Dear Readers I hope you enjoyed last month’s news letter.

This month I am going to be talking about marketing. What I mean about marketing is advertising what you are looking to buy or what you are selling.

There are many different ways you can advertise what you have for sale or what you want to buy. You can use postcards and send them to everybody in a certain neighborhood. You can put an ad in the local news paper, you can put up posters at your local supermarket (if they let you), you can put a sign on a street corner (only in some states), or if you spot a vacant house you can search the internet for the owner’s details.

Once you have found the new address of the owner you can send them a letter telling them that you would like to buy their house on……..(always put the address of the vacant house because they might have forgotten about it). Don’t forget to put your phone number and an email address. Ask them to get back to you as soon as possible.

You want your letter to be short and to the point “You are interested in buying their property”. You want your letter to be different to the others because lots of people probably send them postcards and letters asking to buy their house and the home owner probably throws them in the trash without reading or looking at them. You need the owner to open your letter and read it!

Putting ads in the local newspaper is a good way of advertising because most people read the paper. Find out when the ‘real estate’ section is printed (usually sometime over the weekend) and make sure that your ad is set to appear when most people are searching for property. In the newspaper you also want to make your advert stand out from the others. In this ad you only want to put your phone number.

If you put up a sign on street corners, be aware that you may be breaking city laws. Check with code enforcement before committing a crime. You may be able to put them up on a Friday evening and then make sure that you take them down Sunday evening. They are a good way to get your message across to a lot of people if placed correctly.

If you put up a poster at a supermarket make sure you ask permission before you do it. Many supermarkets do not allow you to place an advert for monetary gain.

If you decide to send postcards to your potential sellers you will need to subscribe to a mailing list supplier, get postcards printed and also pay for postage. This does mount up, but the returns can be worth it.

Make sure that your marketing campaign is targeted, manageable and recordable. You need to know which campaigns are producing the leads so that you can spend more time re-producing those good results and less time and money on campaigns that are not producing the returns that you want.

When the phone rings, be sure to ask where they have seen your ad or poster. If they are responding to your postcard or letter, ask them what it looks like because then you can see which ones are working well and which aren’t.

Happy investing

And if you have any questions please email me with them my email is

gregory@mglpropertysolutions.com

Have a great month   Gregory

Using Auto Responders to Stay in Constant Contact!

An Auto responder is just what it sounds like. It is software that automatically responds to e-mail that is sent to you or sent out when someone goes into your database. It can be set up as a single email response or multiple responses delivered at various intervals. The neat thing is it’s all automatic once you set it up. You can set up a response to an inquiry from your website or set up a response from someone who sends you an email while you are out of town. Everyone has received email from an auto responder. Have you ever purchased a product online and immediately you received a “thank you” email or an email with a link to download a product. These are all examples of auto responders. “An Auto responder is A Seller Who Never Sleeps” “An Auto responder is the Cheapest Personal Assistant you will ever hire”

1. “Your Auto responder, combined with savvy marketing, is the speediest way to immediately boost business!”

2. “Email Auto responders are a time saving tool that sends your selling message out automatically at standard intervals.”

3. “An Auto responder is an immense time saver.”

4. “An Auto responder turns website visitors or prospects into buyers”

5. “Auto responders make the difference between having a real estate business that works hard for you and you constantly having to work hard for your real estate business”

Now, how do we use them in real estate investing? Let’s take a look at four ways. We have included samples of the ones we send out for each in your course to make it easy for you. Now even though I have already written the auto responder text for you it will take you about an hour to set up yours and customize them but once they are set up you can go for years without having to do anything else. Think about this, how many investors do you think are following up with every realtor, investor, FSBO and retail buyer every week? When I ask that to a live audience I have yet to have someone raise their hand. Another important thing I want to mention is that a lot of investors, especially new investors, do not like to talk to the seller or realtor. Using our system, we have many deals where we talk to the seller or realtor only once and then the rest of the negotiating is done by email. Is this great or what!? You could even take this one step further by emailing the seller or realtor and asking the three questions and then once you get your response, email your offer.

1: REALTORS: Every time we talk to a realtor about a house, we ask them if we can email them when we are looking for a property in a particular area or price range. We then set up a series of emails that go out to the realtor every week for six weeks. The first one is a “thank you and enjoyed talking to you” email. It also reminds them to keep looking for properties for me. The second one reminds them who I am, reiterates that I am still looking for houses and also asks them for a rehab contractor referral. Is this great or what? The third one reminds them still that I am looking for more houses and then it asks them for a referral of a good appraiser and so on. Now, when you start sending these emails to every realtor you talk to and they start sending you referrals of contractors, appraisers, attorney’s home inspectors and lenders you will notice a name or two that keeps popping up. THERE’S YOUR GUY! If several realtors are recommending the same people, it’s a good sign, right? After you send out the initial series of auto responders weekly then the next email auto responders go out every month to keep in touch with the realtor.

