How about car advertising???

[Amanda Fox]

Has anybody used a car wrap or a magnet sign for their cars for advertising "We Buy Houses for Cash..." Does anyone else feel like they've sold their souls to the cheezy marketing devil out of desperation??

[Kenneth Estes]

I feel your pain and hate the things.

But they work.

I'm a real estate investor and we have our crews drive around in trucks with hand painted "we buy houses call 574-xxx-xxxx." You wouldn't believe how many calls we get.

I'm guessing you're a real estate agent? In which case your target audience is at least twice mine (buyers and sellers) so I've got to imagine it'll work for you.

The downside is, like you said, it'll feel like you made a Faustian pact.

[Trent Patterson]

I am just getting started in the business an hope I to get my real estate license. And I think it's a cheap easy way to advertise! I have the magnet on my car and little does my wife know but soon she will be driving around with one on hers! Lol. I like it but maybe it's just me but in my area that's how I have have found a few of the guys I contract work out to also! Personally I feel as tho if it works and makes my phone ring cheezy or not I am gonna do.

[Bill Gulley]

They absolutely work. We've had people ask questions in parking lots!

When you go to preview or look at a property, the neighbors are also at ease when the see a sign on a strange vehicle at an empty house, they pay less attention to you.

The down side, you have to be a good driver, can't cut anyone off, pull in front of them, run that light or go speeding down a residential street! :)

[Pat L.]

Originally posted by Bill Gully:

The down side, you have to be a good driver, can't cut anyone off, pull in front of them, run that light or go speeding down a residential street! :)

& peel them off when you're parked at the Canadian Ballet :)
(Yes it happened & his wife answered the call!!)

[Amanda Fox]

Kenneth Estes my husband is a real estate broker but we are moving full time into investing. We have spent our time until now trying to buy properties on the MLS and are just now moving into marketing. Our business is just becoming something very different than I imagined, but it is so important to me/us to make it work that I will do anything, including cheezy car advertising!

[Ben R.]

I started a vehicle wrap business in Atlanta before vehicle wraps were an accepted out of home advertising medium. Every customer I installed had their wraps paid for shortly after through product sales generated from the advertising on the vehicle. I met a real estate agent Friday who specializes in property management for investors in the parking lot at Costco. She had a magnetic sign on her SUV.

[Rachel Leonard]

I'm still a bit wary about using them because I don't want to attract any unwanted attention. I was speaking with an experienced wholesaler who used to use them but his wife found that she was getting phone calls from men trying to hit on her. Maybe she was just very attractive? I wonder if caps and big sunglasses help?

[Jon Klaus]

Originally posted by Rachel Leonard:

I'm still a bit wary about using them because I don't want to attract any unwanted attention. I was speaking with an experienced wholesaler who used to use them but his wife found that she was getting phone calls from men trying to hit on her. Maybe she was just very attractive? I wonder if caps and big sunglasses help?

Use a Google Voice number so you can remain separate from your business.

[John Thedford]

OK...you posters have me sold. I had not considered them until now. I would like to add I had a conversation with an investor at our local REIA. He and his wife were wearing shirts stating "we buy houses". When queried, they stated they got leads regularly from their shirts. This along with car magnets is certainly an inexpensive way to get deals.

[Mike Hurney]

Hey Amanda Fox at our last REIA meeting one of the more successful Wholesalers had this:
He recounted how he was concerned about spending $200.00 for a Paint Job which advertised his services on his “ride”. Driving up Route 1 a gentleman almost ran him off the road trying to get him to pull over and buy his house. Bill actually made over $10,000. on his Wholesaling/Assignment of that deal!

How about "Just do it!" and let us know how it worked for you!
Good Luck Investing, Mike

[Amanda Fox]

Mike Hurney, I love the enthusiasm! I am definitely planning to do it and will let you all know! I am drawing the line at t-shirts, though, John Thedford. I just can't do it!!

[John Thedford]

Originally posted by Amanda Fox:

Mike Hurney, I love the enthusiasm! I am definitely planning to do it and will let you all know! I am drawing the line at t-shirts, though, John Thedford. I just can't do it!!

LOL...when I first saw the shirts I thought "well, these people are desperate to buy houses". Then, after they told me they regularly got leads from wearing them, that changed my mind. If they work, why not?

