From Joe--A Word on Marketing

I hope everyone watches closely this week as Wes begins the very critical process of building his business network. To get the good deals you have to be in contact with the people who can show them to you. Many people mistakenly believe that Real Estate Agents and Realtors do not need to be included in your network of contacts, but as I believe you will see, nothing could be farther from the truth. These professionals deal with houses and customers all day long. Often an investor can help when a Realtor cannot. Realtors will sometimes dismiss these leads as worthless. However when we set up a mutually beneficial relationship with them, we can start making things happen. Certain real estate professionals cater to certain areas of the city. These may be areas they know better than others, are more comfortable with, and are more educated about the environment. All of this is valuable information to the real estate investor. However, this is a two-way relationship. Some of my best deals have been produced by Realtors who keep an email list of investors handy. Some even break it out by what the investors like to purchase. As investors we can do the exact same thing. We publish our email address on our business cards, flyers, signs, websites, and other advertisements because we hope people will get in contact with us to do business. The same is true for Realtors who publish them. They want to be contacted if you are willing to do business. An excellent way to do this is to advertise to these professionals what type of property you are interested in purchasing. A short friendly email with your contact information is a great way to do this. Tell them to keep you in mind or contact you if they run across a property that matches your preference. One thing to remember is that occasionally people will confuse this as spam (unsolicited email). It is not and there is an important distinction. If you have trouble remembering what spam is go to www.Google.com and type in the phrase define:spam in the search box. You will be presented with many definitions which do not apply. First, a short email to these professionals is in direct relationship to the business they are in. In fact, you are seeking to do business with them! It is not unsolicited because they have advertised their email address just like you do. They are in fact soliciting people to email them about business in their field. If business in their field is considered to be “junk” by them, than perhaps you would do better not to do business with them. As a general rule, try to keep your initial email volumes low somewhere around 10-20 a day is reasonable. If people do not want to do business with you fine. If they accuse you of spamming, you can send the Google definition back at them and ask if they are seeking to do business in Real Estate. Either way, it is always best to leave your name, email address, and phone number on all your electronic correspondence. You WANT the world to know what you do and you are looking for a mutually beneficial relationship. Remember, you have to SELL the houses you buy as well and the business flows both ways! Back to www.WealthAddress.Com