Ron was nice enough to write up a short article for you guys/gals about getting over some of the fears of probate investing.  I know when I first heard about probate leads, I was very intimidated by all the legal mumbo jumbo that I thought would be involved.  Let me tell you I was wrong and should have not let that hold me back one bit!

If you don’t trust me, here is what Ron Mead has to say…

Probate Real Estate, The Untapped Market

Many folks have heard about Probate Real Estate but have shied away because they think they will have to deal with the lawyers and the legal system.

Not true.

Let me tell you why.

But before I do let’s be sure we all know exactly what Probate Real Estate is.

Very simply, it’s this:  It’s buying homes from folks who have inherited them from someone who has passed away.  99% of the time the heirs do not want them so they instantly become motivated sellers……..

And we all want to work with motivated sellers, don’t we?

So if there was a way that you could contact 25-30 motivated sellers every week who have inherited property and tell them you might be interested in buying their property, would you be interested?

I suspect you would if you are a serious investor.

But back to my original statement that many think you will have to deal with the legal system and attorneys.

Let me assure you, you do not.

You see in almost every case the court appoints one of the heirs as the Personal Representative (PR) of the Estate and this person has the authority to act for the estate.  In this capacity, the PR can legally sell the house to you.

So if you and the PR can agree on a price, all you need to do is bring the Letters Testamentary to closing and the PR can sell the property to you.

See?? No attorney involved.

I can hear your sigh of relief

Ron Mead, The Probate Guy

Ron bought his first investment property in 1979 so he’s got a few miles under his investing belt.  In 1996, his parents passed away and he inherited a house about 250 miles away and after selling that he became involved in Probate Real Estate. For the last 5 years he has been teaching others how they can also work in this lucrative market.  For a free report on Probate Real Estate, go to:

http://BuyProbateProperty.com or check his blog http://RonMead.com

Related posts:

1. Probate Monday – Week #1 Update – Ron Mead
2. Probate Monday #9: Follow Up Post Card
3. Guest Writer – Shae Bynes

In 2008, there was a special video that went viral and caught the attention of millions of people. It didn’t go viral because it was simply a cat playing the piano or some kid named Charlie biting another kid’s finger. It went viral because it was personalized.

If you haven’t seen the video, the general idea is that beforehand, you can enter the name of a person and while watching the video you can see the name that you entered inside the actual video. It’s quite clever, and because people’s names were shown in it, tons of people paid attention.

In the online business and marketing realm, which is where I come from, many of us utilize an email subscription service, usually to generate leads for future sales and marketing tactics, or to simply stay connected with our audience and readers. Whatever the case is, it’s widely known that one of the best practices is to include the subscriber’s first and/or last name in the emails, which can easily be done by including code such as %firstname% within the email. Why is this important? Because “Dear Pat,” attracts a lot more attention and sounds a lot more personal than “Dear Subscriber” or “Dear Member”.

Personalization keeps people’s attention, and personalization sells.

As I’m sure you know, there are many ways that a real estate marketer could utilize personalization, however I’m going to try and introduce another strategy that you may not have heard of before: PURLs.

PURLs, short for “personal URLs”, can be used to combine direct marketing tactics with a website and personalization. It’s the alternate to a business reply card and a lot easier to get people to use. Utilized across various niches online, it could prove to be perfect for the real estate marketer as well.

This is basically how it works:

You setup a direct marketing campaign that mails out a number of postcards or letters. When a recipient receives the piece of mail, not only does it have their name on it, but it also includes a link to a website. The copy might look something like this:

Dear Mr. Pat Flynn,

We have a special deal just for you! You can visit your personal website which explains everything by visiting:

pat.flynn/website.com

This is obviously a crude example, but I think you get the idea. There are a lots of possibilities here.

Anyways, when the recipient, curious about his “personal website” (wouldn’t you be if you saw that there was a website with your name on it?), enters the address into a web browser, he’s taken to a landing page which also includes his name on it. It might say something like:

“Welcome Pat! We knew you’d come and see us. Here is your special offer…”

On this page, you can then do whatever it is you need to do, like collecting lead information such as email and phone number. One advanced trick is that during this PURL process, you can have the website also automatically autofill the visitors’ name and address, which you should already have. This makes the lead generation process even easier.

Other things you can do on the landing page are show special offers or mention open houses or viewings in the area that are “just for them”.

