All Forum Posts by: Brian Ellwood

That's a good insight on the professional letters. I hadn't heard that.

My philosophy is that you shouldn't copy what everyone else is doing, but instead position yourself against your competition. From a copywriting perspective, I feel like that's going to cut through the noise a lot better than the usual "we want to buy your house" on a yellow letter.

With the copy I use, I get zero calls from pissed off people and I'm in the drivers seat from the get go. 

I'll share mine real quick here - but want to hear what everyone else is doing too...

Direct mail to following criteria:

-absentee

-vacant

-free and clear

-7 years ownership

-SFR and multi

Sending yellow letters, once a month, hitting mailboxes on Tuesdays & Wednesdays

Copy on direct mail reads as follows:

Hi,

Are you tired of getting postcards and letters from
investors wanting to buy your house at 123 Main St?

Here’s what those investors won’t tell you:

Selling your house to a real estate investor (as-is
for cash) is NOT a good fit for everyone.

It all depends on your situation and what would
work best for you.

If you want to have a short conversation with a real
guy - on the pros and cons of selling to an investor
- shoot me a text and we can find a time to talk.

PHONE # HERE

I’ll be honest about everything and you can decide
if it’s a fit for you.

Talk soon,

Brian

Have you been struggling to find good real estate deals for so long now…

That you are about to the point of being fed up with real estate investing all together?

It’s never been more expensive or competitive to invest in real estate than it is today.

Wholesalers are selling their deals above market value to ignorant investors…

And, they’re not even allowing us a due diligence period before buying!

Things have gotten out of hand.

In my own markets - things have gotten tighter and tighter.

My old methods of calling wholesalers and property managers aren’t as effective.

In order to continue to do deals - I’ve had to return to direct to seller marketing…

As well as become open to deals that are outside of my normal radius.

Once I made those shifts - it was like the floodgates opened back up.

I’ve now got sellers calling me (and more leads than I need).

When things cool down, I’ll start to gravitate back towards my core market..

(But I’m not abandoning direct to seller marketing ever again!)

This isn’t the first time I’ve had to make a shift, either.

I had to make a similar shift 3-4 years ago…

When my original markets got too expensive and were no longer realistic to find deals in.

That was what landed me in my current markets (that are now too competitive)

You know what’s funny?

Both times - when a shift was required of me…

I hung on TOO LONG.

I decided that I could “make it work” by continuing to push forward…

By doing more of the same things I was already doing.

I’m sure you’ve heard the definition of insanity before (doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result)...

It’s my hope that, next time a shift is required of me…

I recognize (and accept) that sooner…

So that success feels more like swimming downstream…

Versus summiting a 14,000 foot tall mountain!

If this message resonates with you, I encourage you to take a high level, holistic evaluation of what you’re doing…

Is a foundational shift required for you to take things to the next level?

To your success,

Brian

I like that you are clear on what you DON'T want (i.e. 100 doors) and that you're OK with that. I think there's a lot of unnecessary pressure that people take on, because they look at others "absolutely crushing it" and then they feel like a loser because they only bought 1 rental property in the last year. 

Many people take this game TOO FAR just because they want to win or beat their competition or look cool, and they actually end up trading a lot of their time and freedom for that extra gain in "success". 

So true - the people really make it work, a good market just makes things easier. 

 It's a city, but could be a MSA as well. For example, a lot of people are looking in one core city as well as some "fringe cities"within 30-45 min of that core city right now, because the core city is too competitive/expensive. 

Makes sense - thx for that advice!

Do you want to invest in real estate, but you live somewhere that’s way too expensive?

Have you been “dabbling” in other markets, casually looking at cheaper deals and thinking about pulling the trigger?

This seems to be the case for a large amount of the people I talk to right now. Their market is too expensive and competitive, so they’re sort of stuck in a holding pattern, waiting to see what happens.

They are possibly even envious of others who are still investing in more affordable markets.

I know I was.

When Nashville dried up, I did the same thing. I got mad while simultaneously watching other investors move to other markets like Clarksville, Chattanooga, and Huntsville. They were still succeeding and I was stubbornly hanging around trying to pretend like Nashville could still work as a rental market.

It wasn’t until I decided to stop that nonsense and model what they were doing that I was able to start buying houses again. I quickly bought about 15 properties in these other markets, and I was back in the game.

More importantly, my mindset had shifted about what was possible for me. I realized that I was the one who had been holding myself back.

I also realized that I would never be hurting to buy deals again, because by learning to invest virtually, essentially the entire United States could become my investing playground.

If you are sitting on the sidelines and casually exploring other markets, you are partly on the right track. You know that you’re going to have to invest elsewhere if you want to keep doing deals.

Intuitively, you feel the need to shift your strategy.

But in reality, what you are doing isn’t actually working. Meaning, no new passive income or net worth is being added to your bottom line, because you aren’t pulling the trigger on any deals.

The solution? Plant your flag. Stop looking in every area that has cheap houses. Those areas aren’t necessarily a good place to buy. Do some research, and pick a solid rental market, and burn your boats.

I wrote another post here on BP what makes a good market, called the 6 Pillars Of A Great Rental Market. Use that to decide where you will invest.

You need to pick a solid market, but you don’t need to overanalyze this to death. You’re losing more money by NOT doing deals than you would by not picking the “perfect market”.

You’re so close to being back in the game. All you need to do is stop dabbling and DECIDE where you will invest.

Then, you can deep dive into that market, learn the neighborhoods, zip codes, meet other RE professionals there, build your team, and start doing deals again.

To your freedom,

Brian

Absolutely let's connect! 

Thanks for sharing your wisdom, Jay! What was the biggest difference you saw in switching from C/D to A/B? 

Thoughts on doing lease options instead of traditional rentals?