Door hangers

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Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
10y

@Adrien C. @Bennet Sebastian   I acutally started my real estate career passing paper ( as its called in the industry... when I was 10 years old.

My dad was a RE salesmen.. and did not like the 2 leads a week he got from the company... these are called company leads.. think movie (Glenn Garry Glenn Ross a must see)... So he asked management if he could produce his own leads.. and it was allowed.

Well direct mail was 10 cents a piece so that was too expensive in 1966... So he went out and bought a printing press.. Put it in the garage and taught me how to print off the door hangers. I had to do this 2 hours everyday after school...

He then got 4 or 5 of my same age school friends and on Sat and Sun during school and mid week in summer. .he took us to the neighborhood he wanted to canvas.. he paid us a penny a piece to put them out... so it coast him about 3 cents a piece.. response was.. ( pre internet of course.. it was a tear off with pre paid postage.. so he only paid for incoming postage not out going).  we would get about 1 reponse per 100 and he would close 1 out of a thousand door hangers put out.. NOw of course he was selling real estate .. not trying to buy it..  but same principal.

So as he expanded and perfected it.. He then started going down to the salvation army on 3rd st in San Jose CA.. and he would pick up the gentlemen as they were exiting at 6:30 am for the day.. he would offer them 10 dollars to walk for 6 hours .. plus a pack of smokes and sometimes a hamburger.  He would pick up about 6 of them in our van.. then drive them many times to SF or Oakland and they would get about 3k pieces out a day... this turned into hiring a foreman for lack of better words who was the boss and driver.. this lead to 3 of those guys and 3 vans out .. this lead to more leads than he could handle and the number one salesmen in the orginizatin within 2 years and his own company in 3... AS I got my drivers license I used to drive in the summers I had moved up the ranks from Passing paper to picking up the guys.. We used to get them at the Oznan center in SF as well.

Most of these guys were drifters and were quite colorful.. some worked with my dad for over a decade passing paper.. then some folks turned this into a full time company ... doing this for many different companies as an alternative to direct mail.. especially if your piece was heavy or multi paged.

So it warms my heart to see this Happening in the exact same manner as my dad created in 1967.. LOL and how I cut my teeth in RE.. .of course at 18 I did not want to pass paper anymore I wanted to sell RE got my license and never looked back.. but talk about working from the ground up.

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  • Luka Milicevic
    Real Estate Agent · Nashville, TN · Member since 2015 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    10y

    I had a real estate agent friend that did that and said he had a zero response rate. A couple weeks later 3 of them listed the home for sale by owner

    0Reply
  • Bennet Sebastian
    OP
    Investor, Rehabber, Broker · Orlando, FL · Member since 2012 · 51 posts · 7 votes
    10y

    That's what I was afraid of. That plus homeowners who are pissed off that you entered onto their property. 

    0Reply
  • Eric Clayton
    Real Estate Agent · San Jose, CA · Member since 2016 · 12 posts · 4 votes
    10y

    @Luka Milicevic

    OUCH! Can't even count how many times I've seen that!

    0Reply
  • Sam Steadman
    Real Estate Agent · Minneapolis, MN · Member since 2015 · 129 posts · 63 votes
    10y

    I've given it a try. It is time intensive and highly frustrating at times. 

    0Reply
  • Adrien C.
    Property Manager · Griffith, IN · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 913 votes
    10y

    I just dropped 9000 on 2 zip codes. Cost me $1050. I'm sure I'll get my money's worth. The local marketing company uses homeless people to hang them and gives them $25 per 4hr day plus a place to stay. So if it doesn't produce- I'm not worried about the money not being spent well. Just like all marketing, it's all about timing. 

    2Reply
  • Bennet Sebastian
    OP
    Investor, Rehabber, Broker · Orlando, FL · Member since 2012 · 51 posts · 7 votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @Adrien C.:

    I just dropped 9000 on 2 zip codes. Cost me $1050. I'm sure I'll get my money's worth. The local marketing company uses homeless people to hang them and gives them $25 per 4hr day plus a place to stay. So if it doesn't produce- I'm not worried about the money not being spent well. Just like all marketing, it's all about timing. 

    Certainly a creative strategy for placing door hangers. Gotta admire the guys willing to do that instead of standing at the intersections everyday. Please do let us know how it pays off for you. Thanks 

    0Reply
  • Account Closed
    Wholesaler/Real Estate Agent · Providence, RI · Member since 2014 · 75 posts · 19 votes
    10y

    you actually just gave me the idea to try these out haha. i have a direct mail campaign right now but i want an additional stream of marketing. let me know if you decide to do it! @Bennet Sebastian

    0Reply
  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    10y

    @Adrien C. @Bennet Sebastian   I acutally started my real estate career passing paper ( as its called in the industry... when I was 10 years old.

    My dad was a RE salesmen.. and did not like the 2 leads a week he got from the company... these are called company leads.. think movie (Glenn Garry Glenn Ross a must see)... So he asked management if he could produce his own leads.. and it was allowed.