Again, because the page is personalized and just for them, you will see increases in ROI and conversions.

Sound complicated?

If you manually created each unique website, with each unique person’s name and information on it – indeed, it would be hard grueling work and probably a waste of your time. Fortunately, there are a lot of services out there that can automatically do this for you!

All you need to provide is the name and addresses of each recipient, and they will take care of the rest. Some of these companies will even take care of the direct mail and websites for you (so you’ll need some good copy too), to make sure your letters and websites are congruent with each other, thus increasing your conversion rates.

There are some fees involved, usually a setup fee (I’ve seen it start at $50.00), and then a cost per PURL (usually only a few cents each).

I recommend simply typing in the keyword “PURL” or “PURLs” into Google and start comparing the various companies that offer the service. I’ve attended conferences where I’ve heard of people making crazy ROIs using this technique, so maybe there’s something in it for you.

Thanks for your time, and best of luck to you! Cheers!

About the Author: After getting laid off back in 2008, Pat Flynn has since created an online empire, starting multiple online businesses which earn him well over 6-figures a year in passive income. He writes about online business and blogging on The Smart Passive Income Blog. You can also download his free eBook, eBooks the $mart Way, which reveals all of Pat’s secrets to writing and automating a killer eBook for your blog or business.

Related posts:

1. How To: Do It Yourself – Yellow Letter Marketing
2. 5 Things I Must Improve On as an Investor
3. Money or Marketing

The attire of the towns richest men was usually a pair of ripped Wrangler jeans, worn out cowboy boots and an oil covered John Deere baseball cap.

My Dad often told me that these men didn’t look like rich guys but they were worth a lot of money. He explained that you can’t really judge how wealthy someone is by how they look. He said a lot of the wealthy people he knew didn’t drive fancy cars or live in mansions. He also said that a lot of people that look rich aren’t. They just owe the bank an awful lot of money!

These lessons were a bit confusing for my teenage mind to absorb. I didn’t want to grow up looking like a poor farmer but actually being rich. I also didn’t want to look rich but actually be poor.

Since then I have spent a lot of time trying to understand the mind of the self made wealthy person. I have studied the habits, actions and lives of many of the wealthiest and most successful real estate investors and businesspeople to figure out just how they have created their wealth.

It’s become very apparent to me that most wealthy people focus the majority of their efforts, energy and money on investing in 3 things.

1. Assets
   I know this isn’t going to come as a surprise. I’m a real estate investor and this is a real estate investing blog but the point goes beyond simply investing in real estate. There are a lot of people that spend money on things that they think are assets but they really aren’t. Just because an accountant will put something you own on the ASSET column of your net worth statement doesn’t make it an asset. Warren Buffet is my favourite example of this. He still lives in the same home he purchased in 1958 and in general has focused on investing his money not buying luxury items – even though mansions, yachts and fancy cars would technically be considered assets.

   The thing that Buffet and other wealthy people know is that an asset has intrinsic value AND it creates cash flow.

   In most cases your home is not an asset for the simple reason that it does not generate cash flow.

   I like how Keith Cunningham, author of Keys to the Vault put it “Assets feed me. Liabilities eat me.” The wealthy invest a lot of their money and their time into finding, buying and holding on to assets that generate cash flow and will likely appreciate in value.

2. Relationships
   It’s cliché to say that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know but in many cases that is true. When we begin working with a new real estate investor one of the first things we suggest is that they begin attending their local real estate investing club meetings and even join other clubs they are interested in just to meet more people. A strong and supportive network of people around you is critical to your success. And as a real estate investor, you never know where you’ll meet a future partner, lender, contractor, tenant, property manager, realtor or so on.

   Can you succeed without a big network and strong relationships? Yes, but it is going to be a lot more work and definitely a lot less fun. And why are you doing this if it’s not going to be fun? Great relationships can make real estate investing so much more fulfilling and a whole lot easier … so do what the wealthy do and get out there and find people that you can help and that you can collectively add value to each others lives.

   Do you think each President of the United States gets elected into office because of how smart they are? Sure, each has some knowledge, experience and education behind them, but the biggest factor in becoming the leader of a country like the US or even Canada is the quality and quantity of relationships they’ve developed over the years.

   The same can be said for real estate investing. You can know everything there is to know about real estate investing, but some things will just never be possible to do if you haven’t built the right relationships along the way.

