Posted by Mark-NC on August 17, 2001 at 10:33:43:
Anonymous,
Don’t dismiss these war zone properties for your wholesale deals. If you can get these properties at the right price there are investors that will buy these things from you in a minute. Find out who these buyers are and get them the deals.
Mark
response to marketing - Posted by anonymous
Posted by anonymous on August 17, 2001 at 08:27:33:
Hi all,
First of, let me apologize for anonymous post, as I felt somewhat embarrased to post my real name.
I’ve been marketing RE on/off for a few months, however, the only good response I’ve received was from the areas that were near warzones (in fact, the only thing that prohibited calling these neighborhoods warzones was absence of boarded up houses, otherwise, the areas were high crime, etc…)
I’ve tried marketing to descent neighborhoods but with no luck. Is high crime area my only option for creative deals?
Thanks for all answers and suggestinons,
anonymous
ps. Again, please forgive me for anonymous post
Re: response to marketing - Posted by Stacy (AZ)
Posted by Stacy (AZ) on August 17, 2001 at 11:48:53:
I agree with Mark. I think LeGrand coined the term “transaction engineer”. There’s an article in the How-To section of this website from him that I think is excellent. Basically, it means a savvy investor has learned how to make a profit in several different ways. If it’s a pretty house, an ugly one, or somewhere in between, there’s a way to make it work.
Anyway, it’s fine to focus on one method while you’re trying to establish yourself. In this case, you seem to be receiving responses from the sellers you are “unwittingly” targeting. Without seeing your letter, I can’t be sure, but my bet is that your letter is more appealing to the owners of those ugly properties. Can you post your letter here, so we can see it?
Another possibility is that your responses are just a normal phenomenon in your particular market, AT THIS TIME. I never consider any form of advertising as a sure thing. There are times for every investor, when the ad just isn’t pulling, or the last batch of 3000 postcards didn’t result in any decent deals. The “on/off” part of your marketing may very well be contributing to this. Marketing should be applied consistently, and for the best response, I believe you should have “three lines in the water”. A single method of attracting sellers will rarely attract a large enough and consistent enough stream of sellers to keep an investor afloat for very long.
One thing you might do, if you don’t want to deal with ugly houses, is to target your audience better. Send mail to zip-codes, or neighborhoods that better fit your needs, rather than wasting postage and time on the ones that don’t. Have you tried bandit signs? If you haven’t, you may consider this strategy. It targets areas very well, costs very little, and pulls better than almost any other method, in some cities.
OK, there’s my input. Good luck!
Stacy