Signs, Flyers, And Business Cards

Oh yeah? Ok well where does everyone put there flyers when they go door to door? Is it ok to use black and white flyers made at kinkos?

I went out this weekend and printed out several “We Buy House” flyers at Kinkos. They had free color paper to use so I printed them out on bright yellow paper. I printed out 100 for under $10.

I went out in my target neighborhood and taped the flyers on vacant houses doors with packing tape. I also wrote down the address so that I can locate the owners and mail them a “yellow letter”.

I print 4 to a page and cut them out. I don’t think you lose anything going down to that size for a door to door flyer, but you gain 4 for the price of 1.

If they have glass doors then there is always a crack to fold and slide them into. Otherwise roll them up and stick it between the door knob and jam.

By the way, why does everyone adheres to the “secret code” of how a flyer should look like and the format of the content?

I never see anyone use for example an article style flyer with good enough content to sell their business. Every flyer I see has “we buy houses” couple of bullets and a phone number. Thats a major waste for an 8x11 paper.

As far as where you place them, you can place it on the doorknob.

fadiz, Richard Roop does something similar to an article on oversized postcards.

The few times I’ve put out flyers I found that I spent half the time trying to find a place to put the damn thing! Probably 75% of the houses either have no screen door or it’s locked, so you can’t put it between the doors. Many screen doors around here have an “open ended” handle too, so you can’t roll the flyer up and stick it in there.

I can’t count the number of times I stuck a flyer partly under a mat or a veranda chair cushion or in a potted plant because there was nowhere else to put it!

If I were to distribute anything door-to-door myself again, I would absolutely, positively, go with custom-printed post-it notes. Peel, Stick, DONE!

Actually if you sort of half roll it and put it in there the tension is just enough to keep it in. This only works with the 1/4 page fliers I use though. Bigger fliers have no spring and are too big.

Might sound weird…

Might sound weird....
No, that makes sense. I never tried flyers that size. And now... well, I'd rather spend an hour calling 50 people who are struggling to sell their homes and buy a couple of houses, then put out 100 or so flyers to people who probably don't even want to sell.

The telephone is still by far the most efficent and cost-effective deal-finding tool available, IMHO.

Hey its good exercise! :smiley:

There is a local company that tapes their flyers right above my garage door leaving it hanging over the door. It always grabs my attention and it is orange, so I had to read it to make sure it was not a citation.

Hey its good exercise! :D
LOL that's true :) How many deals have you done thanks to flyers?

Yes i would like to know as well.

I have had quite a few calls, but nothing dealworthy yet.

I have been getting better response from bandit signs. Im averageing 3 calls every 2 days for 25 out.

That’s what I like about making calls. Even if you take your time you can easily call 20-25 sellers an hour. It’s hard to get that many calls using any kind of marketing, and it’s not cheap either. On the other hand making that initial call takes a lot of guts! It’s definitely much, much easier to respond to that initial contact than it is to make it.

Just a note to those walking and putting out flyers.

  1. Bring Rubber Bands to attach them to the open ended (hook style) doorknobs.

  2. Look to see the homeowner’s entry point. Is it an attached garage? Then do they normally go into the garage and skip the front door? If so, put it near the mailbox as they always have to check that.


Finally, for me TIME is an extremely valuable resource. So walking all those doors takes so much of my time. For that reason, direct mail marketing will always be the most cost efficient marketing tool. To send postcards is not only easy, but extremely affordable.

So, now you just have to work with what is on the postcard…

So, now you just have to work with what is on the postcard...
That's been my problem with direct mail. Even if I send a very specific message like: "I can take over your mortgage payments." The sellers aren't screened at all, nearly every one of them still wants full price in cash.

I found that extremely frustrating. I’d be fine with a small response IF most of them were qualified. But as I’ve learned reading this and other marketing forums. Closing 1 deal for every 20-100 calls you receive is normal.

Well that sucks if you ask me!

