Epic Real Estate Investing - How to Generate More Leads | Episode 93

Episode Date: March 17, 2014

It's not a magic postcard. It's not a magic script. It's not a magic email. Nope, none of those are going to help you generate more leads over the other, but! There is one thing you can do to increase the effectiveness of any and all lead generation strategies. On this episode, Matt shares that "one thing." Enjoy! Also, Matt joins Adam Carolla in the fight against "patent trolls" and announces the winner of the $1,000 Epic Video Contest. Say goodbye to your favorite podcasters. It's the end of podcasting as you know it.http://fundanything.com/patenttroll  ------------------------- Join Matt and his team on the next Cash Flow Savvy Property Tour on May 1st & 2nd. Get the details and register here: EpicRealEstateTour.com Download the free real estate investing course "How to Do Deals | No Money Required" at FreeRealEstateInvestingCourse.com or text FreeCourse to 55678 "Click" what interests you most:    Education Properties Income Coaching Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Broadcasting from Terrio Studios in Glendale, California, it's time for Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. Hello, I come to the Epic Real Estate Investing podcast. Yes, it's Sunday. I'm a little delirious. Here I am the day before, just a few hours before I got to release this episode. I've been traveling all week. I'm a little tired, but I am committed to you and your success. So here I am, just for you.

to give you what you're looking for to help you succeed. And if this is your first time listening to the show, welcome. Really happy that you're here. This is the place where I teach people how to escape the rat race by investing in real estate. And if I were to do it all over again, I do it exactly the same way. And I do it exactly the same way, whether I had a bunch of money and a great credit score to work with or not. You see, while I was finding my way initially, I stumbled upon 12 different strategies of investing in real estate with little to no money. I had nothing. A terrible credit score. And in hindsight, by being forced to invest with

little to no money or credit, I believe that made me a much better investor. It's given me an advantage today for sure. And I want to make you a better investor. So what I did is I put the first two strategies, the first two strategies of those 12, the two of which I believe are the easiest and fastest strategies to a paycheck, I've put them into a free course just for you. They're whole and complete from A to Z. It's all right there for you, and you can access that free course at, get this, free real estate investing course.com.

Complicated name, I know. It's right to the point. Free real estate investing course.com, no hyphens, no spaces, no complicated spellings or tricky spellings. It's just free real estate investing course.com. Or if you're listening on your smartphone, I've got something new for you.

I'm trying this out to see how it works. You can go and download the course right there on your phone by texting free course to 55678. Free course, text that to 55678, and you'll get the course right there on your phone, the two easiest and fastest strategies to a paycheck in real estate. All righty. So, congrats again, actually, to our two epic video testimonial winners, runner up for

$250 with Rashida Atacoya. And I had a conversation with her over the phone and we talked about her deal and we'll be airing that in the very near future. And our winner of $1,000, Anthony Castillo, of which I have used. yet to been able to contact. But Anthony, if you're listening, make sure that you answer. Check your inbox. Look for your email.

You've got a thousand bucks coming to you, buddy. They turned in both, both of those people, Rashida and Anthony, turned in epic testimonial videos of which the people here in the office voted on. They basically just kind of shared with how this show and the Academy has impacted their results. And both of them have made a nice chunk of money. And if you happen to miss this opportunity of submitting a video for the epic video contest, We're going to do it again this month. So submit your Epic Testimonial video by March 31st, even if you entered last time, you can enter again.

Be sure to put Epic Video in the subject line of your email. Epic Video. I don't want you to fall through the cracks. That's going to be much easier for me to help to find those videos. So put Epic Video in the subject line and email that to Matt at Epic Real Estate.com. Matt at Epic Real Estate.com. All righty. So let's get back on track with our Live in the Dream series.

You know, we took a one week break from the same. to chat with Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran. And if you missed that, that was last episode, number 92. And hopefully you can understand why we'd take a break. That was a great opportunity I had to have a phone conversation with Barbara. And I wanted to share that opportunity with you. So that's why we took a break. So let's get back to living the dream.

