All Forum Posts by: Justin Silverio

@Taylor Lydon I agree with Rob.  Check out the podcasts and attend some events.  I believe the next Black Diamond event in Waltham is this month.  Also, my next event in Reading is next Wed. Here are the details: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/44...

Reminder that The Boston Investor's Networking Event is next week.

There are a number of us who run direct mail companies.  You can do a search for direct mail companies in the search bar and you'll likely find a bunch.

@Aaron Millis  First off, thank you for your service.

I hate that you even have to mention the biracial aspect but unfortunately, people are still ignorant.  Anyway, I would recommend split testing with half including your pic and half without.  Keep everything else on the postcard the same.  If your list is <1,000 it may not be a big enough population to draw a conclusion from so you may have to do it a couple of times.

Let us know how it goes.

@Daniel Ortiz Looks like we are in the same town!  I'm actually sitting at Cafe Nero as I type this.  

I've invested in and around Andover for many years and have started developing in Boston. Over the years, I have focused more heavily on certain towns and lost focus on others. The intent was to start in low market towns to reduce my capital outset and get into a property to test the REI waters. Once I worked in that market for a while, I move up to mid-market areas. Then, after a while, I moved into the high end areas. This is ultimately where I wanted to be but my steps to get here were slow and methodical so I didn't take on too much risk and not understand the intricacies of the product that buyers are looking for.

It really depends on your goals, what type of investment you want to get into and your appetite for risk.  Can you share more about your goals?

@Kevin Belyea I highly recommend the Black Diamond event in Waltham that Ann mentioned.  They put on an amazing event and it's free.  Also, I host a quarterly event in Reading.  The next one is on June 14th.  Here are the details: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/446091-the-boston-investors-networking-event---june-14th

Please join me at the next Boston Investors' Networking Event at Bertucci's in Reading! We will begin with an open forum Q&A segment where you will have the opportunity to ask the group questions related to jump starting your real estate investing business or taking your investing to the next level. Of course there will also be plenty of time for networking so be sure to bring your business cards.

If you haven't been to one of these events, it's a great opportunity to speak with other active investors.

I look forward to seeing you there!

keywords: massachusetts, new hampshire, boston, networking

@Ethan Summers I agree that things are changing as we start to target millennials, however, everyone that owns a house, has a mailbox.  So by sending mail, you are directly targeting your prospect.  Also, think about the emails and ads that are saturated online (look at the right column-->).  Couldn't you say that online marketing is saturated as well?  I think there are many ways to successfully market to homeowners and everyone feels more comfortable or has a reasoning to do it one way or another.  

Don't get me wrong though, multiple marketing strategies is the best approach but I have seen how well DM works so it will always be in my arsenal.  

Like everyone else, Boston is a crazy hot market. I'm sending out DM and am still getting a 2% response rate, while most of my competitors have said they are getting <1%. However, as we all know, response rate is merely a way to compare and has no economic meaning in the business. Deal rate or ROI is what's important. Our ROI on DM over the last year has been 10x+.

DM does work!  9 times out of 10, the reason why people have difficulty or poor results with it is because they aren't doing is correctly.  You're not going to get good results if you don't have a great list, great mailer, great consistency and great follow up. 

San Francisco very competitive.  You will definitely need to do some form of marketing whether it's direct mail, networking, door knocking or something else.