How many.......

Question

I am trying to figure out how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop....In Real Estate terminology how many marketing pieces do I need to send out and how many offers do I need to make in order to find a house to wholesale......also what are the best ways that your finding to market to sellers?

Thanks

Curt Davis · Answer

Call For Sale By Owner signs but only call the ones where they place is not in perfect condition.  Look for the home that is run down, not the one that looks freshly painted with a new roof.  This is just one way to look for sellers.

Manny Cirino · Answer

When I got started I bought a roll of 1000 4x5 stickers for a $100 online. The stickers said," Avoid Foreclosure & Save Your Credit ###-###-#### or Don't Rent it - $ell It!".
 I put these sticker at every gas station pump in town. Or the other one I my mentor actually made me do in order for him to assist me, he had to measure my commitment. He showed me how to build an NOD Mailing list for free then I had to go door to door and every house I did not get answer from I had to leave a sticky note(very important gives a personal touch) that said," hey buddy sorry I missed you call me when you get this" and every one that was vacant with no realtor sign in front, instantly was mailed a yellow letter in a hand written party invitation envelope.

When marketing remember to watch what color combos you use. Combos like white and blue, black and neon green, or yellow and black. Your message should never contain all capitalized letters. The Fist Letter of Every Important Word Should Be Capital Only. Only when the word is a attention grabber like ATTENTION! or WOW! Should they be all caps

Jon C. · Answer

I was in Sean Terry's group but I couldn't afford it anymore. However, I got a lot out of him and his site.

The initial list I got was from US Lead List, who say they get new lists every three months and sell three times only. So I was able to be the first at most of the names. But I was still really disappointed in the lack of response. I can understand if there's competition but to not even get a call is more deflating, especially after I hand wrote all those yellow letters.

The absentee list was from List Source which I assumed was picked clean by everyone. Guess that's why they are so cheap compared to US Lead List. Anyway, I'm still plugging away. I just want that one deal so I know it works, especially when you hear about a fellow newbie who put out 50 bandit sings and got a deal within a month of starting.

Jerry Puckett · Answer

Probate marketing has been very good to me. I track the probates for 3 counties. I do it all on line, spend about 30 minutes a day doing it, and mail out about 20 letters a week.

I have been doing that consistently and persistently for the last year, and I now average about 5 calls from that marketing per month. But you should know that if I don't get an immediate response from the initial letter, I move all the lead to a master list and send a post card once a month for three months.

In other words, each lead gets one letter and three post cards. That generates about 5 calls per month and results in a deal every other month so far. With the same persistence, and the improvement of my confidence and skills, I expect that to improve. Just in the last 7 months, I botched 3 negotiations with mistakes I wont make again. Those went on to be deals for other wholesalers.

Pick 2 or 3 low or no cost strategies and do them persistently and consistently; that's the key. Don't even think of giving up on a strategy until you've been at it a minimum of 6 months. I get phone calls from stuff I sent out nearly a year ago! Happens all the time.

Shanequa J. · Answer

I sent out 30 letters last month and received 2 calls. I targeted abandoned houses and owners that were late on their taxes. The letters were typed, but the envelopes were handwritten. I thought this would increase the chances of it being opened. Investors usually send out hundreds of mail per month; I have to work my way up to that amount.

Chris Clothier · Answer

Hey Courtney -

When we were first getting started both in Memphis and in Denver, Colorado, we used two different vanity numbers companies to build a brand and get exposure.  We used 1-800-Buy-Qwik (which I think is out of business now) and 1-800-Sell-Now which was started and is still owned by my older brother (for full disclosure!).  We did really good with both numbers because they were easy to remember, came with pre-packaged marketing like radio, tv, bandit signs, postcards, letters - really whatever we wanted to use including billboards.

Those two numbers helped us get a ton of leads because they looked much more professional than traditional yellow letters or DIY mail pieces and bandit signs.  As far as numbers are concerned, you can count on a good direct mail piece to get you a response rate of 1-3% and that is a standard number that any good marketer will tell you.  Over time, if you continue to market to the same list or in the same areas, to the same people, your response rate will go up.

So by those numbers, you would want to send 100 pieces to get on average 1-3 calls.

Best of luck!

Chris

Jivonna B. · Answer

I find that bandit signs gets your phone ringing immediately. I'm in the Detroit area and the city doesn't seem to mind if you put them out. I have gotten lots of leads from them, I love bandit signs.

Rusty Thompson · Answer

David has a good point, the more investors in a given area the worse time of it your going to have. Most list your going to get are going to well picked over. Your going to either have to start thinking outside the "box" or start traveling to more rural settings.

David Tower · Answer

wow Jon I'm sorry that's been your experience. From what I understand, Phoenix is very competitive market. Are you part of Sean Terry's mastermind group there? He is the MAN!

Jon C. · Answer

As a new investor, I've been getting pretty frustrated by the lack of response from my marketing. I started with a list of older homeowners with equity. I sent out a total of around 300 yellow letters and got 7 calls. All were either tire kickers with no motivation or people telling me to remove them from my list.

I also put out 50 bandit signs twice over about a month time. 50 signs in one area, 50 signs in another area, 100 total. I got ONE call and it was from another investor. This was very disappointing since all I hear about is how well this method works.

Then I got 500 absentee leads and sent letters. I got FOUR calls. Two tire kickers wanting max value, one with zero interest, and one guy that was a possibility. I pursued him but he wasn't motivated enough with my offer.

I also started with probate leads. I get about 10 a week or so. I've gotten one call after 3 weeks or so and it was the closest I have gotten. The guy wanted to be done with the home, it was a mess in a decent area. Unfortunately, I was the third investor he spoke to, was already offered more than I thought was safe, but was still 10k under what he wanted.

Now I'm offering on Hud homes because that's free and at least I can get to the offer part, instead of the "what will you give me" part.

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