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Introduction I ve spent over 25+ years in real estate in some capacity or another. My introduction into the business started by tying up single lots with no money. That grew into packaging a new construction home for sale and having the lot owner wait until the closing of the home to get paid. 10% of the sales price would be paid to us nonrefundable by the buyer to start the process again with none of our own funds. We presently buy 4-10 homes with out cash or credit monthly in our area and Joint Venture (JV) partners around the country (you can learn more about becoming a partner at http:///jv). Real estate can be quite interesting, given it can be very lucrative, but simultaneously can create financial havoc if you re not careful. I ve learned some valuable and very costly lessons along the way. You won't have to walk through those same lessons once you've worked with us closely. It doesn t matter if you re part-timers, full timers, experienced, or inexperienced, or brand new in the business. It matters only if you re coachable! So is it really worth it? When you re done with this e-book, my goal is to have you never worry about lead generation again. To have it on total auto pilot so you can focus on speaking with sellers and engineering deals because leads are the lifeline for any and all businesses. I m going to start off pretty general because I don t want any of you to get stuck thinking you have to ONLY work on low end, ONLY work on high end homes or ONLY do wholesaling. The fact is, I want you to feel like you can handle any lead that comes your way. Then as a transaction engineer you can fit the lead into an owner financing purchase, lease/purchase, option only, cash or wholesale deal. When done properly, you will have all these types of leads & deals coming to you at once in all price ranges from multiple automated sources and you ll always buy and sell on terms without using your cash or credit. Most people start with the low end wholesaling right away because a lot of the so called gurus teach that as a quick way to start profiting. I never did that because I wasn t excited about the typical small fees a wholesaler earns (there are always exceptions I know so I don t want 100+ emails from wholesalers telling me how much they made from wholesaling ). If you haven t read my Eat that Sandwich Creating Cash Flow Now, Cash Flow Monthly & Large Wealth with Sandwich Leases Special Report, it would behoove you to do that because that will get you turning much bigger profits AND simultaneously creating wealth within your first 30-60 days. I m talking averages of $50,000 and up, not $5,000 or $10,000. Be sure to grab that on my site if you haven t already; heck, it s free http://. 2
I m going to explain the different lead sources and then include how to automate so instead of becoming a glorified administrator with a job, you become a very profitable transaction engineer running a business. For Sale by Owners (FSBOS): These are always a good lead source. You can source them yourself online and call them yourself using our scripts or you can hire Virtual Assistants (VA S -see below) and I prefer both. If you re just starting and have a limited budget you can start by sourcing (finding) them yourself and calling them yourself. I started that way at a few hours a day 3-4 days a week. It will only take one deal to then have some funds to use for hiring your first VA (You can visit our resource tab on http:// to find most current and most effective source for FSBOS and lead generation as well as the VA service we use). You can also get them via for sale by owner signs. I like the signs because some of those are not online and there are less people calling them and less likely to sell on their own. You can also have others gathering sign leads for you. Our Field Agent Program offers $10 per sign (picture) with house picture. They send those pictures to our team. If it is not a duplicate then they will get paid that $10. You can actually create field agents of your own all over the place doing this for you and you d have more than you can handle. An easy way to set that up is via Craig s List and then use PayPal to pay them once a week. If you are a member go watch the videos about it and download our Special Report specifically for he Field Agent Program. Aside from the automation, I suggest you drive a different way to work or to wherever you re going each time you re out and just go through different, new neighborhoods and you ll run into signs. By the way, you'll often see run down properties while driving around. Jot down the address and seek out the owner. I've earned hundreds of thousands from this alone. When working with FSBOS you should be prepared to follow up and give them time. Keep in mind, they re FSBOS because they think they can sell on their own! Time and circumstances change a lot in real estate so your follow up is critical. We have initial and follow up scripts as well as live calls you can listen to in our members only area. You can also see the bonus section with this Special Report which addresses the follow up. If not currently a member, test drive via $2.00 14 day trial http:///membership. Expired Listings (Expired): These are listings that realtors had on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and they expired (didn t sell). I personally love these because they tend to be more frustrated already having not sold with a realtor. This will many times translate into immediate appointments opposed to the FSBOS that need some time typically. Just like with the 3