That's what's most important, right, for you living the dream. Barbara's living her dream. I'm living my dream. We want you to live your dream. You know, and after listening to the last episode in this series, this is what you should now know. You should now know what you're looking for. Okay?

If there's something you want to find, you got to know what it looks like, right? So that's what we went over in that episode. I think that was episode 91. You should now know what you're looking for, meaning you now have your property criteria in mind. You've got your preferred locations in mind and your minimum deal standards

of what you're going to consider. That's all set and put in place. Now it's time to go find the deals that fit your overall criteria. Okay? Now we're going to go out and find them. Now we're getting to the good stuff, right? We've laid a nice foundation.

Now we're going to get to the meat, the nuts and bolts. And to find those deals, deals that fit your criteria, it really just comes down to finding leads, okay? Finding leads on opportunities that have a high likelihood of exposing those deals to you. So when they're exposed to you, you can go ahead and you can seize those opportunities. So this is the first major step in the acquisition of your investment real estate. It's all about the leads. and you've heard me say this before,

and I'll say it again because it's just as true now as it was then. The quality of your leads has everything to do with the quantity of the leads that you generate. The quality has everything to do with the quantity. The more leads, the more deals. The more deals, the faster you reach your goal, the faster that you escape the rat race.

There's a direct correlation between the number of leads you generate and the speed of which you reach your goal. That's very important. Don't let that right there. Don't let that pass by. Don't let that slip by. So if you're driving down the freeway or if you're on the treadmill and your mind just kind of got distracted and you wandered off for a second,

come back to me. Come back here. Come back here. And you need to understand this. There is a direct correlation between the number of leads that you generate and the speed of which you reach your goal. The more leads you generate, the faster you reach your goal. You've got to understand that.

So if you want to escape the rat race within the next 12 months, what do you need to do? That's pretty fast to do that in 12 months. It's possible. Fernando did it. You can do it. This is what you need to do. You need to generate a bunch of leads.

A bunch. Don't even count them. Just focus on how you can generate as many as possible, a bunch. And if you want to escape the rat race within the next six months and half the time, guess what? You need to generate twice as many leads as you would for your 12-month goal. That's how it works. And I bring this up because, frequently over the last few years

there's always at least I don't know there's not a week that goes by and I at least get this email once in some shape, form or fashion the question that's something to the effect of I'm a single mother, I just lost my job and I need to make a sale in the next 30, 60 days or I'm going to be homeless.

I get that frequently. It's sad, but I received many questions of this nature many times. So if that's your situation, If you're desperate, if you're like, I need to put this into play, I need to make some money now. This is game time. I got to get moving. How do I do that?

Well, here's the answer. You need to generate a boatload of leads in the next 14 days to do a deal in the next 30 to 60 days. A boatload. That's a lot. And get this. If you've never completed a real estate transaction before, if this is your very first time, then you're going to probably need to do it. generate even more leads because you're going to mess up on some of those that's just part of the

learning process you there's no way around it so don't get discouraged that oh i'm going to because i'm new and i might as well not even do it because i'm going to mess some up no there's no way there's you can't get around it you've got to go through the process no book you can read no podcast you can listen to no seminar you could attend no coach that you could you could work with can get you past that learning experience so the point here is it's all about the leads okay some you're you can you can't you're going to practice on, you're going to blow, but the more you do it, the less of those leads you're going to mess up. So it's all about the leads. The leads, leads, leads. Now, the term lead, if you're not familiar with that term, it's used in a number of different fields from investing,

from sales to solving crime. The cops have leads on who committed the crime, right? And it kind of points them in a direction to where they might find the suspect or might find the perpetrator. In all of these cases, it all means pretty much the same thing. A lead is a promising bit of information. Just a little bit of information. It's a promising bit of information that can lead you to practical knowledge that you may be able to apply to solve problems or accomplish goals. Now, obviously, that's the definition from the dictionary.

But that definition, it's right on the money. A lead is a promising bit of information that can lead you to practical knowledge that you may be able to apply. apply to solve problems or accomplish goals. Now, the operative word here is may, may be able to solve. And I point that out because another question I frequently get is when it comes to generating leads, what's the best method?

