Hey guys. Has anyone tried letters with subject property’s image on the front?
My wholesaling buddy Alan from a nearby town emailed me yesterday and asked if I wanted a 4/2 1400 SF house in Boron California for 35K. I looked at it on Zillow and on Google maps and it looks like a nice house, Zillow says its worth 98,500
Let me paint a picture of Boron California, it’s a depressed town near Mohave desert where the desert heat is intense and even the lizards and snakes have left town.
I txted some of my buyers that I had a 4/2 for 45K, one guy replied back, "Let me know when u get the golden gate bridge for 45K.
One lady named Lily wanted more info and she wants it at 45, doing the paperwork this weekend.
How is this possible? An old okie pot head can have a dream life, growing his stuff and flip real estate deals hundreds and thousands of miles away sitting on his ass and sending a few txts.
I’ve been learning about how our thoughts create our lives. I can now quickly reverse negative thoughts and comments. If ur interested in this concept check out this little book called “Self Talk”
on Amazon for a few buks. All you have to do is consciously change your thoughts.
If there was a little book that cud change your life, wud you read it?
How much mail are you sending. I know we do quite a bit and have pretty much stayed with postcards. We used to do letters but for us postcards ended up have the best results long term as far as cost per acquisition.
I did a post card mailing to 2,500 absentee’s about 6-8 months ago and got no deals, but the mailing b4 that to same list I made 25 grand. So since then I’m not doing any marketing, I have a few bird dogs sending me addresses and I got letters going out to them.
The last deal and this one I’m working on now I got from other wholesalers, they advertise their properties half ass, I inject some exciting words in my ads and it always seems to get results.
My plan is to get the ball rolling early 2019, with more direct mail, bird dogs, bandit signs and door knob hangers.
Postcards should be a fundamental to any marketing, but that’s just the start.
Barney Zick once said that seven hooks needed to be dropped in the water, in order to stay busy.
At the same time, referral leads can be cultivated from every prospect you come in contact with. People who need to sell, often know others that need to sell, too. Why not let the warm leads, lead you to other warm leads?
Javipa,
How much do you send. I was expecting a bigger number from Randuskie, not that it matters just was guessing. We send a ton in a few markets especially in WA. Definitely worth it for us.
Randuskie, you getting moving again it sounds like? what do you plan on sending in the future on top of everything else you do.
What I do, is not necessarily applicable to you. It depends on size of your farm, and the number of records that sift out in a given farm.
For example, in one market I could sift out only about 750 good records. In another, I could sift out around 7,500.
javipa,
I understand that I was just curious of what others are doing. Just to see the kind of volume or how targeted/niche members here are.
We do 10k per week per market (a market for us is county level which is pretty wide) which is heavy but we also aren’t niching down too much. It works well for us but if our budget was small we would definitely thin out our lists.
Thats for our main two counties but other states we do very small mailings and are just testing as they are newer.
I’m assuming you’re sending 40,000 pieces a month, and not mailing the same list four times a month.
I’m not sure how long you’ve been doing that, but why are you splitting the mailing into four batches? Isn’t it simpler just to send once a month?
I try not to be too predictable. I move the mail date around, but I try to time it where the mail reaches the suspect’s box early in the week. It’s one of many tweaks I employ to keep the mail from going in the trash (by accident).
What is your gross conversion rate on 40,000 pieces a month?
Man! Nice work on the mailers, but just to mention it, don’t be complaining about the cost when you’re actually getting calls and deals out of them. I’m in WI and we’re sending about 2500 a month (we’d like to kick that up) and our response rate is somewhere between .04% and .08%. Absentee list here doesn’t seem to respond AT ALL.
So we’re working other angles, glad to hear your success though!
I’m trying to justify buying this new drone. Can I make myself believe its for real estate or do I come to terms with, you just spent a thou on some frikin toy, are you insane?
I only did a half doz real estate wholesale deals this year, cuz of very little marketing. But my other home based business is bringing in some serious profits. My back yard garden. I haven’t decided which is more fun, flipping fixers or growing California’s finest. So, I’ll do both.
We all deserve to prosper and be healthy and happy. Let’s make 2019 even better.
Rando
Randoskie, you made me laugh. My friend bought a professional-grade drone that takes high-resolution video, and he justified the purchase saying that it’ll help him in his business.
I asked him how. He said, “I can fly over the cars I’m selling and post videos of the cars.”
Sure.
Of course, he couldn’t just say, “I want to play with a drone.”
