All Forum Posts by: Peter Vekselman

Direct mail can be a good way of marketing yourself, but if you're going to do it, you need to do it the right way. Another investor mentioned taking 15 seconds to personalize the letter.

That's good advice, but I'd also add that it's critical that you use your own letter. Some investors that are just getting started like to use a letter they've found online or gotten from a real estate investing course. Avoid this shortcut like the Plague. You want your letter to stand out from the crowd and if your letter is one of a gazillion just like it, you'll be wasting your time and your precious marketing dollars. Take the time to carefully craft your own letter. If you can't write, scrimp and save and hire a professional to write a good letter for you.

The payoff will be worth the expense when you're cashing checks.

I'd add that to a bandit sign campaign, by posting fliers all over the place, and running inexpensive newspaper ads.

Good luck!

Peter Vekselman

Rodney,

When you make an offer to a bank they're going to weigh your offer versus any other offers they may have received on the property, how long it's been available, how serious they think you are, and how hungry they are to get rid of the property.

You can improve your chances by showing them the money -- prove to them that you have the ability to follow through on your offer with cash.

As time goes by and the number of properties they have sitting on their books increases, they'll get hungrier -- and hungrier.

If they don't accept your offer today, sit on it a week or two. Then come back again. Today's rejected offer could very well be accepted in a month, a week, or a day.

Peter Vekselman

What kind of postcard are you mailing out? Is it a generic "we buy houses" postcard? Did you create the postcard yourself?

A lot of new real estate investors that don't know any better will use a generic postcard template and message that either came with a real estate investing course or they saw online.

This is a huge mistake.

You need to grab your prospect's attention by being different. If you're using a postcard 15,000 other investors are using, you can pretty well pitch the idea that you're being unique out the window.

If you can't write a provocative, compelling postcard of your own, you should find someone who can.

Direct mail is a multibillion dollar a year industry, and your postcard has to compete for the attention of the homeowner. you literally have a split second to get their attention or your postcard is going straight into the trash.

By being provocative or controversial you can dramatically improve the chances that your postcard will get looked at. Remember, direct mail only has about a 1% response rate. It can take seven mailings or customer contacts to get a response.

Don't automatically assume that your list is bad. Before you reach that conclusion, you really need to test another postcard against the same list.

Good luck!

Peter Vekselman

Hi,
Setting up an LLC is a simple proposition. You can do it yourself quickly and easily, but some investors are more comfortable having it done for them.

You can do it yourself by filling out the paperwork (available from your Secretary of State) and paying the appropriate fees.

If you have it done for you, be forewarned: A lot of these online "services" will gladly take thousands of dollars from you, fill out the paperwork, and give you an official-looking leather folder for your trouble.

Don't overpay for this service. If you're not comfortable doing the paperwork yourself, by all means hire a pro. Just don't pay exorbitant fees.

The decision on whether to buy in the name of the LLC or individually is your call, but there aren't nearly as many lenders that will allow you to buy in the name of an LLC.

Good luck!

Peter Vekselman

Location can play a role, but the number one rule (other than buying in a desirable area) is really in three parts:

1. Price & Terms

2. Cash flow

3. Appreciation

OK, so I cheated, but the point is if you have these key components going for you, your portfolio will grow and so will your profitability. If your property depreciates after you purchase it (in a declining market), it won't matter nearly as much to you as long as you have positive cash flow. The problem a lot of beginning investors have, though, is they don't know a good price, they can't accurately predict cash flow or how to determine whether they'll have POSITIVE cash flow, and they don't have an exit strategy in mind when they buy a property.

Educate yourself, learn your local market, and invest! Invest! Invest!

Peter Vekselman

It's great that you want to better familiarize yourself with real estate and learn as much as you can before you begin investing (or managing property), but a real estate license in and of itself won't really do you any good unless you live in a state that requires PM companies to be licensed agents.

If you're considering getting your real estate license for an additional income stream, that might be an idea, but there isn't a whole lot of real estate being bought and sold right now. You might find that what you actually get is an income trickle, unless you utilize a strategy to work with investors in purchasing properties.