My best direct mail piece brought in a 10.7% response. If I call that same list of sellers myself I can reach 50-75% on the first pass. By the third I will have spoken to roughly 90%. And the deal ratio is the same.

So let’s take a list of 1,000 sellers. If I send my BEST response generating direct mail piece, I’ll speak to about 100 of those sellers. Conservatively that would result in about 2 deals on average.

If I call that list instead then I’ll speak to at least 800 of the sellers. And even if I’m twice as conservative in the numbers, it still results in 8 deals.

The difference is the time and ease.

  • Sending mail and replying to 100 sellers might take around 10 hours.

  • And it’s less unpleasant.

  • Calling all those sellers will take about 40 hours, but you get 4 times as many deals so your still at about 5 hours per deal either way.

  • You need a much thicker skin for rejection when YOU are the one making intiial contact.

I’ve always heard it’s better to be on the right side of the desk. I want sellers calling me with their hat int heir hand predisposed to giving me their info.

Doug, how do you get mortgage balances and whatnot? Seems usually they don’t like to tell you any more than beds and baths.

I've always heard it's better to be on the right side of the desk. I want sellers calling me with their hat int heir hand predisposed to giving me their info.
If that's the kind of sellers who call then I would absolutely agree. Unfortunately I've found with all of my marketing that the seller's who call are NOT any more likely to work out than those I call. Like I said above, if they were, I would be very happy about that even if it meant only getting a 0.5% response or less.

I’ve only twice had sellers refuse to give me their mortgage balance. One of them caved when I said: “If you want me to make you an offer, you have to give me the information I need to do that.”

I’m much more interested in their payments than their balance though, and I’ve never had anyone refuse to tell me how much they’re paying.

The best way to handle it is to say:
“Now I need to ask you a few questions about your financing in order to make you an offer that will work for YOU.”

To which they say: “Ok.”

However, it’s important to note that I ask my qualifying questions FIRST.
i.e. Are they interested in selling the house on a rent to own basis?

That’s the very first thing I ask. I know that’s the opposite of what most of the guru’s tell you to do. But it works and it saves a lot of time. You know within 10 seconds of them answering the phone whether it’s worth continuing with the call.

If they say YES then you know they are probably familiar with the concept (sometimes sellers just say YES without knowing what they’re saying yes to!) and that they’re at least someone motivated to do an unconventional deal, and that they don’t need their equity out right away.
What an awesome little question that does so much!

If they say NO then you’re off to the next lead in a matter of seconds.

There are of course varying degrees between those two extremes. Some people are familiar with the concept but unsure about the details. Some are totally unfamiliar but curious about what you have to offer. I don’t like answering questions on the phone for what will probably turn out to be tire-kicker, so just as I do with tenant/buyers, I send them to my website.

Every so many calls you get the response you dream about:
“YES, I absolutely want to rent to own my house!”

For me that response has come–on average–every 25-30 calls. Out of those around half agree to my terms, maybe a little less, although sometimes I buy more than one house from the same seller (landlords).

I’ve tried dozens of different ways to ask that very first question, in an effort to totally eliminate the tire-kickers. Unfortunately I haven’t found it. But it helps to use whatever the most common description is that used in your area. For example, in my area saying “rent to own” works better than “lease with option to buy” or “lease purchase”. The really motivated sellers will say yes regardless, but asking about “rent to own” eliminates more of the “Huh? What’s that?” responses and saves time.

Of course if you’re not a lease/option investor then you need to figure out what the best qualifying question is for your niche. If you’re a wholesaler or rehabber than the commonly used “If I could close today and pay all cash what would be your bottom line?” is probably a close equivalent.

Oh okay, that makes sense.

Now where do ou get the numbers to call? Are these FSBOS that you find?

Wait so you buy their house and you keep them in the house they just sold you on a rent to own basis?

No, they want to use rent to own to get rid of their house. Thats what they are saying.