Im looking for some help getting a feel for the general number of people interested in getting motivated sellers calling that aren’t calling anyone else because NOBODY has this software program. We have been doing deals for 3 years now and we found something that worked, then we perfected it with software. We have cut our marketing budget to a quarter of our previous cost, we were spending upwards of 6-10k every month, and even higher some months depending on what we were trying. Right now we are spending 2k a month and buying good flip deals even in this crummy market. We dont buy houses in war zones. I started out in this business bird dogging and made good money, and believe it or not it is the most important part of investing finding motivated sellers and making deals.
I’d be prone to think it was just another guru gimmick.
If it really works, I will start hearing from people I know that it is really good. Then, at that point, I might buy. But I am not taking the recomendation of the people that you know.
But I am cynical and very conservative. There are a lot of newbies who would pay to have a computer do all their work for them.
In my area, a motivated seller doesn’t do me much good. There are almost no foreclosures and there are hundreds of guru graduates hounding those few.
What I need is a desperately motivated seller that no one else can locate. Even then, I have really narrow perameters about what I will buy, and the properties I want are not usually the ones going into foreclosure.
I’m a cheapskate, but I am amazed by the number of people who will pay thousands to take a course. So I would guess there is a market for your product if it really performs as promised.
Tatertot,
There is a fair share of skepticizam on new ways to find motivated sellers. Tatertot you are right if something really works word spreads pretty quick. After seeing how many folks have taken a look at this post and not even given a helpful vote makes me realize that most must think its some kind of trick or another way to make money from investors. I supose until we deside to take on the financial risk to develop this for the entire country we will just keep using the software we had developed to keep buying deals until we can afford to take a 100k gamble. My thought after reading your post was to offer to have the software developed for 2-5 people and get testimonials etc… Those individuals would have to be respected in real estate forums, able to buy houses where they live, willing to give a testimonial, am I leaving anything out???
Thanks for the insight
b18bgone, I love entrepreneurs so I don’t want to discourage you.
I don’t know how your program works, so I don’t know if this would work or not… Is it possible to not ever allow the customer to see the product and just rent them the service?
You have a difficult uphill struggle to get established because the world of real estate is full of cheats and cons. People who haven’t actually had a bad experience themselves know someone who has. So you are already starting out fighting trust issues in your customer base.
I did some test marketing on a really good product in a field (non-real estate) where most of the products are lousy and expensive. I couldn’t generate any orders. I assume that once people have been burned once, they will not make another attempt. As a private individual, I didn’t have the funds to mail out free samples all over the country, like a mega-corporation would do.
With software, though, it isn’t so expensive to get samples into the hands of potential investors. You just have to figure out how to do it so they can’t just use the sample and not have to buy the product.
Marketing is the magic bullet everyone is looking for…
Will I pay for a service that works, yep. Will it have to be tested & proven, it needs to show a value in order for it to be tested.
Hype is nothing more than marketing itself, and many will buy on hype alone. If your product does what it claims, then yes you deserve to be paid, and many will pay for it…myself included. But I will need to see at least in theory how & who it targets and # of leads generated. Then you can take those leads and test your marketing dollar & ROI.
Guys thanks so much for all the comments,
I kind of got my answer after reading a comment placed by Michael Q. he has a successful house buying business in CA, and sells other materials for ansillary income (I’ve actually used some of his stuff with some success). He mentioned that he has spent 1.75 million developing what many consider to be a fantastic program and yet he says that his monthly memberships dont suport that price tag. It makes me think that even if we did take a big risk producing something that did work, and worked well it might take years to break even, let alone make money.
I wonder if this has something to do with the “I” can become rich investing in real estate mentality? Or maybe it could be that every investor comes up with some sure fire way to do XYZ and people are just sick of it, and rather do it/figure it out on their own.
I think it has to do with the four letter “F” word… Fear…
I am amazed that Investors are willing to pay thousands of dollars for training but wont pay 1500.00 to a site that will lead them down the golden path…
My last boot camp I asked everyone how much they paid for training and the total got close to 800,000.00 for 23 people… Few had even purchased a house…
Those that did used a realtor…
People don’t want to be organized they want this illusive “Gift” of fortunes…
This is hard work and we shouldn’t take it lightly… Hard until you figure it out then easy after that…
Good Investing
Michael
Learn how to attract motivated sellers from one of the marketing masters of real estate, Richard Roop. Check out http://richardroop.weebly.com