In order to get motivated sellers calling, you need to advertise your house buying business in an effective manner. This article will showcase how to use your local newspaper as your advertising medium.
Before starting your advertising push, make sure you have a system set up to test the efficiency of your advertising. In order to do this, you need to track advertising costs, time spent on implementing each method and the amount of calls received due to your advertising.
Method 1: Classified Ads
Place a simple classified ad in your local newspaper. You want to advertise in newspapers in which other investors are already consistently advertising. Essentially, stick with what is already working for other entrepreneurs. When using a classified ad, advertise a 24-hour recorded message. The 24-hour recorded message will give sellers information about the benefits of working with you and pre-screen sellers that need more time, so that you will only end up talking to motivated sellers. Classified ads generally do not produce a lot of calls, but they are relatively inexpensive to use. Don’t forget to also take advantage of on-line classified ads as well.
Method 2: Flyers Inserted in the Newspaper
Call your local newspaper for a quote on newspaper flyer inserts. Some newspapers allow you to target certain neighborhoods. The newspaper may ask you to print and provide the flyers or it may offer to do it for you for an extra fee. If you have the budget, let the newspaper do the printing. This will free up your time, so that you can focus on engaging with your motivated sellers who are already calling. Be sure to include the 24-hour recorded information line.
Method 3: Post-It Notes Posted on Newspapers
Newspapers will also post a post-it note on the cover of the newspaper before it is delivered. Just like with the flyer insert, some will allow you to target specific neighborhoods. Some newspapers will also do the printing for you – in some cases, they have a special format for the post-it notes. In that case, you should allow the newspaper to do the printing – less of a hassle for you.
By implementing these advertising methods, you will begin receiving phone calls from motivated sellers. Always remember to track the success of your advertising tools so that you can improve on your current marketing and compare it to other marketing you will try in the future.
Until my next post,
James
P.S. If you want a great list of highly effective marketing systems that I use in my own real estate investing business you’ll definitely want to pick up a copy of Real Estate Investing Systems, our amazing new book for real estate entrepreneurs based largely on the systems in our world famous Real Estate Investor Wiki.
My mentors, including Brent Grove founder of 1-800-WeBuyHomes and 1-800-WeBuyHouses, taught me that I want to be on the right side of the desk. I want people calling me that are already pre-sold on doing business with me. I do not want to take calls from people that are just fishing for more information as it will just waste my time. You want systems in place that automatically pre-screen sellers so that only ones that are motivated and want to do business with you actually talk to you live.
To do that, we do not take incoming calls live until after they have pre-screened themselves by reading or hearing our full marketing message. We accomplish this by using tools like our 24-hour recorded information hotline. The 24-hour recorded information hotline will allow someone who has seen our marketing to call in and get more information without having to talk to someone live. On our phone system they call in and the system asks them to enter the extension they found with the number. We can then use these extensions to track which advertising they actually called in on, so that we know which advertising is working and which is not. Once they enter the extension, they hear a five minute message that tells them who we are, that we buy houses as investments and the benefits to them of having us buy their house versus their other options. If after listening to the message they want to talk to us live, they can press zero on their phone and be transferred to us so that we can talk to them live or they can go directly to our live answering service if I do not want to take the calls at that time or if I’m unavailable.
A large percentage of people that call your 24-hour recorded message will not transfer through to talk to you live. If you want, you can look at the caller id log of the people that called for more information and try to follow up with these people. I do not recommend it and do not do it myself, because you are looking for motivated sellers, and if they were motivated, they probably would have transferred through. If they do not transfer through, they’re pre-screening themselves out.
Until my next post,
James
P.S. If you want to hear what calls with motivated sellers sound like then why not download the Real Estate Investor Daily Training Volume #1 audio program where I am training my new staff member on how to handle these calls. The audio program is normally $25 plus S&H plus it is free for a limited time to my blog readers.
When you are about to talk to a seller for the first time you will want to use a combination of the Property Information Sheet and a prepared, well practiced script to gather the information. The script we recommend is the Initial Call Back Script.
In the script, we give you our preferred way of asking for the information you need on the Property Information Sheet. Most of the questions are very straight forward, but a couple parts I do want to mention here.
First, we want to find out what they think the value of the property is, but we ask it in a very specific way referencing what they think an appraiser would say the value is. This usually has them give us a more objective answer than what do you think it is worth.
Second, we will ask the seller if the house needs any work, but then follow up with asking very specific questions about things that most properties will need. We’ve found that most sellers will say that the house needs less than it does unless you ask about specific items that need to be addressed. Of course, you will be inspecting the property when you go out to meet with the seller as well.
Two last things. First, yes… it really is important to use the script as written when talking to the seller about your cash offer unless you have a proven, alternative strategy.
And lastly, some real estate investors get hung up asking a seller what they owe on their property. If you are in good rapport with the seller, it really is not a big deal and most will gladly answer the question. I usually ask the question by asking if they own the property free and clear or they have a mortgage. Sometimes I add, “that I will need to take care” to the end of the question, but not always.
