Real Estate Investing » Marketing

Richard Roop Marketing Tips from a Real Estate Investing Expert – Episode #54

jz — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:20:44 +0000

Having trouble getting a great response on your direct marketing. Marketing expert Richard Roop breaks it down for us.

Tips for Real Estate Listings – Wendy Patton Episode #39

jz — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:32:24 +0000

Wendy Patton is the nations leading author and trainer on Buying and Selling Real Estate on Lease Option, Rent-to-Owns, and Subject-To deals. She started investing at when she was 21 years old and has been crushing it now for over 20 years. She has for published books, been on HGTV, was featured in the millionaire Real Estate Investor and the Millionaire Real Estate Agent, both by Gary Keller. (The owner of Keller Williams Realty) She isn’t trying to sell you guru abilities, she is actually teaching you.

Here is the segment when Wendy was on HGTV Talking about real estate? values in the Detroit area…

This book is actually Wendy’s complete system of how to buy and sell real estate using the creative techniques of lease options and subject-to’s. It is one of the best reads on Lease Options period. It has more information in it than many Lease Options and Subject To courses that cost big money!

Wendy Patton and Justin Ryan (One of Wendy’s Partners and a cool dude) wrote this one. This is also a MUST read.
How You Can Become Financially Independent by Investing in Real Estate

A few years ago, even reckless real estate investors could still make money because the market was booming. But many markets have softened, and making a profit isn’t as simple as it used to be. However—with the right strategy and long-term thinking—there is still plenty of money to be made in real estate.

Here is the back cover from the book…
If you’re willing to look outside your local market, you’ll discover emerging markets that are booming. And there are also smart investing strategies that work especially well in slowing markets. You can do it! You just need the new rules and wise tactics you’ll find in this practical, profitable guide:

Invest in up-and-coming, high-growth emerging markets
Learn the powerful strategy of market-timing
Use lease options to get more for your money
Learn creative strategies to engineer hands-off investments
Find foreclosures and other hidden bargains
Invest in bargain-rate new construction projects

There are great deals hiding in every real estate market, and this book makes finding those values easy. Whether you want to locate the next up-and-coming growth markets, or find creative ways to finance your investments, Making Hard Cash in a Soft Real Estate Market is a savvy guide to investing for anyone who wants to play it safe and profitably.

Wendy’s other 2 books are more for buyers, sellers, and traditional real estate agents and you can check them out here

In this video she shows you how to call Realtors in your area. These calls were made in New Jersey. She breaks down how to qualify Realtor listings and educate Realtors about creative selling techniques anywhere in the country. The language that Wendy uses is extremely important. Before I learned the language she uses I uses to call real estate agents all the time and get shot down. Her style allows you to turn the table and get the real estate agents open to something more creative than the traditional sales they are used to.

Wendy is an awesome person she left me take my video camera to get some inside footage for you. Here is over 35 minutes of class time boot legged(not really) from Wendy Pattons’ Buying and Selling Real Estate on Lease Option Boot Camp… People paid thousands of dollars for this boot camp, and you are getting a taste of it for free!

If you are looking to invest in real estate using creative techniques like lease options, rent-to-own, or subject-to’s, this is some of the best info!

Sam Bell Web 2.0 Real Estate Investing Domination – Episode #34

jz — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:26:31 +0000

Jon Zorer “Up-coming top dog New Jersey Real Estate Investor”, speaks with Sam Bell about Web 2.0 and how it can greatly affect your Real Estate Investing career. Social marketing can greatly help you whether you are looking to buy or sell a home in NJ or wherever!

Over 80% of real estate investors and potential home owners are looking to the internet for information about potential purchases! Used to be you would get dingy, small, low quality pictures with each home listed. Now adays the sky is the limit and high quality pictures, and High definition video is becoming the thing to do to buy or sell real estate in NJ or wherever.

5 Tips To Get Sellers Calling You in Droves From Direct Mail – Episode #24

jz — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:50:01 +0000

Sorry these 2 episodes are late. We had an issue with the website which the webmaster fixed this morning so here is Tuesdays and I will post Wednesdays in a minute.

P.A.S Real Estate Investing Marketing Formula – Episode #23

jz — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 18:36:19 +0000

This is a special Twitter request episode. I am talking about marketing and how you can right a great marketing piece that will have sellers calling you in droves.

Real Life Real Estate Investing

Deal-Finding Strategies: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

by Vena Jones-Cox

In almost every seminar I’ve ever attended, a lot of time has been devoted to teaching attendees how to find good deals. Because deal-finding IS so crucial to one’s investing success, I recently decided to look back and see which methods have generated the MOST deals and the BEST deals for me. In reviewing the 150 properties I’ve bought or flipped over the last 5 years, I was surprised to find that many of the “traditional” sources of great deals haven’t worked for me, while some less obvious methods have been great lead generators. I’d like to share with you the results of my little inventory.

