Whole$ale Tip of the Week “Consistency”

Hello Hu$tlers I know it has been some time, we have been slammed lately. Ground Zero is going well and we are flipping assignments as well. But what I wanted to talk about is  “Consistency” and I mean it in every fashion. How Consistently are you putting out bandits, how consistently are calling back sellers, how consistently are you making craigslists posts, how consistently are you GROWING your business! Consistency is not difficult it takes discipline, and will help you achieve you goals. The only way you are going to make consistent MONEY, is if you are consistently doing the things necessary to grow your business.

Whole$ale tip of the Week “Networking”

Hello world today I want to talk about networking and how crucial it is to your business. I had a very wealthy man tell me one time “Sam a successful man/women is only as good as his network, no one gets to where there at alone”. And it’s true I doesn’t matter what the profession, you need other people to supplement whatever it is that you are doing to get there.

Direct Mail

So, we’ve spent quite a bit of time on direct mail, and learned a few things in the process. A lot of people say it’s a waste of time, but I say;
The very first letter campaign I did was 100 absentee letters (pre-1995 transfer). I received ONE phone call which turned into my very first deal. $10,000! How’s that for a waste of time?

It’s only a waste of time if:

1. You don’t know what you’re doing.
2. You’re sending to the wrong people.
3. You write the wrong info. (Too much or too little)
4. You’re just plain lazy.

Tips:

1. KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. If you are sending a letter, you should be able to get your point across in about 3 sentences. Post cards should be even fewer; like a tiny bandit sign you can hold in the palm of your hand… Get to the point.
2. Timing – I’ve found that direct mail as well and bandit signs do terrible around the beginning of the school year. I’ve had the best response around mid to late spring; 8-10% return.
3. Don’t spend too much money – I get lists for free through my Title Company.
4. Know where investors buy – target areas where you know your buyer’s list will buy, then you won’t be wasting time with property nobody wants. You should never put a property in escrow that you don’t know you can sell.
5. Use a local number – Get internet voicemail. Skype, Voicemailoffice.com, Google Voice. Especially if you are a busy person. Call back EVERY person, even if they don’t leave a message. I have separate numbers for mail and bandit signs.
6. Follow up with more letters or postcards.
7. Expect A LOT of RTS’. I usually get about 8% returned. Go back and edit/delete from your list.
8. Follow up on the phone calls – The laziest people I’ve ever met have been agents and people who CALL themselves “Wholesalers.” If you don’t want to work hard to make money, don’t even waste your time in Real Estate.
9. Keep track of EVERYTHING you do! It is so unbelievably easy to lose track! Every phone call or letter that you forget to follow up on is money potential lost. Worst case scenario – you lose the $00.60 you spent in marketing.

Our latest absentee campaign through Click2Mail.com was 830 postcards that cost us about $00.40 per card and saved HOURS of work. So far on day one of the call backs, we have about 10 calls.
Still, bandit signs have worked best for us. Hands down. For every $230 spent,  we generally make about $25,000. And, a good number a signs will stay up for a while, which is continual exposure.

Motivation

“If you’ve never failed, you’ve never lived.”

History is riddled with stories of people who failed or were told they would fail, only to later rise to a place where 99% of the population only dream about.

Nothing can stop you… except you.

Vanilla Flips Houses!

Rob Van Winkle has been flipping houses for the past 15 years. He’s also has a reality show on DIY called “The Vanilla Ice Project,” documenting his real estate business.

Check out Episode 2 where he rehabs a mansion in South Beach

The Pursuit of Success

This is a short clip from Will Smith’s movie “The Pursuit of Happiness.” His statement is remarkably true. People who have tried and failed or refuse to get out of their slump, do not want to see you succeed. Agents will tell you wholesaling is illegal and you cannot flip contracts (a flat out lie). Close friends and family will be jealous of your success because they never “made it.” It’s sad, but very very true.

The good news is, however, our success is not determined by other people’s expectations, jealousy, or perception, but  by what WE do!

There are three types of people who will try to give you advice: Those who tried and succeeded, those who tried and failed, and those who have NO CLUE what they’re talking about. Be cautious with whom you surround yourself with. Do not let others pull you down.

So if you want to succeed, it’s up to you! Get out there and make it happen!!!

To your success,

-Chris

“But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”
2 Chronicles 15:7

Money Never Sleeps

Money never sleeps, and most of us sleep too much, is that possibly why most of us don’t have as much money as we would like or need? Wall Street is one of my all time favorite movies, and this clip is from the film where Micheal Douglas calls Charlie Sheen before the son gets up, and tells him to get to work! I love it, because like they say ” The early bird gets the worm”.

-Peace

Gut Check Time

The bottom Line is as an individual you are in control of your success. Even if you do most of the neccesary things to be successful, you know deep down inside that you are not doing enough. I know personally that I need to step my game up! Eric Thomas cut me to the bone with what he says in this video…. Enjoy!

Whole$ale tip of the week “Educate Yourself”

Whole$ale Tip of The Week

“Educate Yourself”

Now for you readers that are getting started, or even been wholesaling/investing for some time, by reading this post you are already on the right track. Each day you want to educate yourself.

– It’s Gut check Time!

“Knowledge is Power’ and as cliche of a statement that is, it is as true now, as it was the 1st time it was ever muttered. Ignorance(a state of being uninformed) is not an excuse for failure, but will take you down that road fast!