3. Knowledge
   Wealthy people pursue education in order to grow their wealth, be fulfilled and be enormous contributors.

   In many cases the successful people I’ve studied never set foot in a college in their early years. Education does not have to come from a secondary institution. Many of the self made wealthy people simply realized they had to learn something, and they went out and found a way to learn it.

   By becoming an unpaid assistant to someone who held the job they wanted or by reading books and applying what they learned many people created their wealth without investing big bucks in a college degree. Others went out and hired the experts they wanted to learn from.

   The point is that the wealthy and inspired people I have learned from have all been avid learners. They recognize when they need to learn something and make the effort to learn it. And as an avid learner, they have more to talk about with the people they have relationships with and more ideas for lucrative assets to invest their money into.

There are plenty of things to spend your time, money and energy on in your life. But if you truly want to grow your wealth and live a fulfilled and prosperous life you should consider investing the majority of your time, money and energy into the three things most successful self made wealthy people invest in. Invest in real assets, bigger and better relationships with more people, and knowledge and education to help you create the life and the relationships you want.

Julie Broad is a professional real estate investor with a passion for teaching others how to succeed in real estate. Sign up for her free real estate investing newsletter, packed with resources, tips and stories to help you get started with real estate investing. You can also check out her blog at http://www.lifeasrealestateinvestors.com

Related posts:

1. 5 Things I Must Improve On as an Investor
2. Talking to People
3. 25 things you didn’t know about me

——————————————————————————————————————————————————–

How to Rock Socks and Sell Stuff

by Maren Kate

You may be asking “what does rock socks mean” or just “what the heck” but the title of my guest post is part of who I am and how I sell stuff. I am an entrepreneur and moonlight blogging, I sell things both online and off mostly by using my quirky nature and zany personal brand. What the heck does this have to do with you? Well if your business is based at all around selling than a freaking lot.

Are you the only person in your space doing what you do? I doubt it, you probably have competitors, which on a positive note is a sign of a healthy market. Yet on a negative note competitors make it harder to sell whatever it is you sell (i.e. services, computers, monkeys, pies, etc.) unless you are like Apple, Gucci or Kashi that is. So what do these mega successes have that your business may not? They have brand-a-bility or to use the technical term they posses strong brand awareness within their market. Yes, you can buy another computer that works just as well, but it won’t be a MAC and yes, you can buy a bag from Walmart for $19.99 but it won’t be a Gucci (something that commands up to 100x that price).

So now it is time to innovate, to sit back and look at what your offering. Ask yourself does my *blank* rock socks? Does it blow away the competition, include an awesome ‘bonus’ or have the potential to make my target market travel hours just to get one? If not it is time to re-invent, to go back to the drawing board because an ordinary product will not cut it in a sea of status quo.

A good way to figure out how to be amazing in your niche is to ask yourself why. Not why would people buy what you have but WHY does your business do what it does? If the answer is “I don’t know” back to the drawing board for you. If the answer is because we believe 100% in X, we are fighting for a world where X is available to every man woman and child and damn it we are going to win then you have a business model I’d invest in site unseen.

Be controversial. Picking an enemy to battle against is good news for businesses, it alienates some but brings you a loyal crowd that will become fans for life… Apple’s enemy is the PC, Harley Davidson’s enemy is girly men, Gucci’s enemy is poor people (not really but it sounds hilarious doesn’t it?). Be different. If you make houses and everyone else makes white homes make pink ones, if you are a car dealer and everyone else has boring salesmen hire cheerleaders who win over the consumer with sheer peppiness. Be a community. Human’s are pack animals, we desire community and the sense of belonging… as strange as it sounds often we pay for certain brands over others because they give us that feeling. Subaru owners feel a kinship with other Subaru owners like “hey yeah, we are city slickers but we go to the mountains and are green n’ stuff” just like people with Louis Vuitton bags look at each other and think “yeah, you know whats up stylish person you”. So branding is part club house building part awesome product, figure out what your club is built around and then embrace that concept and your product will sell off the shelves.

If you want to excel you have to be unique, if you want to just be another “toilet maker” and not the bold look of Kolher go ahead but you’ll drown out in anonymity. Better to be the best, the wackiest or the weirdest than to be the biggest and better to rock socks than to fold socks.

