How to Maximize the Return on Your Real Estate Marketing Dollars

When I went to my first real estate investing boot camp, which was 5 days long, I was very new to the business. Prior to this, I had read a few books, listened to a Charlton Sheets course, and attended a free one day seminar in Atlanta (basically a pitch-a-thon for various real estate gurus and their courses). Even though the one day seminar wasn’t packed with too much content, I’m very grateful for it because that is where I met my first real estate investing mentor, Louis Brown.

My education was limited to book knowledge at that point. I had yet to take much practical action towards my becoming a real estate investor. I vividly remember  walking out of the first lunch break and feeling like I had just been stuffed with a mountain of information, and we still had 4 and a half days left!! It was both a good and bad feeling. Good because I was learning a ton of great information. Bad because I realized how little that I knew. It was a great experience all together though. The following week, it sent me out into the field fired up and ready take over the world.

There were many things that have stuck with me since that first seminar, but there is one that I would like to share with you in particular. This one thing has made a significant impact to our bottom line year after year after year.

One of the areas that was covered in the seminar was marketing. Lou explained many different marketing strategies like bandit signs, farming neighborhoods, several different types of direct mail campaigns, etc. What surprised me the most though was not a particular marketing strategy but how the lead was handled after the initial contact.

Lou said that he got around 60% of his deals from follow up calls with sellers. In other words, a seller contacted him to sell their property, no deal was struck between the two parties, and Lou followed up with the seller over time until the seller was ready. He bought properties from sellers that he had been following up with for months and even bought properties where he had been following up for years!

That’s How You Maximize the Return on Your Marketing Dollars!

Position yourself to be THE person who a seller will sell their property to if and when they get to the point where your offer makes sense. Most sellers are just as disorganized as you and I. As soon as they get off the phone, they move on to the next thing and before they know it . . . they’ve either forgotten that you exist all together or they can’t find your information to call you.

That brings us to a very important question . . . How do you follow up on your seller leads?

3 Step Action Plan to Effectively Following Up with Seller Leads

Step 1 – Ask the Seller if They Would Like to be Added to Your Follow Up System

There is no reason to follow up with someone that doesn’t want to hear from you. If I know by the end of my communication with a seller that we are not right to work together then, I will simply say, “Doesn’t look like we are a fit to work together right now. Hopefully you’ll be able to sell the property but who knows in this market. I’ll tell you what I can do, would you like for me to add you to our follow up system and give you a call down the road sometime? . . . Great, when would you like for us to give you a call back?”

I usually let a homeowner define the time frame when we call back. Do whatever makes sense to you.

Step 2 – Determine How to Track Your Follow Up Call Schedule and Seller Information

There’s nothing worse than following up with a seller and not having any information on their property or their situation (and not remembering it either). You need to decide exactly how you are going to keep up with both of these pieces of information.

When you call back exactly when you say you would and remember all the specific details about the seller and their personal circumstances, watch out! It’s powerful!

Expect to be thanked many times over for caring so much and remember that Lou said 60 % of his deals come from following up with old seller leads.

Step 3 – Make the Call and Rebook the Next Follow up Call if Need Be

When making the call, simply reintroduce yourself and say something like, “Joe, hey this is Patrick Riddle. I spoke with you x-time ago about your property for sale and am just calling you back like I said I would. Did I catch you at a bad time? . . . Good. I guess you’ve probably already gotten the property all squared away and sold, right?”

Simple as that.

By following this simple advice, you maximize the return on marketing dollars you’ve already spent, save on marketing dollars you didn’t have to spend, and stand out from the crowd in the eyes of everyone you work with.

How about that?

And from all of us here at Must Know Investing, thanks Lou! You’re the man! We would have never been able to do what we have without your help.

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Tags: creative real estate investing, Marketing, real estate investor marketing, real estate marketing

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