It is extremely important that you practice your script until you are very comfortable with it. The time to practice is not with a live seller on the phone. Generating calls from sellers can cost upwards of a $100 per call, practicing on these leads is an expensive proposition and is not recommended. You should practice dozens of times before ever talking to a live seller.
Until my next post,
James
P.S. If you need to listen how I recommend talking to sellers, eaves drop on training I did with my staff in the Real Estate Investor Daily Training Volume #1 real estate course download. We also have a few recordings called “Calls With Sellers” that are extremely popular with investors and helpful.
Since I just scheduled about 5,000 postcards to sellers to be sent out and I am going through my checklist for making sure I am prepared for the calls, I figured I would share with you what I use to take calls from sellers.
First, let me tell you how they call in.
In my post, there are three ways for them to contact me. Usually, the more ways you provide for people to contact you the better your response will be since people can choose the method they prefer. The three ways are: 24 hour recorded info line, my buying website and a direct number to me and/or my acquisition manager.
If they call the 24 hour recorded info line, they hear a 5 minute message about the benefits of working with me and why I may be their best option for selling their house. They are also given the direct number to me and/or my acquisition manager in that recorded message as the next step as well as my website address.
If they go to my website, they get a special report on the benefits of working with me and a link to a form to submit some very, very basic info about their property. Yes, I could ask EVERY question on the website… I know how and it would be easy for me to do it, but I make the web form very simple to get the largest number of responses and then get on the phone to get the rest.
Lastly, there is my direct number. When I say direct number, I do not mean my personal mobile phone number or my office phone. What I am referring to is a special number I set up that I can move to wherever I want. If I want to forward it to my personal mobile phone, I can. If I want to forward to my acquisition manager’s mobile phone, I can. If I want to forward it to a live answering service, I can. If I want to forward it to my office… you guessed it… I can.
I can also have it forward to multiple phones at once so it will ring on my mobile, my acquisition manager’s mobile and the office phone all at the same time. Whoever answers first, gets it. I like using that number on all our postcards and marketing as our direct number so that I can change how its handled easily and still have it come to us live as much as possible.
When I do actually take the call from the seller, I need to make sure I have our Property Information Sheet (links to exclusive resources for Real Estate Investor Bronze Members) ready to gather some info about the property. I encourage you to see the Gathering Property Information Checklist as a starting point for learning more about how I gather info about the seller and the property.
Until my next post,
James
I was doing some research for doing another mailing campaign for our real estate investing business and happened to have a meeting with a local title company for lunch. Many title companies are offering investors great resources and services to attract new clients to their core services of title insurance.
During lunch today I was reminded of this as I talked to the title company rep about mailing lists for my newest mailing. In fact the prices on their mailing list was very good in comparison to what I would have paid elsewhere.
A good title company can provide you with these types of lists:
- Absentee Owners
- Foreclosures
- Lenders on Existing Properties
- Home Owners with Adjustable Rate Mortgages
- People that have purchased more than one property in the last X months (potential investors that have bought recently)
- And many more…
If you are looking to use direct mail to market your real estate investing business, I encourage you to contact a local title company or two and interview them to see if they can help with it and what other services they can provide to assist you.
Until my next post,
James
P.S. Download our Real Estate Investor Daily Training Volume #1 real estate course (free for a limited time) to find out how I generated over a hundred motivated seller calls in a few days using low cost direct mail.
Last week I shared with you an article about my recent experience of looking for a few new real estate agents to work with in the markets we are looking to buy in. In that article I shared with you how diverse the applicants were… some were amazing; some were not.
One thing that I knew going in, but was reminded of as I searched was the power that belief and expectations had on the real estate agent. Here’s what I mean.
If an agent believes deep down that properties never sold for large discounts or with owner financing or any of the creative real estate strategies that, as real estate investors, we know happen every single day, they would automatically shut down and try to tell me that it can’t be done. For those of you that think you’re going to be able to convince an agent that it can be done, I’ve got a couple redwood trees you can push on to move as well. It is just not going to happen.
Even though I personally and thousands of other investors I know have done deals like I have suggested, some agents insist that no one would ever (and fill in the blank).
On the other hand, there are other agents that, because they are new or overly optimistic or maybe just desperate for any deal, tell you they are willing to find those types of deals but have an overly rosy picture of what that entails. They may believe that if they make 2 or 3 offers they’ll find you a killer deal at 50% of value with owner financing. Are there deals out there like that? Yes. Can you find one with an agent? Yes. Will it happen in 2 or 3 offers… the chances are very, very small of that happening with the first two or three offers you make.
While I believe you should be doing marketing yourself, using agents in your business to supplement your deal flow is a great tool–as long as you find an agent that both has realistic beliefs and expectations that mirror your own.
Until my next post,
James
P.S. Download and listen to the Real Estate Investor Daily Training Volume #1 (free for a limited time) to learn how I recommend finding deals and working with motivated sellers.
