Freedom Through Outsourcing (Part 4): Tr...

beach Picture a place where your time is your own.

Imagine a lifestyle that is completely mobile, and you have financial freedom beyond your wildest dreams.

Think about a paradise where the beer “flows like the salmon of Capistrano”, the sun always shines, and the funky, smooth sounds of Bob Marley play endlessly on the wind.

(Ok, so the part about beer, sun and reggae might not be 100% accurate, but the financial freedom and mobile lifestyle are!)

That place, my friends, is called Freedom Island, as we recently discussed…

…and it is THE destination we are all ultimately working hard to get to.

You’ve already taken three major steps toward your destination, and today we’ll tackle Step #4 in of our Freedom through Outsourcing series.

But first, a quick recap of where we’ve been:

In Part 1, we talked about why outsourcing is important and how to score your one-way ticket to Freedom Island.
In Part 2, we encouraged you to “fire yourself”, to surround yourself with people who can do your job just as well if not better than you do.
Most recently, Part 3 focused on breaking down those virtual barriers of hiring overseas and hiring the right way.

Now, onto today’s main event…

There are no bad students – just bad teachers.

Today’s lesson is all about training your virtual assistant and knowing that there are no bad students, generally speaking – just bad teachers.

All good teachers or trainers have to know their sh… er… stuff. You can’t cut corners when you’re learning, especially through personal, hands-on experience. It takes time to understand, absorb, and process information.

But how you teach the lessons you’ve learned, how you share the knowledge you’ve gained, and how you train others to do the work for you doesn’t have to be a painstakingly long process.

Generally speaking, outsourcing your work takes just a few simple steps.

You must:

Recognize a repeatable, duplicable process in your business
Document that process (in written format and/or by audio-video)
Transfer the documentation to your VA
Ensure that your VA fully understands and completes the process correctly during his/her first attempt
Remove that outsourced process from your mental “To Do” list and replace it with a task of higher value
Receive periodic reports from your VA, to ensure the task is continuously completed correctly

Shameless self-promotion, to help you create your own “Virtual Assistant Training Guide”

Part of my business involves operating a real estate solutions and investment company, located in your back yard. We buy, manage, and sell houses, and in the midst of it all, we also provide solutions for property-related concerns. In short, we help people – and that feels really good.

Houses are typically on the market for five months, on average, but they can sit for up to a year or more in some cases. Most property owners, however, need to sell fast. And that’s where we come in…

By purchasing properties quickly, at a reasonable investor discount, we can help save a homeowner thousands in agent commissions, repair costs, time spent showing the property, and the stress of pricing and contract negotiations.

Accordingly, today’s lesson draws from this experience to provide you with all the resources you will need….

Resource #1: “Flip Your Way to Financial Freedom”

We run the majority of our business through an awesome web application called Freedom$oft. Once you create your login and password on myfreedomsoft.com, familiarize yourself with the entire interface, so you can take full advantage of all Freedom$oft has to offer. And, while you’re there, check out my “Flip Your Way to Financial Freedom” book. This short digital book (and audio version) is a great accompaniment to the Freedom$oft site. It will provide the foundation for all that you’re about to learn. (Click on “classroom”, “resources”, then “Preston’s book”.)

Resource #2: Freedom$oft Quick Start Video

Get up to speed with Freedom$oft by watching the Quick Start Video (Click on “classroom”, “training & tutorials”, then “quick start video”.) It will walk you through the process of adding your first lead, running comps, generating a contract, then emailing the contract out. This will eventually become a daily ritual for you, so be sure to follow the steps in the video.

Resource #3: Rapid Success Training Video

You’ll find this by clicking “classroom”, “training & tutorials”, then “6 Weeks to Freedom”.

These videos will walk you through our business model, much of which is truly self-explanatory.

If at any time you need more help, just pull down the video training bar or visit “tools”, “virtual classroom for tutorials”, then “quick tips”.

Weekly Tasks

Seller Leads

You’ll want to screen Craig’s List (daily) for online seller leads.

Here’s how:

Got to the Craig’s List site for your city
Click on “Real Estate for Sale”
Search for keywords like “great deal” or “must sell” – and be sure to include quotes around those keywords

Focus on these leads:

“By owner” leads (as opposed to broker leads)
Majorly motivated sellers like those moving out of state
Single family homes with 3 bedrooms, 1200 sq. feet, and block construction

Then, when you find a solid, motivated seller lead, jump back to Freedom$oft and add whatever information you’ve gleaned from Craig’s List. Click on the link for “sellers”, then “add lead” to complete this process.

If Craig’s List doesn’t produce quality leads for you (it should), you may also want to check-out backpage.com, oodle.com, vast.com or kijiji.com.

Seller Traffic

Use tried-and-true Craig’s List again, or any of the other sites I just recommended in order to generate seller traffic by posting in the “Real Estate for Sale” section. This will direct traffic to our seller lead generation website at your website.

Note to Self: Don’t post this ad on the same day your post the seller ad. And, again, you are posting daily for seller traffic.

Reports to know your sh... er... stuff

There’s no getting around it, you’ve got to run reports (and know them like the back of your hand). To generate your weekly reports, click on “tools”, “run reports”, and then select “seller leads by source” – and be sure to take a screenshot of those reports.

Of course, you can also repeat these same steps to generate a report of “buyer leads by source”.

Monthly Tasks

Generate Cash Buyer Mailers

Inside Freedom$oft, go to Marketing then Cash Buyers in order to run a search for all cash buyers based on (i) your city (ii) sold date (range should be last month), and (iii) radius of 20 miles.

Sort the results table by Owner Name. Weed through the list, and select all records
Be sure to exclude any banks and duplicate mailing addresses.
Click the Create Campaign button in the Direct Mail Generation Wizard.
Select Cash Buyers template and click Next
Select current day as the delivery date and click Next
Click Finish

Clean Our Buyers List

Click on Buyers then Search, to filter all buyers who registered this month, and make a note of buyers who may have incorrect email addresses. For all buyers will “bad” email addresses, view their buyer profiles. If we don’t have information on those buyers, simply delete those buyers.

Send Buyer Confirmations

Select Buyers, Search, Switch View, Awaiting Confirmation to go through all buyers who registered this month. Again, view their profiles, and resend the confirmation email.

Set your own pace, but stay on top of your game

The beauty of this training is you can set your own schedule and work at your own pace. But remember that making offers is your priority. Shoot for a minimum of 5 offers daily.

Ready, set, go!