Which is the better way to finding deals

[Charles Bailey]

What has worked better for you guys? Driving for dollars and cold calling or a mail direct campaign? Also if you have experimented with mail direct what layout and letter presentation is more effective?

[Amaury Zambrano]

@Charles Bailey, we get leads using the MLS and networking at meetups.

[Matthew Irish-Jones]

@Charles Bailey to buy real estate or to wholesale real estate?

[Charles Bailey]

@Matthew Irish-Jones to wholesale, but would there be a different method used if you were purchasing the properties yourself?

[Charles Bailey]

@Amaury Zambrano do you get deals with current listings or do you focus on older/expired listings?

[Matthew Irish-Jones]

@Charles Bailey if you want to purchase properties you can source deals through Realtors.

For wholesaling… I like the marketing platforms that allow people to call you if they are interested instead of cold calling them. Assuming you want to double close that is :)

[Kevin Scott]

@Charles Bailey We have had success with all of those.  We aren't actually driving 4 dollars (although have for fun years ago) but we mail and call the same houses that would be on a driving 4 dollars list.  Calling then mailing the ones you can't get ahold of helps keep the costs down when doing large amounts of marketing.

[Joe Hammel]

@Charles Bailey

My opinion those are both very low $/hr activities.

Unless you’re building an entire large operation around it, I just don’t feel it works well enough to casually or part time do it.

You might spend a few thousand dollars and a few hundred hours doing this… all to save you a few thousand dollars trying to get a slightly cheaper deal…

For example: we sold 160 houses last year. ALL on the MLS. Rents are high, the market trending, inflation skyrocketing….every single one of those 160 properties are awesome deals and those owners have $10k-$50k in equity and double digit ROI right now.

I realize your question was this or that, and I gave a 3rd option lol. Not what you were asking. Just mentioning this in case it’s been on your radar and to look back in to what’s around you and maybe save you the tough experience of calling or letters…

To answer question: buy red x circle prospecting leads and a triple dialer and you can call 500-1000 people a day and just ask them if you want to sell. Cold calling and bandit signs I feel are more effective that letters. Cold calling is brutal, but letters get thrown away. Unless you have a very automated mailing process.

[Joshua Janus]

@Charles Bailey If you want to find the deals directly, you'll need to go out and prospect the sellers and see who would entertain an offer. I do this through cold calling, texting, emailing and whatever it takes to find a deal. If you do this on a consistent basis you will find deals as it is just a numbers game in the end.

[Charles Bailey]

@Matthew Irish-Jones yeah if they are calling that betters your chances. What marketing platforms are you using and which ones have been more and least successful for you?

[Charles Bailey]

@Kevin Scott do you print the letters and purchase the envelopes yourself or do you use a direct mail marketing website?

[Charles Bailey]

@Joshua Janus do you have a good cold calling script that you few is effective?

[Samad Javed]

Mail campaigns to a targeted group of owners. Get clarity on your targets first before you worry about mail type!

[Steven Foster Wilson]

Quote from @Charles Bailey:

What has worked better for you guys? Driving for dollars and cold calling or a mail direct campaign? Also if you have experimented with mail direct what layout and letter presentation is more effective?

 Personally, I have had the best luck with cold calling in the Columbus and Cincinnati areas. We are also starting to look into doing the same in the tertiary markets due to prices going on the up and up.

[Austin McClain]

I've had the most success through cold calling. It sometimes takes a few calls, but following up helps people remember you when they do decide to look at offers. 

[Kevin Scott]

Quote from @Charles Bailey:

@Kevin Scott do you print the letters and purchase the envelopes yourself or do you use a direct mail marketing website?

 We do mostly postcards when we are doing large mailings.  Rarely do we send letters.  A long time ago we did letters fulfilled by a mail house.

[Charles Bailey]

@Kevin Scott do you have decent success with the post cards and do you use a site that makes and mails them or do you make and mail them yourself?

[Kevin Scott]

Quote from @Charles Bailey:

@Kevin Scott do you have decent success with the post cards and do you use a site that makes and mails them or do you make and mail them yourself?

 @Charles Bailey  Yes we have success with post cards.   If we are doing large volume we do them in house.  We have the equipment.  If we are doing smaller volume which is what we are doing currently we outsource to a couple different companies.

[Lamar George]

@Charles Bailey driving for dollars is the best way to build a list no one has.

Pick a nieghborhood and drive it.

Make your list then reach out.

[Charles Bailey]

@Lamar George that is what I am currently doing and then running the property through the tax assessor to get the owners name and mailing address. I just need a good skip tracing service that doesn't give me a bunch of land lines or disconnected numbers.

[Lamar George]

You can try batchskiptracing. Batchdriven is a great driving for dollar app that you can skip trace on the spot.

[Kevin Scott]

Quote from @Charles Bailey:

@Lamar George that is what I am currently doing and then running the property through the tax assessor to get the owners name and mailing address. I just need a good skip tracing service that doesn't give me a bunch of land lines or disconnected numbers.

 Hey @Charles Bailey  Feel free to pm me, I'm alway open to a conversation.  I am not downplaying driving for dollars but the idea that no one has that list is simply what the gurus say or just incorrect.  I'm sure lamar isn't meaning it in the way it sounds, because its still useful for new investors to drive for dollars. He is right to say its a good thing to do. But realistically anyone pulling lists gets all the d4d houses on their list without having to drive around. (again its still good to do in the beginning)  there are situations where driving for dollars actually misses more houses than gets.  I am currently working on a deal that I would have missed driving.  

I literally have all the preforeclosures, tax delinquent, vacant d4d houses on every list I pull.  It is ok to separate them but if you are trying to really get going in this biz you should be trying to get a hold of all of them.  

If you are going to do d4d send me a message. I can probably save you a bunch of money on unneeded apps and skip tracing.  Our sources are good and we average a few cents per contact to get numbers using multiple sources.  Some are more some are less but the average will be in the 3 to 6 cent range on a large list.

[Lamar George]

Here is where I disagree with @Kevin Scott. He is partly right about the list comment. Yes if one was to search certain criteria then yes you could see the same properties. 

However, As I love driving for dollars the fact is you are not just looking for vacant properties. You are also looking for homes that look like they are in distress. Many times these properties are absentee owned but not vacant sometimes owner occupants wanted to sell but did not have the money to make repairs. 

if you have a "we buy Houses" sign on your vehicle many times you get leads from neighbors that saw your sign and know someone. Especially when you stop to enter the info on a found property.

This is a small examples of properties that are not going to be on a list you can buy. More gold with driving for dollars than an list that anyone can buy. 

If you use batchdriven you can create specific folders, add the property, skip trace, or mail right from the app. 

Step 1 Get a good driving for dollars app

Step 2 Go out and add 100 distress properties everyday (In some markets you will find 100 in your first 1 hour of driving.) I can get close to hundred in certain zip codes.

Step 3 Skip trace the leads

Step 4 Send a text blast "Hey Do you own 123 Main Street?" This will get a potential covo started

Step 5 Follow up Follow Up Follow Up

Step 6 Repeat Repeat.

You can text on a daily or weekly. 

Math: 100 leads a day for 30 days = 3000 leads you potentially could contact. There ya go hope this was helpful.

[Amaury Zambrano]

Quote from @Charles Bailey:

@Amaury Zambrano do you get deals with current listings or do you focus on older/expired listings?

 The current listing has been working for me. We are quick to make an offer.