2: FSBO’S: When we get calls from FSBO’s, we always ask them for their email address so we may keep in contact with them as we are very busy and hard to get on the phone. Just remember that not all sellers will have email but a very high percentage will. Once you get them into your database, you can set up a series of emails to send them every week to see how they are proceeding with selling their house. It is a good idea to give them a few tips to help them sell their house and at the same time let them know you are here and ready, willing and able, to save the day when they are ready. If you do as we do and always make an offer on the first call then you can even refer to your offer in each email to let them know you are still ready when they are. Even if you didn’t make them an offer but say something like “as we discussed I am still ready to buy your house at the numbers we previously discussed when you decide that you are ready.” I have included the text for your email auto responders already so you do not have to write your own.

3: RETAIL BUYERS: We also use them to keep in touch with tenant/buyers who might have called us on a house we have already sold or maybe they were qualified for financing but we are still looking for a house for them. This is a great way to keep in touch with them so they don’t go shopping with someone else. You can also send custom emails with specific properties and even links to your website (if you have one) to view the properties. In our twelve months of auto responder text you will continue marketing to the Tenant/Buyer until they buy from you or anyone as you will see when you read the actual auto responder text. We are also asking for referrals AND having them bird dog for properties they like and then we just buy them and resell them to the tenant/buyer.

4: INVESTORS: Every time an investor calls you about a property you have or if you call an investor about a house, you should add them to your database and subscribe them to an “investor” auto responder. I have provided a series of auto responders to go out every week for three weeks, then every month after that. All of the auto responders I have provided follow the same pattern. The first three go out every week and then the rest go out monthly. This can be set up automatically. I have included several auto responder services in the included search system bookmarks with your course. Some are free and some charge. I personally used to use One Shopping Cart (1shoppingcart.com). There is a link in your bookmarks to go to it. They not only have auto responders but also database management, email broadcast, web forms to put on your website, a shopping cart and much more. We now use our exclusive websites that have built in auto responders that I had developed based on our Ultimate Buying and Selling Machine! System and if you would like to find out more about it, you can visit www.MyInvestorWebsite.com. In fact, our websites already have the auto responder text built right in so you don’t have to do any of the work in setting it up which will save you a little time. I have already done the work for you. After you get your auto responders set up, I hope you will use your newfound time wisely. Don’t forget to spend some of it with your family!

I hope you have enjoyed this article taken from my course called the Ultimate Buying and Selling Machine! which teaches how we buy and sell 5-10 properties a month, have them sold in less than 2 hours and never leave the office or look at them. For many more articles and a 10 part ecourse on how to create your own Ultimate Buying and Selling Machine! as well as over 50 training audio recordings you can listen to online, download and collect, simply go to www.LarryGoinsFreeOffer.com where you will gain instant access to all of this and 51 Exclusive Editable real estate investing Forms and Documents all FREE! You will also get two FREE real estate investing eBooks, A free Personal Coaching Profile to help you jump start your real estate Investing, FREE Nationwide Wholesale Property Listing Notification, FREE Weekly Training Teleconferences with Different Topic Each Week, FREE subscription to Larry Goins “Almost” Weekly Investing Newsletter, FREE Admission for Two to Investor Palooza 3 Day Training Event, FREE Admission for Two to Larry Goins 3 Day Boot Camp, Plus over 31 Exclusive Articles on real estate Investing and Much More! Just go to www.LarryGoinsFreeOffer.com. Thanks and I look forward to working with you, Larry Goins

5 Best Strategies to Develop a Responsive Email List
Copyright (c) 2009 OnlineBizU.com

I see the well-known Internet marketing gurus do this all
the time — they begin to try and sell to me when I first
opt into their list.  This has worked quite well for them
over the years, but I think the tide is turning and people
are generally becoming more marketing-savvy.  Your list
members don’t mind being sold to, provided that they have a
relationship with you and have completed the like, know and
trust journey (or are at least on the path of this journey)
of getting to know you before they decide to buy something
from you.

Whether you have a 500-person list or a 5000-person list,
the rate at which they respond to your offers ties directly
in with how well they know, like and trust you and see you
as the expert providing answers to the problems keeping
them awake at night.

Here are the 5 strategies you can employ to develop a
responsive email list.

1. Get personal.  Discovering the inner workings of
people’s lives makes reality television shows popular. In
the same vein, your readers want to know more about you as
a person.  Don’t be afraid to share what’s going on in your
life, be that good, bad, or ugly.  I receive the greatest
number of comments to my ezine and blog when I post
articles about very happy or very sad occasions in my life.
 I was overwhelmed with the responses of sympathy, care and
concern I received from around the globe to an article I
wrote for my ezine when my mom passed away.  As a matter of
fact, some folks still check in on me occasionally to see
how I’m doing.

2. Talk about your business in first person. Many marketing
books and training courses tell you that you need to appear
to be a large company to encourage others to do business
with you.  For many of us, this means referring to
ourselves and our companies in third person or by our
company name, even though we’re really a one-person shop.
In reality, people want to do business with other people,
not some nameless and faceless corporate entity.

