Ok so we see the people that are doing the large direct mail campaigns and seeing the numbers they do as they spend the big money.
Let me give the angle from my point of view as here I handle the business development role at Bolthouse Homes.
What is Business Development? Forbes labels it as Business development is the creation of long-term value for an organization from customers, markets, and relationships.
Bolthouse Homes is about 16 months old and being the brain child of owner John Mathewson we came into it with the hope of growing and dominating our area here in NWI (Northwest Indiana) being here since day one and doing everything eventually let me see my strengths and how I could help our business the most.
Media and Marketing I felt was my strong point so we hit the content game hard.
Started working on the development of our website and farmed that out to get coded then I knew we needed a social media presence so I made a Facebook then saw that Bolthouse Homes was going to be battling against Bolthouse Farms for SEO on google so I knew we needed a few more social sites so I made a; Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogger, Vine, Instagram, Pinterest, Flickr, Google +, Tumblr, Bigger Pockets and started the daily content push. Goal was for 25 total posts a day. Now it is a bit much but it easy to copy paste descriptions and just use the same picture.
We knew the kind of investor we wanted to reach out too us and knew how we wanted to bring them to us so we leased an office space after working at a different starbucks every day and flipped our space to be a touch more modern and I began to network in Chicago and one week at my highlight was a 5 day span driving more than 1,750 miles and meeting 32 different RE professionals. We hit some REIA meetings but didn't like the information given and didn't network too much there so we spend our time elsewhere. We have now local and national people contact us about investment opportunities whether it be for Flips or Turn Key Rentals and now looking back about 2.5 years of my real estate life being 23 years old if I had 5 things I could tell anyone it would be this.
1. Make bigger pockets a priority and go pro and of course add a profile picture and start getting on the forums here post a total of 25 times a day and start 1 new discussion a day. Be active here cause where else will you find this network? NO WHERE!
2. Don't go spending 2,000-15,000 on RE education you are better off using that money to float yourself as you either find your niche or build a brand or go get your broker license. Private investors wont care that you bought education they want the experience that they don't have or don't have time to go gain cause they could be running multi million dollar businesses.
3. Time management. 9-5? Not sure what that is. 168 hours in a week and you can sleep 5 hours a night and survive so you have the ability for a 133hr work week so its time to put the work in. Get motivated and keep learning. Meet some people and network and get some Eric Thomas or Gary Vaynerchuk streaming on youtube to keep you pumped up. You are working a 40hr work week somewhere else? You are in school? You still have 3/4 hours a day you can be spending focusing on the big goal right?
4. Network more than you ever have or have ever wanted too. Get social, hit up some local coffee shops and meet some local business owners. Go to home depot and ask who spends the most and go talk to them. Hit up some REIAs as you build your network and start meeting more people on Facebook, LinkedIn and Bigger Pockets.
5. Content is going to get you out there. Who flips the most in your city? I don't know, do you even know? Well why not? Cause they aren't putting content out there. Who cares that they are flipping if a potential investor can't see that! Start showing your day. Show that you are putting in the work. Show you are on the grind and attract the people that you need to help you grow.
How can I help you? Well in my 2.5 years I can explain what I wish I would have known.
Feel free to ask about anything that below and I will help all I can advice is always free.
Real Estate Videography - Whether you want to capture a lead or come up a video idea, shoot a listing or do a promo video we have done them all.
Real Estate Photography - We shoot all of our own listings so anyway we can help there let us know!
Printing Advertising Materials - I have a great local guy that can beat vista print or any office depot or staples and its going to be high quality we do all of our own layouts and can help.
Private lender questions - Where to look or even how to network with some it is an area we have grown from 1-2 investors to 14-18 lenders.
Finding the right contractor - We have had some great experiences with local contractors and we have also had a few nightmares that have really hurt the financial area but we handled and know our numbers what we can afford and who we can trust here in the Midwest.
Branding your company - We have built 6/7 different brands and can help show you what will be worth your money and whats gonna be a waste. We have also lost money here so we know what has worked for us.
Proforma or Preforma - Not sure whats the correct term anymore. We spend 4 days taking a google sheet and breaking it down numerically so it can calculate your deal. You input your initial numbers and budget and it will give you the Flip - Buy and Hold - Wholesale numbers so you can see what margins would work best on choosing if the deal will work.
Growing your team - Being now 16 months old we have 8 full time employees all growing from a company we started with no capital. We figured out what areas we needed help in and got the team here and operating.
Acquisitions - We handle all of our own acquisitions and we only have ever bought 2 wholesale deals we use MLS and a few auction sites to help us find our flip and rental homes.
Efficiency - From saving money on materials, to finding new ideas for the design of your houses, running comps or finding new processes in the business we would love to help with whatever we can.
Bolthouse Homes Team - Who is on our team?
We have 2 people in our construction department handling; Pre walks of potential houses, scopes of work, quality control, managing our contractors, material ordering.
We have 2 people on our acquisitions team finding new deals and running comps to see what works.
Business development is myself handling all networking, marketing and media.
Accounting we have one person watching the numbers and she also handles purchase agreements.
Material tracking we have one person tracking materials and receipts and filing them.
Secretary handles a lot of the paperwork.
I am in no way a guru or even the best in this area of flipping but we have documented our process and learned from the mistakes we made. We have branded our company and built our team and have focused on operating as efficiently as possible with the goal always being #1031 as we refer to it. It stands for Corinthians 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
We want to help others where we didn't have the help!
Thanks for reading!
