Critique my marketing plan

General Real Estate Investing
1

Hey folks,

Read an interesting article by Ben Innes-Ker about creating a real estate marketing plan, so I decided to finally put it on paper. I’m one of those who has been “getting started” for about 2 years now. I know the techniques, but I now realize the reason I haven’t done a deal is because I have been focusing plenty enough time on learning techniques and not nearly enough on marketing.

Only things I’ve really done marketing-wise up to this point is order business cards, bird-dogged about 60 or so uglies and mailed “yellow letters” to them, and about 6 months ago I put out 50 bandit signs that got me a few calls but no deals. I now realize one thing, that little paltry campaign isn’t even a drop in the bucket compared to what I need to be doing, if I want a steady stream of motivated sellers. So I made the decision to either f’in do it RIGHT or sit my arse on the porch.

So here goes. Keep in mind I live in the DC area and work a full-time job. I plan on doing most of the grunt work myself until I get a deal done, and have a budget of about $1,000 in cash, and about $15,000 in available credit (if needed) to get started with. Tell me what you think about this one-month plan:

[b]Goal for total number of leads generated: 46

Number of “prospects” needed to reach goal (both interested and not interested): 28

Goal for number of qualified, interested sellers: 14

Goal for number of appointments made: 6

Goal for total number of deals signed up: 2

Average net income from each deal (cash): $5K

Goal for total net income (cash): $10K

Plan to generate required number of prospects needed:

  • Create a basic website to capture application info
  • Mail 25 letters/postcards a week to expired listings
  • Mail 25 letters/postcards a week to out-of-town owners
  • Mail 10 “yellow letters” a week to existing supply of ugly house owners by skip-tracing the ones that were returned-to-sender from prior campaign
  • Mail 20 letters/postcards a week to 1st notice of defaults (hire a title abstracter to pull data)
  • Drop 125 flyers or postcards a week in targeted zip codes
  • Hand out/drop 10 business cards per day
  • Put out 10 bandit signs every weekend[/b]

Feedback please! Any glaring items I missed? Too agressive? Not aggressive enough? Realistic? Unrealistic? Are my numbers anywhere near the ballpark? How much money can I expect to spend in order to execute the plan to generate the number of prospects needed?

Thanks for the feedback,

nsu1997

2

too optimistic?.. ???

3

Where are your goal numbers coming from?
What makes you think you’ll get 46 leads and so on?

4

I kinda estimated the numbers from the example given in the column from Ben Innes-Ker.

Here’s the link to the article: http://www.reiclub.com/articles/makes-deals-happen

5

^^^ In other words, I’m guessing :slight_smile:

6

Those may be plausible numbers even though the author was just giving an example.

With your projected net income I assume you will try to wholesale these two properties? Find a few interested buyers before you find houses or you will be scrambling at the last minute.

Don’t worry about a precise marketing plan. For all you know your first two calls will be begging you to buy their properties. Also you may get 500 calls and not one will work out. You may blow $1000 on advertisements and not get a single call. So basically your best bet will just to do whatever it takes to get 2 deals a month if thats your goal. I wish there was a formula (50 Postcards= 5 calls= 1 deal) but it doesn’t work out like that. Just do whatever it takes to get yoru desired results.

7

Danny, thanks…great advice…

8

OK, here’s your problem. You can send out all the mail you want but, follow up with a phone call if there is a listed number or unlisted number on zabasearch (free) or accurint(.25). Don’t wait more than 5 days for them to call you off your mailer. You will never do any deals unless you talk with the owners.

You understand what you are trying to convey to them, but don’t assume they have the ability to understand, or have the confidence in themselves to call you. You have to lead them into the deal. Show them that your offer is the best option for them at this time.

I will knock on the door of my hot leads if there is no ph # available. These are prescreened leads only. I know what they paid, what they owe, and what the chances are of them selling for the price they are asking. In other words, deal with those trying to sell before all others. We’re in a buyers market now so go get em.

(I’m not talking about pre fcs which don’t want to sell and have 7 options not to sell, which I don’t bother with cause everyone else does.) Find your niche and work it.

EH