FSBOS though, the expired you can call on your own and/or have your VA call, just like the FSBO. I personally still call Expired a few times per week, our Team calls and I email my VA batches of them to call. We use the MyPlus lead resource (on our resource area of our website) service for FSBO and Expired Leads and suggest you do as well. You no longer have to be licensed to obtain expired leads! Virtual Assistants (VA s): There are many VA companies and individuals available to help you with your seller and/or buyer (a different discussion for another time-we handle all our buyer calls in house now but started with a VA) calls. I struggled through 3 Virtual Assistants and was ready to throw in the towel when I then found an amazing company that trains well, is very well scripted and is constantly improving. I hired them as of the writing of this report, have been with them almost four years with the same person. They will become an integral part of your team. You can hire the same company and just let them know you saw them on my site in the resource section and you ll likely get the same VA Supervisor familiar with us. You ll choose how many hours you want to utilize them for. We personally use them for 9 hours of calling per week. This produces approximately 16-18 leads weekly for me so 2-3 per hour (counting the sourcing time they have to do). They send me on a daily basis fully filled out property information sheets. This assures you that you re only speaking with quality leads. We now simply give our VA our direct sign in authority to our FSBO and Expired account so they do not waste time sourcing. These VA s can also handle all your yellow letter call backs (see below). http:///resources-and-tools Direct Mail Yellow Letters: Just like each of the above on their own, Yellow Letters could be a standalone marketing campaign to feed your business enough leads forever. You can generate these letters (see sample below) and target all kinds of lists. You can get very specific and never ever run out of potential targeted campaigns. We use melissadata.com for our lists but there are many companies that can and will sell you lists. We then use a done-for-you service for our yellow letters and you can find that in our resource section on our site. They create, print and send to us to drop in the mail cannot get any easier than that. Samples of lists you can buy/target: o (My favorite) Out of town and absentee owners by zip code. As with all the lists you can target by price range, number of bedrooms, etc. as well. These categories may be lower count per zip code, however, so there may be no need to further niche beyond out of town and absente. 4
o Pre-foreclosures can be effective if worked correctly. Often times when contacting these Sellers they do not even want to sell. I personally don t work them as I don t want to mess with people more than 2-3 months in arrears and there are more and more laws protecting the consumer now just not my cup of tea! If you decide to work in this niche, check your local laws. o Inherited whereby the estate or individual left someone a home. Many times these are debt-free. You ll be dealing with primarily kids or executors of the estate or even their attorney. o Homes with no equity o Homes debt free with no mortgages I think you get the idea- you can go on and on with lists. The best with yellow letters just like any other marketing, is to test and then test again until you get one cranking that you like. We direct all our yellow letter calls to our VA s because we learned firsthand what it means to take those calls and listen to the crazies and the Realtors asking why we mailed it. I don t want them. I want serious sellers only so my VA weeds those out and sends me only the leads that want to talk with us. That s done on a property information sheet like all the other leads they send us. The calls go to live operators and those that have a desire to sell get forwarded to our VA to call. You can use the same live service we use- find that on our resource section also, under the special package. We have even had police officers come to our office and once my home. Yes, police officers turns out some little old ladies got them in my home town which is a small island with some old money people still living there in these big ol homes and when they received it they thought it looked suspicious. Once the officers were told what we do and what the letter was for they laughed and thanked us and moved on. They have to check out any and all calls they get. 5
PO Box 626 Newport, RI 02840 5 Amy Mason 21 Pike Street South Kingstown, RI 02879 6
