All Forum Posts by: Michael Lerch

Any investor out there who has their own blog website would love to be a BP affiliate :)

Hey Rickey! This deal is no longer available, but would be happy to talk to you about any other deals we got going on in lansing.

Great 3/2 house on 2+ acres of land in a wonderful development with DeWitt schools and a shopping center nearby. House is under contract and looking to wholesale to cash buyer ASAP. 

I have more pictures and a video walkthrough and full estimate of repairs I can share upon request. [email protected] or 616-466-4943 

It's hard to compare the 2 because you're not really comparing apples to apples here. Investor Carrot is a great website platform designed and tested entirely to convert and capture leads way better than any cheapo (or in some cases custom built) websites out there. It's also SEO optimized out of the box and gets you started on the right track to get top rank in google depending on your area.

Realeflow is a CRM at it's core. If you're not sure what that is it's great for keeping track of leads and has a lot of other "shiny object" features to help an investor prospect for deals. They do offer free websites, but there's no way they convert as well as an investor carrot website so it depends on what you're looking to do. 

Best advice I can give is why not try them both? I know investor carrot does demos and realeflow is offering a $1 trial so see which you like better. From my own experience getting started I would say don't get distracted by CRMs and shiny objects. I wasted a lot of money starting out and I was no where near ready to use something like freedomsoft or realeflow. Just get started with an excel spreadsheet and pump your money into marketing. Pound the pavement and hussle FAST because money likes fast.  Don't buy something because you think you need it. Buy it because you want to solve a problem or be more efficient. If you haven't even done 1 mailer or bandit sign yet I'd hold off. If you have a business plan and you're doing this full time it might be worth another look. 

so...

Investor Carrot = Get it if you're serious about having a web presence and dominating google rankings to get organic and PPC leads that convert like no other.

Realeflow (or other CRM) = newb cannon fodder, but if you're experienced or following a biz plan / system it would probably be worth it.

Investor Carrot is the way to go. The thing everyone on here is focusing on is cost of the website, but as an investor you need to look at ROI and what it's supposed to get you... leads!

Do you think building something from scratch that isn't tested or perfected to convert views into leads is a good use of your money? Lead propeller is a good squeeze page, but if you're looking for a great all in one solution (Content for blogs, multiple websites and templates ( for your company, seller, buyer, rent to own, and notes) with short term and long term for leads in mind my money is on Carrot. 

Alright, I decided to go with call fire for now and got my first number setup to my google voice number to track incoming calls for my first mailer. 

I'll have to just suck it up when it comes to hearing incoherent rambling mumbling sellers. How do you guys answer or deal with sellers who have thick accents? I've got a few asian accented sellers that have called me in the past and It's been a huge turn off to try and call them back or deal with them because I can't understand them at all. Probably good for a different topic :) 

Has anyone thought or tried putting a code on their mailers to make it easier to track when someone calls? 

I hate it when a seller calls and leaves a message that sounds like "This is John Jidfheeemdfuhfsdhf calling about my property at 213 biiigeshoopf dr. my number is blah blah blah." Where as with a mailer code I could have in my message "leave your name number, and postcard code to get an offer on your house... call you back soon... blah blah something sounding professional." That way I hear "John Smith 555-555-5555 and my code is A23, Thanks!" I can look up it up in my mailing list to match the name and property much easier so I can call back going in warm instead of cold. 

I can see that this may not get a great response rate because it comes across as gimmicky. This post may be more of a vent about people that can't leave clear messages haha, but has anyone tried this? What was your response rate vs. no code on the letter/postcard?  

@Kyle Sailor

Just from my personal experience I would stick with craigslist ads and direct mail before jumping into PPC ads. It's a different animal and you really need someone who understands PPC ads to set it up and manage it for you or you'll waste a ton of money. For right now I'd say best return for your money would be craigslist/direct mail and any SEO you can do for your website to eventually rank on the first page of google and get good organic leads.

Craigslist is easy... not getting ghosted is another story :) just don't spam your posts too much and you'll be fine. Even if they get flagged just post another similar ad. The jealous flaggers eventually give up ;)

Don't be shy. Post your numbers for your properties!

How much money in rent does it generate? (operating income)

How much are your expenses? (Payments, interest, taxes, vacancy, maintenance, etc)

How much much do you still owe or did you pay for it?

I'm sure a few people would love to chime in and do the math for you ;)

You'll want to know your NOI and cap rate as a general idea of how good a deal it is. In Grand Rapids anything 12% and up is a pretty good deal.

reminds me of zbuyer. Did them for a few months, but the leads aren't exclusive and the quality was pretty much what you described. Now that's zbuyer, and I don't know about these guys, but it does seem similar except that if these leads ARE vetted exclusive, and are motivated with a guaranteed 3 leads for $99 that's not bad. 

Whats your avg cost per lead from your marketing? That should give you a good idea, but try it out and see what happens.