Broker in Portland Oregon

[Eric Herbert]

Hello all,

I am a recently licensed broker. And want to focus on investors. I want to focus in this area because this is where my background is. I helped my parents do several flips and helped manage their rentals. Also, I am a working on building my investing career as well. 

My big question is does anyone have advice for marketing to this group? As I have sat down myself working on my plan I figured what better way then to just ask one of the best investor resources I know of! 

Also, hope this goes without saying you are looking for a broker who is investor friendly in PDX let me know. 

Thank you in advance.

[Steve Milford]

Hey @Eric Herbert, the best course of action to me is to NOT market to this group. Use the body of knowledge here to learn what you can, get in the trenches and do it. And then write about what you learn. That is the best marketing overall - aka content marketing.

My marketing is primarily through content and by educating people - this is FREE though time consuming. My principal/mentor uses the School of Hard Knocks as my training method - ironically when I talk to prospects this knowledge helps them because I encounter lots of "problems" because of who I help. Though I am willing to help anyone, I still qualify each lead and don't help everyone. 

Leads will come from people getting to know you and finding out about you (this is where your marketing lies), and providing great service. And then think about advertising as well. I.e. about 1/2 of my buyers come to me as a straight referrals and the other 1/2 have come to me by hearing that I help anyone - even those that others (yes other Realtors) say no too or feel that they are "too much work". When a buyer tells me that their last agent didn't have time to show them properties, or pushes them to Longview when they want to be in Vancouver, that's a golden nugget for me. Now I am newer so I know it will change over time. For my sellers, most come from cold-calling (have you ever heard that cold calling is dead? HA!) and from direct mail (who would have thought?!) With potential sellers, I engage, listen, and then just challenge the status quo - like, I ask potential sellers rate they have been offered, and then offer better. When they want to know about me, I just refer them to my web site, and then follow up for a face-to-face when showing properties. My advice to you overall is to figure out what will you do to get your business - how hungry are you? But don't get too pushy - my "reject call" list on my phone is almost longer than my regular contact list from all of the un-engaging solicitations. I am in sales - cold calls are no big deal - but the key is engagement. My next goal is to conquer PPC - but I am surviving without it. I did a recent push and got views - but who really cares about them without conversions. And I just keep writing! Just as you work on ROI for your investments you also need to figure out a workable ROI for your lead generation.

I hope that helps, and let me know if I can help you more.