Success Tips for Real Estate Investors

By: Than Merrill



At many of my real estate seminars I am often asked the question “what does it take to become a successful real estate investor?” More specifically what are the intangibles that separate successful real estate investors from their less successful counterpart’s? If I had to boil it down to three components it would be knowledge, systems, and action.

Knowledge 

Knowledge is power. This statement is paramount in its application to real estate investing. In the real estate game, the most knowledgeable players are always the most successful. (Why do you think Alex Trebek has half of the universe on a 6 month option?) Knowledgeable investors thrive on information and they are consistently seeking and finding resources to improve their knowledge base. The information they seek is specialized knowledge, the finer details you might say, within the niche in which they operate. If you do not continue to acquire knowledge at a rapid pace, you will fall behind the curve. To stay on the cutting edge in any field you must continually seek new information. With the ever changing real estate market, those who are educated will always be in a better position to succeed.

Business Systems

Systems run businesses. When you create a solid system and implement that system in your business, you are setting up the infrastructure to be successful. Truly efficient companies have detailed systems in place. This allows them to insert new people at any time into any position and not skip a beat. By doing this, you can remove yourself from certain responsibilities as well as replace employees whenever the need to do so arises. This allows you to run your business rather than have your business run you. If you are not able to create an effective system, you will always be a prisoner within your own business.

Business Systems allow you to duplicate your business in other markets. All successful franchise operations have detailed business systems that allow them to efficiently and effectively replicate their businesses at new locations. Whether your plan is to open one store or a hundred stores, a solid business system will make this process possible.

Action

Without action, knowledge and business systems will not accomplish anything. You can go out and acquire all the knowledge you wish and create an excellent business system along with that knowledge, but if you do not take action and implement your ideas, they are wasted. This is the step that many people will never accomplish. Action separates those who do from those who only dream of doing. Many people are afraid to take action and as a result never become successful. While taking action is a risk, through education and system development you can minimize that risk. Successful business owners take action everyday and as a result expose themselves to risk and failure. This is inherent in any business, including real estate. With great risk come great rewards.

So take Action TODAY, register for our workshop Saturday March 27th at JCCC in Overland Park where you will get a ton of KNOWLEDGE and my tips on BUSINESS SYSTEMS.  Go to http://www.mareinet.com/ to register right now!

Direct Link  Only 50 Seats Left and they are going fast!

Finding Real Estate Deals – The Power of Network Marketing

By: Than Merrill



Every successful investor has a passion for their business and can’t wait to talk to people about it. However, there has to be a system to your efforts in order to maximize positive response. So what is network marketing, anyway? Network marketing is establishing business relationships for purposes beyond the reason of the initial contact. These relationships can lead to more business either directly or indirectly through a referral. Networking is a very proactive form of marketing. It takes a daily commitment to establish and keep relationships alive. It’s not any different from your personal life. You must continually work on relationships in order to make them successful. The biggest mistake that investors make is focusing on themselves and their own needs first, but if you remember that HELPING SOMEONE ELSE IS THE SUREST PATH TO HELPING YOURSELF, you are bound to get lots of benefits from networking with various groups of people.


Finding Real Estate Deals Tip #1: Understanding why investors need to network market


Networking is one of the most essential parts of a well-crafted marketing campaign. The reason networking can be such an effective avenue is because people you deal with can associate the business with a face and a personality. This is where your individual charisma makes all the difference in the world. People like to work with individuals they know and like. Therefore, let your best qualities shine and establish a level of trust. The primary way to accomplish this is by showing sincere interest in people - who they are, and what they do. The overall goal of networking is to promote the business and to educate the widest possible audience on services offered by your company. Broader exposure often leads to new opportunities, prospective clients and new ideas and there’s no better way to achieve this goal than through networking.

Networking opportunities are truly endless and only limited by your imagination and the willingness to interact with people around you. There is virtually no one you come in contact with that you shouldn’t make aware of what you do and what services you have to offer. One of the great aspects about real estate investing is that it naturally relates across all types of social, economic and professional backgrounds. Shelter is one of the core human needs, so you should have no trouble initiating a conversation about real estate and finding a common ground for a conversation. Whether it’s a prospective home buyer, seller, renter, real estate investor, or a private lender, you should let them all know what business you are in and how you may be of service to them. All these contacts are a valuable asset to your business, and if you take advantage of opportunities that present themselves from networking, they can also become a significant source of revenue for your business. You will find that in most instances you are offering a service which is sought after among the people in your close social circles.


