All Forum Posts by: Arthur Garcia

Welcome Wallace Zhou! Good to see more So Cal RE investors on the site.

Be careful - this site will be a major time suck (in a good way).

AG

Jon Klaus - so you send out a series of 5-7 YL over the course of your campaign? Interesting...I would have thought mixing up the marking piece would yield better results, but it sounds like you haven't needed to, right?

Hmm...sounds like he went for the "shotgun" approach. I'm hoping your friend has a bit more capital to continue his marketing to this group for at least another 6 times. I may take a few touches to see the ROI.

I would still love to see the postcard or mailer though, or maybe his list was too niche. I think sorting for equity might have been another good filter to add to the other filters.

There's a lot more information not being shared here.

Mainly - what was he targeting - sub2s, absentee owners, equity owners, etc.

30K is a large number and Zero response rate is very uncommon, especially on that size of a campaign. I'm not sure what his experience is with direct marketing, but he probably should have split tested the farm area before dropping that many mailers.

His postcard was probably to general or didn't have good sales copy or a call to action. Direct mail is great, but campaigns, IMO, should out preform shotgun mailers.

Do you think you could get a copy of his mailer? I think it would be a great case study to post here on BP.

AG

Brandon Foken - why not do both?

HOWEVER, I wouldn't just go with ONE agent (not in this market anyway). Call, and market yourself to RE agents. See if they have any new listing coming up on the market (short sells work well). Call on listings that have been "pending" in the MLS longer than a month. Call all the agents who have a listing as "contingent" see if anything is going to fall out. You may also want to consider other type of inventory - condos, town homes for your mailers. SFR may be saturated with direct marketing, but condos and townhomes may be an untapped market (just an idea).

I'd also consider calling up craigslist "for rent" adds. Look for ones that are posted by a "mom n pop" outfit and not a mgmt company, see they'd be interested in selling.

Call up a few mgmt companies and let them know you offer a referral of X amount of dollars if end up purchasing a home from a referral they gave you. They would know better than anyone else which house has "problem tenants" or which building owner is ready to quite, etc.

You may also might want to consider marketing to mortgage brokers to see if they had to decline financing a property due to the condition of the home. Same deal - offer to pay X amount of $ toward their marketing costs if they refer someone to you.

I hope that helps! I'm currently doing all of these and I closed on one pocket listing this month and I'm *possibly* getting an Owner carry back from one of my mailers (I'll know on Sat).

Keep shaking the leaves and something will fall eventually. My point is simply that you have to be the one taking it to these RE professionals. They are all swamped and are quick to forget 1 phone call.

I hope this helps.

AG

Hey Shawn Yezza - another good idea. Follow Dev Horn, he's got a good handle on this stuff and I've learned a lot just read his past posts.

Thanks Dev for the kind words!

Hart Hagan - If I may make a suggestion? The best way to learn how to sell better is three fold, IMO.

* learn from learning the art
* learn by doing
* learn by reviewing past performance

1. Buy a few books on sales. Do a little research on the web and spend $20-50. I really like question based selling by Brian Tracey, but there are a TON of books on the topic. Try find that common themes - asking open ended questions, needs assessment, etc.

2. Learn by doing - go on to craigslist and call a few "for rent" & "FSBO"ads. Try to target the ads written by a Homeowner and not a Mgmt Co. or Realty Office. Make it a goal to keep them on the phone for 5 min. See if you can get them to talk 70% of the time, etc.

3. Record your phone calls - and review them after the call is done and take notes.

**One tip I learned a while ago, if you going to block out a few hours of cold calls, try to talk to an old friend for 10 min before hand. Tell jokes, laugh and get in "the zone". After the call hit those leads and you'll have much more success and feel good even if you get rejected.

Remember it is a numbers game. Finding distressed sellers is not easy and requires hard work, but if you can stick it out, there's definitely a big pay day.

I hope that helps!

AG

I echo Dawn A.'s comment. Mini-blinds are fine, but plan on replacing them, so don't buy the good ones if you do plan on putting them in.

I'm always on the look out for stuff on sale at Big lots or the dollar store. I picked up a floor mat, shower curtain and toilet mat for $5 at big lots. I also find fake flowers and flower pots at the dollar store. I'll put it in the kitchen on the counter or in the bathrooms. I'm not certain it helps get it rented fast, but I think it does and plus it doesn't cost me much.

**note - I only do this for single family

Our multi family stuff usually has bare bones and we go with curtains (cheap ones) vs mini blinds, due to damage and replacement costs.

I hope that helps.

AG

Shawn Yezza - Welcome to the BP community.

If you spend a little time checking out the search bar here in the forums, you'll notice a few common themes regarding direct mail:

Postcard - get a lower response rate, but are roughly 50% less in price. Typically the leads generated from these mailers are more qualified. A good solution if you have a 9-5 and don't have the bandwidth to filter all the YL phone calls.

Yellow letter - Typically yield a very high pull/response rate. However, due to the nature of the extreme "personalization" of the mailer, there are a lot of low-quality leads. Some prefer that, so as to build a brand and establish contact with the prospect before they move into distress, or just to see if they can make a deal by being creative - subject 2, lease options, etc.

Professional letter - have a very low pull rate, but looks more professional. If you go this route, make sure to personalize the content with Mail merge features (home owners name ((try to use 2xs in the copy)), address of the property, etc.). And hand write the outside of the letter.

Campaign - to see any real type of return on your mailers, you'll want to commit to mailing to your farm/prospects for at least 6 months.

My recommendation would be to read all posts concerning "direct mail" "yellow letters" "real estate marketing", etc.

You're going to want to buy/ read as much as you can on the topic of marketing - specifically direct response marketing (preferably non- RE related).

I hope that will help frame a bit of context for you.

Keep the community posted on your progress.

Best,

AG

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