All Forum Posts by: Ryan Dossey

@Jerryll Noorden I have agreed with you that SEO works. I've even shown that I have the #1 ranking brand and have pulled 1,000 leads through it. It's simply not my #1 source of deals not by a long shot. I own an answering service that takes over 10k calls a month for real estate investors all over the country and the #1 deal source our users report back is Direct Mail. I'm sorry that you don't like that I teach people what is working for us. Best of luck to you. I would advise that you try to treat other professionals in the industry with respect. I personally know several of the guys you've lambasted on here and they do 50+ deals a year. @Sharad M. could have been an INCREDIBLE ally/referral partner for you. As I could have as well. As well as several others. I'm honestly surprised that BP mods haven't stepped in. PS: I actually own a full blown mail house. I just don't peddle it on BiggerPockets. I'm here to give back. Not get sales. 

Bp users: Keep in mind that even if you have the #1 ranking brand (which should be your goal!).... You're still going to show up 4th below all of the PPC advertisers. This is one of the reasons I also spend money on Google Advertising. Even though I have the #1 ranking brand I get extra leads and deals for PAYING to show up at the top. If you want to find deals for cheap or free (and fast) find my list earlier on this thread.  We spent $145 this week on PPC ads to get 4 leads. Converting at 25% to our landing page visitors. 

I found BP in 2014 I believe and it was an incredible/helpful/supportive community. 

In 2015 I wholesaled 4 or 5 deals and bout 2 SFR's with a partner on a portfolio loan. I had a full-time W2 that I was miserable at.

In 2016 I wholesaled 6 houses. I went full-time. Almost went bankrupt and learned a ton. 

In 2017 I partnered with a large buyer and we did 74 wholetale deals. I also kept 4 rentals. 

In 2018 I bought/kept 73 units for my portfolio while doing another 3 dozen wholetales. 

Last year we bought another 66 units. We also did another 3 dozen wholetales/flips. 

We do all of our management in-house. My portfolio is now 2,000 miles away from my home. If picking up 143 units in 18 months while generating multiple six figures in income selling what you don't want sounds interesting to you... Listen to the Podcast episode I did with BP. You'll learn very quickly that I'm a straight shooter. 

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/biggerpockets-podcast-335-ryan-dossey


If anyone legitimately needs help with direct mail or finding deals which was the point of this post before it was troll highjacked, feel free to tag me. As @Nicole Heasley Beitenman can attest.... She shot me a PM and I sent her lists, letter copy, and how-to without even hinting about spending $1 with me. In fact I spent money to get her lists to help her out. I've been given more handups than I can count over the years.  Another member asked me for lists and I sent him 12 for free. I have NUMEROUS youtube videos on everything from finding private lenders, locating cash out refinance banks, to how to pull niche' lists for free. Comically I don't even really ever post about my companies on here because it's annoying.

You're on here for help. Not to get sold something. I by no means know everything I can only share my experience and what I know works.

@Phil Denton I disagree a bit. I know investors in markets from LA - New York City. They are getting off-market deals at 75% - repairs - holding costs with under 5k on marketing on average. 

But to answer your question.. On mine the $14,058 fee was on a 95k house. 

Move back to Indiana. **Shudders. 

I just moved from Indianapolis to San Diego. A few things 1) Living costs. You're going to want to have a way to pay yourself so you don't burn through your nest egg. Doing a flip here/there might not be a bad idea. Even in Indiana 120k is 1 decent deal at a time. 

2) Devil's advocate... Stay in Cali and fly back to IN. Work on building a small team and get a few fips/Brrrrs under your belt. Then use your Cali connections to raise private $$$ in the 8-9% range. Scale responsibly. 

They are a great place to start. They're something everyone should be doing. 

I don't disagree with you on SEO either. I have the #1 rank in 19 of the cities I'm in. Top 3 in most of the others. Then a few straglers in towns I wanted to see if I could rank in for fun... Like Hawaii. I've had over 1100 leads come through my carrot site. 

I have an issue with making blanket statements like something doesn't work or is a bad idea when every major player in the country is using it consistently to purchase deals. 

The original poster asked if it's still working. The answer is yes. It may not be your favorite flavor. But it is working. 

Comically we have actually seen an increase in response and conversion the past year or so as more folks have moved to cold calling, bandit signs, text blasting, PPC, etc. 

Last year we had 1,146 leads come in to my office. 60% came from direct mail. 40% came through my carrot site however according to Google Tag Manager/analytics more than half of those came from Direct Mail with our brand printed on it. Another 25% of the lead flow came from PPC, GDN, and Social Media. 

Moral of the story: If you want to do a deal a month or so you can pick one niche' and just run with it. If you want to do 50+ you're going to have to diversify responsibly. 

@Victor Vella I love referrals but they accounted for less than 10% of our deals last year. Plus you have zero control over how many people come your way. Ialso  love when agents bring me pocket listings but I can't scale that. 

I think the discussion here is a matter of passive vs active. 

Passive: Waiting and hoping someone sends you a deal. Active: Taking control of your business and dictating your deal flow by the amount of gas you can responsibly dump on the fire. 

Indianapolis broker & buy/hold guy also own one of the top "we buy houses" outfits in town. More than happy to give you feedback on something before you buy it. We see a LOT of out of state folks get hosed by someone sending them comps that aren't exactly honest. 

Brrrr deal so you're keeping this as a rental. 

Let's just say the upper end of the tenant pool isn't stocked with people willing to go without grounded electricity. 

I know I wouldn't even consider living at a place that was two-prong. 

Door knock them yourself, Skip trace them and call/text (they may have already left) Skipgenie.com is a great tool for that, Post a written notice to the door (all that's required in most states), consult your attorney. 

Step one though is honestly figuring out if they're still even living there. Nothing like trying to serve notice to a vacant address. :) Ask me how I know... 

@James Wise Totally agree. I just had someone ask me who I know in PM in Cleveland... Guess who's name I gave them. 

@Mike Cumbie What about the one before that?