I dread calling my ISP for tech support because invariably
I get a nameless, faceless drone who acts as though I’m a
bother and that I’m interrupting his productive goofing off
during work time. All he wants to do is make me jump
through the hoops outlined by his script rather than really
listening to what my problem is. Instead, when I need
technical assistance, I call a friend who has a tech
support business and pay him to solve my problems (instead
of using the free tech support provided by my ISP) because
I know that my friend will get my problem fixed — the
first time.

3. Show up as the business owner. Part of the process of
having your list get to know you is sharing images and
audio of yourself.  You can do that by using your headshot
in your blog or ezine header or by posting an audio or
video intro on your web site.  Make sure the images that
you share are recent and are reflective of how you look
today.  I was a guest speaker a conference several years
ago and had many of the participants tell me with some
amount of surprise that I actually looked like my photo in
the program guide.  I’ve had the experience of going to
someone’s workshop and thinking, “Wow, that headshot on his
web site must’ve been taken 10 (or more) years ago!  Man,
has he aged/gained weight/fill in the blank here….”  Be
accurate in the images you share online — that’s very
important in the relationship-building process.

4. Contact consistently.  One of the questions that I’m
asked all the time is about the best day of the week to
send out ezines or email broadcasts.  Usually I can recite
the results of a recent survey that some marketing company
has conducted and rattle off the stats that support certain
days for B2B (business-to-business) broadcasts and other
days for B2C (business-to-consumer) broadcasts.
Ultimately, for the most part, the day of the week that you
send a broadcast doesn’t matter.  What’s more important is
training your list to come to expect your ezine to arrive
every Thursday morning, for example.  Tell your list when
you’ll be in contact with them, and do what you say you’re
going to do.  It is really that simple.

5. Contact frequently.  Most of my clients make the big
mistake of not emailing their list often enough.  Many are
concerned that too many emails will cause list members to
unsubscribe.  You need to develop a thick skin in this
business because reality dictates the following: You will
lose subscribers with every email you send.  Perhaps you’re
no longer relevant to them or they’re overwhelmed with
email or they never really had an interest in what you
offer in the first place.  Who knows the reason?  You need
to get used to it.  Send them away happily knowing that
they would probably have never purchased from you anyway,
and their departure makes room for a more perfect list
member to join your list through one of your many
list-building strategies.  (You are practicing good
list-building, aren’t you?)

For best results, you need to email your list weekly.  Any
less and it takes a much longer time to build a
relationship with your list because they don’t hear from
you as often.  If you’re frustrated with not getting the
results you want from your list, touch base with them more
often.

Email marketing works well when you have a well-established
relationship with your contact list.  Follow these 5
strategies to strengthen the responsiveness of your list
today.

About the Author:

Online Business Coach and Internet Marketing Strategist
Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online
businesses that they love.  Would you like to learn the
specific Internet marketing strategies that get results?
Discover how to increase your visibility and get found
online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online
Marketing Toolkit, at ==>
http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

Building an Investor List – It’s Magic!
by Attorney William Bronchick

---

Building an investor list is the key to success in real estate investing.  The concept is simple – find a list of investors who buy properties, then go out and find the inventory to flip to such investors.  Also, let these investors know that you buy houses, too.  The more people who are in your network, the easier it becomes to buy and sell houses.

Building a list is easy, in fact, “ITS MAGIC”.  Here’s how the acronym plays out:

I – Have an Identity

Superman has an identity.  Batman has an identity.  Do you have an identity?  When you go to meetings like your local real estate investors club, people need to remember you.  Wear the same pink tie, yellow shirt, or red hat so people always remember you.  You want people to identify you with something they can remember so they will always call you when they want to buy houses from you or when you call them to sell them houses.

T – Title Records

Sophisticated investors who buy and sell a lot of houses will show up over and over again on the title records.  Get access to local records through your friendly real estate broker or title company.  Make note of the names that come up over and over again.  Put these people on your list.

S – Street Signs

You see them everywhere – “We Buy Houses” signs stapled to a telephone pole or stuck in the ground.  Call them.  If they really buy houses, you want these people on your buyer’s list.  And, if they come across deals that they don’t want, make sure they know to call you.

M – Marketing

Do some good marketing to generate a list.  Start with a good business card and brochure, and pass it out to everyone you know.  Ask your title company rep if you can leave brochures in their office so when other investors close deals they can be introduced to you.  Your goal should be to pass out 500 business cards a month or more.

A – Auctions

Auctions attract lots of investors.  Go to local foreclosure auctions and pass out your card.  Also, collect the cards of others you meet to generate your investor list.

G – Groups

Join every business group that has luncheons or meetings.  Investors or potential investors can come in every walk of life.  And, people who are not investors will call you when they come across a house in foreclosure or a couple in divorce.  Everyone within your influence should know what kind of business you are in so they can refer business to you.

