Posted by Tim Jensen on July 31, 2001 at 16:04:21:
I agree
Investor Idea of the Week - Posted by Tim Jensen
Posted by Tim Jensen on July 29, 2001 at 09:12:39:
Hi All,
Well, this week, I will conclude my postings on how to get started as a real estate investor. Last week, I talked about taking action. Now, that you are taking action, you need to refine your activities. When I talk about refining your activities, I am talking about finding ways to do it better and more efficent.
Once you start taking action, you need to keep track of what works and what doesn’t. I have postcards in my office and when someone calls, I jot down where they got my number. I also have a section that tells me how many sales I got too. For example, under my newspaper ad I have received 30 calls and purchased 3 homes. While under my yellow pages ad I received 5 calls and 0 sales. Hence, next year it is bye-bye yellow pages, unless things turn around. If I did not track my calls I would have no idea what is genereating the most calls and the most sales. You need to do tracking on your progress, so that you can refine your approach.
This idea can be used in running ads to. I had a house that I wanted to lease option. I ran an ad that said lease option. I got very few calls. I changed the wording to rent-to-own and the phone calls increased significantly. Another example is subject-to. If you are trying to get people to give you the deed, you may have to change your approach from I pay on your mortgage to take over your payments. Bottem line everything you learn here will work, you just have to adjust it for your area. Now, there are other areas you can be customize and/or streamline, I just name a couple. If you do rehabs you will learn hortcuts and what works and what doesn’t through trial and error.
There is one thing that you must be aware of. That is changing things too quick, this is a mainly a concern when it comes to advertising. Do not give up on an idea too soon. It may take a while for it to catch on. My point is, if you run an ad to attract sellers, don’t change it every month. Give it a chance to run its course. If you change all the time, I believe you lose crediability. I have an I Buy Homes ad running in my local paper. I have not changed it in over a year. At first, it did not pull real well and I even thought of changing it, however, I held out and now it pulls real well. Consistency is the key in advertising for seller. Now if you are running an ad to sell and it does not pull a lot of calls after a week, then you need to change it.
In closing, once you take action, always look for ways to improve on what you are doing. However, be careful not to change too much (mainly in your “I buy homes” ads). Change for the sake of change is not usually a good idea.
Tim Jensen
Re: Investor Idea of the Week - Posted by wayne
Posted by wayne on July 30, 2001 at 01:35:16:
AND DONT FORGET YOUR BANDING SIGNS…MY PHONE HAS BEEN GOING OFF THE HOOK WITH THOSE DARN THINGS…
Re: Investor Idea of the Week - Posted by Jim FL
Posted by Jim FL on July 30, 2001 at 03:00:16:
Wayne,
Good for you. My signs worked well when I was in Illinois, and my first batch of home made ones here in Florida did okay.
I now have SEVERAL new professionaly printed ones out, just got the bulk of them up today. (darn near 200 placed, and a few removed over the last couple of days.)
So, we shall see how well they pull?
I hope phenomenally, I could sure use a few good deals now.
There do seem to be quite a few people using them here, and quite a few disappeared over the last few days, along with other investors signs being placed right next to mine. (I guess I have good signs, or location?)
In fact, I sincerely believe there is another investor here removing my signs.(already caught one red-hamded, oops! Guess he shoulda taken the sign off his car when he was grabbing mine…GOTCHA!)
Where some of mine are gone, the other investors signs seem to pop up, and in higher visibility areas, they seem to just place one next to mine.
Who knows?
Comptetition does not bother me, unless they continue to try and “Undo” what I am.
I hope enough of my signs survive to get calls, and I can keep the sign police at bay for a while.
I have heard from another area investor that they like to send out warnings, and fine if signs are not removed within a certain time frame. Which according to him, thanks to the vandals, weather, other investors, and street crews is usually the case.
But, in the mean time, we are doing other things as well, so we will not rely on one method to get sellers to call. Flyers, ads, business cards,magnet signs on cars, mailers to FSBO and FRBO, and of course word of mouth.
Good luck to you, and enjoy all those calls, it is a nice thing,
Jim FL
Re: Other investor’s taking signs - Posted by Barbara (FL)
Posted by Barbara (FL) on July 30, 2001 at 21:37:19:
What will you do about the investor you saw taking your sign? Confrontation???
Barbara (FL)
Re: Other investor’s taking signs - Posted by Jim FL
Posted by Jim FL on July 30, 2001 at 21:46:37:
Barbara,
Simple, I placed another one back where the first one was, right next to his.
My signs look better and are easier to read.
No problem there.
I already talked to one investor who was taking my signs, and told him not to do it.
He was a little flabbergasted that I had seen him do it…too bad!
Frankly, the way I view it is IF someone needs to resort to these types of tactics to make money, they won’t be in business long, and therefore are no competition for me.
I’m sure something like this seems little, but frankly, if they’ll be sneaky here, then what about other aspects of their business?
too bad for them, because there are plenty of deals to be had for all.
Just my opinion of course, ask me again in 30 days after we’ve been marketing hard for a while.
Jim FL