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One of the most important things that you will need when trying to work “creative” real estate deals is a motivated seller. This cannot be stressed enough. This is the type of seller that is going to be willing to listen to an offer that involves taking over their payments, walking away from their equity or accepting a “no money down” offer. This is the type of person you need to talk to!

 

Many beginning investors often try “looking for houses”. They may call ads in the paper, only to waste their time, as well as the time of a seller who is not motivated. Some may actually go see the house and meet the sellers, only to hear the seller say “no” in person. This is too frustrating and wastes too much time, and NOT the way to find good deals.

 

The way to truly find good deals is to get the motivated sellers calling you! There are many marketing methods that you can use to accomplish this. Some are free and cheap. Some will cost a large sum of money to use effectively. The idea is to draw in calls from as many people as possible that need a solution to their problem. Your advertising should communicate to these sellers that you have a solution for them.

 

You will need to spend some money to market your business, but there is no need to spend a large sum when first starting out. There are several methods you can use that are not only inexpensive, but cost effective as well. After completing some real estate investing deals, and having some spare cash to market with, you can graduate to more expensive marketing methods.

 

Often many new investors simply think that looking for certain “keywords” in classified ads is all they need to do. Many of them have been told that all they have to do is find someone who includes the words “motivated seller” or “must sell”. Some may call on ads offering “owner financing” or a “lease purchase” thinking that since creative terms are being offered, there is a good deal to be had. When they call these ads, they usually find out that the sellers require a sizeable down payment and want to pull the buyer’s credit! It is easy to become frustrated and believe that is impossible to work creative deals after running into these sellers again and again.

 

The NUMBER ONE key to getting the truly good deals is your own MARKETING. Marketing can and will make or break a beginning investor. It is important to the future of your investing career to learn how to use marketing to draw in calls from anxious seller ready and willing to listen to and accept your creative offers.

 

For the most part, sellers who call you will be far more motivated and eager to work out some sort of deal than the average seller who is running an ad in the paper advertising their home for sale. Sometimes sellers will run a classified ad just to see if they get any interest and how likely it would be that they would be able to sell the house when they do decide to sell. Obviously, it is a waste of time for any investor to spend any time talking to a seller like this.

 

Marketing will usually make the phone ring with sellers who realize that they are dealing with an investor. Most will realize that expecting to get an all cash, full appraisal value offer from an investor who needs to make a profit is unrealistic. There are also the types of sellers who simply have a problem they need to have solved. They will many times not care if they have to give up their equity in order to solve their problem. These are the types of sellers that you need to deal with.

 

key points to remember

 

There are some important concepts to keep in mind when coming up with your marketing strategy. One thing that is very important to remember is to keep your marketing consistent! It is necessary to have the same message repeated again and again to your audience. If you are going to frequently change your marketing, you will soon be wasting your valuable time and marketing dollars.

 

Most people will need to see the same marketing repeated over and over again before they will take action and call you or respond to your marketing in any way. It is rare that people react after seeing a marketing message for the first time. There will be times when you will have slow periods of little response to any marketing that you do. This is especially true when just starting a new marketing campaign.

 

Another key point is to keep your message simple and direct. There are a whole lot of other advertisements out there competing for peoples’ eyes. Make sure that when their eyes do land on your marketing, they don’t have to give much thought as to what you are trying to say.

 

Get to the point and do it fast with your marketing. You do not want to lose the precious few seconds that you have to capture someone’s attention. Let them know immediately exactly what it is that you need them to know. In the case of creative real estate investing, that is simple. You want them to know that YOU BUY HOUSES!!

 

After getting your message across, you want to make it easy for sellers to get a hold of you to respond to your marketing. This means that your phone number should be easily and readily available and visible. Don’t hide your contact information in the message, making people have to look for it.

 

It is possible to focus your marketing on one specific area that you want to get houses in. For example you can concentrate on the area of town that you are most familiar with so that you will know property values when someone calls with a house for sale. This can also help you avoid the bad areas that you do not want to invest in. To “target” your marketing, you can set up signs in a particular area, or limit the places that you pass out your flyers and brochures.

 

It is very important to make your marketing as effective as possible, especially when starting out and dealing with a limited advertising budget. Many times, the most expensive means of marketing are the least effective for a real estate investor. For example, what happens when you are listening to the radio and a commercial comes on? You, like many people may simply switch stations to continue to listen to music instead of a commercial. As you can see, this means that if you had paid to have your commercial aired, you have just lost some of your audience.

 

Repetition is another key factor in marketing. It is important that people see your message as many times as possible. Most people will usually not respond to a particular ad until having seen it a number of times. This reinforces your message in peoples’ mind and gets them moving in the direction of contacting you when they have a property for sale.