I – Internet

The Internet is loaded with real estate chat boards and discussion groups where investors congregate.  Even if people you meet on these boards are located in other states, keep them on your list.  You never know when you will come across someone who has moved to their city or when they will come across someone who is moving to your city.

C – Real Estate CLUBS

Real estate clubs are your best local source of building an investor list.  Frequent these clubs often, passing our your business cards and flaunting your IDENTITY.  For a good list of local clubs, try http://creonline.com/real-estate-clubs.

 

http://www.legalwiz.com

Direct Mailing Principles For Real Estate
by Scott Rister
Scenario:
You get that first magical list that you anticipate as being the answer to finding truly motivated sellers. It doesn’t even dawn on you the hours you spend typing up the letters because you’re so focused on all the great deals to be made. It seems like the letters are just burning a hole in your hand by the time you get the stamps on them and to the post office. Next week rolls around and your hopes were just about dashed by the time got that first call from a seller who received one of your letters. Now we’re talking! It becomes obvious shortly into the conversation they’re just “fishing” around and trying to find just how much you would pay for their property and no they are not in any hurry to sell. What happened? Why didn’t you get more calls from truly motivated sellers? Everything you heard about direct mail in real estate was that this is the way to go in having a system set up for motivated sellers to find you.

The “Real World”

After you’ve read the above scenario know just two things right now:
Many new investors using direct mail without guidance sometimes experience these types of results and get discouraged from using direct mail again. These individuals will tell you, “oh, I tried mailing out letters and postcards once but I didn’t get many (or any) deals”.

Direct Mail Finds Truly Motivated Sellers!!

Now, this latter statement is what I hope by the time you finish reading my points will convince you that a well thought out direct mail plan is extremely effective but takes some thought on your part. You need to be more sophisticated than just throwing darts in the dark hoping you hit something. Sure, the majority of your letters/postcards won’t be responded but did you know that a success rate of substantially less than 1½ can still make direct mail very profitable for you in real estate. Read on my friend!

What Makes A Great Direct Mail Campaign?

Now let’s get into what you really need to know in starting your direct mail campaign. Get a organized game-plan together on how you are going to make sure that you get as many motivated sellers calling you as you can handle!

Define Your Target Market

You need to know what you’re hunting so to speak. Just an “I Buy Houses” message to your market doesn’t come close to what you need to do in direct mail. There are many, many ways to make money in real estate and finding the truly motivated sellers with direct mail means your message should be reflective of the target market you are seeking. For example if you are targeting pretty house properties that are in pre-foreclosure then included in your message the seller doesn’t need to know you take over properties with tenant terrors or that buy junker houses. They need to be informed that you can possibly take over their payments and know how to find tenant buyers that will help resolve their situation so they can move on with their lives. Define your target market because the message you send needs to reflect accordingly.

Generate Your Mailing Lists From Quality Sources

I’ve seen many types of mailing lists that weren’t worth the paper they were printed on. If you’re keying into pre-foreclosure properties then make sure the source providing the information is reputable and you can test out on a month or two basis before being tied into a one year contract or paid up front fee. Later when you find out the information is out-dated and inaccurate then you’re stuck.

Another example is you may be into finding absentee owners. These are a great source of deals if done correctly and basically these are owners of a property where the tax bill is being sent to an address different than the subject property. Ninety nine times out of a hundred that is a prime target for a tired landlord or junker deals to be made. However, it can be quite frustrating when you find out the information you purchased hasn’t been updated for over a year on the property tax records. Ouch! Come to find out after doing a little investigating almost half the properties you would have been sending letters/postcards to changed ownership. You paid for but didn’t receive quality information. Make sure before you buy mailing list or property tax information that you have a chance to do a test basis on some of the material. Most all reputable companies selling quality information will have no problem sending you a small bit of test data to look over.

Don’t Stop At One Mailing

This is a key principle that many investors seem to never grasp the concept of. If you have fulfilled the prior two steps in securing quality mailing list material and you know exactly your target market, then send them multiple mailings. I have my software system set up where for example any category that I key into will receive letters and postcards from me. The text messages will be incremental in nature building up and playing on different angles and ideals trying to prompt them to call me. Sure, I’ll get most responses from the initial mailing but many times it may take a little bit more persistency to get the seller persuaded. I’m glad I didn’t stop with one seller sending out only five letters. On the sixth letter we finally put together a deal and netted me over $8,000 quick cash. With another seller it was actually over a year of mailings before he came around but the deal got done.

Let Your Letter And System Pre-Screen The Sellers

Time is my most important commodity. I don’t have the time to talk to unmotivated inflexible sellers wanting all cash and retail value for their property. You don’t and won’t have the time to waste either with these types of sellers. Sure, some will get in under the radar but for the vast majority of the sellers that receive your message they will know a few things very quickly. You are an investor and expect to make a profit and yes you have many creative ways to buy properties. In fact you can probably even close within 48 hours if you run through your due diligence checklist. However, the message in your letters/postcards needs to state that if they need all cash and full retail value not to call you. However, if they have some considerable degree of flexibility in either the cash price or terms then to call you as soon as possible. You need to be seeking quality of sellers and not quantity of sellers fielding fruitless phone conversations.