Finding Real Estate Deals Tip #2: The best places to start networking


The first place to start networking is your local Real Estate Investors Association. At your local REIA you will find dozens if not hundreds of like minded investors all with different experience levels. This is your market whether you are looking to buy or sell. We have wholesaled dozens of properties to people we met at our local REIA in Connecticut. Likewise, we have bought dozens of properties from people we have met at the monthly meetings.

Another good place to network is your local homebuilders association and apartment owners association. The homebuilders association is a different type of association whose membership usually consists of builders and suppliers. These relationships will be very valuable in case you get into land development or serious remodeling work. Local landlord associations can also be very valuable and a great source of wholesale buyers for your multi-unit properties.

There are also events specifically organized for purposes of networking. They are an excellent avenue of meeting other professionals that work in real estate and non real estate related fields. It’s a very efficient way of establishing new relationships, because everyone has the same agenda, which is to make most possible contacts that can benefit their business. It’s like going to a singles bar, where everyone is there to mingle. This eliminates any awkwardness about getting right down to business. You will meet many people who will be valuable assets to your marketing campaigns. At various networking events, We have met ad agency reps, media buyers, printers, and a lot of private lenders.

Finding Real Estate Deals Tip #3: How to network effectively


Don’t skip this portion of the course thinking it is not important and that you already know how to meet people and network effectively, but this isn’t an area you want to overlook. Becoming a charismatic person that people like and want to do business with is not easy for everyone. It’s something that takes effort and practice.

Building rapport quickly is something you must do when you are networking. First, find out as much about the other person as you can and let them do most of the initial talking. Next, ask them open ended questions to get them talking. People love to talk about themselves. It’s funny, but the more you listen, the more people will like and respect you. After finding out as much as possible about them, you will usually give them a little 2-3 minute talk about your business and how it can be of service to them. People always want to know how you can help them so let them know. If you take initiative and introduce them to someone they would like to know or you help them in some way they will forever be grateful to you. Whenever you take time to help a new investor, you’ll find that the generosity will be returned to be many times over in deals they will bring to you.

Another important thing to remember is to not try and network with the whole room. When you attend a networking event you should try to connect with only 3 or 4 new people and find a reason for following up with them. It’s the follow-up component that usually leads to opportunities for you as a real estate investor.

One of the best things you can do is read “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. This is the best book you can read on influencing others through the power of effective communication.

Find out more about networking to find deals and take time to nework at the wholesaling workshop on Saturday March 27th being presented by Than Merrill and Mid-America Association of Real Estate Investors.  Details online at http://www.mareinet.com/.  (Find out how you can attend for FREE)

Wholesaling Real Estate

By: Than Merrill
click here for details.



There are many different niches of real estate investors specialize in. Some investors prefer rehabbing, others choose to lease option, and others only buy and hold. All niches can be extremely profitable if you educate yourself and purchase the property below market value. However, in my opinion wholesaling is where all investors should start out. (In fact, you will be deemed clinically crazy if you start out in any other niche.) In this series of articles I will discuss the benefits of operating as a wholesaler.

Wholesaling Produces Quick Cash

One of the great things about wholesaling properties is the deals can happen relatively quickly in contrast to other value added exit strategies like rehab projects and other larger developments. Anytime you get involved in developing or redeveloping properties, the timelines are much longer, and the checks can be far and few between. Wholesaling, on the other hand, generally produces revenue within five weeks or less depending on the magnitude of the transaction. The average time your wholesale deals will take from start to finish is about five weeks to complete. That includes every aspect of the deal from the time you put the property under contract until the time you are cashed out by your ultimate buyer. There have been deals Paul and I have been in and out of in a week, but these are the exception rather than the norm. Either way, you will not find any other niche of real estate with timelines this short.

Wholesalers Have Very Little to No Risk

Real estate investing always involves some level of risk. Your job as an investor is to always understand those risks and try and minimize them in any way you can. Wholesaling, on average, is not nearly as risky as some of the other niches of real estate. This is one of the main reasons I encourage most new investors to start out wholesaling properties. As a wholesaler you can eliminate 99% percent of the risk if you educate yourself properly. In fact, if you know how to fill out a purchase and sale agreement correctly, you should be able to structure deals with virtually no risk at all. 90% of the properties I put under contract have a deposit of less than $500 dollars and an inspection clause which would keeps my deposit safe if I am not able to find a buyer for more than I have agreed to pay. Often these clauses are written in the form of an inspection contingency. Many of the contracts I sign with sellers give me an inspection period up until the day of the closing. This is a very one sided contract, however we as investors should never be afraid to protect ourselves in every way possible.