What's the best list to use to mail to? What's the best postcard? What's the best letter? What's the best verbiage to put on my letter? What's the best list to dial? What are the best doors to knock? I don't believe there is a best way. Certainly some ways may have a better return than others.

But these are all just places to begin to look where you may find a promising bit of information that may lead you to practical knowledge that you may be able to apply. For example, if you're prospecting for gold, I'm big on the gold subject right now. I just did a marathon, what do they call it, binge watching of that show Gold Rush. I love that show.

It's probably one of my favorite. That and Shark Tank. But anyway, if you wanted to know where the best place to dig for gold was, California, Alaska, Oklahoma, or South Carolina, where, I mean, if you asked me where out of those four places, you know, I could answer it and say that, you know, California and Alaska. A lot of people have found gold there, right? Probably more of the so than Oklahoma or in South Carolina. But that doesn't mean you are going to find gold just because you start prospecting where people have found gold before. And it also doesn't mean that you won't find gold, say in Oklahoma or South Carolina,

just because very few if any people have found gold there. So it's just a good place to start looking. and the same goes for if you mail postcards to people that own their homes free and clear or if you knock on doors of people recently divorced or if you cold call every homeowner within a six mile radius of your primary residence you know there's so many different ways to to prospect and that brings us back to the point that these are just these are just places where opportunity may exist. Certainly there's a higher likelihood. That's why you're picking, that's why you're categorizing different lists, different types of people to talk to.

Because they're just places where the opportunity is more likely to exist, but it still might not exist there. And you may find it or you may not. But your chances of finding it. Okay. So it may or may not. So that sounds like it's not 50-50, but you still may or may not. You can increase the chances of you finding it, and this is how you do it. This is how you increase the chances of finding leads that will turn into deals.

It's going to greatly depend on the size of your prospecting tools. First, are you using a shovel, are you using a tractor, or using a fleet of bulldozers? Okay, so it's going to be determined by one, the size.

Two, it's also going to be greatly dependent on how frequently you are using your prospecting tool of choice. are using once a month, once a week, or once per day. So first is the size, second is the frequency. And the third factor that's going to determine whether you find gold or not is how long you use your prospecting tools for. A month, six months, a year, a decade, you get to choose.

It's going to be the percentage of or the possibility or the potential, the probability of you finding goals or the amount of goal that you find is all going to be determined by the size, the frequency, and the duration, the length of time. It's going to be in direct proportion to the size of the tools you use, the frequency of which you use them, and how long you use them for. Now, what I just went over right there, I find this out like I repeated myself a couple times, and I did, so you're not delusional. I did repeat myself a few times, but on purpose.

because this portion has to be really, really clear to you before we go on to the next part when we go on to your choice of tools and the strategies in which you use these tools. Because what I want you to understand is everything I'm going to share with you, it all works. And it all works in direct proportion to the volume, the frequency, and the duration of which you use them.

So if you understand that and you want fast results, If you've got to make that house payment, you've got to clear a debt in the next 30, 60 days, you want fast results? Well, what do you do? It's not which postcard you use. It's not which door you knock on. No, you increase the volume of what you do it. That's more important. You increase the frequency of which you do it.

That's more important. And you increase the duration or a combination of any two or increase all of them. As the amount of deals you do will be in direct proportion to the number of leads you generate. Got it? Cool. So I'm going to go through a bunch of different ways to generate leads, but understand that don't look at any one of these better or worse than the others because they all work.

And you can impact the effectiveness of how good they work for you by controlling the volume, the frequency, and the duration of which you use them. Got it? All right. Cool. So there are three general approaches to generating leads. networking, there's prospecting, and there's advertising. They'd probably heard them in other names.

I've probably shared them in the past with different labels on them. But that's all the same thing. There's really just three ways to do it. So networking for these. Let's start there. Now, what networking involves is simply just speaking with your existing contacts, the people that you know, and you speak with them in order to get information and give information and get information.

