All Forum Posts by: Bradley Smotherman

Absolutely genius, buddy!

I have decided to add another $2k/month to my marketing which will target a different list and area. It will also bring my total mail out above 9,000 pieces per month. As soon as I know the list etc I will let everyone know.

I appreciate everyone's input!

I am probably going to catch some hell on this post but so be it.

If the signs are good enough from the politicians and judges that exempt themselves from their own sign ordinance, they are good enough for me.

For about 2 strong years bandit signs were my primary form of marketing. In that time I put out around 6,000 signs to pick up sub2 wraps. The leads are generally more motivated than direct mail, at least in my market. They are not always high equity leads, and you will need a different business model than wholesaling or fix and flip to utilize the leads fully.

About 6 months ago, I got cited by a city for my signs. It was either a 3k fine or 20 hours of community service. I do community service anyway so I took the service. Keep in mind, I always kept my signs out and let the city pull them if they didn't like them. I now recommend pulling them every Monday morning before work hours.

I have never heard of anyone going to jail for bandit signs, and don't think it would happen.

As far as legality is concerned...there are a lot of legal things that are immoral, and a lot of moral things that are illegal. I just don't deal well with the basic premise of "I can do it but you can't" that the local politicians and judges here prescribe to.  

My leads from bandit signs were much better, but obviously you don't know if they have real equity when they get on the phone.

I have had similar situations of people asking for 500k when median is 125k...and then they argue with you when you suggest that median is 125k. Gotta love it.

Time for an update.

With February not yet complete, I will just speak in terms of January's numbers.

In January I received 88 inbound calls from the campaign which results in a 1.46% response rate. This number has been much much lower than I expected given 6000 mailers.

From 88 inbound calls, I received 28 voicemails. From the 28 voicemails, 10 were angry sellers, and the rest, so far, have wanted at or above market values for their property.

February is not yet complete, but the numbers are looking very similar in all aspects. I am kind of surprised at the lack of motivation from my calls, as many are trying to win the lottery by selling me their house.

Granted, I am mailing one of the hottest markets in TN...east Nashville, where many rehabbers are mailing and are picking up houses, only to tear them down and build new ones...which makes me wonder if this is the right market to mail since I am not a rehabber.

Overall, it has been a fairly demoralizing effort so far, seemingly an uphill battle to get real motivated sellers.

It's tough for me to believe there are only 11 free and clear from a list of 7,000.

I personally wouldn't do only free and clear unless you have the cash and the credit to tie up to take these on. I personally like deals where the seller has a mortgage at 50% of value, and need some cash to move....so I can pick it up sub to with very little cash out of pocket. But obviously it depends on your goals.

How much direct mail and how many ppc leads?

 I would probably disagree on those points regarding internet marketing. For years my bread and butter has been getting leads from bandit signs....because direct mail is "too expensive". 

The problem with bandit signs (among others) and my guess is it holds true with internet as well...is that you can't control who picks up the phone and calls you. In other words, you can't dictate that they have a desirable house with real equity.

For me at least, the majority of the leads were a total waste of time. Not to say it didn't make sense financially, it did. I would just rather know, that on every single phone call, that these people have a minimum of 30% equity.

 The current market value in list source is below median price. How they determine value is somewhat a guarded secret to my understanding, but holds fairly true.

1. I have been investing on and off for about 4 years. My top year I did 14 flips, all from bandit signs.

2. I funded the marketing from savings from previous transactions, yes.

3. I am full time. The calls will go to voicemail to weed out to more motivated sellers. I don't have any help but I sure hope to need some :)

4. My profit over my career has been 27k/transaction split between cash and note.This is a little bit different because I am selling for cash, so I am not sure if this will hold true or not. I don't think it will deviate much, and I won't touch a transaction if it has less than 20k in it.

5. I am hoping for a 5% call rate between all of the mailers, which may be a bit high. Even at 2.5% we are talking 150 calls/month, or 5/day. I expect 25% of calls will have decent motivation, which is 38 real opportunities/month.

Honestly, even if I don't get a deal out of this mailing...which I can't for a minute fathom...I'll drop another 15k in month 4 to keep rolling.