The story of my first wholesale call. Looking for a little help.

[Logan Eckstein]

Hello BP family.

I recently started taking my first steps as a wholesaler after turning 18. I pulled a list of around 800 absentee houses from listsource, then skiptraced them and sent out a Ringless Voicemail campaign using slybroadcast. To my amazement I received four calls back. They went to voicemail, and I just called back the first caller.

It didn't go too well. The other end of the line was a man in his mid-thirties, and his main concern seemed to be how I got his number and name.

[Me]: Hi, is this M? 

[M]: Dead silence.

[Me:] Hi, is this M? This is Logan with Triangle Wholesaling, I'm calling about--

[M]: Excuse me, WHO did you say this was?

[Me]: Um...M? Do I have the wrong number?

[M]: How did you get this number? (Getting angrier). I did NOT give you permission to call me, take me off your list.

From there on I was a mess, spewing apologies and trying to explain that his name and number are on public records all over the internet.

I shared that partly because I found it very funny and I think some of you will as well, but also because I have a question relating to it. I'm looking at the other three numbers that have called me back, and I'm honestly dreading calling them. What if they're the same thing? While rude people don't SUPER bother me, I'm concerned about how I'm going to market to my list now. I sent out my RVMs, but didn't get many calls back. Should I cold call them now, or do an SMS campaign, or something else?

My conundrum is I'm short on funds, as I've already spent a couple hundred dollars getting this list together and skiptraced. Besides cold-calling, which I'm dreading a little, what can I do that is relatively cheap to market towards my list? Should I do another RVM campaign?

Thanks for all the help.

[Don Konipol]

@Logan Eckstein

For MOST people, cold calling is no fun at all; in fact many people will do anything to avoid it. However, there are people (pretty rare) who actually like, or even love it! One of my longest time friends told me she can’t wait to get to work each morning and start dialing, she cold calls hospitals, institutions, schools, etc. to reach someone in purchasing who she can pitch he product to—-.cleaning supplies. She loves to converse with these people about anything and everything, kids, husbands, sports, doesn’t matter. To me it sounds like a prison sentence.

So, if you’re going to cold call, we’ll, you need to accept rejection, abuse, anger, hang ups, name calling, threats, etc. you’re looking for that one out of a thousand that can lead to a profitable transaction. And that’s the problem if you dislike or even hate it, it may not be worth doing.

There are a number of real estate industry participants who have set up marketing programs where the people they are trying to reach contact them, and even some (like me) where the calls are trying to sell me on considering their transaction. Now, this may take some time ( like many years) to get to this point, but to begin you need to start on the right foot. Think SEO, Website, Landing Page, SEM, Pay Per Click, etc. Otherwise you’ll have to decide whether or not to continue to do something you obviously aren’t a natural at. And unless you’re born to LOVE to interact with anybody under any circumstances, all the time, the best you can hope for is to tolerate the “cold or “warm” calls, as you watch the clock for when you can finally quit for the evening.

Real estate has a lot to offer as a profession, business, or career other than uncomfortable or even dreaded cold calling. Consider getting a real estate education, apprenticing yourself out to a successful operation, or even becoming a successful operators executive assistant.

Good luck in whatever you decide.