Direct Mail Is A Investment…Not An Expense

Make no mistake it does cost money to initiate and maintain an effective direct mail campaign. When you put together the cost of postage, letters, envelopes, postcards then you’re talking substantial monies dedicated to this marketing medium. In a prudent investor’s budgetary considerations these are costs that most like to consider. When you’re experiencing success and know how to effectively secure quality mailing lists or generate them yourself then you soon change your mindset that you simply can not spend enough on postage. Let me try to explain from the sense that just because you don’t like to spend gas for your car should mean that you don’t ever put gas in it. If you don’t realize that fact then you aren’t going to be going anywhere fast and you can make the same comparisons if you don’t consider direct mail costs as an investment in your real estate business.

Summing It All Up

Direct mail is one of the best ways to find motivated sellers or rather have them find you but take some time and forethought from thought to finish on what you’re trying to accomplish. Your goal is to find truly profitable deals and the means you go about doing this are contingent upon your target market, quality of the mailing contact, multiple messages to same contact, pre-screening ability, and finally your commitment to direct mail and an investment in your real estate business. Be organized and focused in your direct mail campaign and soon you too will be finding all the motivated sellers you can handle!

Scott Rister is a successful full-time investor living in Dallas, TX. Closing 72 deals in one 9 month period, Scott’s property acquisition company, One-Stop Realty, LLC maintains current holdings in four states.

After building a sizable portfolio of keeper properties that was not getting him where he wanted to go, he discovered the art of wholesaling. Since that time he’s done hundreds of deals and focuses exclusively on motivated sellers using technology and a targeted marketing approach.

Scott Rister’s approach is based on the belief that the successful real estate investor will leverage the best use of his/her time by implementing systems that can run on auto-pilot with minimal maintenance.

3 Things to Market for in Multifamily Investing

The most important part of commercial property investing is
finding the deals.  The person who controls the deals holds
the “keys to the kingdom”.  Every business has two core
elements:  marketing and innovation.  With commercial
apartments, you are always marketing for three things:
deals, money and tenants.

Finding deals is the biggest part of real estate.  It is
simple but it is not necessarily easy.  It does require
work and if you do it right, it actually becomes boring to
use the system.  You will have to sift through many chunks
of coal to find your diamond in the rough.  In many ways,
it is a numbers game but you do not want to waste too much
of your time evaluating the chunks of coal.

You need to nail down what specifically you are looking
for.  The number one thing you are looking for is a
motivated seller.  You are looking for an owner who is
ready to move his property on very advantageous terms.  You
are looking for deals that have value play.

Value play is increasing NOI, increasing occupancy, and
creating equity.  The property you are looking at is under
market and you can create quick value with it.  You will
find out that multifamily properties are owned by entities
such as LLC’s or limited partnerships.

Even if there are a number of people involved in the
partnership, there is probably one person that is doing the
most to tell the other partners to get out of the
partnership and sell.  That is the person that you want to
get to.  The vital thing is not to be consumed with why
somebody would sell at a discount.

Some reasons why somebody might sell at a discount are
landlord burnout, a need for cash or poor property
management by a third party.  Again, the “why” does not
matter; it has no bearing on the situation.  Your job is to
find people who are eager to sell at a discount.

The second thing you market for when pursuing multifamily
deals is tenants.  Marketing for tenants is what your
property manager will take care of for you.  But you have
to be aware that if you do not keep those places full, you
are not creating value.  If your property manager is doing
his or her job effectively, then your occupancy rate should
reflect that.

The third thing you market for is, of course, money.  There
can be cash in the deal but it is an investor’s cash and
not yours.   Or there may be no cash in the deal when a
seller does all of the financing.

Your ability to market for deals, tenants and cash, will
greatly affect the types of deals you find and affect your
ability to move properties.  Do not neglect the importance
of marketing in your multifamily investing business.

About the Author:

Think you need big cash and experience to do apartments?
Well, Lance Edwards is living proof that you can start with
multifamily investing – just like he did and using none of
his own money. Utilizing the multifamily apartment
strategies he now teaches and writes about, Lance retired
from his job in July, 2005. For more information on how you
can achieve financial freedom using other people’s money,
visit http://www.ApartmentWealthMachine.com

How Newspaper Classifieds Can Deliver You Motivated Sellers

By Larry Goins

When you purchase my course, The Ultimate Buying and Selling Machine, you receive a whole bunch of bookmarks to help you build your real estate investing business.  One section is called newspapers and it provides you with valuable sources to find any local newspaper anywhere in the United States that has any sort of internet presence.  This saves you having to buy all those newspapers and lets you go straight to each newspaper directly online.  You can find them very quickly.   Newspapers are a fantastic research for located motivated sellers.