Networking, it's probably the one of the most reliable. think it's one of the most reliable long-term sources for leads, you know, especially if the people in your network understand your goals and criteria, although it could be your most reliable source for leads, it could be the longest to build up as well before the leads actually start to come in. So I think it's the best way, but it takes a little while to ramp up. So if you need a deal in next 30 to 60 days, this probably wouldn't be the sole lead generation strategy. I would implement, but I would start doing it right now. Because, you know, in a year from now, you're going to wish you started right now.

Trust me. In five years from now, you wish you started right now. That's just the nature of networking. So start now and make sure that the people in your network understand your goals and criteria. You know, theoretically, just about anyone you know could end up giving you a lead on a new property. I mean, the information that could come from a coworker, a friend, a family member, a neighbor. It could come from anyone. So keep in mind, it's a good practice to let the people around you know that you're looking for leads.

That's key. Don't keep your business a secret. Make sure that everyone within your network knows what you do and make sure that everyone in your network knows what you're looking for. I mean, you can go back to Financial Freedom Friday series that just started that this year. And I released a certain series a couple months ago of what showed you exactly how to do this systematically of how to work your network. work systematically. So in a way that you can actually control the volume, the frequency, and the duration of your efforts within that system. So go back and listen to those episodes. I think it's, there's a string of five or six episodes right after episode 85. Okay. There's a, it's a series of

five episodes in a row right after episode 85. They're all short episodes. I think they're all less than 10 minutes. Anyway, the bottom line here is don't keep your business a secret. You never know who will be willing and able to help you. Okay. And having said that, you're most, likely lead generators within your network are going to be, you know, real estate professionals, most likely, like agents and lenders. And second would be fellow investors, of which you can find a high concentration of both that typically at investment clubs. But still don't live in your network to just these two groups. I mean, everyone that you come in contact with is a potential lead source. So start now. And a year from now, you'll wish you had started now. Trust me on that.

Okay. So let's talk about real estate agents a little bit. They can be. an excellent source for leads. They have many resources available to them, and good agents will tend to know who is selling and what they are selling. Agents, however, they, it's just, you got to face it, they can also get in your way. They have a way of getting in your way,

meaning different agents, they have different specialties, and they have different loyalties, they have different levels of experience. A given agent may be responsible for selling properties for clients at the highest possible prices, or they may be focused on the highest commissions possible,

both of which are very common, the most common probably, meaning that most real estate agents may not be entirely, might just, they're not going to be entirely helpful in your quest for good deals. Having said that, don't stop networking with agents because once you find one that can and is willing to help you, their value to your business can be priceless.

Just know that prospecting agents is very much like prospecting for leads. It's a numbers game. You know, here too, the volume, frequency, and duration of your prospecting is at play. Okay? So that's the thing about agents. And a lot of people say, well, I can't find an agent that'll work with me. I said, well, how many have you talked to?

Well, I talk to four. Yeah, you might have to talk to a lot more than that before you find one. That will work with you. But when you do find one, absolutely worth it. It'll be worth the effort. Okay. Investment clubs. I like these, especially getting started.

They can be a gold mine for lead never. networking and they are becoming, you know, more available across the country. They are popping up everywhere. Everyone's starting some type of real estate investment club. There's just go to Google. You will find some. I promise you. Meetup.com is another place to go and find real estate investment groups and clubs and

meetups and stuff like that. So, and here's why, because the investment clubs, this is why they're a good idea. They attract a wide range of members, including other investors, lenders. craft people, builders and other professionals from novice to seasoned expert, all shapes and sizes. But what's good about them is everybody there pretty much has, they're like-minded people. It's a like-minded group of people. It's a great opportunity to get advice, a great opportunity to get instruction and get leads from a number of perspectives, from various sources, from various different ways.

And you can also get recommendations about neighborhoods, property managers, lenders, contractors, mortgage companies, and lending sources. of those people, you'll actually probably even meet at the club. So once you develop a close relationship with the members of the investment clubs you attend, you can have, you know, a very large number of smart folks keeping an high out for leads for you. However, remember that you have a responsibility to reciprocate. This is where the secret or this is not, I don't know, it's not really a secret, but

this is the one thing you want to keep in mind when you're working or you're networking at investment clubs. You got to reciprocate. Be as generous with your information and insights as you hope others will be with you. It's the basic principle of the golden rule, which has very true merit here. You know, Zig Ziglar? Is that it best? To get what you want, help people get what they want.