In our resource section you ll find our other lead generation services. I strongly suggest you use the same to keep the variety in your lead flow. When you have variety you will never rely on one service or one type and your business will continue to flourish. Print and Online Ads: You or your staff should always be running free online I Buy Houses ads why not? You can google free classified sites in the areas you work in and find plenty of them in addition to craigslist. I haven t gotten slammed with calls from these but it s another lead source and I m all about multiple lead sources. I no longer run print ads but you can try it in various communities if you d like, especially if it s real cheap to do and if you re in a small community. In the membership area under Documents is a sample ad and some free classified sites. Social Media & SEO: These are done by our website person. You can hire them too! See resource section. This I cannot quantify for you, no one can, but I can tell you that once you re cash flowing you will want to hire someone to do SEO and social media for you. The company that designed and maintains our website (Listed in resources) also does all our SEO, video posts and more and we get a steady flow of buyer and seller leads now because of it. Call them and speak with Kris and let her know you saw her in my Special Report or on my site in the Resource section and she ll take great care of you. You can also have her get you our done-for-you website and access to all my Buyer & Seller Q + A videos for complete automation. This is also free for our higher level members. I have all these leads- now what do I do? All the lead generation can be automated and once you re sitting on all these leads, you do want to develop the skill sets to speak with sellers. In our members area we have live calls we ve done that you can listen to as well as students that we ve consulted or partnered with. This is a valuable resource because a few tweaks to a script can make an enormous difference. There are also scripts in there for you to use. Our partners and clients actually can send us live call recordings for our critique. If you decide to join one of our master mind groups you ll also have interaction with others to help you and, of course, if you are in the consulting or partnership you ll have myself or my team doing live calls with you. Certainly those resources will shorten your learning curve and improve your skill sets. Right now there are live master mind calls archived in the members area for you to listen to. Not a member yet? Go to http://the.smartrealestatecoach.com/membership/ and join now with our $2 14-day trial. 7
**Bonus Section The Art of Follow-Up** As the old saying goes- the money is in the follow up. That couldn t be more true in the real estate business for a lot of reasons, but the primary one I believe is that over time peoples circumstances change. With that change comes change with housing and other issues of course. If I threw away all the prospects that I spoke with that say no to selling on terms or to even selling right now or threw away all the no lead sheets I received from my VA s, I d be literally throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars. You may be wondering how I can quantify that; very easy. The very week I m writing this report, I received a call from a seller that I vaguely remembered. Turns out he was an expired listing from approximately a year ago. At that time he was trying FSBO and after 3 calls (we have a system that moves them from the active follow up to a let sit file and then finally to a final letter- as a member you have access to all our form letters we use http:///membership) we moved him through our system which ended in a letter. From that letter he contacted us. I visited the home and 3 days later we put it under contract. Here are the details: Purchase type: Lease/Purchase, Single family Term: 36 months with automatic 6 month extension so 42 months if necessary Monthly Payment: $1000 with $200 credit towards purchase price Payments to start one month after occupancy So we pocket an additional $1600 (see below) On top of the deposit. Purchase Price: $177,800 Market Value: $215,000 (repairs needed: Electirc and roof (not emergency but will need it soon) Exit Strategy: Rent to Own Sale Price: $225,000 less $10,000 work for equity credit (roof and Cosmetics so we marketed as great for handy man) so $215,000 Monthly Rent: $1600.00 Down Payment: It s been on the market one day but we ll take Approximately $10,000 down and then with Our newest strategy we ll receive another $15,000 Or so throughout the term typically tax refunds. Typically tax refunds but our newest form for buyers is brilliant and pulls the available deposit funds up - always (see members' area for the form as that one form will net you 10's of thousands more this year). 8
Pay Days: If you have not read the Eat that Sandwich Creating that Cash Flow Now, Cash Flow Monthly & Large Wealth with Sandwich Leases Report please do that so you understand pay day #1, #2 and #3. $215,000-$177,800=$37,200+ $200 credit x 42 = $8400 Sub Total = $45,600 + $600/month x42 = $25,200 Total = $71,800 Pay Day #1: $25,000 deposits Pay Day #2: $600 / month + $200 credit -$800 / month Pay Day #2: Cash out Additional $20,600 ($45,600 less $25,000 paid) OK do I need to give more examples? One lousy letter goes in the mail and $71,800 comes back. Here s a picture of the home: 9