There are a few elements in wholesaling and investing that you need to address and work on daily.

1. Networking – A successful man/women has a successful network, so work on this daily and reach out to people in your area and industry that are doing what you want to do, and align yourself with these people. Ask them questions, and listen to there advice.
2. Resources – This can be anything from Cash Buyers, to Private Money Partners, to even hard money. Find it and grow your list of resources for funding your deals.
3. Negotiation – If you can’t do this, you will not be successful… period! Don’t be discouraged if your not some negotiating ninja, you just need to educate yourself, and practice, we all have to start somewhere. Go to borders, barns & noble, amazon wherever and pick up this book by Herb Cohen called “You Can Negotiate Anything” it will help, I Promise. Negotiation is a skill that needs to be worked on. You must have a strategy in every negotiation in order to get what you want out of the situation.
4. Organization – Without systems of tracking things, and recording information you will fail, I like to create spreadsheets in excel to keep track of everything.
5. Prioritize – Certain tasks must take priority over others, because of time-lines, deadline, and promised response times. Don’t waste your time doing things that will minimize you efficiency. And always due what you say you are going to do, follow up calls ect. You got a rep on the line, remember that you will be know as a one that gets things done, or the chump that doesn’t.
6. Reading – Reading blog post like this are great ways to get inspiration, and find information, but take things to another level, and find books that pertain to Business, Negotiation, Marketing, ect. This way you are not only staying sharp and on the cutting edge. But you will have inspired strategies to implement into the growth of your business.

These are just a few things to consider, and should be worked on daily in your pursuit of financial freedom. Educate your self in these areas of your business daily, these are tools you need to have that would be important in any business, not just real-estate, and will help you on your path to success.

– Sam

p.s. For Questions or comments, hit me up!

Should Wholesalers get a Real Estate License?

So there is a lot of discussion out there whether or not as a wholesaler if you should get your real-estate License or not. It is a question that I have asked myself a number of times, and at first I made the decision not to do. But after a few more months of thinking and dealing with incompetent Real-Estate agents, who had never heard of wholesaling, and even some who had never heard about buying houses for pennies on the dollar. My partner and I decided that this is something that we should pursue, and let me tell you why.

Gurus and other people that I have spoke with that have been wholesaling/investing for years typically don’t have one, and respectively don’t need one.  They will even discourage the thought of it, why? Because they are already Rich! They are already established, they get referral business, and have a solid network that solidifies there business in there market. They have mastered there niche and marketing strategies, and have systems in place for doing those things necessary, and have employees they pay to carry out those tasks. As a newbie, how do you compete with that.

The bottom line is that the game has changed, and in order to compete in today’s market you need to be well equipped, to the best of your abilities,  and I mean having the access to all pertinent tools, and the ability to MONETIZE(notice the caps) every lead you get, especially when you are getting started and cant afford to spin your wheels too much. Now some might tell you to find  a Realtor to work with, well if you read the begging of this post then you will realize my own personal frustration with incompetent agents, and I can promise you there are a ton of stupid ones in your area as well.

So here are a few reasons Why you should get one.

Reason #1

As a Wholesaler, your primary objective, is to find Motivated sellers, and put their properties under contract for pennies on the dollar. As an Agent you have the ability to work with the largest motivated seller in the country! THE BANK! You can utilize your buyers list and market your listings to those buyers… Plus you have more time! And trust me if you are an active wholesaler like myself, you now how time, and I am talking about your contingency period in your contract, which is typically 10-14 days can sometimes not be enough time to get that property flipped. The reasons so are a mile long; from the availability to show the property to your investors, too the seller lives out of town, ect. So that can be beneficial.

Reason #2 Generating Leads

This is important to growing any business, if you build a solid reputation with the bank for moving units and helping them recoup quickly because your the guy/girl that gets it done, they will keep plugging you with deals, FOR FREE!

Reason #3 Marketing

I don’t know what kind of response you are getting from your direct mail campaigns but, I would say approximately 60% of our responses are people who are under water, and needing to preform a short sale on their property. That is more then half of the responses we get, meaning we need to work with an agent, because only a licensed Real-Estate agent can preform a short sale. And just so you know it is illegal, at least in California, for a Licensed agent to pay any non-licensed person, involved in a real-estate transaction.

Reason #4 Sellers that want Fair-Market Value

Now some people want Fair-Market Value for their property, and because of the condition of the property, and location they could get it. That’s great if your an agent, it sucks if you are wholesaler. And trust me you will run into that situation more than once. Not everyone that owns rental property needs money so desperately that they will whore off there house to get a few dollars. So what do you do pass it to the idiot that didn’t know what you where doing in the 1st place?  Do you just toss the lead because YOU can’t do anything? Just so you know if you were to list a house for $200,000 and have a buy/sell commish set with the principal(seller) @ 6 %($12,000) if you simply list the house and a buying agent comes in with a buyer. You split the commish 3%($6,000) a piece and after paying your broker probably walk with a little over $4,000 in your pocket.

It’s your decision, these are just a few examples of why we are doing it, I am tired of watching money walk away, and I want to be able to maximize the amount of money I am able to make from real-estate, in all aspects. The end product I think we all want, is to be the investor, and you have to make alot of money to do that. Wholesaling is a great way to generate huge profits, I will not have to stop wholesaling because I get my Real-Estate License; I just have to disclose to everyone involved that I am Licensed Real-Estate agent.