Very simple. That philosophy not only works wonders within investment clubs, but it does within your entire network. And your entire business for that matter, perhaps even your entire life, okay? So keep that at mind in investment clubs. Don't go in and just trying to take, take, take. you got it, you got to share, you got to give. And if you give, give, give, give, you get, get. That's how that works.

Prospecting for leads. This is the second way. We've got networking, now we got prospecting. Now, prospecting for your leads is more of a proactive, direct approach to finding deals, as opposed to the patient relationship building that is networking. You know, prospecting, it typically begins with research. And there are some fundamental ways that you can approach this process, like looking for listings, vacant houses, foreclosures, pre-foreclosures,

foreclosures for sale by owners, I don't know, recent divorces, recent bankruptcies, you name it. I mean, identify any life situation that may cause a person to sell a house. And that could be a good place to prospect. And really, you can get as creative as you want with this. But prospecting is, it's more of, it's just being proactive about it. It's, you know, I talked about the prospecting for gold earlier. you know, you take the shovel and you actually are digging in the ground, right? You are digging and you are looking for gold, that you're looking for leads.

You're looking for a type of, a soil type that's going to, you know, identify whether there's probably gold there or not. But it's just being proactive. It's having the shovel in your hand, okay? So let's talk about places where you're actually going to do this. And equivalent to the shovel, I guess, for, for, for, for, for, for, you know, for, real estate investing. I'll try and stay away from the metaphors a little bit. I don't want to confuse you. But the equivalent to your shovel in real estate investing would be the telephone,

dialing the phone, or knocking on the door. Okay, so that's, that, those are two, um, uh, those are two tools. Okay, those are equivalent to your shovel. It's just being proactive in you initiating that activity. So let's talk about where you do this. Okay, let's talk about listings. It's probably one of the most obvious ways to find leads on prospective deals. It's just, you know, simply check listings. Newspapers are always an option. Internet sources are replete with listings. They're probably even more extensive and varied. Then, of course, there's the MLS, the multiple listing service, which you can gain access to through your real estate agent or agents. Then there's foreclosure listings. Those are an excellent source for finding highly motivated

sellers, obviously. Then, of course, there are for sale signs. you know, if you're going through a neighborhood and you see a for sale sign, typically, you know, I guess that even with it, if it's represented by a real estate agent, it could still be a lead, but, you know, you're looking at the for sale by owner signs. Those can, if they include contact information, great places to be proactive and prospect. Many real estate investors also make a game of exploring neighborhoods and looking for vacant or unkept houses. That's a form of prospect and being proactive.

And some of these strategies, some of these all, they're not. They take less effort than others. But keep in mind, the easier the strategy, the more likely you're going to find competition there. Okay? So if it's easy to do, there's probably a lot of people doing it. You know, for example, if you decide to sit on the internet all day and send emails to people with houses for sale on Craigslist, you're probably going to have to work a greater

number of listings before you find a deal, as you're likely not the only one that's doing that. It's very easy to do. or if you decided to call people instead of email, if you call people with houses for sale on Craigslist, you'll still probably encounter some competition, but far less than going the email route, because it takes more effort,

so less people are willing to do it. Or if you were to go knock on the doors of people that have their houses for sale on Craigslist, you're going to find far less competition, maybe some, but still far less. And this rule, it applies across the board when it comes to prospecting. It's just human nature.