Maren Kate is a entrepreneur and writes about her exploits at Escapingthe9to5.com. She isn’t your run in the mill twenty something, Maren is a bit strange and if you like odd balls then she may be your woman. She works from home (or coffee shops when she travel), write a blog dedicated to helping others escape the 9 to 5 and is an entrepreneurial junkie. Maren loves any and all things start up related and is especially passionate about internet businesses and finding purpose in your “work”

Related posts:

1. 30DC – Day 25 – Sell Your Blog

When developing a buyer’s list online, you can certainly gain volume relatively fast (it took me about 10 weeks to reach 100 people using Craigslist primarily and articles secondarily – not stellar results but decent), but it became abundantly clear pretty early on that regardless of the size of your buyers list, you want to be able to put people into a few different categories as soon as possible:

a) WANNABES (these are mostly tire tickers…they like the idea of buying real estate but aren’t going to move fast or move at all for that matter)

b) NEWBIES (these folks are serious and have access to cash but they may not have any real focus or idea on what they desire — they require some handholding – not your ideal buyer but hey, they have money and plenty of potential)

c) THE REAL DEALS (these folks have multiple investment properties already, access to cash for fast closings, and they know what they want!)

So the question then becomes, how do you uncover who the Real Deal buyers are and weed out the wannabes?  How do you deal with newbies who can still be good clients and future partners for you? Generally, how do you make the most of your buyer’s list?  Here are 7 tips for you:

Tip #1:

First, you HAVE to create an investor profile form so that your buyers can tell you more about their buying habits, intentions, and desires.  When you’re first generating your buyers list on a squeeze page, just ask for the minimum…name, email address, and maybe a phone #.  That way you won’t deter anyone from signing up.  But once they sign up, you really should give them an opportunity to tell you more.  My investor profile form requests the following information:

How did you hear about us?
Name, address, home and cell phone #
Email address
Area(s) of Interest (I specifically list counties here…but you can include cities or whatever makes most sense for you)
Property Styles of Interest (Single Family, Condo/Townhouse, Duplex, Tri-plex, 4 to 8-plex
How many properties are you looking to buy over the next 12 months?
Primary investment style (Buy & Hold, Wholesale, Rehab & Retail)
Minimum expected gross profit margin on a deal
Funding method (Cash, Hard money/private lender, conventional financing, FHA/VA financing)
How many business days to close?
Investment range (e.g. $50K or less, $50K-$100K, $100K-$150K, $150K+)
Any additional information that you believe would be helpful (this is free form field that they can provide info on specific neighborhoods of interest or other criteria)

Tip #2

You’re going to want to know the buying profiles of the people on your list…whether they are wannabes, newbies, or the Real Deals. In fact, sometimes you can tell what category they are in based off of information provided in the profile.  But face it…many people who sign up for your buyer’s list online are NOT going to take the time to complete an investor profile. So you have to provide a certain level of incentive for people to do so….here’s some ideas on how you can do that:

• Offer a VIP buyers list…these people will get FIRST DIBS at any offers you send out.  Occasionally send out a note to the entire distribution to let them know about this VIP buyers list and let them know they will ONLY get on this list by completing an investor profile. A serious Real Deal buyer will want to get first dibs!
• Offer a free e-report on a topic of interest – and make it a good report, not some crappy sales pitch disguised as a report…I’ve seen some pretty bad ones out there

Tip #3

Ok, so now you have investor profiles completed.  Some you may be able to categorize based on the information on the form, but others may be harder to identify as a wannabe, newbie, or Real Deal.  So this tip may sound like unconventional wisdom…but there’s no replacement for actual person to person contact, even if its via phone. So my next tip is….for investors who take the time to complete a profile and the profile seems intriguing (e.g. a person who says they are looking to buy 5+ houses in the next year or someone who provides excellent specifics on what they are looking for)  pick up the old fashioned phone and  CALL THEM! People want to do business with those they like, know, and trust and this can be developed faster in a phone conversation.

During the phone conversation you can quickly pick up on whether or not the person you thought was The Real Deal is indeed The Real Deal.  Some people you’ll find out are really other wholesalers who for some strange reason thought it would be better to fill out a profile pretending to be an actual buyer.  Just consider those guys wannabes….because if they are wholesalers, they should say so and be honest on the investor profile.

Tip #4

If you don’t have deals of your own under contract, find active wholesalers you can partner with and market their deals.  No point having a distribution list if you have no deals to tell them about.  Besides, its easier to weed people out and categorize them when you actually have deals to present for their consideration.