Good: The Multiple Listing Service. The MLS is essentially a catalog of all the properties listed for sale by brokers. Needless to say, some of them are good deals for investors, and some aren’t. The trick is to ferret out which properties have motivated sellers WITHOUT making offers on all of them. I’ve honed this skill through years of translating agent lingo like, “Handyman’s special” (looks bad, smells bad, has at least one major system that doesn’t function), “needs TLC” (ugly, but not smelly, and everything works).

Why it works: Properties listed in the MLS are for sale. This may seem like an obvious statement, but some of the other methods touted as great ways to find deals involve locating owners, then finding out if they want to sell. Properties in the MLS also have the advantage that all of the information about the property is pretty much laid out for you – a major time saver. And, with the sophisticated, computerized access available to your agent, it’s a matter of a few keystrokes to view all of the properties that are handyman’s specials, or bank-owned, or in estate, or priced under a certain dollar figure – whatever you’d like to concentrate on.

Another reasons that the MLS has worked so well for me is that I am generally in the market for really ugly properties. Coincidentally, these are the same properties that most AGENTS prefer not to spend a lot of time with. In many cases, they’re downright cooperative – particularly when I’m offering all cash and a quick closing.

Bad: Direct mail to real estate agents. In 1994, I had the brilliant idea that I might be able to find MLS-listed properties even faster if I simply let agents know what I was looking for. So I purchased 1,200 agent names from the Board of Realtors and generated a 3-part mailing send to every agent in town.

The theme of this campaign was this: if you, Ms. Agent, have a property listed that fits my criteria, I’ll make an offer and YOU get to keep the entire commission. Out rolled my brilliant campaign – all mailed first class, incidentally – and in came the phone calls. All 7 of them.

That’s right. The week after the first letters went out, we got 7 calls. We had already made offers on three of the properties; two were out of our price range; and two were overpriced listings about to expire.

The next mailing generated even more results – about 15 calls – all basically in the same categories. The final mailing, a postcard, received no notice at all. Basically, I wasted about $1400 on a campaign that generated absolutely nothing.

What went wrong: I still think that this idea has some merit, but if I do it again, I’ll make some major changes. First, I’ll target only the 200 or so agents who list the types of properties I buy. Second, I’ll do a better job of writing the letters, emphasizing how the agent and his seller would benefit from working with me. Third, I’ll make my campaign a continuous one throughout the year, testing different letters for response and mailing the best to the same agents over and over. And lastly, I’ll personalize the campaign by following up with a phone call to the 50 or so best prospects. Oh well, live and learn.

Good: Ads in the Yellow Pages. For 8 years, I’ve had an ad in the “real estate” section of the Yellow Pages. Each year, the ad has had some variation of the wording, “I buy houses – all cash”. This ad only generates 3-4 calls a month, but for some reason the QUALITY of the calls is better than those that are generated by any other method I’ve ever used. The sellers tend to be motivated, cooperative, AND have unlisted properties.

Why it’s worked for me: I love that you deal with these ads once a year, then forget ‘em. While they’re pricey – up to $3500 per year – the phone company will generally bill you monthly for the cost. In addition, as one of the very few ads in the phonebook that promise to buy houses, I haven’t got much competition.

Bad: Advertised FSBOs. Properties For Sale By Owner, a.k.a. FSBOs, are a favorite for some real estate investors. I, on the other hand, have never purchased a property from an owner who advertised his property for sale rather than calling me.

I’ve found several problems with trying to buy FSBOs. The first is that some are not actually for sale. Some FSBOs are just “testing the market to see what kind of offer’s he’ll get. Other FSBO sellers are VERY motivated to sell, but don’t list because they want to keep all of the money from the sale. They don’t want to pay a commission – but they don’t want to take a lower price, either. And sometimes a seller chooses to try to sell their property by themselves because they owe too much to pay a 5%-7% commission, even if he sells it at full price.

If you are buying expensive homes creatively, these sellers are ripe for the kind of solution you offer. My strategy is to buy ugly houses cheaply and for cash, and I just don’t find this type of deal in advertised FSBOs.

Good: Flyers to Targeted Neighborhoods. Last year, I had 10,000 double-sided “I buy houses” flyers printed. I hired someone to put this flyer in the door of every one, two, or three family property they saw in my “farm”. Every 3 weeks, 3,000 of these flyers were delivered, and the response from qualified sellers was excellent. For a cost of less than $500, I made two deals that netted over $6,000.

Bad: Billboards in the same neighborhood. Here’s a lesson in messing up a good thing: hot on the heels of my massively successful flyer campaign, I decided to spring for four large billboards in the same neighborhood. The problem was that my marketing budget is only so big, and buying the billboards meant stopping the flyers. Still, I figured that the billboards would get more attention anyway, so I forked over the $1,800 and got…

Absolutely nothing. Not one single phone call. Not even from an unqualified seller. Not even a wrong number. Nothing.

The moral? Stick with what works.

Good: Flapping my gums. Luckily, talking – a lot – is something I have little problem with. Laugh if you will, but my willingness to talk about what I do to anyone who will listen – or even pretend to listen – has made me a lot of money.