And humans just, they would rather take the easy route over the alternative. So once you know that, once you understand that, embrace that and implement that, you will without a doubt have a real unfair advantage over your competition. So if it takes a little bit of effort, ah, I kind of like those methods, those strategies, because I know less people are willing to do it. If it's really easy, I mean, you see the landing pages, you see the commercials, you see the little banners. all over the internet, you know, you can make millions in your bathrobe without ever leaving your

couch. Those are the ones where everyone wants to figure out how that works. And so that's where all the competition lies. But if you got to burn some calories, so to speak, and you got to pick up the phone or you got to walk up and down the neighborhood and knock on a few doors, you know, less people are willing to do that, less competition there. So keep that in mind. Let's talk about vacant houses. You know, in some cases, as you're walking up and down neighborhoods, you may be able to find empty houses indicating that they are abandoned. That's kind of what the conclusion that you would draw. So vacant houses, they can often, you know, they can equate to great deal. Certainly, they are at least worth looking into. No one's living in there. So there's a chance that it could be for

sale. And they are typically easy to spot. They're crammed mailboxes. They are stacks of newspaper or advertisements in the driveway. The paint is peeling. The windows are boarded. Maybe there's overgrown grass and shrubs or a combination of any of those conditions. These will typically, though, not have contact information listed. You have to burn some calories to get that information. But there's a couple ways you can go about it. The neighbors. The neighbors can be very helpful in learning about the owner and the general situation. I also like talking to neighbors trying to find out about a house because their house might be for sale or they might know of another house besides that one that's for sale. So the neighbors

are good sources of information. They're typically very motivated to help a potential buyer locate the owners because houses like these tend to, you know, drop property values and create serious eyesore. So they want someone to come in and buy that house and fix it up because it might be affecting or impacting the value of their home. And so just to say that the neighbors have much to gain by helping you purchase and fix up the place. So they are likely to do what they can to help.

So don't be afraid of them. Don't be afraid of talking to people. And if the neighbors can help, hey, a simple title search can reveal a lot of information about the owner. And if you can't find the owner's information through the county records, ask your real estate agent or your title rep to conduct the title search for you. And the same goes here. The more difficult to find the owner's information, the less competition you'll have. So if finding the owner's mailing address or phone number presents any sort of challenge, that's typically a good sign to keep going, keep digging, keep prospecting.

They're likely very few, if any, real estate investors in your area that are willing to go that far. Okay, so kind of the prize goes to the person who finds that information. So if it's a little bit of a challenge, don't freak out, don't get frustrated, don't give up. That information is somewhere and someone has it. You just have to look for it, okay? Foreclosures and pre-foreclosures, you know, properties in this situation, they have the potential for a great profit margin. They're very popular because, you know, they're sometimes available at extremely low prices. So there's a great potential for profit there.

However, these types of properties also come with their share of issues to consider. You know, while the prices may appear at first to be a dream come true because it's so cheap, there are typically some challenges just beneath the surface to offset that discounted price. So in many cases, for closed properties, they come with, you know, unpaid property taxes, liens or other expenses and obligations, maybe major repair issues. Okay, so keep that in mind. When you see something really cheap, typically there's a reason why property auction another place to find foreclosed properties.

They're commonly sold at auctions. That can be very exciting and even in profitable, but only if you really just know what you're getting into. You know, the best approach is to attend, you know, several auctions just to observe and learn. If you can go with a mentor or a colleague who is experienced in the process, hey, that's even better, always better. So that's another source for leads, foreclosures and pre-foreclosures.

I mentioned this a minute ago for sale by owner. These are people that don't. want a realtor to sell their house, so they are selling it themselves. That's why it's for sale by owner. Commonly referred to as FISBO, F-S-B-O, that's for sale by owner, and you'll hear that frequently. And they're good prospects for a number of reasons. You know, owners who choose to try to sell their property themselves may be attempting to save money by, you know, avoid paying realtor fees, or they may just prefer to handle their affairs themselves. Believe it or not, there's more people and just real estate investors that don't like realtors.

So a lot of people want to handle it themselves. A lot of people, homeowners will think they're more equipped or more sophisticated than the realtors and they think they can do a better job, whatever the reason. Either way, there are advantages to dealing directly with the owners. So in some cases, you may be able to negotiate a better price because the seller does not have to factor in the real estate agent's commission. You may also be able to get more creative with the terms like seller financing

or maybe possibly them letting you take over the mortgage so that they can get out of the house depending on the situation. Like subject too. Fisbo deals are often prompted by homeowners who have found themselves in a bad situation that they are desperate to get out of. They are often very motivated. They're often very flexible and they're often very eager to come to an arrangement or an agreement. Without the help of a realtor, their property may have been on the market for a long,

while by the time you find it, which means they've probably even more motivated to sell it. What I mean by that is a lot of homeowners, they think they know more than the realtor, but they really don't. So maybe they've been sitting on this house for a long time. And by the time you reach them, they're like, thank God someone is here that's willing to make me an offer. Now I'm going to give this one serious consideration because it's been a long time and I'm tired of it.