Tip #5

When you have a deal that matches the profile of one or more of the buyers, sure you can send the email out to the entire distribution and you should, however you can test out some people to see if they are really The Real Deal by picking up the phone and calling them about a property as well. With every conversation you have, you’re able to really narrow down to the key few that you should be spending the most time with.

Tip #6

If it seems like you may have a newbie on your hands (remember this means they are a serious buyers, but may be unfocused or reserved), provide them with as much value as possible to build trust.  For example, I have one I’m working with now and I’m sharing information about hard money lenders in the area as well as other little tips about their investing areas of focus. Know that it may take some time for them to get off the fence but don’t ignore them!

Tip #7

Be aware that only a certain small percentage of your buyer leads are going to be The Real Deal.  That’s ok!  The Real Deal investors are buying up several properties each year and if only 5-10% of your list fell into that category, you can still do a whole lot of deals!

I hope you found these tips useful!  Please comment with any questions or additional ideas that you may have!

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

Related posts:

1. Art of Creative Deal Structuring
2. Real Estate Investors Business Plan with Secret Sauce Audios
3. Using Social Networking to Grow your Real Estate Investing Business for Free – 10 Quick Tips

Double Close
Simultaneous Close
Assignment (not really buying and selling, more like selling the right to buy)

In this Audio Article by Eric Medemar he goes through the process of double closing and many of the reasons why you might want to go that route.  Have a listen…

[audio:http://www.strugglinginvestor.com/wp-content/audio/doubleclosings.mp3]

Related posts:

1. Audio: What Investing Strategy is Right for You?
2. Wholesaling Real Estate – Double Close
3. How To: Do It Yourself – Yellow Letter Marketing

Materials Required:
- Stamps
- 8-1/2” x 11” yellow ruled-paper
- 8-1/2” x 11” white paper
- 4-3/8″ x 5-3/4″ Ivory Invitation Envelopes
- Red Ink Pens (Gel)
- Extra Printer Ink Cartridges
- Computer Scanner
- Image Editing Software
- Word Processing Software
- Local Personal Assistant
- Handwriting Font

Objective:
Yellow-Letter marketing has been proven over the years as one of the most effective marketing methods available.  When sending a personalized, handwritten, hand-addressed yellow letter; it is not uncommon for marketers to experience response rates as high as 15%.

As a Real Estate Investor, marketing is what drives your business.  A 15% response rate can inundate you with calls so be sure to be prepared.  Read on, and I will give you the complete Do-It-Yourself instructions for creating a Real Estate Investor Yellow-Letter Direct-Mail campaign.

Step 1: Write the Letter

Place a white sheet of 8.5” x 11” paper directly over a sheet of 8.5” x 11” yellow ruled-paper.  By doing this you should be able to faintly view the ruled lines from the underlying paper (if you have access to a light box, I suggest using it for assistance), this will keep your writing straight and the lines spaced according to the paper your letters will end-up printed on.  Write your marketing copy on the white sheet of paper and be sure to leave spaces for fields that will be specific to the recipient (mail-merge will be used to fill those spaces with specific text).  An example of the copy I wrote is below:

You may of course, use any copy you wish.  This is just an example of my letter that was used to target homeowners in my farm area.  Where you see circles, is where my Mail-Merge fields were to be placed.

Step 2: Scan the Letter to Image

Place the white paper with the handwritten marketing copy on a scanner and scan the image into an Image Editing Software.  I personally use Adobe Fireworks, but any basic Graphics application will work for this project.  You want to use the software to clean-up any smudges or inconsistencies that were scanned in (if necessary).  Then save the image as a JPEG file.

Step 3:  Edit the Image

Open a word-processing application.  I personally use Microsoft Word 2003; however any word-processing software with the Mail-Merge feature will suffice.  If you’re strapped for cash, you may obtain OpenOffice which contains a free word-processing application that has the Mail-Merge feature.  OpenOffice is fairly similar to Microsoft Word.

Open a new document and import the handwritten JPEG into the document.  You will do this twice as you need to crop the main JPEG twice to divide the image, so to make room for the mail-merge text fields.

Step 4: Create Handwriting Font

Create a font using your own handwriting.  I used the website www.yourfonts.com to create mine.  It is very easy to create a font with your own handwriting using their service.  I won’t detail the instructions for their service here, but after following their simple directions you’ll have your handwriting font as an option available in your word-processing application.  This takes 20 minutes or less.