The bookmarks are exactly how I utilize the 10 or 11 different newspapers in my surrounding area to search the classifieds.  Once the bookmarks are installed from your Ultimate Buying and Selling Machine course, you can go directly into the newspaper sections.  I actually set my bookmarks directly the real estate section of the classifieds, to save even more time.  So now I sit down at my computer, click the bookmarks, and quickly scan the classifieds for each newspaper.

This way, I can search all the newspapers for real estate in areas that I am interested in just about fifteen minutes.  There is another section of the paper that you will want to look at, too.  “Businesses for sale” often will show commercial property available or real estate holdings available from companies that are for sale.  You will also want to look at the “For rent” section as that could lead you to landlords who are tired of trying to rent out their property or fed up dealing with tenants.

Using these tools, newspapers can provide you with a lot of great leads for motivated sellers.

Another way that the classifieds can be helpful to you is in running your own ads.  Some newspapers use a clearinghouse source such as www.abracat.com which is another great short cut for searching for properties.  I have also provided this short cut for you in your UBM bookmarks.

An online version of newspaper ads is www.craigslist.com  You can use the same keywords below to find motivated sellers on Craig’s List with property to sell.  And www.realestate.yahoo.com is another online source.

There are some specific keywords that you want to look for when searching the classified ads for motivated sellers.  Owner transferred, obo (or best offer), divorce, owner financing, no down or low down payment, owner flexible, below appraisal, investor special, handyman special, fixer upper, lease option, rent with option, take up payments, or owner desperate; are just a few of the words that can key you in to a sweet deal as a real estate investor.  Another good thing to search for is out of town phone numbers.   Out of town owners are often more than ready to unload a piece of property.

I recommend using Mozilla Firefox as your web browser, as it allows you to highlight the keywords that you are looking for.  In my DVD tutorial I show you exactly how to utilize this tool.

Another great trick when searching the classified ads is to check the paper on the day that is not the primary real estate day.  In our area, Saturday is the day most real estate ads run and Sunday is the day most car ads run.  But a lot of advertisers don’t know this – so be sure to check your classified ads on the off days as well.  You could very well find motivated sellers who don’t have their phone ringing off the hook.

If your newspaper also has a legal section, that is a great place to search for real estate.  Newly filed foreclosures or judgments are great leads for motivated sellers.  Also divorce listings can lead to properties available cheap.  In our area, properties that are under code enforcement – meaning that it has a code violation and doesn’t meet minimum housing standards – and the owner cannot be located will have a public notice published in hopes of finding the owner.  This can be another great source of cheap properties, because the owners don’t want to go to the expense of fixing the property up to meet the code requirements.

With a little bit of practice, newspaper classifieds can be a great source of motivated sellers.  Before you even run your own ad, the newspaper can be finding properties for you!

Selling Your Customer on an Apartment or Condo

 

The leasing agent’s main jog is selling the customer on an apartment or condo.  It takes a certain flair, and not everyone has the ability.  Nonetheless, even tried and true salespersons can benefit from new ideas. 

 

Before even meeting the customer, marketing is a big factor.  This is not just the realm of the leasing agent, either.  Executives may also get into the act.  Or, the job may be assigned to a particular office worker who has shown promise. 

 

The first thing to do is be aware of new marketing ideas at all times.  There are many ways to do this.  There are magazines that focus on this area that you can subscribe to.  Even more important, there are internet articles about all sorts of articles.  You just need to find the directory of them to peruse them.  If you find a particularly helpful one, print or otherwise save it. 

 

You might be surprised to discover it, but people still like to get catalogs.  If you send out advertising in catalogs, you will get a surprising response.  All you need to do is provide your website information.  Soon you will be getting traffic to your site that originates from those catalogs. 

 

Sometimes you can make that sale if only you can help the customer imagine what their things will look like in the abode.  It starts out looking like a somewhat sterile environment.  Even if you have the model well made up, it is not their home without their things. 

 

You can remedy that in a couple of ways.  First, you can use a tool that shows floor plans on a magnetic surface.  You use magnetic furniture that they can arrange to show how their stuff will fit in.  Or, you can use the same concept in an electronic version you get from the internet.  You can even buy fake, cardboard furniture to set up in the rooms. 

 

You might offer some very special services when selling your customer on a place.  You can offer moving and packing services.  You can send a cleaning service to ready their former home for final inspection.  A greeting party can be arranged of all their neighbors on the day they arrive. 

 

This is quite a lot of trouble to go to for one resident, if you want to look at it that way.  If you choose to, though, you can consider it the appropriate beginning to a long and fruitful relationship.  Besides, it costs less than you might think.

 

Finally, you can offer gifts as a welcome to your new residents.  These can only serve to sweeten the deal.  A year’s subscription to NetFlix or some other service is appreciated by most new residents.  They can watch them when they have evenings in their homes.  Or, they can invite other residents to join them once the get to know their neighbors. 

 

Your leasing agents do a lot of things, both little and not so little in selling your customer on your property.  They are each vital in making up that all important impression that carries the customer from being a visitor to being a renter.

