I’ve seen this happen to a lot of investors (including myself on many occasions – like right now – read on to see what I am going to do about it at the bottom of this post).
We work really hard to get the phone ringing with motivated sellers. We put up tons of bandit signs, mail out thousands of letters and post cards, call wholesalers and Realtors weekly, and a myriad of other lead generating activities.
This marketing starts to build and we start generating calls more and more frequently. This produces a couple of deals and we get busy rehabbing or otherwise managing the properties. We have to switch hats. The marketing hat is swapped for the rehabbing hat. Hopefully, before too long, the sales hat will be put on.
Well, at this point it has probably been a while since the marketing hat was worn. We were getting calls even while rehabbing, but now we are rarely getting any. The lead funnel has run dry.
We did not worry much about continuing the marketing at the same level we did when we really needed a deal. We still had residual calls coming in and this can trick you into thinking that you really don’t need to market as hard. This is foolish thinking and it is easy to fall into this trap when we are so busy running all of the different operations required for a successful investing business.
We are experiencing the results of what we did several months before. This is because it takes time for the marketing message to spread and for it to accumulate to a level that produces enough calls to make deals. The snowball has melted and needs to be formed again and sent down the longest hill possible.
You have to keep your marketing going! Even when you have too many deals to handle. Wholesale. Cherry pick. Keep it going.
I fell into this trap over the last six months. Really, I guess I never fully ended my vacation during the summer of 2010. Playing semi-retired. Took flying lessons and enjoyed lots of time off. We had a lot of deals and were selling houses quickly. I ended up with about 8 houses waiting for me to do something with them. Over the last 4-5 months, I have been juggling 3 (at one point 6) rehabs at one time. NOT FUN. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS. Things caught up to me and I became exhausted. My marketing had completely stopped (with the exception of yellow pages).
This brings me to a point where I feel like I am starting at the beginning. I’ve got to form the marketing snowball again and start fresh. For motivation, I’ve decided to open up my business to the readers of this blog. I am going to share exactly what marketing I am doing, what leads I am getting, the analysis for those leads, the offers I make and the houses I buy. This will also include the rehabbing and sale of the houses. Basically, you can see and learn about what it takes to buy a lot of houses regularly. It’s really not that hard. I will show you.
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Next: 206: Taking Massive Action
Comments (5)
Hi Danny,
I stumbled on to your post on flippinghomes.com. Now I’m following you on your blog. I’m fairly new to RE investing, I’ve made a few offers already but not nearly as many as I should to make my business grow at a steady pace. I’m glad I came acrossed your blog, it’s going to be a huge help to me and others alike. Keep up the good work.
Brian Jones
Hey Danny,
I finally found your blog(it took me about 2hrs) it was looking me right in the face. I am new to this business. I currently have a 3 family unit that I rent out in a type war zone area. I wish I would have found this blog before I purchased in this neighborhood. But whats done is done.
Question: When wholesaling, how can you assure that the person you are going to wholesale to is not going to cut you out the deal by going behind your back and contacting the original seller once he/she themselves goes to look at the property. I guess you’ll never know but how can you avoid it.
Terrence
Terrence,
There are several ways to deal with this. Some people record a memorandum of agreement with the county which clouds the title. It basically just states that you have a contract to buy the house. This is not bullet proof and some title companies just ignore them. I’ve only done this a couple of times. Basically, just when I feel that the deal is in jeopardy.
Usually the house is vacant and the buyer would have to hunt down the owner. When the house is not vacant, you probably should go with your buyer to view the house if you have any doubt about their character.
You can also just tell a potential buyer that you do have a contract on the house and will not put up with them going behind your back. Let them know that you have several deals in the works and if they want to continue to receive them, they will do what is right.
Hey Danny love your website been following you for a min. I’m at the point where i need to get my marketing going and consistent. I have a lot of competition in my area which is making have to come up with other ways of marketing. One of my 1st deal that i’m working on is coming from a yellow letter.
Do you have a lot of competition in your area and how do you deal with this. If gets much easier when you get them 1st few deals under your belt because then you can start making better offers.
Keep up the good work and I will be studying you more in 2012
We have a TON of competition in San Antonio. You can find ways to avoid some competition and you can work at making people want to sell to you over your competition. It’s not just about price for most people.