In summary, for $500 dollars or less I can control a property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for a certain period of time. I will have the ability to sell the property for more and collect the spread with virtually nothing on the line. Where else can you earn tens of thousands of dollars with little to no risk what-so-ever? Nowhere! The only risk you have as a knowledgeable wholesaler is your time.

Wholesaling Has Unlimited Income Potential

Wholesaling is the perennial wealth builder, and the transition from working a job for pennies, to achieving unlimited wealth through real estate is an obtainable goal and increasingly well documented. There is no secret that a lot of people choose to go into real estate because of the endless opportunities for enormous wealth. I know plenty of wholesalers who made over $200,000 in their very first year working the business with no prior real estate experience at all. I also know plenty of wholesalers who make over a million dollars a year every year they remain in the business.

Want to learn more, get the entire story on the Dan Reedy Radio show Saturday March 20th at 9 am on 1510 AM in the Kansas City Market and then again on Saturday March 27th at Than's all day Workshop at Johnson County Community College.  Workshop is $20 at the door, but you can preregister for $10.  If you want to go for FREE, click here for details.

Marketing: The Foundation of Your Real Estate Business

By: Than Merrill



At my real estate seminars I am often asked by my students what area of the business they should focus on first. I can relate to their concerns because I know how much there is to learn when you are building a real estate investment business. Unfortunately, some investors flounder the first couple of years in the business because they try to learn a little bit of everything without mastering anything. As a speaker and educator, I think the opposite approach is better. Instead of trying to dabble in every niche, I think you should spend the majority of your time studying the areas of the business that generate revenue NOW! You can learn the rest of the business as you go along, but what is important now is to get your phone ringing off the hook. You are looking for motivated sellers willing to sell you their properties at 50 to 65 cents on the dollar. In order to do this you must become a Master Marketer!

Your knowledge of marketing will be the foundation from which your business is built. Marketing is what makes the phone ring and generates leads. Leads are the lifeblood of your business. They are the oxygen your business breathes. The more leads you have the more money you will make. So how do you become a better marketer? First, you must understand the principals all successful marketers live by.


Real Estate Marketing Principal #1: Define Your Target Market

You must understand that only 5% of all sellers are truly motivated and will be willing to sell their property at a significant discount. Therefore, you will want to gear your marketing efforts towards people who have a reason to sell their property under market value. There are many reasons why someone would want to sell their property at a discount. Death, divorce, bankruptcy, and foreclosure are just a few of the many examples of why someone would want to get rid of a property quickly. You can find many of these lists through the public records with a little effort. Once your target market is located, you must then reach out to these people through your marketing efforts.

Real Estate Marketing Principal #2: Create a Compelling Message

Once you have narrowed down your target market you then must compel the prospect to take action. Distressed property owners are by nature procrastinators and thus unlikely to respond to a generic offer. Therefore, you must create an irresistible offer so compelling it gets the prospect off the couch and over to the phone. The message must strike an emotional chord within the prospect if it is going to be effective.

Real Estate Marketing Principal #3: Create Systems for Outsourcing and Deliver

Most prospects don’t respond to your marketing efforts until they have seen your message at least seven times. Successful marketers realize they need a system to accomplish this. It is virtually impossible for any investor to fulfill all of their marketing campaigns by themselves. Without systems you will continually be short on time and short on quality leads.

If you ever have the pleasure of visiting my office you will see that we have a system for every one of our marketing campaigns. For example, we mail to homeowners in bankruptcy every Monday. Every week my marketing assistant grabs the new list off the internet. She then downloads the names into our database for tracking purposes before emailing the list off to an intern. The intern then uses the pre-designed letters and postcards on file to fulfill the mailing. The mailings are then organized and mailed out on Tuesday. The beauty of the system is that I have nothing to do with the process and all I have to do is pick through the deals when they come in.

It is your job as the business owner to understand the importance of using systems that can be outsourced to other people. Otherwise, you will forever be stuck in your business and will never free yourself from the drudgery of WORK.

Real Estate Marketing Principal #4: Test and Track

One of the most common problems real estate investors make is not testing and tracking their marketing. When it comes to marketing and running a business the devil is in the details. Marketers are usually ultra-creative people and often times allergic to the bottom line. However, there is nothing more important when it comes to building a business. Your goal as a marketer is to have a system to concisely test and track your marketing and understand the numbers. Measurement eliminates waste and tracking your results will help you build a profitable real estate investment company.

