All Forum Posts by: Vanessa Blais

I don't see why you would need to call the guru's slimy. The guru's have INFORMATION to sell. You have the PRODUCT in the market where your buyers LIVE to sell.

Quite frankly, those 'gurus' have just invested a lot of money and effort to get your target audience in one location for you, and passing out your business cards to provide the product that the guru's are providing 'information' about is a boon to you and you should be grateful for the opportunity that they've just given to you at their expense.

Not to mention, it is much easier to fool a man than it is to convince him he's been fooled. So it's in your best interest to reaffirm what the guru's 'information' is and then provide the product that backs up just how good and valuable the information is.

JM(ns)HO

Well, I did direct mail marketing for 6 of the 8 years that I was investing in RE, and I've spent my time since then doing direct response copywriting, so I can throw my hat in here...

First, targeting, targeting, targeting, targeting, targeting, and did I mention, targeting?

I never put money into direct mail just to houses that were abandoned. Just because no one is in them, doesn't mean they're in any kind of distress.

Now, I used a service called 'Foreclosures Daily' (which last I heard had gone out of business, but I saw something very similar to it on SREIA's website today, so maybe they're back, or a replacement is...) I subscribed to 3 counties and every day, I could log in to the site, and get the lists of every Lis Pendens that was filed in the clerks' offices of all 3 counties the day before.

*If your county(ies) have their public records searches available online and you're computer savvy, you can use macros to mine the same data every day. (You can also outsource the macro creation to someone who is computer savvy if you aren't, and expect to pay $50-$75 an hour for them to do it. Hours will be dependent on the number of counties you want to mine data from.)

Next, I used Microsofts Streets & Trips program to create a route to go see all of these houses on the list that day, and though knocking on doors or leaving door hangers did yield some results, what I was really out there looking for was the houses that were in foreclosure and had already been abandoned. Once they've left the house, the emotional attachment is gone and they're out of the mindset of 'save my house.'

Everyone got mail... 7-11 pieces (this depended on the equity in the house, as Foreclosures Daily didn't just give us the Lis Pendens Info, but ALL the public info on each property- how many mortgages, how much each was, the assessed value, the physical and mailing addresses of the owners according to the tax collector, etc, etc etc.)

I didn't do 'yellow letters.' I did a post card and then letters. All my letters were typed, but the envelopes were hand addressed by my assistant or me, and had a live stamp, and in BIG RED LETTERS had the words "Check Enclosed" written on the envelope. Inside was a very, very, very obviously not REAL check, with a GIANT "VOID" stamp right on it, with instructions to call us for a real check.

The next letter was usually an 'advertorial' with a yellow post it note attached that said "Thought you should see this," -J.

Then the remainder of the series just continued to give them more reasons to call us.

Hope that helps somewhat. :)

I didn't have a lot of trouble with tenants or sellers or buyers in my investing days, but, on the rare occasion that I did, I would always ask the question:

"What is the amount of the check I need to write out to make this problem go away?"

Sometimes a grand or two is all it takes to get someone to do what you want them to do... and when you consider the 'time value of money' that you're wasting with the 'legal system,' you might actually be getting off cheaper to just make him such an offer.

If I were going to buy 'sight unseen', I would make my offer based on a budget for gutting it down to the studs. And if the roof looks bad from the outside, I'd budget for having to replace the trusses too.

Hi Aida! I actually wrote a book on Crowdfunding, but that was back before the SEC allowed project creators to sell 'shares.' More of the Kickstarter, Indiegogo-RocketHub crowd that contributed to 'artsy' projects in exchange for 'rewards.'

I've got a website in the personal finance niche and I've wanted to include some info about Crowdfunding as investments, but haven't had the time to even begin the research.

Definitely looking forward to hearing more from you. :)

Just thought I'd add...

I have 16 separate ads written for building the 'wholesale buyers' list,' that I plan to post in rotation on Craigslist.

(CL made some changes recently that prevent us from linking our images to url's, which sucks since viewers can't just click through to my site and fill out my form, they'll either have to copy and paste a url I put in the ad, or call me on the phone where I will have to a.) manually collect and then enter into my dbase, and/or b.)refer them to my url so they can do the data entry themselves.)

These ads are strictly for building a list of wholesale buyers.

IME, landlords prefer less square footage (less square footage means less repairs from tenant damage) but rehabber/retailers prefer the 3/2/2 types for the HUGE cash paydays at the end. So my ads are meant to attract and separate the two.

My plan is to run these ads for about 4 months, during which time I'll be working HARD to get to as many meetings and collect as many business cards as possible, so that by the end of those 4 months, I'll know every investor in 4 counties, and what they are looking for.

I also wouldn't be posting the 'dream home' 3/2/2 on a half acre because that's not going to attract the wholesale buyers, that's going to attract Harry The Homeowner.

And yes, that IS unfair to them to get their hopes up that their dream home is possible, and then, 'oh no, it's not, here let me show you this tract house in suburbia Hell though."

So building that 'retail buyers' list' is a bit more of the double edged sword, because yes, you are going to disappoint them when they call, but you have someone on the line who can give you their criteria and then you can go find it for them, and if you keep using the same ad, they aren't going to call back on the same ad, after they've spoken to you. On the other hand, if you keep changing the ad, until they figure out your tells, you are unfairly wasting their time.

So if you're trying to build a retail buyers' list, I'd just go with more generic ads that don't promise the sun and the moon and the stars.

Only advertise dream homes you actually have in inventory. Either with an option, a contract, or some kind of ownership/control of.

Hey Steve, you're my antithesis! I went FROM REI to Internet Marketing. But I did more services (direct response copywriting) and product creation, than affiliate marketing.

Google algo changes are only going to affect your income if you're relying on SEO BS to get traffic, or AdWords. There's plenty of other advertising inventory out there that any changes from G would be just a blip on your radar.

That said, after 7-8 years of IM, I wanted to get back to REI and that's what I'm working on now.

First, since your bank will only consider W-2 income, I'd first suggest finding a better bank, because there are 'business' banks out there that do understand 'income producing assets', like rental property, but also, there's no reason you can't give yourself a W-2 from your online earnings.

You just set up a corporation, which then pays you a 'salary', and bonuses, and taxes your 'payroll taxes' out of your paycheck.

I know you're probably thinking, "but I can't give myself a salary because I never know how much I'll make."

This is how I was taught to do this by a bookkeeper.

What you do there is once a week, or twice a month, or whatever, you write yourself a check from the company bank account to you,the company employee, and if you don't have the funds in the business bank account to cover that check, then you stick it in a drawer, and you cash it or deposit it to your personal account when your business account does have the funds available.

You can set your 'salary' as low as minimum wage, and then just give yourself 'performance bonus' checks quarterly, again, with the appropriate payroll taxes applied, for any overages over your 'wage.'

Then, at the end of the year, your business gives you, as it's employee, a W-2.

P.S. Whenever anyone called those prepaid cell phones that had their numbers on the bandit signs, we would advise that we were inspecting a property, bad reception area, etc, and ask for a number to call back on from a land line. If they wouldn't give one, they were either county trying to find out who we were (never happened to me, and I would guess it happens rarely if at all, since gov workers are just too lazy to bother,) or they were tire kickers who we didn't want to work with anyway.