For instance, when my new hairdresser asked me what I did for a living, I responded that I buy and sell houses. His immediate reaction was, “really? How pretty do they have to be?” Long story short: I bought his unwanted junker house for $4,000 and sold it for $7,000 the same day. When my attorney wanted to know what type of assets I wanted to protect, I told him about my house-buying business. Four months later, he referred a client to me who sold me a $35,000 property for $12,000. You get the picture.

Bad: Using only one lead generator at a time. In my experience, it’s best to use at least 3 different ways of finding deals at the same time: preferably two you’ve used before with some success, plus one that you’re testing. Which brings us to

Ugly: Not knowing which of your deal-finding strategies are working, and which aren’t! If you’re going to spend money on flyers or ads or telephone pole signs or whatever, it’s very important that you pay attention to which methods are generating good leads, and which are duds. In looking over my own deals was very surprised to discover how many great deals came from attorney referrals – a strategy that I haven’t pursued aggressively, but will in the future. If you aren’t tracking your lead generators to discover which are working and which you should give up, you’re wasting time and money that could be put to use making you deals.

Reprinted from the Real Deal, a monthly newsletter for Real Life Real Estate Investors with permission of Vena Jones-Cox. Get a free 3-month trial subscription by logging onto www.regoddess.com. One per household, please.

Real Estate Investing Tip: How To Find the GOOD Pre-Foreclosure List – Episode #14

jz — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:29:15 +0000

We are rocking over here in New Jersey but I am siked to leave for the Foreclosure Summit in the ATL in 2 weeks. Kasey and I were the Foreclosure Investors of the Year for 2007 so I look forward to coming out to the event each year. If you want to come check it out here http://tinyurl.com/csuofy We will be having a V.I.P. party and you can be my guest. Just leave a comment on and come up to me and introduce yourself at the event.

Why Banks do Short Sales

Q: What makes a bank decide whether to take a discount on a defaulted mortgage or not? And what formula do they use to decide how much to take? Some banks I’ve talked to have just said no to a discount right away, and others seem perfectly happy to negotiate any offer, even if it’s a fraction of the loan amount. What gives?—D.D., Houston

There are a number of factors that go into a lender’s decision about whether (and by how much) to discount a loan gone bad. Some are obvious; some involve the vagaries of the lending market.

The first step in getting a particular lender to consider YOUR short sale offer is to have your own ducks in a row. Before the lender will even discuss an offer with you, you’ll need a signed purchase contract and a letter of permission from the seller allowing the bank to discuss his loan with you) You’ll also need to make sure that you’re talking to the right person at the right bank—sometimes the place that the seller is sending his payments is not the lender at all, but just a loan servicer. And there’s usually only one person within a given institution who’s empowered to take offers to the board, so discussing your offer with anyone else is a dead end. And don’t even bother to call the attorney who’s handling the foreclosure—there’s absolutely nothing he can do for you.

Assuming you’ve done your homework and are talking to the right paper-pusher, there are a number of other factors that could affect how open the lender is to your offer. One is where the loan is in the foreclosure process. If the borrower is just a few months behind—or if the auction is happening in 3 days—the bank might not be terribly motivated to take a major discount. In the first case, they may assume that they can work out a payoff with the owner: in the second, they’ve already invested a great deal of money in legal fees, and may feel that it’s better to take their chances on getting the property back and reselling it on the open market.

Another issue is the condition of the property. Most lenders are hesitant to take back a property that needs major work, or that has building orders, or that could become an “attractive nuisance.” In other words, the nastier the house, the better the chance that the lender will deal.

Of course, the lender’s position as creditor is another big factor: 2nd and 3rd mortgagors are usually much more willing to discount—and discount BIG—than a 1st mortgagor. Think about it: the seller may have no equity thanks to a 75% 1st mortgage and a 30% 2nd, but the 1st mortgagor has 25% equity if he has to take the property back.

The requirements of the lender’s private mortgage insurance company or of FHA and VA insurance also influence its decision about how much to discount, as does the housing market, difficulty of foreclosure in a particular state, number of bad loans the bank is dealing with, likelihood that the owner will declare bankruptcy, and many, many more variables. So the short answer is, there’s no short answer. Make your best offer, keep following up, and don’t get discouraged!

Here is the site where you will be able to find all of the foreclosure laws for the United States http://www.foreclosurelaw.org/

Real Estate Investing Battle: Vague Vs. Real – The Direct Mail Face Off – Episode #13

jz — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:23:08 +0000

Are you ready to rummmmmmmmmmmmmmbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbblllllllllllleeee!!!!!!!!

We have a Real Estate Investing Battle of the Marketing pieces. We have 2 killer direct mail marketing pieces to pull sellers who are in pre-foreclosure. One of the mailing pieces is very simple, it sneaks up like a ninja and kicks you in the face. The other direct mail piece is very professional, like a hit man, it only pulls quality sellers.

We are testing them head to head to see which mailer will pull more leads, and of those leads how many will turn into deals.

You can get 100 seller calls a day but if they are calling you to tell you to stop mailing them your just wasting time.