All Forum Posts by: Jason Fraser

mike S is correct ...motivation is the biggest piece of the marketing strategy

Thanks for the follow up information, @Account Closed

I was looking at doing the AirBnb short term rental thing based on an article I read somewhere else, but was hung up on possibility of it being shut down due to neighbors complaining about the constant change in people staying at the location.

The 30 day minimum requirement makes sense.

I did have two follow up questions.

1. If wanted to do this in my home area or anywhere else, where is the best place to research local rules and regulations about zoning and this type of rentals?

2. Is your rental prices higher than market average to cover costs that isn't typical with tradition SFRs...like budgeting for replacement furniture and cleaning services?

K. Marie Poe is correct you have to customize your marketing to the market your targeting.

Think Toyota. They have the Scion for younger drivers, the Toyota brand for the general public, and Lexus for the more affluent driver. Different brands and marketing message for different audiences.

I don't know much about Orange County, but if it's all about wealth and education as K. Marie Poe mentioned, you may want to consider 8 x10 Manilla envelope (to give it the look of something important that needs to be opened right away) and white professional letter that outlines how you can be of service to them in their particular situation.

It's a little bit more expensive than yellow letters and postcards but then again your targeting a wealthier audience.

Also you may want to market deep vs wide.

Wide:

1000 mailings just once to a wide audience.

Deep:

Focused audience I.e out of state owners vs in state who can easily get to the property.

1st mailing 250

2nd mailing 250

3 rd mailing 250

4th mailing 250

This is just an example. Your marketing budget will dictate your strategy.

network at your local REIA. You'll probably find a handful of them there.

if you listen to the podcast, Ben gave a really great answer to this one....the marketplace.

listen to podcast 61. They touched upon covering utilities vs tenants covering them. Two hours of great content on multi family investing.

one of my favorite components of the BP offerings. I like that I can type in a topic that I want more info on like, master leasing, in search and I get several well written articles and ongoing discussions in the forums.

Thanks for providing a valuable tool.

PS I thought it was cool that Brandon was up at 1 or 2 in the morning welcoming new people. I hope his bonus this year isn't a house in Detroit that Josh is trying to unload. No disrespect to the Detroit BPers.

1. Join your local REIA. It's great way to find who are the local players. Bring plenty of business cards. My goal every time I go to my local monthly meeting, my goal is to meet 5 new people.

2. Advertising - put up an ad on Craigslist. "Wholesale deals .70 of ARV" in the subject line. I direct people to my website to leave their name, email, and criteria.

3. Tax assessor/county records- I look for people/companies who appear multiple times as owners of multiple properties.

4. Calling property management companies - they manage properties for cash buyers.

websites

I use godaddy for my domain and hosting needs. I'm always getting emails for discounts and their customer service is great.

Right now they are having a special on their website builder program. $1.00 month and it includes a free domain. You pay $12.00 for the year for up to 5 pages. After that it's 5.95 a month. I think you also pay the $12.00 a year for the domain name.

You just pick a template and then customize it to fit your needs. You can add a form to capture info such as name, email, phone number.

I took advantage of $12 for the year special a few months ago to create two websites...one for my company and one that serves as a squeeze page to capture lead info.

The lead capture one has a simple spiel about that covers the usual motivated seller stuff ( tired land lord, making two payments etc call 555 1234 - which is my google voice number) and form to capture seller info and it's same to the same gmail account linked to my google voice account.

I also created business cards that with the same motivated seller message, my number, and website address. These I use for offline marketing and to drive traffic to the website. Some small businesses like salons, mechanics, dry cleaners etc.have a place by the cash register where they allow people to leave a stack of business cards.

You can get 500 business cards at got print.net for $9 plus shipping.

1. Driving for dollars/walking the neighborhood for FSBOs and For Rents. Pick a farm area close to where you live and or work. Drive through a different side streets every time you drive to and from work or run errands. You can also walk the neighbor hood.

My local dollar store has 3x5 orange post it notes. It looks like an official notification from a distance. You can use those to leave your contact info if your walking the neighborhood and come across FSBOs or for rents.

2. Turn you car into a mobile billboard. $10 at vista print gets you a car magnet.

You can also get the kind of window markers people use to write just married or for sale on their car windows. Instead you write I buy houses and your number. Just make sure you're not blocking your view.

Get a big poster board $1 - 2. ( I found some at my local dollar store) , write on it I buy houses and your number. When you go to the mall, movies etc, back your car into the space. Use the poster board as a sunshade. Advertise your business and keep the inside of you car cool.

3. Networking at your local REIA. $10 at vistaprint gets 250 business cards.

4. Advertise on Craigslist and other online classified sites.

5. Flyers - $5 for 600 sheets of printer paper at wallmart, $1- 2 for markers, $1for thumbtacks. Put up flyers at super markets, laundry mats, etc.

If you do all five of the above ideas, it should cost you about $30 or less.