All Forum Posts by: Jerry Puckett

Hi @Shawndrika Hardie,

I want to start by thanking you for your service in our Military. It takes a special sort of someone, and we definitely support the troops!

Second, Real Estate is a perfectly viable pursuit and passion. It comes in many varieties and flavors, and almost ALL of them will be enhanced by having a license. When you are licensed, you open up many more avenues of income for yourself. You can buy for this, list for that....if you do not wish to personally take the listing you can legally split commission with someone who will.

You will have access to better tools, information and resources. If "Investing" does not work out or is slow to start, you have a back up career at the ready which of itself can be quite lucrative.

The only downside I have seen to licensing is that not everyone is able to find a Broker off the bat that is supportive of their Investing goals. While under a broker, you must follow that Broker's rules. The only "issues" a license will cause is making you think twice (because of the consequences) before engaging in any questionable practices. Wholesaling is a perfectly legitimate strategy, but there is so much misinformation out there....so many sketchy techniques taught. 

There are many ways to build your buyers list. Most free, but all require some effort. Here is a link to a classic thread with many techniques I've actually used. (list itself is separated with half towards the top of the first page, the rest several posts down)

But I must say, @Caleb Heimsoth is absolutely correct. Finding the deal is the hard part. Finding buyers pretty simple. 

Hope that helps!

All I can say is....good luck with that. There are a number of ways to get property records, CAD date being among the least reliable. You'll also need to figure out a way to shut down EDDM.

I did not, in fact say that I contact people until they say yes.There is a vast difference between saying "no, I do not want to sell" and saying "Take me off your list". I hope you'll quote me correctly in Austin.

I certainly apologize if I struck a nerve.

How about we allow this thread to get back on topic? Do you have anything constructive or helpful to add to the OP's question?

 Impressive that you can speak for an entire market like that!! Kudos to you man, that's a huge responsibility.....However, I am in the DFW market and do not work for the U.S Postal service. I would appreciate it if you would refrain from speaking for me. I'm quite capable of speaking for myself :-)

If you'll indulge me, maybe just one more harsh reality. Obviously people DO care how fast we can close, and people do call us from our mailers ALL THE TIME. Many people are happy to trade some or even all of their equity for the speed and ease of the transaction. I'm just a small fish in a really big pond, there are some very large operators in my market, and everyone is getting mailed to by someone.

So apparently people do also distinguish between mailers and make choices based on what they see and read. Not just any guy with a printer is going to be a good marketer just like not every guy with a wrench is a mechanic. 

Your mailer cannot close a deal, or do all the work in a negotiation for you....that's simply to much to ask of it. But it can, and should start a conversation, and conversations should be followed up on. (25% of my entire business comes through following up with people who have told me "no" the first time).

Lastly, I do not ever worry about what my competitors may or may not be doing. I just do my own thing and let my competitors worry about me.

Another harsh reality.....If they have equity, SOMEONE is mailing to them. When it comes right down to brass tacks, barring some creative financing, equity is the only criteria that matters. 

Your probates and such....they may or may not have equity....not saying those are bad lists....but it's much easier to find everyone who has equity.

And I have to say, I'm not at all surprised that a huge mail out of zip letters didn' didn't get the job done. In my experience, those really tend to irritate people....alienate them. Not a great way to start. Just sayin'

@Tye Harris

I'm sorry, I mis typed. Mailing to your prospects more than once per MONTH leads to diminishing returns.

You can batch out your mail such that you are mailing something every week (that is a GOOD idea as it levels out your work flow), but do not cycle all the way through your list more often than once per month. You will seriously irritate your prospects.

I'm not a fan of post cards (I believe they are junk that lands in the trash....something I determined after sending millions of the little suckers to more than 90 markets across the country). Also not a huge proponent of cluster marketing as described, and cannot recommend Zip letters at all. Oh man, I could tell you horror stories about those :-)!

If it were me, and I had to choose between 3000 postcards or 1800 letters, I'd run with the letters every time. No question. Just my opinion. Different strokes for different folks! Good luck to you!

Hi @Tye Harris,

Am I reading this correctly? Options 2 and 3 above you would be mailing your entire list more than once per month? I would highly recommend against that. Mailing your prospects more often than once per week will run you into diminishing returns very quickly.  Conversely mailing less often than every 6 weeks will leave your prospects unable to connect the dots and rob you of some of the power of multiple touches / branding.

You have other options here considering your budget. Whatever you decide to do, I'd recommend only touching prospects once per month. Kudos to you for actually taking some action! Puts you head and shoulder above most.

Hope that helps!

Hi @Kevin Powell

Are you just looking for the copy? Or an actual word file that will print a "yellow letter"? There are MANY ways to do this, and if you look through some of my old posts from years back I explained my method in detail.

Here is a link to a very good article that goes through almost all of the best methods written by BP's own @Scott Costello. Excellent resource material if you are determined to spend the time and effort doing it yourself. 

Looking through some of your other posts, I see that you have a number of related questions and just getting started. Good luck to you, and welcome to BP. You are in the right place to find your answers!

Congratulations Jack!! Couldn't happen for a nicer guy. Thank you for trusting the growth of your business with us. We certainly do appreciate it. (Your super secret mobile park mailers are safe!)

@Milton Granados

I do not. We moved away from Irving a couple of years ago and found a new accountant. 

It wasn't just the move however. Our business grew by several orders of magnitude each year the last 5 years running. We have a bookkeeper on staff for the day to day, and our new CPA is far more accommodation, sending one of his staff to our office each year to help us with year end.

He stays in touch with us through out the year also, keeping us in the loop with all of the changes, and helping us to think through and implement new strategies along the way.

His name is Keith Barfield.