If investing in real estate is an ultimate goal, there can be benefits, such as earning a commission off of properties.

Your options are wide open. Learn all you can and try to hit the ground running.

Peter Vekselman

If you think about it, real estate agents can step in and help. It's no secret that homeowners are struggling -- but so are agents.

Their phones aren't exactly ringing off the hooks with people wanting to buy a home right now. But who's buying? Investors.

If real estate agents take on a more consultative role as an advocate for these homeowners, they can still make money and can throw a lifeline to these homeowners facing foreclosure.

Someone facing foreclosure doesn't reallyhave anyone in their corner. The lender is looking out for their own best interest -- not the homeowner's. A lot of times the homeowner has slid too far down the cliff to realistically make it back. But if they ask the bank what they should do the bank will almost universally say, "Send us some money. Let's get you current." Why?

Because they're strapped for cash. They sure don't need more houses -- and cash reserves -- on their books.

The government tells homeowners to contact their lenders for equitable solutions, but so far only a few hundred thousand workouts have been done. That's not many considering the numbers in or facing foreclosure. Homeowners are stuck.

More and more states are requiring realtor involvement in short sale transactions (for instance Oregon and soon to be California). As this mess deepens look for more states (if not the feds) to adopt punitive measures designed to "protect" homeowners from a problem Congress created.

If real estate agents act a little more like a financial planner and show homeowners what they know and approach the transaction not from a standpoint of making money primarily, but offering help to hurting people, they can hook homeowners up with investors who can buy through short sales or whatever.

The real estate agent can still get a commission, the investor can get a good deal, and the homeowner can walk away without a foreclosure on their credit report.

They lose their home, but I think there's a great chance that they're going to call that real estate agent in a few years when they're ready to take another trip down Home Ownership Road.

There are a few variables involved here, namely, a willingness for the homeowner to come to grips with the idea that their days in their home are numbered.

But it can work -- if agents can work with brokers and think long term instead of short. And brokers and investors will have to set aside some of the petty animosity that sometimes causes them to think so little of one another.

Peter Vekselman

You should be OK with that one. Legally, it is different. But do you really want a name that's so similar to another?

You could possibly run the risk of mistaken identity. Suppose the "Green LLC" is sued for some kind of fraud or other misdeed. With an LLC name so similar it's possible that a mixup could take place and you could get wrapped up in the mess.

Is it correctable? Sure, but is it really worth the hassle? Why not just pick a name that's a little more unique? Pure Green Profits LLC? Just an example but you get the point.

Good luck!

Peter Vekselman
www.CoachingByPeter.com

Jason,
As some of the others have said you'll need to register the domain name and then you'll be able to have email personalized to your domain. A lot of the services will throw a lot of goodies your way for registering, but be careful. You can pay an arm and a leg with some services and get very little in return.

One of the best values out there in my opinion is Go Daddy. Registration is cheap and they'll throw in a free hosting account (for your website). The free account will have ads on your website, but you can eliminate those by upgrading -- and it's cheap.

Your email hosting (which you'll need to pay for) is about $10 a year I think, so it won't break the bank.

A word of advice: When you register your domain name, pay extra for private registration, otherwise you'll be inundated by junk mail.

Hope this helps!

Peter Vekselman
www.CoachingByPeter.com

I read a fascinating article one time by a lady...I think her name was Diane Roggow. She's a color psychologist and (that's a bonafide field) there seems to be a real psychological connection between the colors prospects see in advertising messages and the response rates of those ads.

Pastels seemed to generally be very effective for visually stimulating prospects, particularly yellow (more so when combined with black as I recall).

The reason is apparently because yellow is a psychologically calming color (for whatever reason). Conversely, red is the least effective ad color from a psychological viewpoint. The reason? Red raises blood pressure & is identified with danger. In essence, it's internalized as alarming, a negative emotion.

It grabs attention by stopping your heart and signals danger.

If this is true, pastel is the way to go, especially if you want to soothe someone's fears!

Peter Vekselman
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