That's what I meant by that. But having said that, FISBO deals, they're also presented by owners who have very little motivation at all. Makes no sense, right? Yeah, sometimes FISBOS won't make any sense to you. It's a coin toss, really, and you'll find that FISBOS are a very unique breed of people, but still it's an area that presents an adequate amount of opportunity worth prospecting. Every strategy and every method I'm sharing with you, it all has its pros and cons,

and it's all just places to begin. None of them are surefire ways to find deals, but if you control, the volume, the frequency, and the duration, all of them do work. Okay. Next one, we've talked about networking. We've talked about prospecting. Now, let's talk about advertising for leads. So if, what you call it?

If prospecting is a shovel, if your tool is a shovel, I would say if you're advertising, it's a fishing pole. Okay, you're fishing for leads. You're trying to get the leads to come to you. And one of the advantages. of advertising for leads is that you can be more efficient in your reach. Yet with efficiency and ease comes competition as well. But you can get a broader reach, okay, with less effort.

And that's what makes it very appealing to a lot of people. So advertising or marketing for leads, it has its pros and cons as well. In addition to being able to reach more people, you are more likely to have direct early contact with highly motivated sellers as well. So that's why this is very popular. You know, these people that respond to your ads and they call you, they're reached out to you because they do want to sell. And preferably, hopefully they need to sell.

But they definitely want to sell, which means that all important fact is typically already established, that there's some level of motivation. Yet it also brings out, keep this in mind, I said, there's pros and cons, right? Here's the cons. It also brings out the sellers who are completely out of their mind when it comes to what they think their property is worth.

As well, it also brings out the lonely people too, the people that just want someone to talk to about their situation. You get a lot of those. So like I said, just like the other methods, you know, advertising and marketing for leads, it's a numbers game. As which you'll benefit directly from the volume, the frequency and the duration of which you advertise and you market. It all works the same.

And, you know, one thing that I do like about advertising for leads is that it has the potential to find your advertising has its way to find its way to friends and family and neighbors of potential sellers of whom also have property themselves to potentially sell. Like you hit people indirectly as well, which is what I like about it. You know, your marketing doesn't necessarily have to be seen by or be relevant to the property owner themselves, the person that you are targeting. as long as it's just seen by people who own property. You never know. And I've gotten so many deals that came to me indirectly from my advertising and my marketing. So here's a few different ways that you can do that. Direct mailings.

It's probably the most popular. It's definitely one way to advertise for leads with the advantage of being able to include a large amount of information. And you can use postcards. You can use flyers. You can use even business cards. But you'll probably want to be very selective about where you send or drop this information. because another con about advertising marketing is the postage costs can add up fast. And so do the hours that you spend pounding the pavement.

So it's probably best to select target neighborhoods, target list. You'll hear that frequently. And then delegate as much of this work as possible. Okay? Because that's a lot of busy work. And you might feel like you're busy. It's going to take up a lot of your time. And you feel like you're working.

It's probably not the best use of your time. It's good practice to do the marketing, absolutely worth it in most cases, but probably not the best use of your time for you to actually do it. So you want to delegate as much of that as possible. Billboards, yard signs. Those can be great ways to generate leads and a relatively inexpensive method depending on your market. I mean, certainly a billboard in, you know, Columbus, Ohio is going to be a lot less expensive than putting one here on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. but relatively speaking, I think we just priced them out in a couple of our markets, and they're like $1,500 to $2,000 for a month.