Step 5: Setup Mail-Merge

I won’t detail how to use Mail-Merge here as the process differs per word-processing application.  However, since I am aware of the fact that Microsoft Word is the most widely used application you may view Mail-Merge instructions here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA010349201033.aspx

For any of you that use a different application and want to know how to use Mail-Merge for it, Google it.

Step 6: Apply the Handwriting font

Once you have your Mail-Merge setup, you will have place-holders that show where the Mail-Merge fields are.  If you’re using MS-Word, those fields will have containers of “<<” and “>>”.  So for instance, your first field may be “<<Greeting>>”.  You will need apply your handwriting font to the fields and adjust the font-size to match the size of your actual handwriting which was scanned in.

Step 7: Print your letters

After scanning in the static handwritten text of your marketing letter and applying your handwritten font to the dynamic Mail-Merge fields, you’re ready to go.  Load your printer with your loose-leaf, yellow ruled paper and print your campaign.

It is very hard to distinguish the handwritten-font from the scanned-in handwriting, thus the reason I suggest using a mix of both.  When you use a handwritten-font for the entire document and don’t scan-in your actual handwriting, it looks very computer-generated like this:

Although this is my custom handwritten-font that I generated on www.yourfonts.com, the font does not look natural.  But when you mix in the handwriting font with your actual scanned-in handwriting, you get a great result as seen below:

Looks pretty good right?  If, I didn’t tell you I doubt you’d be able to identify the mail-merged fields.
Step 8: Local Assistant

After you have a stack of papers printed, each unique to the homeowner recipient, you will need to find a local assistant to hand-address and stuff your invitation envelopes.  Here is an example envelope:

Front:

Back:

Try to keep the envelopes as simple as possible.  Only write the destination address on the front and place the return address on the back.  Do not include your company name in the return address.
Step 10: Affix Stamps and Send

Go with actual adhesive stamps and not any printed-type, the common theme here is personalization.  You may have your assistant affix the stamps or you can do that yourself.  Then take the envelopes to your nearest mailbox or Post Office and send them out, wait a couple of days for the flood of calls!

Price Break-Down:

You may be saying to yourself, “Why would I go through such trouble, when there are services out there that can do this for me”.  Well, if you’re just starting out, doing this yourself can get you in the game with quite a bit of cost savings.  However, if you’re a veteran I wouldn’t suggest going the DIY route as it is very time consuming, at least for the initial run.  Here is the itemized price break-down/comparison for a campaign of 900 letters (actual prices from a campaign of mine):

by Justin McClelland

www.justinmcclelland.com

Information about me:

I’m a rookie wholesaler that is working exceptionally hard to make it in Real Estate Investing.  Through my preparation and hardwork, I plan to accumulate a networth of 7 figures before the age of 30, and I turn 29 in November 2009.

Related posts:

1. More Marketing
2. Staying Focused
3. How to: Marketing for Leads

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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1. Stay focused
2. Stay moving forward

1. Get title ordered
2. Make x number of bids
3. Follow up on bids
4. Call buyer

Related posts:

1. Interview: Getting Started in Real Estate Investing
2. How To: Get MLS Access Without Your License
3. How To: Building a Real Estate Website – Part 3

You can’t possibly answer all the questions before getting started or you’ll never get anywhere and soon you will just give up.

The first step is to identify the truly important questions.  Those questions will be almost identical for everyone getting started…

1. What are my strengths (do I have money, do I have time, etc…)?
2. What are my weaknesses (is my credit bad? do I know people in the business?)
3. What is my Strategy?

Eric Medemar, who has been investing in real estate for over 7 years and is the owner and operator of The Millionaire’s Blog, was kind enough to provide us with an audio about Finding Your Niche. I’ve included the audio at the end of this post.

Eric started out as a Realtor and soon after began buying investment houses.  He has extensive experience with rental properties as well as wholesaling and is an excellent teacher.  You can find Eric posting helpful replies at ReiClub.com and Biggerpockets.com.

[audio:http://www.strugglinginvestor.com/wp-content/audio/whichnich.mp3]

Related posts:

1. Interview: Getting Started in Real Estate Investing
2. Using Social Networking to Grow your Real Estate Investing Business for Free – 10 Quick Tips
3. Investing Goals for week 7/13 to 7/20