    Well direct mail was 10 cents a piece so that was too expensive in 1966... So he went out and bought a printing press.. Put it in the garage and taught me how to print off the door hangers. I had to do this 2 hours everyday after school...

    He then got 4 or 5 of my same age school friends and on Sat and Sun during school and mid week in summer. .he took us to the neighborhood he wanted to canvas.. he paid us a penny a piece to put them out... so it coast him about 3 cents a piece.. response was.. ( pre internet of course.. it was a tear off with pre paid postage.. so he only paid for incoming postage not out going).  we would get about 1 reponse per 100 and he would close 1 out of a thousand door hangers put out.. NOw of course he was selling real estate .. not trying to buy it..  but same principal.

    So as he expanded and perfected it.. He then started going down to the salvation army on 3rd st in San Jose CA.. and he would pick up the gentlemen as they were exiting at 6:30 am for the day.. he would offer them 10 dollars to walk for 6 hours .. plus a pack of smokes and sometimes a hamburger.  He would pick up about 6 of them in our van.. then drive them many times to SF or Oakland and they would get about 3k pieces out a day... this turned into hiring a foreman for lack of better words who was the boss and driver.. this lead to 3 of those guys and 3 vans out .. this lead to more leads than he could handle and the number one salesmen in the orginizatin within 2 years and his own company in 3... AS I got my drivers license I used to drive in the summers I had moved up the ranks from Passing paper to picking up the guys.. We used to get them at the Oznan center in SF as well.

    Most of these guys were drifters and were quite colorful.. some worked with my dad for over a decade passing paper.. then some folks turned this into a full time company ... doing this for many different companies as an alternative to direct mail.. especially if your piece was heavy or multi paged.

    So it warms my heart to see this Happening in the exact same manner as my dad created in 1967.. LOL and how I cut my teeth in RE.. .of course at 18 I did not want to pass paper anymore I wanted to sell RE got my license and never looked back.. but talk about working from the ground up.

    Podcast Guest on Show #222
    JLH Capital Partners51 Review
    WebsiteView Page
    10Reply
  • Joseph Caracappa
    Investor · Santa Rosa, CA · Member since 2012 · 127 posts · 90 votes
    10y
    Jay Hinrichs I really like that! Sounds like your dad instilled work ethic in you at a young age. Working 2 hours a day after school for a 10 year old is awesome, and might have a little bit to do with the success you have had?
    0Reply
  • Adrien C.
    Property Manager · Griffith, IN · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 913 votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @Account Closed:

    you actually just gave me the idea to try these out haha. i have a direct mail campaign right now but i want an additional stream of marketing. let me know if you decide to do it! @Bennet Sebastian

     I do a bunch of direct mail.  In this particular town (a solid middle class C+/B town), driving for dollars is profitable but you can easily add 100 houses a day. I looked into the every door direct through the post office and that would run me about $6-7,000. When this guy approached me and could get it done for $1000, I was on top of that without a second thought. 

    0Reply
  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    10y

    @Joseph Caracappa  he started with a little Gestentner printing press were you had to put metal dies that wrapped around the drum then.. feed it paper and ink.. Messy job.

    ended up with full blown Hamadastar printing press's that were of industrial capabilities.. doing runs of 10 to 30k pieces in a 8 hour ****.. LOL

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  • Account Closed
    Rental Property Investor · Denver, CO · Member since 2015 · 109 posts · 34 votes
    10y

    @Jay Hinrichs Oh my goodness, what an incredible background! It is no wonder you are where you are today.

    Talk about grit and discipline. Much respect to you, without a doubt.

    So @Bennet Sebastian it looks like you've got your answer. It may seem to be an unworthy strategy at first (door hangers) but, clearly, with the right team and time, it can be incredibly effective in both cost and lead generation.

    I can't help but wonder, though, how the advent of the internet is going to play into marketing more and more as it already has. Any thoughts on internet campaigns and their effectiveness?

    Diedrick Z.

    Let's connect.

    0Reply
  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    10y

    @Account Closed  I do want to emphasize that the leads my father was procuring was for folks wanting to BUY property.. and he was a RE broker selling property....

    and most if not all folks doing direct mail are looking to buy or wholesale property.. and as such if the properties are owner occ.. then I think its darn effective.. since hardly anyone does door hangers anymore.... so your message would get looked at.. but if there non owner occ . then I think its not going to be effective with tenants the tenants are not going to hand it over to the owner.

    so really depends on your owner occ to non owner occ ratios in the neighborhoods your working.

    if its burnt out landlord syndrome.. then door hangers probably are not effective at all.

    but if your looking for owners who want to sell I see this as being quite effective.. given the rules and laws of each town.. many towns do not permit door hangers anymore.

    To further Gorrilla marketing.  when I started in the timber industry in NW.. in 1992.. I asked my partner how do you get your timber leads.. he literally drove for dollars or timber as it were.. he would see a stand of timber and just drive up the drive ways and hope the timber was owned by the people living in the house.. it was very effective but he started at 5 am and worked till dark through out the summer..   I created a custom lead gen and data base for that business and we blew it up.

