I can't believe it's been over 10 years now since I've been mentoring other students on how to become a successful real estate investor. I've done countless webinars, live coaching classes, video trainings, podcasts, blog posts and spoken at multiple live events. I have seen the market shift and the main questions I get asked change with it.
Right now, many new and experienced real estate investors are worried about the competition and want to know all the tips and tricks I have to find the good deals.
It isn't that the MLS is dried up, but there are certainly more eyes on it than ever before. Good deals are getting snatched up before you even knew they existed.
Think of Your Business Like a Funnel
I think the number one mistake that real estate investors are making is not looking at their business like a marketing company that just happens to buy and sell real estate as the way they make money. Every company needs to think of themselves are marketers because that is how they will get all their leads.
Sellers, buyers and private lenders are the lifeblood of our business - if you don't have all three, you're going to struggle. I don't have just one technique, one strategy or one "silver bullet" because the truth is, there isn't just one method that works in every single market.
What we use is our 55 simple and powerful strategies that generate motivated seller leads (if you don't have our free book on these, download it free here.)
10 Step Marketing Funnel
Step 1: Suspects
The concept of a marketing funnel starts with suspects that may be motived to sell their property. Think - absentee owners, out of town landlords, vacant property or a property that's in pre-foreclosure. There are tons of different reasons why a seller might be motivated. The faster they want to sell, the lower the price is that they will accept.
Step 2: Prospects
These are people who are slightly more motivated than the suspects. These people have raised their hand or at least thought about or considered selling their property.
Step 3: Leads
A lead is something you have actually spoken to and has responded to your marketing efforts. This is someone you are now in touch with.
Step 4: Due Diligence
A lot of your due diligence as a real estate investor can be done right on the computer. Just login in to one of the various free sites to find out the value of the potential home. Figure out how much the seller is willing to sell it for and how much you will need to spend on repairs.
Step 5: Deals
From the due diligence stage, the property can become a potential deal or you can decide not to move forward with it if that numbers don't make sense.
Step 6: Offers
If the property became a deal that you want to do, you will write your first Purchase & Sale agreement/offer. We use our Automated Offer Formula every single time, no matter if we are going to wholesale a deal or flip it. Usually only 10-20% of the time does the seller take our first offer.
Step 7: Seller Negotiation
The other 80-90% of the time, the seller will counter-offer and negotiate with you. Just make sure you have your maximum number in your head and are prepared to not exceed that. If the seller won't take it, then maybe it isn't the deal for you and it's time to move on to the next.
Step 8: Contracts
Once you have agreed on a purchase price with the seller, it's time to create your contract. The contract will allow you to buy, fix and sell, or buy and keep as a rental, or wholesale it.
Step 9: Buyers
If you are wholesaling the property, this is your last step in the funnel. You will find your buyer and close the deal.
Step 10: Close
If you buying the property and keeping it to fix and flip or hold and rent, you will go from Step 8 to close and then your buyer will come after.
Watch the full training video here:
Are You Making This Mistake?
Is not looking at your business like a funnel one of the mistakes you are making? It's ok, you can be honest. You are not alone.
I recently got to chatting with my Head Coach here at SREC, Kyle Garifo, about other mistakes that we as real estate investors often make - especially once we got a property under contract. We are so excited to have locked down a good deal and have potential to make a big profit, we forget to pay attention to the details that are essential in making the project go smoothly.
In order to help prepare you for this, Kyle and I put together this report about the 10 Biggest Mistakes the Kill Real Estate Deals. These are an investor's worst nightmare - from mistakes made during the rehab process to spending days negotiating with a buyer and the deal falling through.
These are all frustrating, but easily avoidable if you have the heads-up you need beforehand to show you how to maneuver through these situations.
Be Daring,
Josh
CEO Strategic Real Estate Coach
CEO Freeland Ventures and Freeland Lending
CEO Yellow Jacket Properties