All Forum Posts by: Doug N.

@COURTNEY King - you asked the question of the ages - it's a great one!

To me, marketing is all about communication - and how you communicate makes all the difference. If you mumble, or whisper, or speak with jargon, or talk to the wrong party, most buyers will tune you out. 

If you speak with a negative slant, or assume everyone knows what you're saying, or avoid eye contact, or wear fresh mustard on your tie, people will not respond to your message.

All of these have analogs in advertising - your list, your copy, your design, your typos, your quantities, your mailing/other frequencies. 

@Justin Larpenteur was wondering about branding - essentially the same thing - and there are some good replies on this thread:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/223/topics/24...

If this helps, I can post more after dinner. 

Best of luck!

Hey Tommie - 

Here is a recent post with the info you're looking for - check it out:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/223...

Best of luck!

@Zac P. yes, @Matt Clark is right, a hygrometer will measure local RH, and you may also want a hard-probe wood moisture meter as mentioned by @Account Closed, these are pretty cheap on ebay http://www.ebay.com/bhp/wood-moisture-meter

I am wondering if anyone knows the best method... I can imagine that RH would eventually (or quickly?) affect lumber moisture readings, and also that RH can vary tremendously over the course of a day. A buddy of mine had to get logging RH meters for his containers coming in from Asia, and the readings were all over the charts - you could see when they hit the open water (vs inland shipping channels), and the readings varied 30%-50% during a 24 hour cycle. These were more than $10 though. Best of luck!

Personally, I would invest $100 in wool (thanx @Logan Hicks) and spend the rest on business cards that said "I'm a MILLIONAIRE!!!"

No financial advice given. 

Not to start out on a negative note, but Grant Cardone has certainly failed me. I should probably send him an email and introduce myself. 

Re branding (almost my favorite subject) I think you're on the right basic track here - I can give you a couple of suggestions. 

I let everyone know that I buy houses.

Good stuff. Have some cards in your shirt pocket, smoothly available as you are talking. You can get 1000 for ~$30 from BossLogo.com - four color both sides, They are nice, I have been ordering from them for years. They are cheap enough that you can pave the town with them. I think 5k runs about $60. Look up some design tips - deviantART, etc -  find a cool and bold logo, and pay a freelancer to provide a plate-ready PDF for you. It's cheap. "The branding starts here" as Tila Tequila says.  

I also tell people to send me properties that look vacant and I will give them a gift card or some other type of gift for sending it my way.

Nice, but vague. Try to pump it up with a cash offer - a little like @Brian Gibbonsdoes - $250 for a referral that results in a sale, etc. You can put this on the back of your card (in large type), and that way folks will remember it. "$250 CASH!" and your conditions in smaller type. It works, because... cash!

Once I find the properties I can make a report on them and send them to the investors that I'm meeting if the deal fits what they are looking for. 

Great idea. Look at the posts on this - a lot of investors will tell you exactly what they want to see in an offer, and what will make them never open another email from you. Yes, it sounds harsh, but it's also true. It's all here in the forums. 

Best of luck, and keep us posted!

Hi @Frank Matanane! 

Great question! I know the feeling. After I learned about BP and the world of REI, I felt like I was constantly shifting my sights - wholesaling, JV's, rental flips, MF, etc.

The answer for you depends upon your specs - your capital reserves, your appetite for risk, your rehab skills, your networking/EQ skills, your data chops, your love of reading and a lot more. 

For me, it helped to start a giant wiki (wordpress) with very broad general categories. I began culling interesting and relevant posts in various sectors, and in doing so, I realized I was also learning (internalizing) a lot of group wisdom. Not that I ever became wise (lol?), but just being around this type and breadth of knowledge really added to my perspective(s). 

It takes a lot of work to cull this info, and even more work to categorize it and distill it, but in the  process you can find out a) what you like and b) what you're good at. 

I suggest that you read lots and lots of posts (maybe a few thousand), and discover who you like to listen to, as well as folks you disagree with. This really helped me to fine tune my own rules and theories for dealing with various issues. Read both sides of various long and tedious discussions about contentious issues (wholesaling is one for sure!) and take what you can from the comments, good and bad. 

If you like to read, you will do well. It's a knowledge game, and those that can absorb information and convert it into knowledge generally do very well. 

PM me if you'd like - I am practically across the street from you!

Hi Blake - 

Thanks for posting! You are asking the right questions, and you have time on your side. 

I suggest that you take a few more days (or months, or really a year or more) to really read up on your various questions. For example, the answer to your wholesaling question can be found right here on BP, just a quick google search away (wholesaling houses in Ohio). 

Heads Up Ohio Wholesalers! Potential NEW Legal Ramifications of Wholesaling

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/93/topics/957...

BP has the best REI advice on the planet, and it's all right here. If you like to read, you will do very well in your self-education.

There are many posts on the finer points of wholesaling, and many with real-world examples and lively debates on the all the merits and disadvantages of various methods. 

There are also a lot of threads on mentoring, partnering, capital/labor splits, hard money loans and a lot more. 

The best advice I can give you is to educate yourself first - in this way you can find the area(s) that fit you best and discover your route to success.

 Best of luck!

I thought this thread was good already... now it's about to go HNL. 

edit: visual aid

 Hi Nat - 

I understand you are frustrated beyond all belief - I would be too! It's simply amazing what some folks think they can get away with. 

It's also understandable that you want to remedy the situation in some way. It's a natural reaction, and it's even healthy. But here, you have a situation that started out badly, and the chances of it resolving well (ie to your satisfaction) are less than zero. 

Think about it for a second. 

You have a valid claim, and you have only one option for recourse - Small Claims. 

To prepare for Small Claims, you are proposing to spend additional time and money to engage even more folks (tile witnesses, a photographer, etc), as well as spending your time in various lines, filling out lots of forms, dealing with surly court personnel, teaching yourself court procedure, losing some (lots of?) sleep, worrying about this every few minutes for weeks, and a lot more (I forget the rest, but trust me, there's plenty more.)

Yes, *all* of the above *will* happen regardless of whether you win or lose. 

Now, you get to court, and the fun begins. It's loud, and very smelly, and the judge is (usually) pissed at the world. You have to listen to everyone's various Twitter wars, pseudo-defamation claims, back yard plant disputes and more. You *will* lose IQ points during this period. 

Let's say everything goes swimmingly. (I know, I have been drinking heavily this am, but please bear with me and my delusions). You get your favorable verdict, you're feeling awesome, and... you are informed that no one will help you collect your shiny new judgment. In fact, you have to begin an entire new round of paperwork, line-standing, surly clerk lectures, law-splainin' and more. 

It gets even better after this (ie more paperwork and procedures) but I am getting carpal tunnel and I should go now. 

@k marie poe is right - and not just about your shoes! There is nothing here for you, and you won't even get sued by them for not paying the remainder. Can you picture this gent filling out a court form (with anything other that grout)? 

Trust the hive mind here - it's best to get it re-done, and move on with your more profitable ventures!

Take it easy!

@Jay Hinrichs Thanks for filling that out a bit. Sometimes I don't look too deep esp at TARP histories and builder issues, though I should. I had no idea Lennar had a hedge fund... 

Agreed that the homeowners are lagging far, far behind, and that the nytimes was playing it all into the arms of the big, bad (new) lenders... funny how MSM works at times, indignantly expecting PE firms to be less E and more... something else.