All Forum Posts by: Dev Horn

There are "business coaches" that help you grow and manage your business in many ways and, particular to our business, there are "REI coaches" that teach you how to do real estate investing.  The "gurus" we speak of in here are not the real REI coaches, but rather the guys (often reality TV show people) that offer the late-night-infomercial hotel courses. We're not big fans of the gurus because what they offer is a crappy deal (not even talking about their unscrupulous way of getting people to pay for those courses with their 401Ks, etc.). Gurus often offer a few days of classroom training for a higher cost than a year of personalized REI coaching.

Now, do you need a "business coach" for your real estate investing business? Not sure what value they provide. They will not be teaching you how to do this business. My guess is most people who are new to this business would get the most value out of an "REI coach".

REI coaches are - in my opinion - a good deal if they offer a flat-rate, 1-year program.  I would never sign a deal that gives someone 50% of my deals in the future when I have no idea if they will even help me get those deals.  And after you've done a few, you don't need the coaches help, so why would you give him 50% on deals where he (or his staff) did little or nothing to help you score that deal.

REI gurus are NEVER a good deal.  NEVER.

Hey Cam - welcome to BP!

I send a free video-based WHOLESALE ACCELERATOR course (+ sample contracts) to anyone in BP that sends me a colleague request!  I think you'd really benefit from that.  Send me a colleague request WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS included and I'll shoot the course video links + contracts over to you in an email.

Here is the  if you'd like to check it out right now!

Hey you guys - this is a topic that we get asked about all the time - "How do I use Listsource.com to pull an absentee owner list?".  Watch how we do it right here:

FOR BETTER VIEWING: Change the quality to HD (720p) and view full screen.

That's it - I'm not selling anything.  This is one of a series of new videos we are creating for you guys.  We hope it helps you become a master of your direct mail marketing!

I forgot to add, I recently did a video on how to pull an absentee owner list using Listsource.com:

FOR BETTER VIEWING: Change the quality to HD (720p) and view full screen.

Hey Jared!  In the Property tab, use:

- Property Type = SFR and/or the typical house types you are looking for
- Equity % = at least 40%... 50% or higher is good
- Total Assessed Value = the ARV range for the properties you seek

Under the Options tab:

- Select Owner Occupied Status = Absentee (we use both in & out of state)

From there, use filters to help you get to the size list you want, such as:

- Property tab >> Length of Residence, Last Market Sale Date, and/or Year Built

You may discover that some filters are not available in your area.  If you apply a filter and the record count goes really low or to zero, that filter is likely not available for you to use.

Man, let's hold up on getting someone to hire a VA after sending out 500 postcards. If they were sent at the same time to the same city/area, they most likely all hit at once, so the resulting calls seemed like a flood. Give it a few days.

The other thing I'm always suspect of - when people report unusually high response rates - is that the message might have been pretty vague, if not misleading.  I can get a 50+% response rate with a postcard like this one:

What is meaningful is lead quality (are the people calling you motivated?  have equity? etc.), # deals closed, and ROA (return on advertising $).  I have my fingers crossed that Crystal gets a deal out of this, but we don't expect many deals on less than $500 cost of advertising.  In even small markets, advertising cost per deal is easily over $1,000.  In most CA markets, it's well over $3,000 advertising cost per deal.

Dose of reality aside, I'm excited for you Crystal, I wish you the best and hope your extraordinary response rate turns into piles of cash.  ;-)

This is consistent with what our guys in SoCal found - people there completely ignore them.

Oh no worries Clint, I did not mean to be critical!   I get where you're coming from.

Guys, I don't know if you realize it, but Brian gave you something above that is FREE and it is worth PURE GOLD:

Learn How to Negotiate a Terms Deal With Home Sellers

It's a huge file, it's 2.5 hours of listening to Brian =) and it may be the single best training you will ever here on how to NEGOTIATE; the psychology of making a deal the seller.  This is THE THING.  THE important thing.  Everything else about real estate investing is anecdotal.  It's all about the deal.  You make your money on the purchase!

Great stuff, @Brian Gibbons - thanks for sharing!

 Hi Mark - We're managing advertising for large investors in all the markets you mentioned, and we're based in Dallas.  I can tell you this - the competition is pretty tough everywhere right now as inventory has been tight and there is an abundance of "investors" in all those markets.  San Antonio right now is one of the most competitive markets in the U.S.

So, don't expect it to be easier to find deals in any decent market.  There is a lot of competition.  Where you have an advantage out of state is:

1) Lower cost per deal (cheaper houses) - you can buy 2-3 houses here in Dallas for the price of 1 in OC. On the other hand, you can make a lot more on a single deal in OC than you can make on a much cheaper house in Dallas. It could be a wash as far as the actual ROI on your capital, but at least when you have 2-3 deals your capital is spread out more, you don't have as much at RISK in any single project. That's an advantage. One bad deal in OC can bankrupt a novice investor.

2) Lower cost of advertising - Advertising, including Google AdWords, in OC is very expensive.  Some of our key phrase (e.g., "buy my house fast") are $20-30 per CLICK in the Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino markets.  It can take 10 clicks to get a form filled out (i.e., a "lead") so your cost for a lead out there is easily $300 (cost per conversion).  In Dallas or Nashville, that cost might be closer to $150.  In San Antonio, maybe $200.  So, your marketing dollars can be more efficient in the markets you mentioned (vs. OC).

I'm no expert on remote investing; in general, I'm leery of it.  I think you need to have trusted people there in the market where you invest - people that can go look at properties, manage contractors, etc.  People that you KNOW, like family or friends.  Otherwise, may be too many opportunities for people to take advantage of you not being there.

I wish you the best, whatever you decide to do!

I'm a bit confused about what you want.   Is it a "mentor" or a "coach"?  Brian helped to explain the difference, and I think it's big difference.

A paid coach should do WAY more for you than an unpaid mentor, who might have coffee with you once in a while so you can ask a few questions.

What do you want?  Do want to be TRAINED?  ENCOURAGED?  ASSISTED as you work on deals?  Then consider a coach.

If you just want to have an occasional chat with someone who's had some success in the business locally, find a mentor at a local REI club, etc.

@Brian Gibbons has enriched my REi skills in a huge way, so I'm a fan of his and I think he has the right approach to helping you become successful in this business.  There are other great coaches, but some of their pricing strategies are not very attractive.  I'd rather pay a flat fee for a coach than agree to give them a % of any of my deals.

"A coach is someone who tells you what you don't want to hear, who makes you see what you don't want to see so you can be who you've always known you can be." ~ Tom Landry