Direct Marketing on a Budget

[Benjamin Barredo]

Okay, so I'm driving for dollars and compiling my own DM list but it's slow and it's going against my personality type. I like results, I like to know that I'm making progress and I've been compiling this list from my recent drives and it's taken me 2 weeks to get 57 people.

I have a tight budget right now. I can scrape and save and wait until I have a couple grand to spend on direct marketing letters or I can?????

Help me out. Any tips on how to generate leads on a tight budget. Say less that $500 to start? I mean, as soon as I get that $5000 check from my first deal, I'll pump all of that into a campaign that'll get me 3 or 4 more of those checks. But for now, I'm a newbie that is tired of waiting to save a little more, or this or that. I want to take action. I set short term goals based on the 10x Rule and I don't want to fall short.

Thanks

[Mike B.]

Drive for dollars. You can get a few hundred business cards printed up for $20 or less, with your contact info and even some brief bullet points of what you do, then leave a few at bus stops, laundry mats, barber shops, hand them out when networking, leave them at the door or mailbox of the houses you've noted when driving for dollars, etc... same with postcards. You can write/type ayour own letterr and include a photo of the house with your message and send that to the property. Respond to FSBO owner ads on various websites. Make your own bandit signs from posterboard at the dollar store. Ask a realtor for expired MLS listings. Then send them a letter/business card. You can buy a car magnet that serves as a mobile bandit sign. Ask the county for a list of condemned properties. Network and tell people what you do asking them for referrals. Ask a title company for a list of properties that received a notice of default.

Get creative. You just have to find ways to locate properties and get your message to them. Hopefully its the right time, or over time, they will have a Need to sell and will except a discounted price or terms. 

In bigger cities the markets will be harder and you have a ton of competition, many that have the budget to continually get their message out in large volumes.  It seems the average response rate for direct marketing is only like 2-4% and that does not guarantee that the deal will close. 

If you can work up to it, the internet is a good way to go these days, with a website, squeeze page, drip emails, youtube videos, etc...