I sit down every month and review my marketing expenditures. I look at how much was spent, how many leads came in, and which campaigns produced actual deals. I then make decisions for the next month shifting money from one marketing campaign to another so as to maximize the return on my investment. If you don’t have a tool for testing and tracking your marketing then precious dollars will slip through the cracks. I created a tool to track my marketing and it is highly effective and has literally saved me thousands of dollars over the years. To find more wealth building articles like this one click here

Than Merrill, CEO of FortuneBuilders, INC and CT Homes, LLC is currently a full time real estate investor, speaker, and one of the most successful investors in the nation. He is also the star of A&E’s hit TV show “Flip this House.” In the past few years his company has bought and sold over 260 properties across the nation. Than’s clients are some of the most successful investors around the country as a result of the cutting edge marketing and wholesaling systems he has developed.


Than is a graduate of Yale University and he currently resides in New Haven, CT. After college, he played in the NFL with the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers before moving on to real estate development. To learn this week (ok on March 27th) from Than Personally right here in the Kansas City Metro area, be sure to attend the Continuing Education Course from Mid-America Association of Real Estate Investors at Johnson County Community College.  Cost at the door is only $20, Pre-Register on our Web site for $10, Click here to find out how to attend for FREE.

Real Estate Investing Basics – Where Should I Begin?

An article with Tips on Real Estate Investing Basics

By: Than Merrill

At my real estate seminars I am often asked by my students what area of the business they should study first. With so much to learn and so many different niches it can sometimes seem overwhelming for many new investors. I see a lot of investors flounder the first couple years because they don’t know where to spend their time. I started buying rental properties and quickly learned this was not the niche to begin with. Likewise, I spent a lot of time studying areas of the business which were meant for year three and four of my development. I strongly urge my students and most investors to start out wholesaling and rehabbing until you build up significant capital reserves. However, whatever your niche of choice is you must understand and spend significant time studying how to find deals. In fact, FINDING DEALS SIGNIFICANTLY BELOW MARKET VALUE is your number one job. In order to do this you must begin to think of yourself as a marketer first and real estate investor second. So congratulations you are NOW A MASTER MARKETER not a real estate investor.

Real Estate Investing Basics Tip #1 – The Best Investors Understand Marketing

Marketing is the first area of the business you should study as a beginning real estate investor. Marketing is what makes the phone ring and generates leads. Leads are the lifeblood of your business. They are the oxygen your business breaths. The more leads you have the more money you will make. If you don’t have leads, then you won’t buy any properties. If you don’t buy any properties then you can’t make any money. If you can’t make any money then you can’t build a business. As a result you should spend the majority of your time figuring out how to get your phone to ring with motivated sellers. (The same thing can be said for dating!)

Successful marketing is an art, and those who understand marketing set themselves apart from other investors. There must be a mindset shift as an investor. You are not in the business of flipping homes. You are in the business of generating leads from people who want to sell their home under market value. If you can do this you will control the market and you will figure out the rest of the business very quickly. If you have a potential $80,000.00 dollar pay day on the other end of the phone believe me you learn quickly. (Ask me how I know this…)

There are many different forms of marketing you can utilize to get your phone ringing. Direct mail, billboards, TV, cold calling, and networking are all marketing strategies you can use to find deals. The key is to narrow down your market and find your target, develop a compelling message with an irresistible offer, and consistently touch these people with multiple marketing mediums. Then you will want to develop marketing systems so you can repeat this process over and over again.

Real Estate Investing Basics Tip #2 – Wholesale Properties to Build Your Cash Cushion

Once you find the deal now you have to find someone who is willing to buy the deal from you at a higher price. This is where wholesaling comes into play. Wholesaling is the business of finding bargains and selling the deals to bargain hunters at a higher price. You are not adding value to the property. Wholesaling properties should be essential part of every real estate investors business. It is a way to generate income with little to no risk. Many times, you never take ownership of the property - you simply are the transaction coordinator. In essence, you are bringing a buyer and a seller together. Through your marketing efforts, you locate deals and then you assign them to other investors that you locate through your various forms of marketing. If your marketing machine is in motion, you should have no problem finding buyers. Successful marketing and networking in the real estate community will enable you to find wholesale buyers.

Real Estate Investing Basics Tip #3 – Rehabbing for Large Profits

Rehabbing is when you redevelop the property yourself instead of wholesaling the property to someone else. This is where the larger profits lie. The reason is you will be selling the property to a retail buyer who will be willing to pay full market value for the property as opposed to a another investor who is looking for a discount.