 

For more from Dave Lindahl, click here.

Finding Motivated Sellers: Luck or Hard Work?
by Scott Rister
Did you just hear about the investor in your local RE club that closed on a deal netting them $15,000 and they didn’t even have to lay a hand on the property? Or what about the person that just bought that rental house on the same block for 30-50% less that what you paid for yours? Are you at the point of scratching your head and thinking they’re just lucky? Or probably that’s all they do and just don’t have a life outside of real estate….right?

Somewhere in between total luck and absolute sell-out hours chasing deals is where you should be in finding truly motivated sellers, or rather having them finding you. It’s a weird coincidence that the smarter I work, the luckier I get finding great deals. Did you catch that? It’s not always about how many hours you put into real estate and how hard you work at your marketing program that produces the best results which is finding great deals that puts money in your pocket and that’s what real estate investing is all about.

Let me share with you some simple principles in marketing for the independent real estate investor. You may already be in tune with some of these, but let’s all take a pulse-check here and make sure we’re on the right track.

1) What Are You Hunting?

I’m asking what types of properties and real estate opportunities are you seeking? The more narrow your focus and marketing efforts can become to a target group, the greater success you will experience. If you are seeking wholesale opportunities, then you will not gain very much success putting out “I Buy House/Lease Option” bandit signs next to established neighborhoods. In addition, you will not gain a favorable response direct mailing to preforeclosure prospects if the primary weapon in your arsenal is cash-only deals with hard money lenders that don’t go above 70% LTV.

The marketing medium you use and the message you accompany with it that hits the right target market turns sellers into motivated sellers. There simply is no generic marketing message and medium that is a “one-size-fits-all” approach in real estate.

2) Just How Much Money Can You Spend?

Now, we’re talking about something that hits home real fast when it’s about coming out of pocket with hard-earned money in the “hope” that it will come back to you in the form of truly motivated sellers. If you’re first starting out in real estate investing then it’s imperative that you have a short-term budget to work within so that you’re not forgetting about paying for all the other necessities in life: food, shelter clothing!

You simply DO NOT have to have a large marketing budget to be effective to grow your RE business. One §.34 postcard netted me §8,400, so it’s all about hitting your target market as explained in #1. However, be realistic about what monetary constraints you have and how to incrementally build your marketing program as you experience more and more success.

3) Track Your Results!

Oh, we miss the boat on this one so much. When you are incorporating bandit signs, direct mail, flyer campaigns, etc… it can start to get confusing where and if your success rate justifies the marketing mediums you are using. Tracking your responses and closures of deals is necessary so that you can identify areas that need to be tweaked or worked on. Most importantly though when you find out that great mailing list is really working or the flyers in a particular neighborhood is getting tremendous feedback….then go in for the kill! I mean when you are measuring success and can track it effectively it allows you in full financial confidence to justify increase in marketing expenditures for areas that are producing the results desired.

My hope is for you to realize that marketing to the real estate investor is the lifeblood of his/her business. Great deals rarely come knock on your door to find you. They find you when you have a marketing system implemented that is like a funnel prescreening sellers for motivation and directs them to then contact you immediately.

Scott Rister is a successful full-time investor living in Dallas, TX. Closing 72 deals in one 9 month period, Scott’s property acquisition company, One-Stop Realty, LLC maintains current holdings in four states. After building a sizable portfolio of keeper properties that was not getting him where he wanted to go, he discovered the art of wholesaling. Since that time he’s done hundreds of deals and focuses exclusively on motivated sellers using technology and a targeted marketing approach. Scott Rister’s approach is based on the belief that the successful real estate investor will leverage the best use of his/her time by implementing systems that can run on auto-pilot with minimal maintenance.

One of the most effective and frequently overlooked methods of filling or selling a property is the use of directional arrow signs. I’m guilty of it myself, although usually I’m merely lazy instead of overlooking this great marketing technique. Being lazy usually costs me in terms of holding costs, especially if you happen to be in a buyer’s market as I currently am. Even if you’re in a hot market where everything is moving quickly, directionals will move your property that much quicker.

Yes, there are numerous other methods you can use such as: flyers in the neighborhood and large stores and shopping malls, ads in the large and small papers, listings on the internet, listing with a real estate agent, calling real estate agents to inform them, mailouts to apartment complexes, yard signs with flyer boxes, open houses, calling loan officers, emailing your buyer list, etc., etc. (I have one friend use advertises her properties on the cable preview channel and she says it works great. Unfortunately, that option isn’t available in my area.)

Why Do Directionals Work So Well?
Directional arrow signs work well for a number of reasons. First, they are targeted to the neighborhood where the property is located so the folks who will actually see them are the buyers or tenants who are already driving the neighborhood looking for properties. The second group of people who will see the signs are the residents who already live there. Many times the nearby residents will have family or friends who want to move into the neighborhood.

Flyers delivered to the neighborhood will also accomplish the notification aspect that there’s an available property, but what flyers don’t do is lead the prospect or prospect’s friend straight to the front door.

