All Forum Posts by: Colby Hager

 Most definitely and yes.

I love it when motivated sellers find me.  Do you have a website?

Have you looked at Pinnacle Realty Advisors?  They are a multi-state brokerage sponsor that is perfect for real estate investors.  Not sure if they are in Colorado yet or not though but definitely worth a a look because of what they offer for investors/agents.

Cold calling can be effective but so much depends on the caller, your sales angle, your list, etc… especially the list. You can have the best caller with the best pattern interrupt who is highly skilled but if they are calling a list that has been beaten to death by every call center and all the other investors out there, it won’t matter. So your list is crucial. If you can get the list easily, so can everyone else.

I don’t know about virtual driving for dollars so I can’t really speak to that other than to say that if the service you use is easily available to everyone else, I would imagine any leads are worked over and tone deaf to your efforts. 

I actually love Facebook ads for REI. They work great, can be one of the most cost effective lead-gen methods out there when done right. Typically when I see failed Facebook ad accounts it's due to improper implementation rather than the platform itself. When done right, Facebook can go neck and neck with any other lead-gen method out there.

If you have the ability or the budget, building out a proper SEO strategy should be a top priority.

Google PPC is highly effective but the truth is most investors without a hefty advertising budget can’t or shouldn’t spend their dollars there.

What are you doing right now to generate leads?

Like Elias said, you can run into some real issues with FIVRR and SEO. My other concern with paying 3-5$ per hour for a VA doing SEO is what are they doing for $3-5 per hour? Can you trust that this is the work you want done? People who are really good at SEO get paid way more than $3-5 per hour. So, unless you are an SEO manager, I think that's a tough road to go down.

1:1 link exchanges go against Google's guidelines and best practices so I wouldn't advocate for that. 

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies

Most one-size-fits-all all SEO companies are going to want to spend a lot of your management fee doing work that real estate investor-focused SEO companies don't need to do.  You shouldn't have to pay for all of that.  

If your goal is generating motivated seller leads, you need a holistic approach to SEO and to your brand overall.  The only way to have leads pouring in is to rank #1-3 and preferably #1 across tons of varied search terms.  In the competitive landscape for real estate investor websites, the truth is low-cost SEO isn't going to get you deals that make you money.  You either need to become an expert and do SEO yourself or hire an agency that has a complete plan and roadmap for getting you to a place where organic motivated leads are flowing to your site at a rate where you are taking down profitable deals each month

Mike Plactere of We Buy Long Island Homes Fast is a perfect case study of someone who used this approach and is dominating his market.  

@Strachan Hagood

If you are going to use actual postcards, a list of 1000 is pretty small.

Depending on your copy and creative, you may get a couple of calls to trickle in, or zero.

When we dropping 5000 cards per week, they hit mailboxes on Tuesdays and we would get 5-30 calls. Most of them unqualified and angry. Lots of threats.

So if you really believe in that list, hit it with multiple mailers and test your copy. Have 3-4 iterations ready to roll. Speak to your audience. Forget the “we buy houses cash” nonsense.

If it doesn’t resonate with them, they won’t call. This is where most investors get mailers all wrong. “But but the guru template!” Nope. Wrong.

Honestly why mailers? Why not digital? Have you reached saturation with every other better option?

@Tristan Beavers I'm not saying don't use direct mail, I'm just saying don't use direct mail (yellow letters) just because you heard they work, or they worked for this person or that person or they are popular on these forums.  Yellow letters USED to really work well.  In my experience, they suck today.

If you do mail, be unique.  Like @Jeff Stephens said, come at it differently than generic investor guy.  Conversely, you could take the approach that might ruffle some feathers in your copy.  

Use your mailings to point them back to your website if you have one that looks good and converts.  

Look, honestly it's 30 letters so you can't really go too wrong here.  Try something that no one else is doing. 

@Corey J Van Zeeland

Honestly man, if you have just been sitting on the sidelines watching and reading and debating and worrying...a mentor can’t help you.

The videos, books, podcasts that you have consumed have no doubt provided guidance and recommendations on how to get the ball rolling.

And you are right, “real estate investment” is plagued with gurus that will sell you nonsense that you don’t need and won’t help you. But it seems like you may be overly worried about paying for education.

Maybe you need some skin in the game to get you to take action. Most likely though, you will be disappointed to learn that the things you REALLY need to learn to start this business are available to you for free.

BUT BUT BUT, you have to start taking action and doing some of the things you have learned up to this point.

I love helping new investors. As those investors who have called me know very well. However, I love helping new investors that have problems that need to be solved...not theoretical problems that haven’t occurred yet.

And any advice that you should just keep learning is laughable. You yourself said you have been learning for the last year but are stuck in learning mode. You haven’t done anything yet, how much do you really need to know to start?

You don’t need a mentor or someone to answer any substantive real estate questions. The basics on what to do to get started are freely available and are things you likely already know. So from a place of love and caring, Stop asking questions and start taking massive action toward your goals.

But if I’m totally wrong and you really are stuck, let me know and in 10 minutes I can tell you exactly what to do to get started and I don’t sell anything.

Do something different.  These people have gotten hundreds of cards and "yellow letter" cards, and yellow letters, and professional letters.  

The best use of your 30 sheets of yellow paper is to write 30 different unique ways to contact these people with a better value proposition than "we buy houses".  Then, choose the best one that you thought of and do it and see what happens.  My guess is it will be better than using a played-out strategy.  

Seriously 15 years ago, 30 yellow letters would have gotten 10 callbacks...today, you'll convince yourself they don't work. 

It sucks that you might think giving a gift could be illegal and might actually consult a lawyer before doing so.  Talk about a law meant to be broken.  

I like the idea of doing nice things for people and want to foster a good working relationship with my tenants as well.  You ever seen how even some of the nice tenants leave your place when they move out?  Might wish you had some of that cash back.