All Forum Posts by: David Ligon

I would tell myself to become an expert and marketing/branding from the beginning. Looking back I spent way too much money on "trying" different types of advertising. I.E. letters, post cards, bandit signs, etc... without proper tracking, split testing of copy, headlines, CTA's. I now know to never spend a dollar on ads that I can't track and improve the results of...

I look at direct mail as a whole. Yellow letters, post cards, offer letters, birthday card style, etc... when you get to a point in your business where you start spending consistent money on advertising you need to dedicate some time to understanding at least basic marketing/branding fundamentals. Learn how to conduct and track split tests, write compelling copy, how to use headlines and CTA's on your creative that will improve conversions.

Another big point is: Never spend a dollar you can't track the results of.

Our conversions started going up very fast once we understood that being in real estate means you need to also be an expert at reaching people i.e. marketing/branding... this made the biggest difference in our business. 

There is no one best way that works for everyone... too many variables like location, price point, geographic area, income level of sellers, etc... I look at it like this: There are 2 main types of properties, on market and off market. If I were to have to start from scratch I would start with on market deals straight from the MLS.

Here are a couple reasons why... you don't have to spend advertising dollars and spend massive amounts of time learning how to become an expert advertiser while at the same time trying to learn Real Estate...

It  allows you to focus on developing your acquisition skills, negotiating, evaluating, at scale and at little to no cost. With listed properties you have an endless amount of properties to "practice" on. Here are a couple tips that will help you get more deals...

To get deals from the MLS you have to build a pipeline by making a lot of low offers every day.

The list price is almost irrelevant, offer what makes sense for the market.

Your offers will be rejected... at first. If the first offer is accepted you've paid too much.

Follow up is the magic sauce, track each property and call periodically to "check" on your offer.

Never use a buyers agent. Go straight to the listing agent. (very important)

Good Luck

with only 20-30k I would be looking at how I can put that back into the business to increase revenue. 10x that into $200-300k then you can get some impact-full cash flow. 

We do a major amount of deals straight from the MLS and never less than a 20% discount. Real Estate is about volume and motivation points... you can layer motivation data to pin point better prospects. That being said just like chasing off market sellers require consistent marketing campaigns, going after MLS properties requires making a lot of low offers consistently...

I've done that in my market in South Florida before I had a buyers list. i anticipated this so I added a clause to the contract stating that I the buyer have the right to list the property on the MLS... Also i put in the MLS listing that it was an equitable interest listing... that one way to make it happen

I knew something didn't sound in line with what I have experienced in the real world, thanks for helping to clarify!

How do you work out the POF? I know that when I purchase an REO in an LLC the bank requests the POF be in the name of the LLC. How is this handled with a Land Trust?

I don't know if all banks are the same but all the ones that I dealt with have needed that. Has anyone found this to be different and if so how did you get around it?

Just Google "transactional lender" and you will find what you are looking for.