Rehabbing is an entire business in itself and there is a lot you need to learn about this niche. It is important if you choose to include rehabbing in your business that you spend time educating yourself first. Learning pricing of labor and materials as well as whom are the qualified contractors in your area is essential to rehabbing properties.

Being able to add value to properties through renovations is a not only very profitable, but also very rewarding. You are providing a great service, not only to the city in which you do business, but also to the end buyer of your newly remodeled home. When you become experienced at rehabbing you will have the confidence to be able to take on projects that many people would never even consider. This separates you from the other investors and creates more opportunities for you in that real estate market.

Than is coming to Kansas City on Saturday March 27th to teach Building a Real Estate Investing Business at Johnson County Community College for Mid-America Association of Real Estate Investors.  This event is open to the public, cost at the door is $20, preregister for $10.  Click to find out how to attend for FREE.
 
Seats are filling up fast, get registered today

Email Marketing

I was asked the other day which was better Top Producer or Constant Contact.  As I have used both I can share my thoughts.

First Top Producer.  This is a web based system that works something like Microsoft Outlook and in fact can be set up to sync with Outlook.  It is a great tool if you are working with traditional Realtor Lead Generation web sites that will feed into it and want to have multiple auto responders set up.

Where it excells is at being able to set up an unlimited number of marketing plans and have it remind you and in the case of the email send it for you.  So if you have contact a that needs a phone call in 2 days, and email in 5 days, a printed letter in 10 days, another phone call in 20 days, and then a follow up email every 20 days after that, you can go in and prewrite all the emails and letters, and set up scripts for the phone calls and then turn it on.  It will tell you when to call, merge and send the email, and then merge and tell you to print and mail a letter.  You can set up 100's of differnet plans and turn them on as you ad contacts.  Perfect for the realtor.

But what if you have gone through all the follow up email and you want to write and send a fairly current email newsletter to everyone at once.  Get too many in your pipeline and Top Producer bogs down, then you need a direct email service that will send a lot of emails at once, get past the screening filters on the receiving end, and be consistent in formatting and sending what you want sent.

Constant Contact is the answer for this:
1.  It is the most consistent about sending out the email you created.  I have used similar services and what I had in my preview window and what my recipents got did not match, this can be  real pain when you had photos and links that either don't show up or don't wor, or even rearrange everything.

2.  The other thing you run into in email services is needing the recipents to confirm that they want to receive emails from you.  This is fine and dandy if they are filling in a sign up box online somewhere.  But if you have a preexisting email list or are collecting emails at a live event, having to input them into the system yourself, and having them have to confirm they want emails from you 1 or 2 times just does not work.  Constant Contact will allow you to import a list (they will want to screen it, but no double opt in as they call it).

So if you are just starting out on building an email marketing list, start cheap and use the email service you have, but once you start getting over 100 people to email, look into Constant Contact.  And if you want to try it out, under 100 contacts for Free for 60 days, click here.

Analyze This

hat is a good deal?

We all get wrapped up in finding deals, but would you know if it was a good one?

When determining how much we should pay for a good deal we are going to look primarily at 3 things:

1. Comparable Values
2. Cost to Repair
3. Holding Costs

Today we are going to look at Comparable Values or comps.

You are going to want to find comparable values for what the home would be worth all fixed up. So as you are looking at resources for comps look for homes that are in good or repaired condition. And be sure you are comparing apples to apples or rather you have homes with similar size, style, age, and amenities.

But the next big question is where to find comparables to review? Tim Randle mentions in his online article “How to Get Comps” that you have four resources:

1. Doing your own research
2. Internet searches
3. Service Companies
4. Access to MLS

So let’s break these down:

Doing your own research: By far the hardest, but you should use this to some extent as it will educate you more on your market place.

• Review ads in the newspaper and online to see what people are asking.
• If your county or state records sales prices, visit the recorder of deeds office.
• Take a look at tax appraisal values.
• And over all get to know the neighborhood by staying up to date on everything listed, touring when they are for sale, and tracking what they sell for when they close.

Internet Searches: Next you can take a look at several different real estate web sites that offer homes for sale and see what valuations they might offer. Sites like:

• http://www.zillow.com/
• http://www.trulia.com/
• http://www.homefinder.com/

These are good sites to find a rough estimate of value, but are not very accurate.

