All Forum Posts by: Joshua Martin

Hey gang,  

  So this is sort of a tough question, or a loaded question, or whatever we call it, because of all the variables. But here's my present situation and I thought some with experience on both sides could weigh in.

  I'm a licensed agent, just signed on with a broker, and also started marketing for the wholesale business about 6 weeks ago (no deals yet, but lots of leads and learned a lot). I'm torn between where I should be putting my time and money, however. Should I be going after traditional real estate deals (since there are lots and lots more of them available, even with a low inventory), or keep pouring everything into my wholesale marketing budget? Or should I continue to do both (the plan right now) on a lower budget?

I'm sure people in both categories will talk about wild success going both routes, but my intuition was to the effect that it's much harder to find a 'deal' than it is to find someone who wants to list their house for top dollar on the MLS (while I certainly do not assume this is easy), but I only have so much time and money, trying to not only create a marketing budget but build systems around both of these businesses. I don't know if it falls into the 'jack of all trades, master of none' category...

  And to be fair, I did start marketing only a month ago, so their might be a little 'shiny object' thing going on, but I'm just trying to be a careful and effective short and long term planner. Either way, all roads lead to actually investing in real estate, but I'm trying these avenues to build up some cash, as well as get exposure and networking, etc, etc etc.

 Thanks in advance,

Best,

JTM 

You'll have to play detective for a bit to figure out your local system, but the information is there. Try the court records, should by online by this day and age, and search case numbers sequentially. That's how I do it here, at least. And there must be a local paper that publishes the information, it's public record and the public has to be notified.

Good luck getting the ball rolling!

Best,

JTM

Hmm... That's a tough one. Very decent of you to reach out on his behalf though. And, though he might not want to do it, the way you can help may by to just by two of those properties and wholesale them or whatever, he'll have some cash, pay taxes and rehab, and move along having learned some lessons. 

I guess, assuming some of his other properties are rent ready, priority number one should be to get those rented.

Is he in a rough part of town? (With 6 of 7 vacant it sounds like it).

Best of luck,

JTM

realeflow is a CRM as I understand it? I didn't know they had direct mail capabilities. Maybe they do. Other companies include click2mail, yellowletters.com, openletter.com, postcard mania, and I'm sure there's others. The mail pieces are always similar in that they communicate the same message, but different sites allow you to customize more or less. Click2mail lets you build the pieces entirely with templates. 

@Brandyn Dietman The neighborhood you're talking about isn't really Washington Heights, it's Martin Dr. East of the bridge and south of the park. While there is a great amount of neighborhood pride there and obvious homeowners, your experience may or may not be the same as those who own west of the bridge (let's be honest, it's Milwaukee, and unfortunately, it's extremely segregated). All that said, you can find good tenants anywhere, but for the neighborhood you're looking in 75k might be a little high, and rents might be lower than in the Washington Heights neighborhood, and when you say 'cash flowing 600 p/m' are there tenants in there who are have signed leases? Or is that projected cash flow? In that neighborhood also you'll still have a few foreclosures, bank or city owned properties, etc. 

And I'm curious, what does your realtor have against the Heights?

Best,

JTM

Hey @Jason Morrow! Way to get the ball rolling, I'm about one month ahead of you, so I'm just going to tell you what I've learned thus far.

5% response rate on postcards sounds high. I had about a 1.5% response rate for the 1,000 I sent out (roughly, my tracking has since improved as I'm getting ready for next month). How many did I close out of that? None. Two are worth following up on, however, as they might become motivated in the coming months. Most, as seems to be the case with all marketing, are trash leads. No equity, merely curious, owns the house free and clear but it's so distressed the rehab would cost more than the house, etc.

I like that you're already doing two things: mailing those lists in separate bundles. I mailed on the 8th and got a lot of calls that week after, and then a few last week, and so far none this week. Staggering the mailings should make the leads a bit more workable and reliable.

I'm mailing 1,000, as aforementioned, but I'm also working a local probate list which yields about 60-70 leads a month, and a few other less consistent lists (city tax foreclosures, driving for dollars, etc.).

As for your goal, maybe. Depends on lots of variables. I probably could have closed a deal this month, but my ability to convert a good lead is still improving, and my poor negotiation skills put me right out of the deal.

In any case, are you planning to wholesale? That wasn't totally clear.

Keep on with it though, as every marketer says over and over, it's all about consistency, so I'm hoping by the end of a six month campaign the leads and conversion rate will spike. We'll see. Learn as we go.

Best,

JTM

And my mistake, several of the returns were not probates (which, I imagine, provide solid addresses since they're updated at the time of filing), but were, in fact, tax foreclosures. I guess they fall in the category with the others, of being maybe worth mailing again.

Thanks.

Hey gang, 

  I was just looking for a bit of advice on how people handle return mail. I've heard on the podcast that certain people really like to hunt these down because there's a higher chance that they're not getting mail from other sources, and you might be the one piece that gets through. So, over the last 6 weeks I've sent out about 1,150 mail pieces (not that high, I know, but we'll get there), and I've gotten about 25 pieces back. 5 are probate leads that I would like to track down, about 15 are postcards (weighing the cost and time of tracking leads for this prospect group), and a few are driving for dollars leads.

  So, if you do track down addresses on return mail, what do you use? I had horrible luck with spokeo about a month ago when I was trying to trace people, and I think I paid for a one time use of intellius which gave me a fresh address, but it turned out to be wrong and the mail piece was again returned. How do you guys go about this, if you do at all?

   Thanks in advance.

Thanks for weighing in guys. It turns out that Berkshire Hathaway (my brokerage) has a decent CRM that fits my current needs, so I don't think I need to spend on one just yet. I like all the mail features it contains, as well as the ability to assign contacts to different marketing campaigns which I've already been employing. I was just overwhelmed looking at podio and thinking I had to build one from scratch, but for the moment, this is working just fine. One's that list gets bigger and bigger, and I decide to control my own contact management in a way that I want to keep it separate from my broker, I'll start looking into the others, but I suppose that's at least a year out. Still just building the list.

Thanks again!

Tim Powell Hey! Welcome aboard! As everyone says on the podcast, find a deal, and then you'll find partners and mentors. Start reading about bird dogging and driving for dollars, two low cash ways to find potential deals, then talk to local wholesalers and flippers, and when you have a deal, put the two pieces together. At that point they'll be happy to help (it's just self interest). Best of luck, JTM