TOOLS OF THE TRADE?

Question

I am looking to start wholesaling, I've been driving for dollars and got some yellow letters ready to go, just want to know what are all the Tools/Programs you experienced wholesalers use, and I'd assume most the tools can be used across all types of investing. As for now I have nothing but some paper, pens and Microsoft Word on my computer, ha. So all advice is appreciated.

Looking for tools and programs for the following:

-Finding your lists/targeted sellers

-Tracking calls/info as it comes in.

-Storing info on Motivated Seller's/ Cash Buyers

-Building and tracking my mailing list so I can hit multiple times.

-I set up a Google Voice account I was going to use for all my marketing, is there any advice on this or better programs?

-What do you use to automate your business, mailings, calls, etc?

-And what are the prices on all these that you use?

-Any I haven't mentioned?

As a beginner, I am going to be on a tight starting budget, so VA's, and the like will be down the road. Once I get my first deal I will reinvest into more tools/marketing, so advice on best tools to start with and best to upgrade to will help! Thank you!

Gary Parker · Answer

@Frank Garcia  yes there are laws regarding contacting people in default, and you should learn those laws in your area before contacting people in default.  Having a license in my opinion helps.

Jason Fraser · Answer

Yellow legal pads and pens from the dollar store. Hand writing letters isn't  fun but you have to start somewhere.

Google voice because it's free and you read the transcript of the voicemail.

Vista prints for affordable business cards, door magnets (more advertising).

Go Daddy for domain name and website hosting for seller website to capture information.

IFTTT.com to automate FSBO and For Rent listing to be sent to my gmail account. Less time sorting and shifting on Craigslist.

Google drive to manage my spreadsheets to track my marketing efforts, docs for letters, etc.

ZohoCRM to manage seller, investor, and other RE professional contacts. There's others but I prefer Zohocrm because it works similar to Salesforce which is what I use for my full time job so it reduced my learning resources.

My personal rule for online tools is that I have to be able to use it fluidly  between my laptop, iPad, android phone, or samsung tab.

Frank Garcia · Answer

@Gary Parker Okay Gary, will do, thanks for the help & info!

Frank Garcia · Answer

@JPaul Mills Podio! Thanks, that was one of the programs I have heard and couldn't  remember the name! I'll sign up for that right away. Yep, as soon as I  get these programs set up so I'm capable of handling the calls, bandit  signs are my next step. Thanks again for reminding me of Podio, it had  been on the tip of my tongue haha.

@Gary Parker    Yes, I definitely understand that, I actually hand wrote one letter  aligned with the yellow letters, and scanned it and am going to print  them out at home and just fill in the blanks for now. Once I get my  first deal I'll have a better idea of what gives me the best response  rates and work on that. Great advice, that's another one of my plans too, I will be doing it all to see what works best for me, door knocking, CL searching, yellow letters, bandit signs etc! Are you able to wholesale in any situation, I've heard about possible legal issues targeting houses where the owner is in pre-foreclosure or in the foreclosure process, is this true, or do the laws differ by location?

@Jason Fraser  Costco $9 for 9 legal pads! Have you had good response rates with  things like door magnets? IFTTT.com that's another site I've heard of,  but never considered Google Drive, I'll have to look into those. Good  point with the accessibility.

Thanks everybody for the quick and very helpful responses, I really appreciate it!

Gary Parker · Answer

When working full time I think the key might be to determine the best use of your time.   Hand writing letters is the least expensive, but it will be very hard to get out large numbers consistently.   I think if it were me starting new again, I would get my real estate license right away and door knock specific leads.  This way you can possibly earn some money with listing leads and learn the business form that angle.  The door knocking will teach you how to talk to people.  Learn what questions to ask and let them talk.  You can door knock pre foreclosure, track down owners of vacant homes, local absentee owners and so on.  Door knocking may not be the best way to scale a business, but it is a great way to get involved in the business.   If you DK pre foreclosure know the laws.

JPaul Mills · Answer

I started out during selling cars full time and that in it self is crazy hours(55-60/wk). I would suggest letting them goto vm and contact them after your work. That will give you the time to write all notes on your pad bride calling back. I would suggest getting familiar with podio or another free CRM tool to help in your business. Podio is free and there at apps that you can  use to help in your wholesaling business to track your leads, keep track of your buyers, and add notes on the fly plus they have a mobile app as well. I started with only $150 for marketing so I hand wrot my firs100 batch of yellow letters and I went to a sign shop and bought some 4x8 sheets of hello coroplast and cut and hand wrote my own signs. And the leads off of the signs Hav been my main source of deals so hit it hard cuz it does work

Frank Garcia · Answer

Also I work full-time, advice on making this happen while working 40 hours a week? Would you just send all callers to voice mail and call them all back at the end of the work day? Direct them to  a website with page to fill out info and help filter through and only respond to the motivated sellers? Thanks for the help!

TOOLS OF THE TRADE?

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