On today’s episode of the BiggerPockets Podcast, we talk with the dynamic husband and wife team of Jason and Katherine Grote about their adventures in flipping and wholesaling, while specifically dealing with some of the unique ways they find deals for their real estate investing business. This show was really a ton of fun to record and will give you both ideas and many good laughs as you hear the Grote’s story and tips for you and your investing business!
Read the transcript to episode 27 with Jason and Katherine Grote here.
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In This Show, We Cover
- What a “wholetail” is – and why it can be profitable
- The first direct mail campaign that… flopped.
- When to “buy and hold” and when to “flip?”
- When to Quit your job … and when NOT to.
- Flipping in hot vs. cold markets
- How to wholesale without being a time-stealing “bottom feeder”
- Dealing with foundation problems
- Tips for working with your spouse
Links from the Show
- The New BiggerPockets Real Estate Calculators and Analysis Tools
- Fix and Flip Analysis & Reporting Tool
- Lending Club
- BP Podcast 010 : Flipping Houses 101 with J Scott
- BP Podcast 018 : Flipping, Marketing, and Wholesaling with Danny Johnson
- 5 Key Takeaways From the Inman Real Estate Connect SF 2013 Conference
- How to Create an Awesome Lead Generating Website in Under an Hour with No Technical Abilities
Books Mentioned in the Show:
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
Tweetable Topics
Anything worth anything is all about hard work (Tweet This!)
People decide whether or not they’ll buy your house in the first 3 minutes.(Tweet This!)
We’re passionate about real estate… it’s fun! (Tweet This!)
Who needs a book when you have BiggerPockets! (Tweet This!)
Connect with Jason and Katherine
Jason’s BiggerPockets Profile
Katherine’s BiggerPockets Profile
The Grote’s Website: www.IBuyAustinHouses.com
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19 Comments
Thanks Jason and Katherine for sharing your business.
Quotable: “Who needs books when you have BiggerPockets.com?”
Are you still seeing the steep appreciation in Austin that we’ve seen in recent months? Any trend changes that you’ve noticed?
Keep sewing (not Josh’s style)!
Jon,
I see that the appreciation rate has slowed tremendously and the prices in most neighborhoods have kind of formed a “ceiling”, but Days on the Market are still very short in most areas in the city limits of Austin. What are you seeing or hearing out there?
Yes, sewing Josh’s style won’t produce any real estate income! (Maybe a dress)
Jon, thanks for the feedback and your faithful contributions to this community!
I really enjoyed the podcast! Lot’s of great tips on marketing and what it takes to succeed in this industry.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Katherine and Jason on a couple of deals and they really do uphold a higher standard when it comes to real estate investing.
Jerred,
Thank you, the pleasure has been at least half ours! I did not get to mention in the podcast, that if you are going to successfully have a lead generating website, an excellent SEO company is a must. Thank you Jerred for filling that role for our business in an amazing way!
Great show, it’s exciting to hear your success.
Are you doing ant other types of marketing besides driving for dollars and website Seo?
Hi Eve, we have recently dabbled in sending out USPS EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) cards with little to no results. We have also used bandit signs, but have yet to give it 100%. We still have a bunch of those in the garage collecting dust. We really like doing more focused marketing like the targeted letters. It brings great results! Thanks for the listen!
Great podcast Mr. Grote!! I am excited to keep learning from you.
Very fun podcast you have here. Its always great to hear from people in the world doing this for real.
Thanks for listening, Steve!
Excellent podcast. I was looking for more information on foundation issues, so this was a nice surprise! Best of luck to the two of you!
If you have any specific questions about foundation repair, don’t hesitate to ask. Thanks for listening Erin!
Great pod cast. Yes I am behind in my pod cast listening :). As I am trying to take my business to the next level, I appreciate relevant content. Do you use PPC for your web site or rely on SEO only? You mentioned in the PC that your number of leads generated by your web site are slowly decreasing. That was in July. Is that still the trend? And lastly, do you put your web site on all of your direct mail or just some of it. What about your web site on different types of mail. For example probate vs absentee owner or citations?