 

Tracking results

 

It is a very good idea to track the results that you get from your marketing. This can be helpful for a number of reasons. Since marketing is so important to getting your business going, you want to make sure that you are using the most effective and efficient methods of getting motivated sellers to call you. Without tracking how sellers found you, you will not be able to know where to concentrate your marketing efforts and dollars.

 

When a seller calls you, one of your very first questions should be asking them how they found your number. This allows you to know if your signs, brochures, or flyers are what are most effective in getting people to call you. You may want to take it a step further and ask where they saw the particular sign or flyer. This also lets you know if a particular roadside corner is most effective to put your sign to draw the most number of responses.

 

Your message

 

Your marketing message should be simple and direct. You want to get your point across in as little time as possible. Here are some examples of effective wording for signs, flyers, business cards, etc.-

 

BUY HOUSES

We take over payments

No Equity, No Problem

No commissions or fees

555-555-5555

 

WE BUY HOUSES

Fast Cash

555-555-5555

 

WE BUY HOUSES

We buy fixer-uppers

FAST CASH PAID!

555-555-5555

 

WE BUY HOUSES

Fast Cash or Take over payments

555-555-5555

 

Tools

 

“Bandit” signs- Roadside signs are usually the most effective marketing tool for drawing in leads from motivated sellers. These are usually 18X24 corrugated plastic signs placed on the side of the road with your “WE BUY HOUSES” message. They are very effective because of the sheer volume of people who will see them. You do need to check with your local code enforcement office to check on how these signs can be used, however. If they are not permitted in your area, you may be fined for putting them up.

 

Business cards- It is also possible to produce business cards on your computer. Most office supply stores sell sheets with small perforations to tear into business card-sized pieces. Many programs include business card creators and can be used with these sheets to correctly space the printing. You can also have them printed up for a more professional look and special features, like raised text, which can increase the chances of people retaining and using your card.

 

Flyers- Flyers can be easily created on your computer to give you a cheap, effective marketing tool. You can design a professional looking flyer and print them out, or simply print one and take it to an office supply store to make copies. You can also spend a little more and have them professionally produced for a more upscale look. Be sure to include the SAME marketing message as the rest of your advertising and some tear-off strips at the bottom to make it easy for people to take your number with them. Using BRIGHT colored paper to print your flyers on is a good way to catch people’s attention and get them to look at your message. Leave your flyers everywhere you can including grocery stores, department stores, libraries, Laundromats, taped to pay phones, and anywhere with a bulleting board.

 

Direct mail- It is possible to use the internet to do a reverse search using a telephone number to get the address associated with it. This means that when you see ads in the paper for homes for sale, you can get the number, do a reverse search and get the address of the person running the ad. You can then use this address to send out a letter explaining that you are an investor who buys homes and would be interested in talking to them if they might offer a discount from retail value or consider a sale on terms to you. Direct mail can also be sent to people who have listed their house with a realtor, but the listing has expired. You can get these expired listings from a realtor or someone else with access to the MLS (Multiple Listing Service).

 

Newspaper ads- A common tool used by most investors is an ad in the newspaper. This can also yield a lot of calls. This should be placed in the “Real Estate Wanted” section of your paper if it has one. Again, this should contain the same message as all your other advertising.

 

Vehicle signs- There are a few different categories of vehicle signs that you can use. It is easy enough to tape a colorful sign to the inside of your back window that has your marketing message. You can also purchase magnetic signs and make them yourself with a “kit” from an office supply store, or have them professionally made at a sign making shop. You can even have bumper stickers made up to put on your vehicle and anyone else’s who will let you!

 

Clothing- It can be fairly inexpensive to have a batch of T-shirts printed up with your message on them. If you, your family or friends wear these around, it is very possible that people will take notice and even stop to ask you if you might be interested in buying their house!

 

Weekly papers- Many areas have weekly papers like the Thrifty Nickel or Pennysaver. Advertising in these papers can often times be cheap and very effective.

 

Brochures- It is possible to cheaply print up some tri-fold brochures on your computer, or again, you can have them printed at a print shop. A brochure allows you to go a little more in depth about the service that you can provide to a seller, such as taking over the payments on their house, or helping to stop foreclosure by buying their house fast.

 

Yellow pages- Although there are only certain times of the year when you can get your ad in, advertising in the yellow pages is a good way to give your business a more legitimate look. Often, people will turn to the yellow pages first when they need some service, such as help selling their house, and if they happen across your ad stating that you buy houses, may be inclined to call you first before calling a realtor and waiting for their house to sell while it sits on the MLS.

 

Newsstand racks- It is possible to cheaply construct a stand to hold a number of your flyers and brochures. This can be placed with the other Apartment Guides and Newspaper racks near grocery stores or other stores. Be sure to ask permission before setting your stand up!

 

Billboards- Billboards can be a good way to catch the attention of a very large audience. Your message will always be up and visible to everyone driving by.