I like to play with antique cars. I’m just gonna admit here that owning them does nothing for my business whatsoever, and having them is a complete and utter indulgence in my excess. Why? Because I can! LOL :beer
It’s been a mild winter here in Central Cal, cept for a few hellacious rain storms and now the sun is out and getting 60 degrees. I feel like climbing out from under my rock and work on some real estate deals. But hell, marketing is expensive and my last direct mail campaign bit the big one.
Some awesome deals have come from newbies that needed help with negotiating and contracts and escrow yada yada. I’ve done a bunch of these wholesale flips, I luv it, its fun and I’ll share wat I know.
If there are any hungry ambitious newbies out there that wants to make a sh-t ton of money and are willing to get out there to find them, message me, 50% split on profits and everybody is happy.
Rando
Just came back to check on you guys and I have to admit my results have been the same. My last mailing cost me 3k and bit the dust. Also my local REIA groups got scammed by their leaders so my bird dogs have been limited to zero. Local codes have been ripping up signs since this Guru has come to town and told everyone to paint the streets. Needless to say I had a fast start and now ouch… I have to say I really wish these guru’s promising million dollar life styles would stop. It saturated the market that’s weak to begin with.
Are you flipping deals, or holding onto them?
You’re probably competing with ‘dabblers’ and shiny-object chasers. However, if you’re doing the same thing they are, you can’t set yourself apart from them, no matter the inventory.
Maybe it’s time to chase different inventory? For example, you might find there’s little competition for low/no equity houses in your farm. There’re probably sellers with no equity, that feel trapped, and if they knew how to get out without losing their shirt and reputation (foreclosure, short sale, etc), they’d take whatever offer you made…
Of course, you offer to take over their loans and relieve them of their debt, IF they agree to hand over their deeds. Then, you flip the house with instant seller financing included, and put your buyer’s down payment in your pocket.
Everybody wins. The seller gets his house sold. A buyer gets your EZ financing. You create equity out of thin air and put a down payment in the bank. And since, you can’t legally finance anyone for less than five years, you up the retail price to reflect that, and then you can expect a back-end equity profit, too, just for offering EZ financing.
This used to be the FHA non-qualifying assumption/flipping scheme back in the '70’s. Take over FHA and then finance a new buyer with no qualifying. It still works like a charm (despite Frank/Dodd interference).
Of course, there’s more to it, but it’s a great model for investing in houses that conventional investors consider radioactive.
Meantime, keep your message out there, and develop referral leads as much as possible.
Hope that helps.
Javipa, I luv the Sub To deals and I’ve done a few of them, tell us hungry investors how you find them.
I’ve come across some with direct mail targeting the absentees.
Tell us about a few that went south.
You want to know about how I’ve failed at my business? LOLOLOL
It’s interesting, because when I share the spectacular successes, people don’t believe they’re real deals …You know, like making $85k in three weeks on a half-million dollar McMansion that needed absolutely nothing, but had an enormously high interest rate. Or the Mexican family that sold me their house for twenty bucks, if I agreed to pay the closing costs. Or the million dollar business I bought with the seller’s equity.
BUT …you want to know about my loser deals…? Will you believe them any more than my ‘home run’ deals?
Here goes…
I mailed postcards to my farm, and included a link to a video presentation that was supposed to warm prospects up before I showed up. Instead, it robbed me of the element of surprise and awe when I was physically attempting to present my scripted offer. The sellers kept interrupting me, because they knew where I was going, and were too impatient to listen (again) to my whole schpeel, and so they kept asking, “What’s your offer?”
Not realizing the mistake it was to pre-present my offer via video, I continued with my presentation, until finally the wife, just blurted, “If you can’t make us an offer, get out of our house!”
I considered this was not a salvageable situation, and since I love a fight, I decided to have some fun, and slam them with an unqualified offer saying, “My offer is, I’ll give you a buck for your equity, and you’ll fork over your deed, move out by noon tomorrow, and I take over your loan. Deal?”
Silence. The seller’s had no idea ‘that’ was coming.
And of course, since I couldn’t establish a consensus on the fundamental details, such as the actual equity in the house, and they thought they had my number, so to speak, they thought my offer was stupendously ridiculous. At first blush, it would seem ridiculous, but they didn’t want to be led down the path of bread crumbs that would have made my offer seem plausible and doable.
If fact, the couple was upside down for my purposes, but the house was ‘retail ready’ and I could have flipped it for at least a thirty-five-thousand-dollar front-end profit …if I had not poisoned my presentation with an uncontrolled video preview. I no longer link suspects to my ‘warm up’ video.
