Defining "motivated"

[Joe Butcher]

Have been getting lots of calls since starting my yellow letter campaign. No deals so far, as the sellers (or potential sellers) haven't seemed that motivated to me.

Maybe it's my expectations? Maybe I was expecting the seller to say "PLEASE take my house at 30% of market value!!" or something.

Maybe I'm unsure just what "motivated" is. A gentleman I spoke with today said he wants to sell his rental property, and is sick and tired of being a landlord as he lives 30 miles away. To me that sounds motivated, BUT is it motivated enough to let me have the property at a good enough discount to make it a deal? If he already has it rented out, what would be the benefit of a possible owner finance as an alternative to a cash deal?

Sometimes I feel that I may be letting potential deals pass me by because I am not sure what kind of deal matches what level of motivation.

Anyone else face a similar situation as a beginning wholesaler?

Thanks.

[Ellis San Jose]

A great example of ineffective marketing came about last night at my local real estate club meeting. An investor was speaking about a 10% response rate on her campaign. Although, impressive on the surface, I asked how many turned into a check deposit in her bank account. A big fat ZERO. Sounds too familiar to me. I was there myself not too long ago. I got a cold slap in the face when realize that for years I was just an amateur with a shotgun. I was just wasting money by the THOUSANDS $$$$ creating "yellow junk mail".

It's like having a website with tons of traffic but going broke because no one is buying.

Response rate is one of the most overrated statistics in marketing, it can be an important measurement in the big picture, but response rate doesn't pay the bills. If the wrong people are showing up you have some work to do on your system.

A huge shift that transformed my bank account was learning these 3 marketing principles:

1) Right Person

2) Right Message

3) Right Time

I am far from being a marketing expert, but I am learning quickly & constantly improving my skills.

Once I became a serious student of marketing & discarded everything I thought I knew about real estate, things started to change for the better.