Dominating A Neighborhood and Your Competition

[Sean Gribbons]

Lately I've been thinking of ways to completely capture a whole neighborhood being the guy that everybody knows to go to when they need to sell fast for cash quick and easy.  I thought I'd share my thoughts on Bigger Pockets to see what the community thinks.

My philosophy is, they may not need or want to sell now or tomorrow or next week or even next month but if I'm continually in front of them they will know who and where to go without even hesitating. The classic goal of all marketing campaigns! 

Ideally you will want a message that shows how easy and quick the process is for these sellers. Believe it or not I've seen sellers take heavy discounts on their home purely based on the fact that they don't want to deal with showings and the whole listing ordeal. I thought this was so crazy but some people value things differently and we are providing a service to them! It's important to remember the value you offer your sellers. In the market I'm in (Denver Metro) there is so much competition that you have to not only show your value but sometimes beat out competition which can be extremely difficult when other investors are always willing to offer another thousand on top of your last offer. With all that being said, here's my steps to dominating your competition in a neighborhood and becoming the go to person.

1.) Mailers! I'm not sure how often other investors mail out pieces but I like to take a two step approach. The first step is mailing every home in the neighborhood once to twice a month. In this piece I'm purely just letting everyone know, hey I want to buy homes in your neighborhood. I can close quick, with cash, and have extremely few contingencies making the process uber simple for sellers. This message should also include asking them if they know anyone who's selling or thinking of selling. The second piece to this operation is driving the neighborhood and locating the distressed properties. These are the ideal money makers so I want to really be in front of them with a customised message about their home! I have an awesome app that allows me to take a picture select their address then send whatever postcard i want with a picture that I took of their home.

2.) At those same houses you're taking pictures of and focusing on I will also drop off a sticky note,  handwritten letter, or even business card. Remember the more places they see you the better!

3.) Depending on your county and city laws bandit signs may or may not be legal. Regardless I don't condone people breaking laws but we are doing a favor to the community. Worst case scenario is you use your own info and phone number and get busted by these sharks! Use a google voice number and have people leave a message or just put up and remove your signs during the weekend hours. I like to put signs at all entrances and exits to the neighborhood. If you are choosing a big community local grocery stores are a super ideal location to place signs.

4.) Door hangers! It's easy to find a company or even some local teens to walk and put door hangers on every single home in the neighborhood. I like personalised things so I would use door hangers that look handwritten or even handwritten letters to each door. I've seen houses that look immaculate on the outside yet you walk in and you are in the 60's and the home needs a complete gut job! Its important to get every home.  Secondly neighbors talk, hit every house and you may find leads from their friends or maybe they spoke to the elderly woman's family who is moving into an assisted living home. The point is hit every house! 

5.)  Door knock. This is probably hands down the best way, besides driving for dollars the most to get leads. I prefer to have just purchased a home in the neighborhood and go out knocking because you seem like an insider at that point. You're part of the neighborhood. Introduce yourself and tell others what you're doing. You're out improving their community and most importantly raising the prices in their neighborhood once they know this they will open up and want to get rid of any eye sores they see! Create lasting relationships and you could easily be buying their home when they need to move in the next year. One conversation and relationship could bring you thousands of dollars!

6.) Do online marketing. I like to target zip codes and people who plan on moving on Facebook. This will be sure to keep you in front of those prospective sellers when they are online doing research. There are so many different options for this one I'm not going to go into much detail. Try it all and see what works most effectively.

This is my plan to dominate my competition and become the guy to go to in the neighborhoods I want to buy and sell investments in. If you'll notice you could spend well under $150 each month on this and own the neighborhoods you want! Its cheap and very effective.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!