Service Companies: There are companies that offer an online valuation service. These sites glean their data primarily from recorded data from the courthouse, not actual recorded sales and then they calculate a sales price from the data, like the mortgage price recorded. Sites like:

• http://www.facorelogic.com/
• http://dataquick.com/
• http://netronline.com/

While these sites have some value, it is advisable to check your results with our next method. (Another use of these sites is to build marketing lists for direct mail marketing for motivated sellers.)

Access to the MLS: By far the best way to get access to comparables for your property analysis will be with access to the MLS. The MLS stands for Multiple Listing Service and is the local site where Realtors list properties for sale and record pending sales, expired listings, and actual sales values.


To gain access to the MLS, you have four choices:

1. Hire a Realtor to do comparable searches for you, but after one or two freebies, be prepared to pay for the service.
2. Become a Real Estate Appraiser.
3. Become an assistant to a local Realtor and have them sign you up for your own access as their assistant.
4. Obtain your own Real Estate License so you can have access as a Realtor and gain some of the other benefits of being a realtor.

Learn more about analyzing deals at the March 9th General Meeting

6:00 - 7:15 Networking
6:00 - 7:15 Registration
6:00 - 7:15 Vendor Hall
6:30 - 7:00 Ask An Expert
7:15 - 7:30 Announcements
7:30 - 9:00 Presentation

So you see a deal on the marketing table, you get an email, or seller calls you on the phone. Is it worth your time to go look at the property? Could it be a deal? What would our experts do with the deal? Find out, with our live deal analysis on Tuesday March 9th at our General Meeting

Real Estate Marketing Tips - "The Power of Marketing"

Real Estate Marketing Tips
- “The Power of Marketing Systems”


A series of articles on Real Estate Marketing Tips and “The Power of Marketing Systems”

Part 1 of 4

By Than Merrill


Note: Than Merrill offering an all day training on Marketing in Real Estate on Saturday March 27th at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park KS. Click here to find out how you can attend this real estate investing workshop for free!.



How did you find that deal? That is the number one question I am asked by other investors at my real estate investing seminars whenever I go through different real estate deal case studies. If you are an experienced real estate investor you can probably relate to this statement. The answer is the “Real Secret” to the business. Unfortunately, most real estate guru’s only touch on the importance of finding deals. Touching on the importance of marketing is not enough. YOU MUST SERIOUSLY FONDLE THIS ISSUE! Most of these so called real estate guru’s will give you ideas of how to find deals, but ideas are not enough! I have seen many entrepreneurs fail who have had good ideas. What investors really need is to understand the importance of marketing and marketing systems. Marketing is your business and marketing systems are what bring your deals consistently!
Real Estate Marketing Tip #1 – Become a Marketing Major

The most successful real estate investors have dedicated their time to learning the details of their business. These people have usually sacrificed numerous weekend vacations and instead spent the time learning more about their business. These elite investors understand that successful marketing takes hard work, continual follow up, and a thorough knowledge of marketing. In this game the most informed players always win and the more you know about the subject the more money you will make. The top-tier of investors, who are buying 50-100 houses a year, are continually learning, testing, and improving their marketing campaigns.

Real Estate Marketing Tip #2 - You Must Become Systems Orientated!

You are now a systems producing machine! Congratulations I have given you the highest possible compliment one business person can give another business person. You see, the best marketers are systems-oriented people. They understand ideas are only so valuable and without a system you can not leverage and execute an idea consistently. For example, I can give you an idea of how to find real estate deals below market value by telling you to mail people who have recently inherited properties. However, if I don’t show you how to get the data, create a list, and design a system you can outsource then I have not helped you. In fact, I have only confused you and frustrated you which can lead to burnouts and increased male pattern baldness! Developing the systems behind your marketing is the most important thing you can do. Without systems you will continually be short on time and short on quality leads.

Real Estate Investing Tip #3 - Death to Ideas

Ideas mean nothing to you now unless you can build a system for implementing them. Death to ideas! Your new favorite word is Business Process Automation or BPA for short. (No not T&A…Paul). All businesses are made up of a series of processes which can be automated. For example if you ever had the pleasure of visiting our office you would see that we have a system and checklist for everything. From our sixteen different marketing systems that get our marketing out into the marketplace, to our deal analysis and due-diligence systems, to our rehabbing systems that run our projects, and finally down to the way we market our properties. Everything is a system run by different individuals trained on running that part of the business. These systems are what allow me to travel the country speaking without having to worry about my business producing revenue.

