Hey guys…Im birddogging for a friend of mine, whos friend owns the REI business.
Basically they have the system of looking for distressed properties, then placing a door hanger on those properties, then calling the house later if they dont call you.
What I am finding is that it takes a long time to place these door hangers, some places have one good house every 5 minutes that I have to stop for and other areas I have to walk the entire block, which can take a long time. Especially when the area is so large. I can get a list of hundreds of good houses in 10 minutes just writing it down and not getting out of the car to hang a sign for every house. Also, I get a ton of porch sitters who usually look like im the spawn of satan when they see me hanging the door hangers, and start asking questions which wastes time.
Any ideas you can give me that could make this faster, or do it differently? I was thinking of just calling them, saying I saw their house in the area and ask if they are interested in selling it?
Also, I get a ton of porch sitters who usually look like im the spawn of satan when they see me hanging the door hangers, and start asking questions which wastes time.
I’d not look at the porch sitters as a waste of time. If you want to maximize your birddogging powers I’d take a minute talking to them. Tell them that you work for someone who is looking to buy the most rundown houses in the neighborhood and improving them. Go on to ask them where they are in the area. Then make sure to give those porch sitters your card.
Assuming you are getting paid for good leads(Deals the investor closes) and are collecting a larger payday then getting paid by the lead you want to refine your search and make sure to pass on those really great leads to the investor. Cold calling to find people is not going to go as well as you hope.
If you really want to blow up your birddogging and want to grow into your REI career I’d suggest you read a lot of the Marketing forum and learn how to generate leads. Then if your primary investor decides to pass on a property you can try to get thenm to other investors.
Do you really think that the door hanger then calling a week later is going to be a lot better than just cold calling?
Im trying to find a way to get away from door hangers…its such a long process of driving, stopping, getting out and placing the hanger, driving, stopping…
Its not bad if I have to walk the block…its bad when I have to drive and stop continually. I feel like I could be doing this differently and doing a lot more houses without the hangers…
But I will take your advice about reading the marketing forum and about the porch sitters! I need to get business cards, I forgot.
I’d say the opportunity cost of making any calls is too significant of an investment unless the homeowner has already shown some interest. So say you go out and spend 3 hours a day hanging doors, and you spend 1-2 minutes logging each address and which ones are good targets. When you get home depending upon your local accessors site, it can take you 5-20 minutes per house to look up the owner, and then another 3-4 minutes per house to look up their phone number assuming you have a system set up for that.
Your doorhangers are covering a wider breadth of houses then trying to find those phone numbers. If you are not getting at least a 1% call on your doorhangers it’s time to change strategies. Classic bird dogging strageties work well. As long as you focus your efforts on a prime location rather then a scattershot approach.
Remember birddogging is your first stepping stone to REI. The foundation of how you generate leads and get people to call you is going to strengthen your position when you have sold enough leads that you have you have the capital to start wholesaling. And then your lead generation systems should be feeding you deals to wholesale to other investore.
This step, is the very begining to your REI career.
Quick question. Are you planning on bird dogging for him for a while, because if you are, set up a system that will send calls to your phone without you having to go out and look for them. You screen them, then you charge your friend per lead. Works like a charm.
If he wants to buy the whole marketing campaign he can pay for that to. Just set up a system and you will be fine. :beer
Yes, I plan on BDing for him for a good while, at least until I get out of school.
This system you talk about, is this just general advertising like paper, word of mouth? They mainly buy distressed properties, so thats why I have been going out to look for them.
Can you quickly explain how to set this up without going out and looking for properties and handing out door hangers?
First of all, know where you want to wholesale homes. If you have a list of buyers already, you have areas that they are interested in spending their money in. Ohh you did get this information from them right? Find out where they want to invest their money. Slap up some signs in these areas. Get some calls, close some deals. :director
