@Emma Lantz Welcome to BP and the world of real estate!
Whether you try to be an agent or an investor, consider this:
Everyone knows someone and most of us know at least 100 people
So, start out by listing everyone you know on an Excel spreadsheet.
Why Excel? Because later, you can easily use it as your mailing list! Create columns for Name, Street Address, City, State, Zip and then contact info: Last Contact, Relationship, Status, Email & Phone.
Now, make it a goal to call at least 5-10 of these people EVERY day and ask a MAX OF THREE off the list below of who they know that:
- Just inherited a home
- Had a loved one pass away
- Is behind on their mortgage or tax payments
- Has a relative that can’t take care of their house anymore
- Has a house they’re having trouble selling
- Is facing bankruptcy
- Knows a probate attorney
- Knows a bankruptcy attorney
- etc
Why only three of the list per contact? Because on average, we can only remember three things at a time. If you try to go over the whole list, you’ll lose the attention of an average person and they actually won’t remember anything.
It should only take you about a month to contact everyone on your list and then the tough part – you start all over again.
Why the repetition? Because it takes repetition for people to remember things and you have to be top-of-mind when they encounter a potential client for you!
Have you ever been to McDonalds? Of course you have! So, why is McDonalds still spending billions on advertising? To be TOP OF MIND when you're hungry!
One more tip – people remember stories that trigger their emotions. So, tell a story of how you (or someone you know) helped a seller out with their challenge(s). Change your story each month as different stories will resonate with different people AND use each story to emphasize one of your “who do you know…” questions.
As you start closing deals, you will need to reinvest your profits into mailing lists and other scalable activities to grow your business.
One last thing – we recommended you create a Status column on your spreadsheet, now we’ll explain why. If you find someone that seems to know a lot of people needing your services, wouldn’t it make sense to focus more resources on them? Conversely, you will run into people on your list that just seem to be a waste of time, so you’ll want to avoid them. So, create status codes for both of these and a few in-between codes to help you work smarter, not harder.
