said to pick a section of town (preferably your farm area), get a map, drive about 5mph for about two hours a day and look for vacant properties or any kind of property that you’re interested in.

After that meeting, I went home to reluctantly test out his strategy.  I strapped my 1yr old into her stroller and went walking around a local neighborhood; not really my farm area, but this was a test anyways.  Strangely, within 20 minutes I saw a vacant house!  Like he had instructed, I talked to the neighbors and found out who owned it, where he worked and a little background story of why it was vacated…perfect.

Energetically, I rushed home to tell my wife what happened!  I immediately called his work and talked to him about selling his house.  Ultimately, the deal didn’t work out, but what is important is that the whole scenario played out exactly the way I had heard or read it.  In fact, I’ve used it again to find two more leads since then, so now I know this technique works…maybe not every time because no technique is perfect, but it is an effective way to bring in leads.  From now on, you can guarantee that this newbie will drive/walk around neighborhoods and use alternate routes home in an effort to “drive for dollars.”

From one newbie to another: use it because it works.