Then there was the retired couple that was allegedly desperate to sell, and told me so over the phone. Of course, I don’t pay any attention to what sellers say to me when they call me. I’m just focused on nailing down an appointment to present my offer.
Got to the door, and a conservative-looking couple answered the door. They resembled something out of a Normal Rockwell painting. He was rugged and his wife looked like Santa’s rather plump wife. Meantime, somehow, I just forgot my head, and walked in without qualifying them as ‘actually motivated’ sellers, and assumed they were the decision-makers.
I presented my credentials and shared some of the deals I had done, and they were impressed (it seemed), and even showed them some testimonials from the last two deals I closed on.
I gathered a consensus on the details, without objections, including their equity; the payments; the insurance coverage; etc. time-frame for moving; and the structure of a sub2 transaction, and invited them to approve my offer.
That’s when Mrs. Clause said, “We’ll consider your offer.”
Realizing I was losing control of the negotiations, and failed to pull the rug out from under the ‘higher-authority’ gambit, I responded, “I’m sorry, but I’ve got too many houses to consider, to give you time to 'get back with me. My offer expires as soon as I go out the door.”
Man, this couple turned from ‘nice couple, from a Norman Rockwell painting,’ to Nesfaratu and Irma Grese.
They insisted they had no intention of accepting my offer until their attorney checked out the details. Translated, “Do we look stupid?”
I can can count on zero fingers how many deals I’ve closed where an attorney was involved. And this couple was no exception.
I knew better than to present to someone I hadn’t pre-qualified to hear my presentation. And then, to add injury to insult, I failed to pull the rug out from under their attempt to ‘consult a higher-authority’ at the door.
I don’t make time to put on free ‘sub2’ seminars, but I ended up doing one anyway, by accident.
So, there’s two failed deals.
Here’s a disaster:
Many years ago, I moved into a brand new farm area; failed to know my values; closed on a half-million dollar house; put up bandit signs, and got exactly two responses …from investors.
Never mind my new next door neighbor listed his larger house for $100,000 less than I paid for my house… Can you say ‘panic?’ After spending a few grand trying to salvage a ‘reeeeelly baaaad’ deal, I called the seller and said, come pick up your house. The keys are in the mailbox. I left it all shiny, clean, and rent-ready. The sellers were NOT surprised. They knew they had a sucker on the line, and they gambled I would take their headache away. I never recorded the deed, so the taxes and what not, were not affected. The insurance was never modified. It was like I never showed up, and spent several grand trying to sell a severely upside down lemon.
I’m all for buying financially upside down deals, but 20% upside down? Meh.
Haven’t done that twice. Knock on wood.
I don’t share the failed buyer/borrower stories, because it might reveal (unnecessarily) how I successfully insulate myself from ‘predator’ buyers that Frank/Dodd created.
Now, do you believe my home run stories? LOL
I believe. Holy real estate gods, 80 grand on one deal? I’m humbled, jealous, envious.
I have a bird dog named Enrique. He emailed me a few days ago to say, he had rented an office, wanted to get a direct mail campaign going and wanted me to furnish my knowledge w negotiations and contracts and etc., to do some 50/50 deals.
He claims to have funding for the campaign.
I’m ready to do this I think, but, why am I skeptical and hesitating? This is what I’ve been manifesting, a hungry young wild man to partner with. But then, I keep remembering that saying, which has always or usually been right on…
If it sounds to good to be true… It probably is.
But hell, what have I got to lose? Win or lose, it’s some fun sh-t.
$85,000 on one deal.
===================
Either this guy is ‘reeeeely serious,’ or he’s a flake.
Only agents set up offices, before they start doing their businesses.
The rest just need a corner with room enough for a card table, a folding chair and a laptop. Enough with the offices. Pffft.
That said, he’s not gonna be satisfied with splitting his referral fee with someone who’s not contributing to his HIGH overhead.
So, take advantage while he’s still green, because he’s gonna ripen fast. Or he’ll decide that offices aren’t really that necessary, drop back; and focus on finding deals, rather than looking ‘corporate.’
???
My bird dog Enrique has rented an office and wants me to teach him how to wholesale real estate for 50% of the properties he finds. After a few deals he wont need me anymore,
Or will he?
Sometimes u gotta bottle feed these newbies and put a stun gun to their testies to get them in gear.
And win or lose, it’s frikin fun.
Who wants to make some Money?