The biggest problem for any business, be it Real Estate or a Restaurant, is finding the customers. Each business model has its way of getting people through the door and trying to sell them on their services.
What works for one, may not work for another, but in general there are some guidelines and proven methods to prospect and find customers. The challenge with listing or describing these methods is that people tend to tone them out because they require cash, hard work, or figuring out how to make it work.
It is much easier to call something “doesn’t work” and move on to the next challenge. What is difficult to deal with the most is that majority are in denial. Everytime I had this conversation with someone, they always argue that they do not fall within this category, yet none of them making it work.
Here are methods that work and work WELL for the successful investors. These same methods do not work for the unsuccessful investors.
Networking
Networking works, but it takes time to build up. You need to position yourself in a way to be the go to person for your type of business among those you work with. You will need to build up your knowledge level and get involved.
Why it doesn’t work for most? because people look at the tool and not the outcome. When I was starting to invest, I was told to pass out 20 business cards a day. Like any newbie, I was leaving them on tables, in the stores, etc. Thats not the correct way.
The correct idea is to MEET and interact with people and convince them of what you do by demonstrating your knowledge and positioning yourself as the goto person. Networking also means staying in touch and meeting as many people as you could.
I was referred a deal by another investor that made me $36k. I was not looking for it, but I do meet with investors, realtors, title reps at least monthly if not weekly.
Direct Marketing
The idea of direct marketing is to let people know that you are in certain type of business. You need to craft the right message to the right audiance and stay in touch with them till.
Successful investors follow two approaches:
One Step Marketing
Sending out targetted material to narrowed list of prospects that MAY contain motivated sellers. Such as Expired Listings, FSBO, FRBO…etc. Or to a smaller farm based on demographics. You send out the material to the same prospect at least 4 to 6 times over period of time.
Two Step Marketing
Two step marketing works by marketing to larger number of people with larger front end cost to get those who MAY be motivated to raise their hand then market to them. Advertising could be a good channel here.
Successful investors use one or both of these methods with the intention of positioning themselves as the solution to the motivated seller’s problem WHEN they first become motivated. Once they get motivated, they open their mailbox, email, newspaper, yellow pages and they find the investor.
The unsuccessful investor sends out random letters when they get around to it, never follow up. They do not understand how important the content of their letters or post cards are. They do not realize that one single word can impact their results. They do not understand why sending out X number of letters/postcards does not return Y numbers of deals. They assume if they send 100 letters, they SHOULD get 10 calls and CLOSE 1 deal. they tend to give up quickly and say it does not work
MLS
Successful investors knows what they are looking for, they secure pocket listings, be the first to snap a good listing as soon as it gets listed, or BEFORE the selling agent list it (pocket listing) by positioning themselves correctly.
Unsuccessful investors browse the MLS randomly, make low ball offer here and there.
The list goes on and on. Here is my core take on finding deals:
If one person could prove it could be done, then by god so can I. It is just a matter of figuring out how. I studied Michael Quarels and $Cash$'s systems at first, then ventured into the general direct marketing arena to figure out how to best do it and borrow from other industries.
I understood that getting random deals based on luck is not something I can build my business on and had to have solid foundation for lead generation. I had to figure out how to predict what I can get and close from each marketing method.