Overview of my first week of wholesaling

[Michael Westberry]

Last friday was my first call from my marketing campaign. This week I have received around 30 calls in all. I wanted to talk about the things I am doing right and things I need to improve on.

Improvements needed 

Good note taking

Thanks @Michael Quarles I have been using your script you provide on the website with great success. At first I was keeping the notes on paper and due to lack of organization lost someone of these notes but traced the numbers back fortunately.

No follow up system/ tracking

Currently I am not using a CRM or any lead follow up system. This is something I am researching. I was overwhelmed by the calls I received and while I tried to return most of the calls within twenty four hours, this did not happen. Being a full time student, I had to balance phone calls with studying which I could have done better. 

Things I am doing well in:

I am an extrovert and love to talk to anyone. I found it rarely easy to build rapport with sellers and get on their level.

Something that surprised me?

I believe in honesty and people did not care that I was inexperienced. Part of my list was absentee landlords and I have found three potential mentors from the campaign. I am meeting with an experienced rehabber monday who has offerred to help me. My young age is working to my advantage and people are impressed with me taking initiative.

Meeting with first seller

This past monday I met with Tommy. I drove Tommy, an 80 year old man to see a vacant house he has. The home needs a lot of work but Tommy is a motivated seller. We saw the house and I am running comps and am going to have an expert come out and help me determine rehab costs.

After looking at the home I took Tommy back to his house and sat with him and his wife for an hour and talked. (I think I might have found adopted grandparents:)) Tommy asked if I was married, and I told him I wasn't. He then insisted that I meet his granddaughter!

How I view the campaign?

I view the campaign as a first class education and I am a very big proponent on experiental learning. I am in college and have fairly small expenses and no responsibilities, and lots of time. This is the perfect time for me!

[Tim Herndon]

@Michael Westberry 

Congratulations! Sounds like you are off to a great start.

You should definitely be adding all of you leads/contacts into a CRM to effectively manage them and optimize your leads through follow up. We get deals later down the road from just following up once a month. If you are going to follow up with direct mail it's even easier (and cheaper) to follow up by phone or email!

If you are looking for an inexpensive CRM then a couple good options are Podio and Zoho. I like Podio becasue you can customize the apps to the way you work with simple drop and drag features. They also offer external web forms to have VA's fill out without giving them complete access and it uploads the info into your CRM automatically.

Good luck!