    We only sent letters to out of state owners.. and we only sent letters when we could not talk with them on the phone. our whole lead gen was based on research creating a custom data base of about 6,000 potential parcels from the CA. OR border to just south of Seattle that had 10 acres or more of visible timber ( via aerial photography that was available at the courthouse for free )  then we reversed directory them and had tele marketers hammer the phones 2 to 3 nights a week. 

    Its all about getting them on the phone it really is and that has never changed and never will.

    Now when I did pre foreclosure work before it became illegal in OR and WA... I had a team of 6 boy girl 3 teams.. we knocked every NOD in our 4 county metro area.. over 400 doors a month.. and again we did quite well at it.. they would set it up for me to do the close. And many times they did not need me and just closed on their own.

    the more you get custom systems going the more you will succeed in this business.. just need to identify how to beat your competition.. in foreclosures competition was direct mail. so we door knocked.  IN Timber competition was the local Mill and there same add in the paper and their same log buyer who worked at a snails pace.. we got to them before they could or the client even realized they had value in the Timber then we sold the timber to the Mill. .end of the day the MIll got the wood.. So they were OK with it generally.. they called us timber pimps.

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  • Michael Nicholson
    Seneca, SC · Member since 2016 · 85 posts · 23 votes
    10y
    I think if you're going to place door hangers, why not knock on those doors instead, unless it's a bad area. The ultimate goal is to make contact with the homeowner and knocking on the door might be the quickest,cheapest, most effective way. Also I considered doing some variation of door hangers whereby I simply tape my letter to the door of the property if it looks like no one is home when I drive by. Another little tip I have for mailing on the cheap is to skip the envelope all together. Fold your mail piece, buy your stamp and send it off that way. I just tried that on my most recent mailing campaign. I will let you know how it goes.
    0Reply
  • Bennet Sebastian
    OP
    Investor, Rehabber, Broker · Orlando, FL · Member since 2012 · 51 posts · 7 votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @Jay Hinrichs:

    @Adrien C. @Bennet Sebastian   I acutally started my real estate career passing paper ( as its called in the industry... when I was 10 years old.

    My dad was a RE salesmen.. and did not like the 2 leads a week he got from the company... these are called company leads.. think movie (Glenn Garry Glenn Ross a must see)... So he asked management if he could produce his own leads.. and it was allowed.

    Well direct mail was 10 cents a piece so that was too expensive in 1966... So he went out and bought a printing press.. Put it in the garage and taught me how to print off the door hangers. I had to do this 2 hours everyday after school...

    Great story Jay! Thanks for sharing. Kudos to you and your dad for the hard work and dedication. He obviously instilled these traits in you. 

    I suppose like with most marketing strategies the key is repetition and persistence. You guys took it to a level I wouldn't have imagined doing but getting a lead from every 100 pieces is pretty good and probably encouraged your dad to invest more time and money into this strategy which ultimately paid off big time. 

    0Reply
  • Adrien C.
    Property Manager · Griffith, IN · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 913 votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @Michael Nicholson:

    I think if you're going to place door hangers, why not knock on those doors instead, unless it's a bad area. The ultimate goal is to make contact with the homeowner and knocking on the door might be the quickest,cheapest, most effective way.

    Also I considered doing some variation of door hangers whereby I simply tape my letter to the door of the property if it looks like no one is home when I drive by.

    Another little tip I have for mailing on the cheap is to skip the envelope all together. Fold your mail piece, buy your stamp and send it off that way. I just tried that on my most recent mailing campaign. I will let you know how it goes.

    It's just a timing issue. It'd take 6months to knock and talk with everyone in the Zips I did the hangers. In that time, you're missing people wanting to sell. I'm hitting every SFH but ideally targeting the owner occupants. I'm waiting for the inherited house or job relocation or back mortgage or anything. Absentee lists are heavily mailed here so looking for an additional route.

    0Reply
  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    10y

    @Bennet Sebastian  to put it into context ..  my dad was selling the very first frozen bread in the market place mid 60's.. and  just like all the 'bP fanatics he was looking for something better..

    nothing more nothing less.. I love my dad he taught me everything I will ever know in this business.

    hard worker.. innovator.. never take no for an answer..

    we simply did not like being poor.  Which I can assure you prior to RE we were..

    WE lived in apartments our car was a mid 50S VW bug with no back seats.. it would be child abuse today

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    0Reply
  • Ian WalshBusiness Member
    Lender · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    10y

    Yes.  I can 100% say these work if done right.

    0Reply
  • Eric F.
    Real Estate Investor · Raleigh, NC · Member since 2012 · 427 posts · 297 votes
    10y

    What do your door hangers look like? I ordered some and put out a bunch and never got a single call. Not one! No one even called to tell me to "go to heck." 

    @Ian Walsh

    0Reply
  • Andrew Henson
    Rantoul, IL · Member since 2016 · 18 posts · 8 votes
    9y
    Who do you guys recommend to buy the door hangers from?
    0Reply
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