Why Not Just Use Typical Bandit Signs?
For those that don’t know, bandit signs are the road-side signs that many people utilize to advertise their business, favorite politician, and/or properties for sale or lease. The signs come in many colors and sizes, some professionally done and some hand-written. The nickname bandit signs stems from the fact that many municipalities have sign ordinances that prohibit their use or restrict use in the public domain or right of way.

The primary weakness of typical bandit signs for marketing a property for sale or lease is that the sign provides a little information (often impossible to read while driving by) and a phone number. If I’m out looking for properties today, I don’t want to leave a message or turn around to go see what the sign said. I want to drive by NOW, not tomorrow, not later today, right now.

How is a Directional Arrow Sign Different?
Who said anything about one directional sign? I’m talking an entire series of signs that leads the prospect from the main thoroughfare all the way through the neighborhood to the driveway of your property. There’s no thinking, major squinting, turning around, or phone calls involved here. “Oh, honey, turn there quick.” Then it’s “look, there’s another sign, turn there.” etc., all the way to the property. Then, of course, there’s more information including contact numbers available at the property.

Okay, So How Do I Implement This Technique?
Here’s the way I do it and you should tweak it and improve to suit you. When a property becomes available, I study the neighborhood and determine the “best” ways to lead prospects to my property. By “best”, I take into consideration ease of navigation, neighborhood amenities like parks and schools, and surrounding properties. If there’s a back way into the subdivision or location, I map out both paths.

My target locations are every single corner that my prospects will need to turn in order to get to the property. If there’s a really long stretch without a turn, then I might need a directional arrow in the middle of that stretch to keep them coming. My experience has been that I will have to replace signs within the neighborhood only a few times, but I have to monitor the signs on the major roads and replace them fairly frequently. However, these signs tend to stay put much longer than a traditional bandit sign.

Then I simply go door-knocking and ask people if I can place a small directional sign in their yard. I intentionally do this during the day to miss folks because I’d rather not get involved in lengthy discussions about the property and I’ve got many doors to get to. Once I’m sure no one’s home, I leave a letter in the screen door or someplace where it will be easily seen. I drop this letter at all four houses on each corner on the route.

What Does the Letter Say?
I’ve found it’s important to NOT come across as a real estate investor or a company. I use an informal style and simply ask for help in finding someone to buy or lease my property. Points that I include in the letter are:

• It’s just a small directional arrow sign
• I’ll put it right by the corner and not really in their yard
• I’ll make sure I don’t damage any sprinkler systems
• They get a $20 gift certificate once the process is done
• They get to choose the store, restaurant, etc.
• Please call me to replace the sign if it gets removed
• The first person who calls me wins

This technique has never failed. Frequently, I’ll have two or more people from each corner call me, but I’ve always had at least one person call to agree to the arrangement. Some of them have even taken serious offense to do-gooder neighbors who remove the signs as the property owner is concerned they might not get their gift certificate. I’ll describe the signs in more detail below, but I started adding “Placed With Permission of Owner” on the top of the signs and this reduced my losses.

The end result of this effort is that perhaps I pay out $160 to $200 in referral fees, but I have to run my $50 to $150 worth of weekly newspaper ads many, many fewer weeks. It definitely pays off from a monetary standpoint. The other benefit is that I now have a list of folks near each property (whom I’ve never even met) who think I’m great. Every single person will call me back after receiving their gift to thank me and the large majority volunteer that I’m more than welcome to do this anytime I need.

What Do the Signs Look Like?
The signs I use are basically the standard bandit signs cut in half. A normal size bandit sign is 18″ x 24″ and I use 9″ x 12″ signs for my directional arrows. I have a red directional arrow that takes up about 5 inches of the sign, leaving the bottom 4 inches blank. Within the red arrow I ask the sign company to put my message which could be “Owner Finance” or “Lease Purchase” or whatever you prefer. The message is easy to read.

In the blank space I use a large marker to write the property address. It’s important to leave enough blank space below the arrow to write the address in large numbers and letters. Also, as I mentioned above, I include the “owner permission” tag line on top of the arrow. I buy 36″ wooden stakes from Home Depot and attach an arrow sign to each side of the stake so the information can be seen coming and going.

If you don’t have a source for these signs, please contact www.BanditSigns.com to get some. They’re inexpensive and well worth the cost.

I hope you’ll add this tool to your marketing techniques and discover the same success I’ve had in using it. You may find that you abandon many other advertising tools you’ve been using in the past.

 

Tim Randle bought his first investment property in 1994 and he is a full-time investor in Round Rock, Texas. He licenses his web site, www.QuickOffers.com, to other real estate investors who need a turnkey web site to use in their own investing business. He also owns and operates www.REIClub.com, an online resource for creative real estate investors.

Tim’s informative articles on real estate investing have been published in Creative Real Estate Magazine as well as the Mr. Landlord Newsletter and his counsel is frequently sought by investors around the country.

You can visit Tim online at http://www.REIClub.com