Am I on the right track?

Question

I'm trying to launch my wholesaling business while working full time. I work in Construction and was rained out this week. I seized the opportunity to "Jumpstart" things by taking some much needed action steps.

Here is what I have so far.

1. A GoDaddy phone number for bandit signs ( Google Voice didn't have my local area code) I set the phone to go straight to voicemail and recorded a message in attempts to pre-screen calls. Please critique.  229  area code. Number on signs

2. Homemade bandit signs. I know the debate regarding Handwritten and Preprinted signs. However I opted to make my own for budget and simplicity reasons and decided to try to do a tasteful job.. Opinions Welcome...   https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ctyQcPcH7m5Iq2aTZJu0ybcDxBe44rFI

3. I created a Facebook Business Page and launched a Promotion  facebook.com/pg/rjbuyshousesforcash

4. I emailed my County Tax Assessor and asked for a list of Delinquent property owners. He sent me a file to my surprise.  I'm thinking of targeting the most delinquent in the form of a yellow letter, with a picture of the home printed on the envelope in efforts to boost open/response rate. (trying to maximize my limited advertising dollars)

I haven't placed any of the bandit signs yet but plan to this weekend. What other things could I employ in my strategy to get my phone ringing. I'm fairly confident in my ability to recognize, negotiate, and convert the leads into deals. Thanks for your input.

RJ Browning · Answer

Thanks @Alex Deacon and @Jorge De Jesus I really appreciate the info.

Alex, I definitely plan to network with some of my local wholesalers. I have begun to build a buyers list and feel that I have accumulated a few legitimate Cash Buyers, so I could strengthen both my relationship with fellow wholesalers as well as my cash buyers by sending out other wholesalers deals.

Jorge

1. I decided to send the calls straight to voicemail for a few reasons.

- I wanted to be able to pre-screen some of the "tire-Kickers" and create a bit of a funnel for the most motivated sellers who would obviously listen to the message and decide to leave their info.

- Even though it goes straight to voicemail, Godaddy still captures the number that calls and I can further market to them if they dont leave a voicemail. My plan was to follow up with a text message with website link (which I just set up) buying4cash.com

- While working Full Time until Im established enough to make the switch to wholesaling Full-Time I wanted to try to develop a system that didnt require me to try to grab each incoming call, but rather be able to return the "cream of the crop" at the end of the days.

2. On the Bandit signs, I will definitely fine tune my strategy there as they're are hardly any signs in my Market. In fact, it has been quite a while since I have even been able to locate one.

3. The Facebook ad strategy seems like it has potential. With the Popularity of Facebook and the fact that you can potentially reach people who are otherwise unreachable it seems like a possible treasure trove of untapped leads. However, Facebook has currently locked my account while verifying and upload photograph and they did so while I have ads running that I can no longer manage or "tweak". WOW what other advertiser could treat customers this way and get away with it? I guess when you have control over that possible "treasure trove" you can do whatever you like.

4. It turns out that when I opened the Delinquent Tax File that what they had in fact sent me from the Tax Assessors office was a spreadsheet of Tax Sale Properties, I did follow up and request the current Delinquent Property Owners list, however, it occurred to me that the list they sent is really a CASH BUYERS LIST. It has the address that sold, the amount paid, and the purchaser. Those purchasers would basically be Investors correct?

I do intend to stay at it. Life is nothing more than an accumulation of each and every choice you make. I choose to be a successful wholesaler..

Thanks again for your time and input. And I may definitely take you up on that script practice.

RJ Browning · Answer

@Kuba F. Thanks I will definitely take a look at your blog posts.  I'm anxious to get the phone ringing. I realize now that marketing is going to be the key to this businesses success. After I've completed a deal or two and really have a decent budget to market with, I believe things will get a bit easier. I just can't justify purchasing a list and funding a mailing campaign just yet. My thoughts are that by setting all the low cost/free marketing efforts in place it allows me to tweak my system for handling leads before I increase the volume. Thanks again for your time.

Kuba F. · Answer

@RJ Browning Sounds like a great plan -- you're not getting stuck on the little "stuff" -- you're systematically doing it.

Your signs look great and like you put some care into them. I would only worry about the possibility of bleeding when it rains, but that and the city taking them down is just factored into cost lost.

Facebook is quirky. I've run a lot of ads and the major issues have to do with the amount of text on the picture. If there's too much you get a very low ad score and they will restrict the audience size the ad appears to regardless of the size of the audience you've targeted.

Definitely recommend getting some wallet cards made up -- these are smaller than business cards and can fit in wallet slots. Hand them out to everyone you meet, leave them in credit card slots at gas stations, put them on corkboards, anywhere.

I wrote a few BiggerPockets blog posts on how to find properties/motivated sellers. Might be more than you need right now but you may read a nugget or two for down the road:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/8814/72016-55-resources-to-find-real-estate-deals-online

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/8814/71506-27-ways-to-find-off-market-and-wholesale-real-estate-deals-offline

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/8814/72664-35-relationships-to-help-you-find-more-houses-to-flip-or-wholesale

Alex Deacon · Answer

@RJ Browning sounds like a good start. Check in with a lot of your local RE groups and local RE meetups. also start to network with other wholesalers. You will find that even though they are your competitors they will also help you and you JV on a lot of deals. For example. You may have a buyer and they have a property. And Vise Versa. We do that here in my market all the time. You can also soak up as much information from them as possible and see what the successful ones do and what the unsuccessful ones do.