1 Thing You Cant Do To Be Successful In Michigan Real Estate pt. 2

Here's The Secret Key To Your Success

The most beautiful gift that the internet has given us as business people is laziness.  Not quite how you thought this training article was going to start?  Well part (2) is the easiest way for all of us to truly be successful as real estate investors.  Here’s where the laziness makes us rich…licking and sticking.  Say what?  If you’re from the 90′s, 80′s or 70′s you know exactly what I’m talking about-Direct Mail.

When’s the last time that you spent 5 seconds to put together a piece of snail mail that wasn’t a bill or some type of Hallmark card?  A long time I’m sure.  Well the last time I sat down and wrote a truly hand written letter was last week.  No it wasn’t a sales letter and no it wasn’t a note to my Grandmother.  It was a letter to a CEO of a very successful and quickly growing company.  Now here’s the best part.  She e-mailed me 2 days later thanking me for my letter and confessing that “she got it”.  Got what you’re asking?  My letter to her was about an employee of the company that she runs.  Not just any employee, the best employee that I’ve ever seen in my 15 years in both the corporate world and the small business world.  I was so compelled by this employee’s actions that I sat down and made sure that my contact with this CEO was gong to have an impact.  I hand wrote a 2 or 3 page letter and sent it out priority, you know one of those flat full size envelopes.  The funny part is the employee actually received this package and delivered to to her CEO not knowing it was a glowing testimonial letter about her.

What does this have to do with flipping houses?  Everything.  Let’s take “deal partnering” and make it the subject of why you come to the REIA of Macomb and it’s the investing strategy that you think will work best for you.  You’ve got $30,000 to work with and you’re not quite ready nor do you have the last 10 or 15k you’ll need to perform the rehab that the properties in the neighborhoods that you’re looking at on your own.  You set off to to meet another real estate investor who has the missing pieces to your puzzle.

As you network at a REIA of Macomb event you work the room and pick up 40 business cards and you “star” the cards from the people who you believe you may want to work with.  On your drive home you formulate a nice 5 or 6 line e-mail thanking them and pushing them towards your goal of partnering.  You send it out to all 40 and you receive 4 real responses.  Your next contact with them is much more detailed.  You outline “around” how much that you have to work with, where you want to invest, your strengths, and where they may fit in.  Out of the 4 only 2 seem to make sense as possible partners.  Here’s where you schedule your coffee date.

Your meeting with #1 goes well.  You like what he had to say and he seemed like a good guy.  You’re meeting with #2 reveals that this guy has more money than time and he’s looking for someone to basically “manage” his real estate investments, and he’s willing to give up a piece of the action for this-meaning you get a piece of the profits.  After a few more pointed questions you believe you’ve found your meal ticket out of the rat race of your 9 to 5.  WAIT!  As you’re about to part ways from the coffee shop he let’s you know that he’s meting with 3 other investors that he met at that same REIA of Macomb event.  Here’s where using direct mail comes in.

This is what I would do, have done, and will do when faced with that situation if I’m in your shoes.  I’d drive directly to the office supply store and buy some nice stationary.  Nothing too frilly, just classy.  Then I would take my time and write out a letter on yellow legal paper double spacing it so I can edit it easily.  After rereading it a few times I would then hand write it out on the nice stationary, affix a nice big picture stamp, and toss it in the mail.  The funny thing with the mail nowadays is that if it’s local it almost always get delivered within 2 days and a lot of times next day for .44 cents, especially if it appears to be private party.

Here’s a $1000 trick when sending a business letter…

At the end of your letter to your new prospective partner add a p.s.  What I would do is this situation is to toss a $10 Starbucks card in there and say something like this;

p.s.  Next time we sit down to discuss our investing strategies the coffee’s on me.

I guarantee you’ll probably receive a call within 3 day, maybe even the next day with the surprised recipient on the other end both thanking you for the letter and to schedule your next meeting.  How can I guarantee his, because I’ve done it with multi-millionaires and it works.

You should be using mail in a host of other ways also to help create, reinforce, and grow new relationships but how to do it and do it the right way is a weekend bootcamp within itself.

Hunting for a blue mailbox,
Dylan Tanaka-Founder

p.s he never mentioned anything about the 3 other investors he was meeting because your letter blew him away