Wholesaling - new marketing methods

[Dave Rav]

Hey, all BP members and investors!  I wanted to reach out about more recent and updated marketing methods for wholesaling.  Curious to know what everyone else is doing.  

In my experiences recently, formerly basic and proven methods have be less effective.  I am talking specifically about bandit signs.  In the last 4-5 months I have put up a bunch of signs, which have only yielded 3 calls.  Not sure what is going on here!  And my signs are hand-written (not intimidating, nor appearing to be from a "company" and hopefully appeal to my audience).  In the past they worked; but not so much now.  

I have started a direct mail campaign.  About 100 postcards thus far.  Verdict is still out on that.  

Additionally, I have read about some folks using social media to obtain leads or contact folks.  I have never done this and want to learn more.  Have any of you done this?  I guess I am wondering how you connect with these folks (as a cold contact) with ease and without coming across as a "stalker".  Any insight is much appreciated?

[Johnny Kang]

Hey @Dave Rav

I feel your pain. I went through something similar with direct mail 2 years ago, where I was able to get about a 5% response rate and solid appointments & close deals, etc.; then all of sudden - poof, my response rate dropped to less than 1%, and the people who called were just tire kickers. 

Still being a novice in real estate back then (not that I'm a seasoned veteran now), I just kept sending out letters, without realizing I had to course correct. 

$28,000 later sending out letters, I stopped what I was doing and tried to figure out what I was doing wrong. 

"Traction" by Gino Wickman had a major impact on what I did next. 

What I lacked was my purpose in running a real estate investment company. All I cared about was finding deals to make money, but failed to think about what the purpose of the existence of my company was for. 

Any lasting business that grows and matures does so by providing value to the market place. Once it ceases to do that, it eventually dies. 

So the question I had to ask was; "what's the reason my company exists?"

I've always heard "find motivated sellers," cause that's where you can find discounted properties and make a decent profit. Finding 60%~70% ARV would be the ideal scenario any investor would want because it can be profitable. But it's also mainly feeding our selfish-greedy side in us all, if finding a "good deal" is what we're mainly focused on.

But the flip side to that is, that's where distressed homeowners are. People going through real life issues (bankruptcy, divorce, passing away of a loved one, landlords dealing with nightmare tenants, they're getting sued, they have code violations, they can't pay their mortgage, they owe taxes, they just had a flood and need mold remediation specialist, etc.)

So I decided I wanted my company's core value to be, helping distressed homeowners in whichever way possible, even if there's no immediate monetary compensation. (we are helping a lady guide her through a loan modification process because this is totally foreign to her, without asking for any compensation. Ok, well, my partner is doing that. I'm not as altruistic as her. haha)

This lead me to naturally come up with ways to compile leads thinking about property owners who might be going through stressful situations, and came up with about 14 categories, and built systems & processes to Create these type of leads, and Convert them into appointments & deals closed. It was a 6 month long process, from initially reading the book "Traction" to having built out an operation that brings in on average 250 leads a week, and getting to the point of sending out 1~2 offers/week, which will turn into more offers/week as I tighten my operation and start employing AI to scale. 

Although I somewhat agree with old methods not working as well, I think the core issue is trying to come up with how you can bring value to the market place, and then figuring out the best possible method to get that message out to the people you're trying to help. So it may mean utilizing updated methods, social media, online marketing, but it may not. It may mean having a corporate image, but it may not. What I'm saying is, the presentation of what you represent matters only to the extent it matters to your audience. And that, only you can figure out how it is you want to serve the market, and the compensation is the by-product for services rendered. 

What is the purpose your company exists?