I want a good ad to do lease options. - Posted by Alan

Posted by tb on October 22, 2000 at 01:47:30:

Hi Brian,

Great post! I`ve been contemplating exactly what to do regarding seller phone calls and I have to say that hearing your phone strategy has shored up my thinking on the subject. Thanks!

Also, you are too right about sellers calling all of the ads in the paper(s). Everyone, buyers and sellers, are always looking for a “better” deal.

Again, great post!

I want a good ad to do lease options. - Posted by Alan

Posted by Alan on October 21, 2000 at 20:59:46:

I’m looking for good ads that will produce results for lease option deals. I mean something that will get that phone ringing. I have spent some pretty good money on placing ads with little results. I’ve tried, "Tired Of Landlording ?, Vacant or can’t sell? just to name a few. I believe that “I Buy houses is to old.”

Anybody have any suggestions on good ads?

Thanks

Alan

Re: I want a good ad to do lease options. - Posted by Merle

Posted by Merle on October 22, 2000 at 05:59:40:

Alan …

We don’t use L/O’s to acquire properties … we do pay cash, but, there are some other issues to consider.

First, do you want a lot of calls? If so, why? Or, do you prefer getting only the calls that result in closings?

Blind ads can get a lot of calls, but few closed deals. We prefer to qualify the callers somewhat … more about the house we want, etc.

We do use an answering machine to take the calls. I can’t imagine having all those calls come in on my cell phone! How would you ever get anything done?

All that aside. Let me tell you one thing about your ad that will change the number of calls and the quality. Rather than “I buy houses,” say, “House wanted.” The first suggests that you are an investor or something … the second sounds like an individual looking for a house. Sellers would usually prefer dealing with someone other than an investor. Most of those “I buy houses” ads are run by people wanting to buy cheap. It only takes one or two calls to them for the seller to become educated.

Seems to me that “tired landlord” and “I buy houses” makes the “how-to” courses sound good … but in reality, don’t work nearly as well.

Hope this helps.

Merle

Re: I want a good ad to do lease options. - Posted by Michael/TX

Posted by Michael/TX on October 22, 2000 at 01:19:16:

I have to to say after running my ads and getting few calls in i was going to something else
I put a plain jain sighn up all around town that sounds like it would not work but it simply is unbeleible, the next day my phone was ring off of the hook just from a simple sighn that reads

I BUY HOUSES then my phone #
and that is it try it and you will see the results

Michael/TX

Re: I want a good ad to do lease options. - Posted by B.L.Renfrow

Posted by B.L.Renfrow on October 21, 2000 at 22:47:33:

“I buy houses” may be old, but there’s a reason for that…it WORKS!

My print advertising is exclusively in the local Pennysaver. I usually run one of those ads for 2-3 weeks of every month. Every time I change the wording, or try another type of ad, the calls go down.

I do not use the word “cash” in my ads…because when I did, that’s all the callers wanted to talk about. But “I buy houses” pretty much covers everything: subject-to, lease options, and the occasional cash deal.

I keep my ad simple. It reads “I BUY HOUSES. Any price/condition. Call Brian today at 123-4567.” Costs me $9 per week, with a bold first line. If you’re not getting calls, look not only at your ads, but your medium. You don’t mention where you’re running your ads - and it does depend on your market - but in my town, the sellers I want to reach read the Pennysaver, not the larger regional daily paper based 50 miles away.

And, after experimenting with about a dozen different ways of receiving the calls, I now put my cell phone number in those ads and most of the time talk directly with the sellers when they call. I have tried 800 numbers, answering machines, voice mail with multiple mailboxes (in which I foolishly tried to explain my criteria for purchasing).

There is no substitute for speaking with the callers directly, the first time they call. Even though people SHOULD be comfortable with technology, many of them just aren’t. I discovered I was getting more hang-ups than messages when I was not taking the seller calls directly. Yes, it’s a pain to talk to all those “unmotivated” tire kickers, but with practice it doesn’t take long to discover whether they’re motivated early on. Now, I save the voice mail for the ads where I’m selling or renting. I want to connect - live and in person - with each and every potential seller who picks up the phone after seeing my ad.

In my market there is only one other guy running a remotely similar ad…and he’s run the same ad every week for at least 5 years, that I know of. His ad: “CASH FOR YOUR HOUSE. Close in 5 days or less. Call Joe Blow at…” And this guy DOES pay cash…he typically offers 50% of FMV. I know this because more than one seller has called my ad after calling his. And that brings up a final point. It doesn’t matter how many similar ads appear in your area…seems as if people often call all of them. Just find a better way to solve their problems than everyone else, and you’ll have more calls than you know what to do with.

Brian (NY)