Gary, great questions and I can tell you have been digging into marketing your business.
We use PPC as well as organic. We want our business to take up as much space as we can on the first page of each Search engine. This may also include a Google plus page and a YouTube video. PPC is a great way to initially get some traffic and hopefully leads.
The website traffic, if your ranking in the search engines is a “constant”, is variable to the market in your area. The leads have decreased since the market has heated up and been infiltrated by not only local investors, but also national and international investors. If this is your only marketing source then I would be concerned. Eventually, when the market shifts, the website will increase in leads.
I have recently been putting my website on my direct mail pieces. This definitely decreases the call volume, but I figure it raises the quality of the calls that come in. I think this move is to strategically target more educated sellers. In my experience, educated sellers are the easiest to work with and will nearly always follow through with closing the sale. Probate and absentee owners are typically “educated”, so yes it would apply, but I am in no way an expert in direct marketing. I would consider myself more of a novice in that area and hoping to learn more. I would love to hear your thoughts on the website address on direct marketing pieces.
Thanks for the listen and the questions!
-Jason
One thing I have learned in 2 1/2 years of direct mail and building my business is that one size does not fit all. So in my opinion no matter what you do with your URL on your direct mail, it will benefit your response rate with some and decrease it with others. I mostly agree with Jerry Puckett’s opinion on URL on direct mail. And that is put it on your media further along in the cycle or at the end. The thinking is that people can go to a web site and once they fill out your opt in form, they are most likely filing out others. There are several on BP who totally disagree and put their URL on every letter or post card. Personally i want some one calling me. I want the voice to voice conversation.
WOW! I had plowed through the podcasts when I first found the site and have started going through them again. Now that I’ve been working on my business, most recently my website and what to put into my direct mail campaigns, so I found a LOT of actionable items in this one. Thanks for sharing as much as you did! I think as of right now, this has been one of my favorites!
One question, when you send multiple letters, I assume you send something at least a little different on the second, third, etc… how does what you say differ?
First of all. Thank you. I appreciate all four of you coming together for this podcast.
I have listened to so many podcasts and read quite a few books to this point. What I mean is that when it comes to flipping there are similarities across each informational.
I have now listened to your podcast twice and I came across my nugget. Set up my business, by learning to market. I will not need to use a wholesaler as long as I am doing my part correctly and well. However, if I do need a or want to use a wholesaler, make sure they are doing there own marketing to get the right properties.
Now my question. What is SEO? I have never heard this term and for the first time, it seems not one of the four of you actually broke it down for us that are not where we want to be in real estate!
So here I am, not sure if I have put the cart before the horse. I have been putting myself out into the world and my community letting everyone know what I do and want to do and I found a few people that are interested in doing some investing. Yesterday, I came across one individual that is willing to put up there credit and money right now. Now I need the properties.
Warren, thanks for listening and I am glad that you were able to draw out a nugget. For someone wanting to acquire properties, it makes sense to have a strong level of control over the flow of opportunities. Some are able to find plenty of deals through networking, but that wasn’t us.
On to SEO… That stands for Search Engine Marketing. That is the fine changing art of getting a website to show up on the search engines. Having a website to generate leads is just another marketing tool for the real estate investor. If you dive into the world of internet marketing you definitely need to learn about SEO. There are a million resources online to learn more. Hope that helps, and keep up the good work!
I really hear you Ms. Grote as far as getting started…I feel like I’ve been taking in so much information, but need to dive in…Not having any capital to put into real estate right now, do you have any advise?
I love when successful couples work together. “Everyone in their place!” My husband and I have our specific roles and it works out great, I love working with him. How much construction experience did you guys have before getting started? I’m amazed that anyone can start in this business, and it’s inspiring for everyone!