The other day I called a real estate bandit sign. It was a google voice number. Some lady left her name on the voice mail. It sounded amateurish but who am I to say, shes got hundreds of white signs near my neighborhood. She called me back and left a voicemail. Her voice sounded like she was high on tons of caffeine or stimulants, all scratchy and super-fast-talking, but whatever.
They are just a huge mixture of signage including “ROI 15%” deals, and “2 bed 2 bath for sale” and “Wanted: 3 bed 2 bath house for Cash” and others. Its like shes just stirring up the pot and getting numbers. I dunno
I returned the voicemail leaving another voicemail, and I said Im learning real estate investing and wondered if she can talk. I asked if she needed help birddogging or putting down signage.
I got no reply. I wonder why. I am being a pest like how Randowskie gets upset when tire kickers respond to his advertising? Is she an amateur? Does she think that she can take over the whole market for herself? Is she too busy to talk with anybody except people with houses to sell?
Im curious why no response. Why is it a dead end when other wholesalers call your signs? What ways can you benefit from calling those signs?
OK, you called on a bandit sign and nobody’s interested in having you as a bird dog? So, what? Move on.
They’re probably a bird-dog themselves. Never mind you’re not a seller, or a buyer, and don’t represent much value to them.
The fact that you’re being sent to a voicemail is an indication that this person isn’t really serious about the business anyway, and that they represent a dry well of opportunity, despite blowing all sorts of time and energy putting out signs.
So when you have signs out, you are manning the phone diligently. Much like a business.
Common sense stuff I guess
Currently for my landscaping biz, when a new client calls it can take me 5 minutes or up to several hours to respond (because Im working in the field). Its never been an issue because gardening is not that big of an emergency and clients do not seem to mind the wait. Ive never called back a few hours after their voicemail and heard they already found a different landscape company
However ///////// once my next bandit signs go down I will have my phone on me at all times…
I used to get worried when I wud see new bandit signs all over my city, It wud be a new number I didn’t recognize. Oh No, these people are going to dominate this market and ther wont be any deals left for me. What am I going to do?
But then a month or 2 later. you never see their signs anymore. It’s happened so many times. These people buy a course telling them how they can make easy fast profits wholesaling houses. They never get the whole truth, the reality. Wholesaling can be work, it can take time to get established, networking and making friends with rehabbers and Investors. They never hear how difficult it can be and the inevitable dry spells and the deals that fall thru and how you cant rely on one source to find your deals. Most don’t have the staying power and marketing capitol to send out thousands of direct mail pieces, buying 100 bandit signs will almost bankrupt them. Most will quit after the first road bump and go back to a 9-5. Most wont get an education on salesmanship & mind set and developing the right attitude.
Fortunately for me, I had no other options, I couldn’t give up. Desperation is a condition that seemed to work well for me.
My best advice is to never give up. If I hadn’t been persistent and focused I don’t know where my family and I wud be at now.
It takes a different kind of person to fail often and keep going until they succeed.
Let’s make some Money
You do what you have to do, until you can pay someone else to do it. It’s called ‘delegating grunt work.’
My seller line goes to an answering service where the caller is given the option of either leaving me a message, or talking with me personally. It costs $30/mo for the basic service, and it’s worked beautifully for several years. There are many inexpensive alternatives to getting your phone answered in real time, without paying a live person, and without sending callers to voice mail by default.
The question might be, “Why don’t you just answer yourself, instead of putting up an answering service barrier?” Not everyone wants to talk with me personally. Not everyone’s a seller. I don’t want to talk with ‘everybody’ that wants to talk with me. They all can leave messages, and I can respond as I have time.