And when you look at, if you want to send out a bunch of direct mailing, you can spend $2,000 really easily that way as well. So billboard's not that big of a deal, or they're not as expensive as they might seem to be, and yard signs, okay? Putting signs in yards of properties that you already own or properties that you have for sale or that you have under contract, very good way to generate leads. You know, motivated sellers, they're likely to notice these and to take a moment to make a call to see what you can do to help. Newspaper ads.

It's another method of advertising marketing that is still effective, still commonly used, and that can be both offline and online ads, and that could be classified ads or could be display ads. Radio and TV ads, okay, they can be rather expensive, but they are a proven method for getting the word out to tens of thousands of potential sellers. You reach a lot more people that way. That's why it's more expensive. but be sure that your ads there are crafted carefully. You might not want to do it yourself. You might want to have a professional to assist you with that. Because when you invest the money to do that,

it's kind of easy to mess up, I guess. You know, written ads are pretty simple to create. But TV and radio ads have much more potential to seem, I don't know, goofy or cheesy. So like I said, it's best to have a professional help you out with that, but still you want to have direct influence. over your ads as well. You want to make sure you represent it correctly and just keep an eye on their creation to make sure that they meet your standards. Now, I went through these really fast and forgive me if I mumbled a little bit and I was trying to give you information but not give you

too much information because I didn't want to get too detailed. I didn't want this to be a long and drawn out episode of how to do all of these strategies. You know, that would have taken way too long to address each one. Besides, I show you some of the more fruitful lead generation methods inside that free course that we talked about at the top of the show, free real estate investing course.com. I show you the how to specifically on a few of the best ways to generate leads. And if we go back to past episodes, we've covered many strategies on episodes of this show in the past of how to do this,

like this specific how to step by step. What I really wanted you to get out of this episode more than anything else is first I wanted you to see all the different methods and the different strategies available. But what I really wanted you to get was the method or strategy that you you do choose will not impact your business more than the volume, frequency, and duration you implement said method or strategy. Okay?

So I've said that a few times, but I keep saying it because it's really that important. It's not the magic postcard. It's not the magic script that you say over the phone. It's not the magic billboard. It's not the, you know, a lot of that stuff can influence your results. But none of that is nearly as important as the volume, the free. and the duration that you implement that strategy. Okay?

So that's really, really important for you to get. They all work. And volume, frequency, and duration are going to impact your results more than anything else well. So what I recommend is go back through this episode and just pick one. Okay? Pick one strategy, one method, get started, take note of your results and receive that as feedback and modify if needed. And then systemize it. Meaning create a system and delegate as much of that as you can.

And then once you've got that up and running and it's going smoothly, then pick a second method and repeat that process. You know, start the second method, take note of your results, modify if needed, systemize it, delegate as much as you can. And then, you know, if you still not getting enough leads, pick a third method. Okay, and do it all over again. And if you're still not getting enough leads, maybe you have to analyze and delete one and try a fourth one.

Okay, whatever it is. Every strategy is going to work different in different parts of the country with different types of lists, with different types of people. I have not found any one single strategy. And I have asked to a lot of people, I've talked to a lot of people, and I've implemented a lot of different types of stuff myself. I'm definitely the guy with the marketing ideas, you know, always looking for a new way to do things.

And I have not found or heard of one strategy that works. equally across every single market. Okay? So you might have to do a little testing. But don't give up on any strategy too quickly because you're not getting the results that you want. Make sure that you've got the volume, the frequency, and the duration in play

to give it a chance to actually work for you before you decide to make too drastic of a switch. Got it? But take them one at a time, and it doesn't matter which one you start with. Just start. And never lose sight of the volume frequency and direction. of which you implement the lead generation methods you choose.

The more leads you generate, the more deals you're going to do. The more deals you do, the faster you're going to reach your goals. So if you want to reach your goals fast, just generate lots of leads. That's what your focus is going to be. That's the key to this business. Okay? That's it. That's the key to this business.

That's it. And that's it for today. I'm Matt Terrio, living the dream. You've been listening to Epic Real Estate Investing, the World foremost authority on separating the facts from the BS in real estate investing education. If you enjoyed this show, please take a minute to visit iTunes and share your thoughts. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time here at Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network.

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