[Joseph C.]

So I would like to take the car magnet Idea to the next level. I'm thinking about having family, friends and others put them on their cars. They would receive a referral fee for anything I close on that came from their car magnets.

I am curious about possible liability if they were to get into a accident while my magnets were on the car. ANY THOUGHTS?

[James Mudd]

@Amanda Fox ....hey Amanda!  Did you ever start the car advertising?...If you did, what has your experience been?...please tell...!!!

[Michael Quarles]

I love my wrap, about a year ago I bought a Ford Econoline Van from my local Ford Dealer. They were offering zero interest for 48 months so I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Besides we go to the friggin post office with a ton of mail so it would serve that purpose as well. My payments are just under 500.00 a month and my license fee is 509 per year and insurance is 1200 a year. The wrap was just under 2600.00 so my first year cost was 10,100.00.  

Just last week we closed on a deal that came directly from the wrap (the seller walked into our office where it was parked) which produced 60k plus in profit.

[Bryan L.]

@Amanda Fox 

 - No need to feel embarrassed about it.  Just go ahead and do it.  The magnets are pretty cheap.

I had a magnet on mine and one of the older Realtor ladies in my office saw it in the parking lot and chucked, "who's that with the sign on their car?".  She didn't know that it was mine, but she obviously thought it was tacky or funny or something.  Well, this old lady is also retirement age and still working doing Realtor work.  She could have built up a rental portfolio a long time ago, but no, she chuckles at my car magnet.  Who gets the last laugh?

[James Mudd]

@Michael Quarles , I see this too with old lady real estate agents...still having to work long hours chasing a 1-time sell...that will not happen to me...by the time I'm that age, I don't want to have to be hustling...would rather be fishing :-)

[James Mudd]

...anybody else have any successes with car advertising..?

[Amanda Fox]

For whatever it's worth, I hired two people off Craigslist (set it up as a large payout if we closed a deal off their magnets. Made it clear that I had no clue if it was going to work or not) to drive around with our door size magnets one on the driver side and one on the passenger side and a third bumper magnet for about 6 weeks. I hired people that drove extensively through populated areas and parked on the weekends in really busy outside locations. One of them did work with large grocery stores all over the place and was parked throughout the week in busy parking lots and the other one went weekly to a 2-3000 person church in Denver. Both commuted long distances. My plan was to ramp up a large car magnet army throughout Denver if we got a few phone calls during that time. I didn't get one phone call off either car the entire 6 weeks and discontinued the program. However, our magnets were small, we never tried the car wrap and it was only 6 weeks.

I would like to say, though, that I learned that there are a ton of people on Craigslist who are willing to do work for commission only or minimal pay in general. I probably had 25 responses from people who wanted to drive with the magnets. I think, generally speaking, whatever marketing ideas you have, think huge. If most investors are sending 1-2000 mailers a month and the big investors are mailing 1-200,000 mailers every couple months, figure out how you're going to get to the 1-200,000. If you were to find that car magnets are useful in your area, don't just think of putting them on your car, go with a giant car wrap or build the army.

[Rocky V.]

I have been quite successful with my truck wrap and just recently had my logos put on my jeep.  As far as those who feel it is "cheesy" ..... how much money have you made for advertising for Ford, Chevy, BMW or that Mercedes.  They all have signage on them but not yours.   Stop thinking like an employee and start thinking like an employer.

[Mark Ferguson]

my wife is trying to convince me to put a magnet on the Lambo. I can't bring myself to do it yet.

[Dev Horn]

I have run with these car magnets on the car for weeks at a time:

And I can tell you, YOU RARELY GET CALLS FROM CAR MAGNETS.  For me, it's more for branding... I show up with my brand on my car, my business cards, my paperwork, etc.

Now, I do think a WRAP like Michael's would function more like a billboard or advertisement and could be much more productive at generating calls  Our guys up in New Jersey are wrapping a Scion XB:

[Ramon Jenkins]

@Dev Horn very nice work.

Maybe a front plate with the initial  W.B.H.

Just my two cents

[Michael Quarles]

This is as far as I will take my Benz wrap....

And if I had a lambo it would say NOCASH

[Jose Diaz]

Magnets are an interesting idea. Cool to see how some of you have pulled it off.