Real Estate Marketing Tip #4 - The Bible of Systems

If you don’t understand the importance of systems, you need to rip up this article right now and pick up the book entitled “The E-Myth” by Michael Gerber. The E-Myth, or Entrepreneurial Myth as Gerber laments, is single handedly the best book on how to systemize and run a business effectively. The book does not specifically talk about developing real estate marketing systems, however it does have specific case studies of how some of the most successful business owners use systems within their business. Last time I checked, Howard Schultz the founder of Starbucks, did not serve you your morning “3 Pump Grande Vanilla Latte.” One of his employees did. One of his employees who was working the systems he spent years building.

This idea can be directly applied to your real estate business. If you don’t have marketing systems to get motivated sellers calling you every day then you will struggle to find any good real estate deals. Likewise, if you don’t have marketing systems you can outsource to others then you will never be able to remove yourself from your business.

____________________________________________________________________________

This is part one of a four part series on real estate marketing tips and the power of marketing systems for real estate investors. To find out more about our marketing systems and live real estate seminars go to: www.FortuneBuilders.com or call 203.789.1111.















































































Real Estate Marketing Tips - “I Can’t Find Deals”

A series of articles on Real Estate Marketing Tips and “The Power of Marketing Systems”

Part 2 of 4

By Than Merrill



I can’t find any deals in my area. This won’t work in my area. Why would anybody want to sell their property under market value? You can’t buy a property with nothing down. The earth is flat. A man will never walk on the moon. The Red Sox will never win the World Series.



All of these statements have been made by thousands of people and all of them are completely false. Blasphemy! Bologna! Not true! You see what you believe to be true is true for you, not everyone else.



I guarantee you can find deals in your area. As long as there are houses within the vicinity there will be deals. You just have to start marketing and put a little elbow grease into your marketing campaigns.



Real Estate Marketing Tip #1 – Get Started

Whenever someone tells me they can’t find enough deals, I always ask them one simple question: What marketing campaigns did you run this month? Inevitably, whenever I ask this question the answer is always “very few” or “none.” Well, how do you expect to find deals if you didn’t do any proactive marketing? Unfortunately, a space ship is not going to land in your front yard and hand you a bunch of deeds to properties under market value. If you want something you have to go after it! You can not rely on realtors to bring you all your deals. You must get one on one with the seller. In order to do that you must start marketing to them directly.



Your goal should be to get one new marketing campaign going every other month. At the end of a year you would have six campaigns running simultaneously. I guarantee you if you do this one thing you will be purchasing at least one real estate deal a month!



Real Estate Marketing Tip #2 – It Takes a Little Capital…So Look in Your Friends Couch

It does take some initial capital to start marketing and get your phone ringing. You don’t have to a huge budget, however I would recommend you start out with at least a budget of $500 a month. If you don’t have any capital don’t be discouraged. You will just have to be more creative and do some joint venture marketing campaigns with other professionals.



Fear and lack of knowledge are what stop 95% of people from getting what they really want in life. Most people consider it too much of a risk to spend a $500-$1,000 dollars on marketing for deals, yet they will blow through that same amount in a weekend trip to Vegas. (Just ask Paul) What you may not realize is that a well planned marketing campaign can be implemented with as little as $500 to $1,000 dollars which will most likely bring in at least 1 or 2 deals. Not too bad when you consider most deals will have a minimum profit margin of $15,000 to $20,000.



Likewise, I have found that real estate investors are generally afraid of spending money on bigger ticket marketing mediums, in contrast to business owners in other industries. Why do you find smaller furniture companies spending thousands to market themselves when they generally work on much smaller profit margins than most real estate investors? It makes no logical sense because most real estate investors can earn a very substantial income fairly easily if they just chose to spend money on marketing their businesses.



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This is part two of a four part series on real estate marketing tips and the power of marketing systems for real estate investors. To find out more about our marketing systems and live real estate seminars go to: www.FortuneBuilders.com or call 203.789.1111.







Real Estate Marketing Tips - “Be Consistently Bold”

A series of articles on Real Estate Marketing Tips and “The Power of Marketing Systems”

Part 3 of 4

By Than Merrill



All marketing experts know the importance of being consistently bold. I have seen some great marketers with a bold message out perform one shot wonders with a more compelling offer. In fact, I think you can probably think of some business owners in your area whom are just plain outrageously consistent with their marketing.



I have experienced this first hand in the world of real estate investing. For example, I was sitting across the kitchen table from a seller one time and asked her why she had decided to call me instead of the 30+ other investors who had mailed her. She said it was because I was the only one wouldn’t stop mailing her these outrageous letters and postcards. That deal was worth over $50,000 to my company’s bottom line. You think being consistently bold is important now? You bet it is!



