Driving for Dollars In Action

[Doug Haisten]

Background: Recent changes to my 9-5 job (laid off) finds me with time and opportunity to go all ahead in RE. I had already sent out a direct mail piece (my first) and got a good response. These were out of state absentee owners. I am poised to send out my second and third, etc. going for the 5-7 touches.

Looking for something a bit faster (?) and looking for another channel for leads I have started Driving 4 Dollars. I am curious what information I need to gather at the property? Certainly the address but should I write down information about the house such as vacant or in need of repair (like tree fallen through the roof of a vacant house, or another vacant house I saw with a general run down appearance and a large tarp over the roof). Do I take a picture of the house. My thought is for house just vacant with so so appearance and/or maintenance I might be dealing with a land lord and thus send a letter rather than a card appealing to the owner that might want to get out of the rental "business" or at least this property and the maintenance headaches while a letter to the owner of a house with a tree through the roof may not want the hassles of repairs, etc and get a different letter. Also, does anyone take pictures of the houses and maybe send those with a letter if it helps convey the idea of selling? I guess the point of my post is we need to look for the urgent need of the house owner that we can solve for them. I may be way out in left field in what I am thinking.  

Also, if the name of the owners and their phone number is obtained does anyone personally call (with or without an preliminary letter?

Doug

[Jerryll Noorden]

So here is how it works.

The more money you can spend the less work you have to do. If you have no money, the more work you will need to do to get leads.

Bandit signs (I am not promoting this, it is not legal).

Craigslist

Driving for dollars (I seriously think this is a waste of time).

Cold calling.

Create a website.. ahem coughBEST way caughTO caughGet Leads cough snort whipe cough.

This is what I meant in my previous reply to you concerning SEO. If you are not doing SEO, you will eventually get choked out of business.  No one is going to be convinced you have the cash to buy their house if you are door knocking. If you had 300K lying around to buy someones house in cash, why would you be troubling yourself going door to door in the cold asking if "I can please buy you house in cash". It just doesn't add up. I said it before and say it again. Credibility is what converts people.

You are just not credible doing that.

But I definitely want this reply to have some value to you.

so..

Driving for dollars.

Look for tall grass, crappy unkept house exterior and yard. 

Notices on their doors.

Look in their mailbox (don't advise that) for adult magazines.... and while you are at it, see if there is backed up mail in there too.

Boarded up windows.

Those are good houses to scout and spend time on finding the owner.

Get a list together, and send them a nice metter, ideally with a picture of the house printed (so the owner actually thinks you are interested in HIS house and not just mass mailing a ton of people).

Please do not sent a hand written letter (UNLESS) you do it right (yes there is a way to do it right).

Remember... most important thing.

Yell "monkey power" from the top of your lung every morning out of the window.Between 4:30 AM and 6:50 AM

Good things will come your way when doing so. Don't believe me? Look at me.

enough said!

[Doug Haisten]

Jerryll:

As I am just starting out planting my field I know some of my efforts will take some time to produce fruits, such ad DM. As I drive around and see stressed houses I feel I need to go after these especially the vacant stressed houses in the right neighborhoods. I have seen many recommend alternate sources for leads (3 or more). I want to keep on with DM and want to get a lead generating web site. The third I can see D4$ as one but work in something like probates.

[Jerryll Noorden]

Originally posted by @Doug Haisten:

Jerryll:

As I am just starting out planting my field I know some of my efforts will take some time to produce fruits, such ad DM. As I drive around and see stressed houses I feel I need to go after these especially the vacant stressed houses in the right neighborhoods. I have seen many recommend alternate sources for leads (3 or more). I want to keep on with DM and want to get a lead generating web site. The third I can see D4$ as one but work in something like probates.

 BTW, I live in Pensacola. When I go back home we need to meet up over some shirley temples!

OK listen, please know this is just my personal :this is what I would do if I were you".

Do you have any source of income right now? If yes? Great... you will definitely make it big if you work hard and you convince yourself you will make it big, it is not a matter of "if" it is a matter of "when". And I mean this. You just need to believe it and know it to be true. (this will motivate you to never give up also).

When I did DM, I sent about 3000 cards, I get in the 100ds phone calls and one ends up being a deal. Mind you this is CT.

What you have to do is figure out how many leads ands up in a deal. So in my case every 100 calls I get a deal.

If I sent 3000 mailers I get 100 calls.

SO... letting my NASA brain to complex calculations...

Every 3000 mailers results in 1 deal.

So how many deals do you want a month? 2? Great. So you have to send out 6000 mailers, to get 200 phonecalls to get 2 deals.

This seems a bit "whaaaaa?" but really that is how it works. Of course it depends on your list you DM to of course. I had a ton of luck with Terrys list.

The reson why I said that door knocking is not feasible is for that reason. You would have to knock on 3000 doors, for 100 people to be interested to get 1 deal. Is it REALLY like this?

No.. of course not exactly... DM is different than  life annying person knocking a your door, but on the other hand that can be even better as you are dealing with a real life person on the spot. So who knows.

Should you not do door knocking? 

YES you should if that is the best way you can spend your time getting deals. Meaning...

If you could devote 1 hour on SEO or 1 hour on doorknocking... yes do SEO.

But if the only thing you CAN do is DK (door knocking), yes better thant than nothing at all.

Thi is what your mindset should be like right now.

"I do not GIVE A CRAP how hard I have to work.. I am not looking for a million dollars right now.. I am JUST looking for 5K for my first deal".

With that 5K, you dump it on DM, and you now get 3 deals. With that 15 K you dump that back into DM and now you get 14 deals.. and you have enough money do do a small flip that lands you 40K in proffits.

You climb up and up till you have plenty of money to now start going after all the other investors in your market and crush them. Take over their market.

Any way THEY find their leads, do the same but better. Take over their feed and you wil starve them to death. Every competitor that gives way to you, you take their leads and become stronger. Till you are the only guy left in your market that is untouchable.

Don't get cocky, and keep an eye on your competitors.

My problem right now is that my competitors are becoming very desperate. They are doing all sorts of blackhat SEO (YES YOU, I KNOW who you are). The problem is that they will rank quick and fast... but they are at risk of a google update that will hurt them bad. The issue is that this is not guaranteed, and I am not willing to do blackhat SEO.

So all  can do is step up my SEO game 10x to even beat their crappy blackhat crap!

[Jerryll Noorden]

Originally posted by @Doug Haisten:

Jerryll:

As I am just starting out planting my field I know some of my efforts will take some time to produce fruits, such ad DM. As I drive around and see stressed houses I feel I need to go after these especially the vacant stressed houses in the right neighborhoods. I have seen many recommend alternate sources for leads (3 or more). I want to keep on with DM and want to get a lead generating web site. The third I can see D4$ as one but work in something like probates.

 Also Doug...

Do this.

Get a website, and although SEO takes time, credibility is instant.

Get your credibility score up on your site (I will show you how), and then manually drive traffic to your site using craigslist and other free means of driving traffic, again I will show you how.

This way you can leverage the power of a website (being online) to your benefit instantly!

Look what your competitor is doing and do it 10 times better, longer .. that is literally what I did!

[Damien Dupee]

@Doug Haisten I love driving for dollars. Just the address should suffice. You should outsource the lookup/ skiptrace part to a virtual assistant for like $4/hr via upwork. In reference to calling the vacant property owner, capital YES!!!. That's the best way to get a yes,no, or maybe so. My system is automated so we drip text messages and and voice broadcast and they call me back and text me.