If you’re like me and working a full time gig while building your real estate business, it is critically important to figure out how to leverage others and maximize the limited time that you have. Quite honestly, this is important regardless of your available time because that’s the point right? You’re doing real estate investing in order to free up time for personal interests, time with family, traveling, community work, or whatever else is most important to you.
I know you may be thinking that you can’t afford to pay anyone to help you with your business, but quite frankly you can’t afford NOT to. It’s true that some outsourcing may be cost prohibitive for you, but there are some simple, low cost things that you can do to get started on this D.D.I.Y plan.
(1) Hire a virtual assistant (VA) to help with your internet marketing strategy to build a buyer’s list.
Your virtual assistant can post classified ads, submit your articles to numerous websites, and depending on skill level can even write the articles or create videos for you!
So how do you find a VA? Try websites like elance.com, guru.com, and do a Google search on “Real estate marketing assistant” or “Real estate virtual assistant.” I’d strongly suggest hiring an assistant who has experience with internet marketing and/or real estate marketing. When your assistant understands the context of what you’re doing, it really helps reduce the learning curve and there’s an appreciation for what you’re doing. A virtual assistant can also do things like look up recent buyer names and contact information in public records or other research that is simple but time consuming.
(2) Pay a responsible high schooler or college student $1/sign to place your bandit signs
Yes, bandit signs are highly effective to find buyers as well as sellers (just ask Flip This Wholesaler’s Steph Davis). I can tell you from personal experience that they can be both a hassle and a time killer to put out yourself. But go ahead and try it yourself first…I’ll let you be the judge! The last thing you want is to have a bunch of bandit signs gathering dust in your garage for weeks because you dread putting them out every weekend.
(3) Use click2mail.com!
Unless you’re doing handwritten letters, use click2mail.com! I can’t recommend this highly enough. You do the work once to set up your template and marketing materials, but then you’re good to go. My direct mail campaign is a breeze and takes less than 10 minutes now — thanks to my friends at Click2Mail.
(4) Hire a responsible person with good handwriting skills to handle handwritten mail campaigns
It’s widely believed that you need to do something special in order to get people to open your letters. A common suggestion is have either handwritten letters and envelopes or at a minimum handwritten envelopes. If you’re going to do this, by all means, hire someone! A retired person, high schooler or college student, or stay at home mom looking for some extra money…as long as the person is diligent and has good handwriting skills, you’re all set.
There are plenty of people who are looking for additional income — find them (by word of mouth or even Craiglist) and hire them!
(5) Hire contractors to handle rehabs
If you’re a rehabber who has some handyman (or handywoman!) skills…you know, a D.I.Y. person, that’s great. However, if you’re looking to build a real estate investing business, you need to be a D.D.I.Y. person, focus on finding deals and hire contractors to do the rehabs. Yes, it will cost more – so make sure your offers are low enough and take these costs into consideration.
These are just 5 ways that you can begin leveraging others for your business right away. Don’t delay in freeing up your time. Focus, focus, focus on your most profitable activities and pay to get the rest done.
Trust me. You can (and should) do it! If you have more ideas of how to leverage others (outsource, whatever you want to call it) for your real estate investing, please share with everyone in the comments section.
Happy investing!
About the Author:
Shae Bynes is a real estate investor in the South Florida market. She and her husband are not participating in the recession and are taking advantage of the best real estate investing opportunity in 70 years to build wealth for their family and be a blessing to others. Learn more about Shae’s journey on her blog “Always in Good Faith: Adventures in Real Estate Investing” at http://www.goodfaithinvesting.com
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the article has some good points for a new investor, except a new investor has to put time into the job. why pay someone twice or triple the cost of material so i can go sit on my butt and hire someone to put out signs.. do the work yourself and you will get ahead alot faster.. obviously the author has alot of cash sitting around and alot of free time.. ; )
To me this article is really about freeing up your time so you can deal with sellers and handle the transactions. The above tasks are huge time wasters and being able to outsource those things should be helpful. Of course it'll cost some money, not a heck of a lot but in the long run it should be worth it.
Now if I have no money and a lot of time then I'd do everything myself