Our average deposit on these deals is $20,187.00 and total all three pay days is over $50,000.00. When would now be a good time for you to start having these come to you regularly? Check out our partnership programs because some of them GUARANTY your deals! It s great to have all these leads but how many do you really need? As part of our consulting and partnering we help you define the exact number. Until then use 25 leads generated per closed deal or check in hand. Don t worry, often month one if you don t have a closed deal that just means that you ve got to build up your funnel. Give yourself 90-120 days. Some of you will do it in 30, but I want to manage expectations. Back to our follow up discussion Generally speaking I will break follow up into two categories: 1) You speak with a prospect or your VA does and they say YES to either lease/purchase or owner financing. This is obviously the easy follow up and part of your normal process. The follow up here is moving forward with getting an appointment and getting it under contract. That s a process that is systematic and predictable and we will leave that for another discussion, another report. We also do this with you and for you in the partnership program as well as live calls you can listen to we do. The second type of follow up that this report addresses is... 2) The type of follow up that most don t do, or don t do properly- the follow up with prospects that say NO on the lead sheet or YES on the lead sheet but not right now. As I alluded to above, almost ALL FSBOS will be a follow up issue. When you master this #2 follow up, you ll turn slips of paper into dollars like the one I just did recently that I showed you above. Part of what we do with some of our members, and certainly all our partnership clients, is we create systems. Clearly, one of the systems is follow up. Some of the folks I ve consulted or partnered with and/or have spoken with over the course of the last few years have elaborate computer programs, spreadsheets and all kinds of things they call systems. I m not knocking any one program or spreadsheet or particular person, but I ve yet to see one that streamlines things or makes them more money. Why not just keep it simple? What we re doing allows us to buy 4-10 homes per month and you can too! Here s what we do: 1) Call seller from lead source, If we reach live, find out if the way you purchase is a fit for them. If yes, schedule appointment. If no, I really hear no not now and put them in a follow up folder (yes a simple manila folder) based on the time frame I learned from their motivation and plans. 10
2.) The next series of follow up calls we ll do will either convert to an appointment within three calls or we move it to a final letter and place in our data base for drip emails. We never go more than three attempts without a return call or progress made (these form letters are also on our membership site for your use). If we don t reach live, we leave a message and email (if we have) and we never do more than 3 without a response or some kind of progress made. Refer back to #1 above. Wondering what to say on the message? All of our scripts are in the Membership area. 3.) Leave them on a drip email system and email 1x per month until they opt out or ask to be removed from the list. For our data base we use Infusionsoft and it is by far the best system to manage your buyers, sellers, automated responses, email campaigns and more. You can find the link on our resource section. Get it now and we ll help you set it up. I know your next comment will be that it sounds a bit simple even archaic, but it works! If you want to try to create all kinds of fancy spreadsheets or other systems and you find it works, go for it. The key is simply not to waste leads. Remember what I said above about sellers circumstances changing over time. Alot of deals like the one we just got above will come from their circumstances changing. There are some videos on the free site video section as well as the membership section that deal with follow up as well. I fully understand that you won t be an expert right away with follow up. As you do more and more calls you ll fall into your own groove so to speak, but in the meantime allow us to help you. After 25+ years in real estate and doing 4-10 deals monthly, we are starting to get goodj. You can learn from that experience and not have to pay the price of costly mistakes and missed opportunities. As a Member you do have access to our team via email; if you become a partner you will be spending a lot of time with them! I hope you found this Special Report on lead generation and follow up helpful. You can find us and like us on https://www.facebook.com/smartrealestatecoach. Email support@smartrealestatecoach.com Office is 855.667.7336 X 825 11