Real Estate Marketing Tip #1

With so many investors in the marketplace, your message can sometimes get lost in the marketing shuffle. That is why you need to do something bold when it comes to your marketing campaigns if you want sellers to remember you.



For example I know of one investor in California who used to run a full page color newspaper ad every week saying “Why Use a Realtor?” The best part was that the ad used to run in the middle of the Realtor homes for sale section of the Sunday paper. Now I am sure he upset many realtors, but his bold marketing tactics are why he is the most successful investor in his area.



Real Estate Marketing Tip #2 – Consistency with Your Marketing is Paramount

On an average day, the typical American sees literally hundreds of advertisements and marketing messages. Of these, only about 10% are actually internalized by target customers. Therefore, you can’t expect someone to do business with you after you have contacted them only one time. There is no such thing as a “one-time wonder” in the world of real estate marketing. There is no special secret or magic formula to finding deals as most new investors usually think. Effective marketing requires a compelling message and continual follow-up. On average, a person will not decide they want to do business with you until the fifth or sixth time you have contacted them. For example, our direct mail campaigns usually consist of five to six different letters depending on the list.



Likewise, multiple methods of marketing always work better than one. For example, if a seller drives by your bandit sign, sees you in the newspaper, and then they gets a postcard from you I guarantee they are more apt to call you then if you only run one marketing campaign consistently.



If you are on a fixed budget, make sure that you don’t pour all of the money into one or even two different forms of marketing. For every $1000 dollars per month you are willing to spend you should be able to find three or four different methods to employ. As your budget grows, the number of different forms you use should grow accordingly. There are a lot of very inexpensive forms of marketing you can begin with so start with those and ad more expensive ones as you grow.



Additionally, you must have patience with your marketing. Don’t expect something to work the first time every time. Some of the best marketing campaigns we have ever run started out lackluster. Only by having patience, adapting, testing, and tweaking the campaign did we get it to produce.

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This is part three of a four part series on real estate marketing tips and the power of marketing systems for real estate investors. To find out more about our marketing systems and live real estate seminars go to: www.FortuneBuilders.com or call 203.789.1111.



Real Estate Marketing Tips - “Track Your Marketing Numbers”

A series of articles on Real Estate Marketing Tips and “The Power of Marketing Systems”

Part 4 of 4

By Than Merrill



One of the most common problems most real estate investors make is not tracking their marketing. When it comes to marketing and running a business the devil is in the details. Marketers are usually ultra-creative people and often times allergic to the bottom line. However, there is nothing more important when it comes to building a business. Your goal as a marketer is to have a system to concisely track your marketing and understand the numbers. Measurement eliminates arguments and tracking your results will help you build a profitable real estate investment company.



Real Estate Marketing Tip #1 – Determining your ROI

Any marketing decision you make should be based upon the past performance of your prior marketing campaigns or research you have gathered from other investors. If you did a good job tracking your marketing expenditures by campaign type and the number of deals you bought from them, then you should be able to calculate a Return on Investment. Return on Investment or ROI for short, is a mathematical calculation that determines how much money was returned by your initial marketing investment. For example, if you invested $1,000 dollars and at the end of the year it generated $2,000 in income then your return on investment is 100%. For real estate investors this is important to note because certain marketing campaigns may be much more expensive than others, but if they bring you deals with a higher profit margin, the ROI is going to be much higher. Ideally you should want to make $20 dollars on every $1 invested in your marketing campaigns. This is a realistic goal, but something you will never achieve if you have no way of tracking your results.



Real Estate Marketing Tip #2 – Time is Your Most Valuable Asset

Unfortunately, ROI is not everything you need to consider when you are making marketing decisions. Time is a very important element that is much harder to get a grasp on. Some marketing campaigns are very time intensive so there is an opportunity cost associated with your involvement. If you are spending half your week fulfilling your marketing campaign this means other areas of your business may suffer. The only way to factor this into your marketing decisions is to associate a pay rate for your labor hours into your ROI calculations. If you value your time at $100 an hour, then you need to outsource every other job under that pay scale to someone else. This is not easy to do especially if you are used to trying to do everything yourself. Remember - don’t skip over the dollars to save dimes.



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This is part four of a four part series on real estate marketing tips and the power of marketing systems for real estate investors. To find out more about our marketing systems and live real estate seminars go to: www.FortuneBuilders.com or call 203.789.1111.