Many people take their time in building their real estate investing… but not today’s guest, who has used his incredible marketing skills to do more than 400 deals in the past five years!
Erik Stark got his start after he had been flipping cars out of high school and wanted to move on to bigger, better things. Since then, Erik has tried his hand at wholesaling, as well as purchasing single family homes, commercial property, bulk estates, multi-family homes, and more — by his estimation, closing over 400 deals. Learn how he implements creative, eye-catching marketing techniques we can (almost) guarantee you’ve never heard of, as well as how he chooses which types of investments to make within his market.
Erik’s business philosophy of adding value to others’ lives through his deals will leave you inspired, and his many unique tips will have you reaching outside the box for innovative ways to grow your business. Don’t miss out on this information-packed episode!
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In This Episode We Cover:
- How Erik got his start by flipping cars near Detroit
- Why embracing networking as a lifestyle can be life-changing
- The importance of focusing on a well-executed marketing plan
- How buying a house in a C-Class neighborhood can help finance a house in an A-Class neighborhood (see: napkin sketch below)
- The benefits of doing business in a market you know
- How to decide your focus within the real estate market
- What exactly a “swipe file” of competitors is and how it can help YOU
- An innovative way to execute direct mail when you don’t have the money
- What to look for in a partnership
- The genius marketing technique known as the “drunk letter“
- The importance of loving what you do and waking up inspired
- And LOTS more!
Links from the Show
The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down by Brandon Turner
Books Mentioned in the Show
- Don’t Get Voted Off Real Estate Island by Mike Cantu (not on Amazon)
- Principles of Marketing by Theodore N., Maynard, & Davidson, William Beckman
- Real Estate Rewind – BiggerPockets Community Book
Connect with Erik
- Erik’s BiggerPockets Profile
- Erik’s Facebook
Additional Resources
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20 Comments
Awesome podcast, thanks for sharing with us Erik! I was curious do you happen to have a picture of one of the banners you reference in the show? The ones you stick in front of pending/sold houses?
Thanks!
Erik
One of the best postcast with wealth of information on real estate from marketing to closing the deals. Simply love it – Thank you so much!
Brandon and Joshua – Good job as always!
Wow, great podcast Erik! After listening to your presentation in Vegas this year, I got super excited when your name showed up on this weeks podcast because you gave an incredible speech out there. Your true riches of life list is something that really caught my attention and constantly serves as an inspiration to me. Could you share with us any more tips you have on what to say when going door knocking? It’s something I really need to do, but freaks me out. Kind of reminds me of that scene in Ace Ventura “Hi, I’m looking for Ray Finkle… And a clean pair of shorts!”
Loved the podcast. One of the better ones I have listened to.
One of the best podcasts I’ve heard.
Thanks Erik.
Where in FTL are you ? I want to make sure I’m not mailing to the same areas 🙂
Do the opposite of what everyone is doing, worked great for JP Morgan. Nice podcast.
I listened at lunch and wrote down a lot of take aways. Great episode!
Wow! Outstanding – Do you ever speak in the Detroit area? Would love to hear you talk real-estate investing.
I haven’t heard the show yet but just from the show notes I’m grabbing my note pad and pen to take tons of notes.
One question I have…the median price in my area is $250k. For houses at this amount or higher, do you recommend yellow letters or typed out on white paper for direct mailing?
This was an amazing podcast. I am two years outside of my MBA and have never stopped reading entrepreneur books. The concepts in this podcast are at the core of marketing and business and is put in language that anyone can understand. I wish my MBA program was half as good as this podcast. Nothing beats experience.
Thanks again for more inspiration to quit my 9-5
Great nuggets of information in this show Erik.
I liked the quote you guys have on your wall about reading the fine print, that was priceless..
Never heard that before, loved it
Erik: Appreciate your making time to share your wealth of experience with all of us. Your honesty and candor is appreciated.
Josh & Brandon: Thanks for all you both do to not only advance the professionalism of real estate investors but to give us exposure to all the many variants on the real estate investment business model you two have discovered. Congrats on all the recent milestones you have surpassed with BiggerPockets!
Wow, another GREAT one guys. Lots of meat on those bones!! Erik, it’s always to hear more sharp marketing tricks.
Thanks so much!!
Great podcast Erik – thanks for sharing all this great information.
Can you talk about what you do the ‘gold’ i.e. return to sender mailers? Thanks so much, and enjoy the sunny weather,
Am I the only person not being able to download the show to my droid? It will play on my phone but I only get about 10 minutes into the show and that’s it. This has been the case with the last two podcasts.
Thanks,
Mathew
Same here. I can not download the podcapodcast to my android and listen in the car anymore 🙁 please fix!
Hi Erik,
I enjoyed the podcast. Lots of good information.
Can you elaborate on what strategies you use for driving the streets each Monday? Are you focusing on cash buyer rich neighborhoods close to your home? Or, are there some other criteria you focus on to choose where you drive and what goals you’re looking to achieve on a drive day?
Thank you much,
Christopher
COOL! Really enjoyed podcast and your ideas. Tom
I have a question, if anyone has a minute:
If you found a deal via direct mail, it needed to be moved on quickly, you wanted to keep it for yourself as a rental, and you did not have all the cash to buy it, then: I suppose you could buy it via a hard money lender, and later get a conventional mortgage?
This is a GREAT podcast. Especially because you’re located in FL. 🙂