How To Create Cash From Your Competition...

only one Hey Moguls, Doug Van Buskirk here…

The name of the game for every business is minimizing expenses and maximizing income.

After all, what good is $20,000/month in closed deals if your expenses leave little room for take-home profit or reinvestment into marketing?

But that presents us with a challenge… because leads cost money. Especially if you want a lot of them.

So how can you inject a sizeable volume of leads into your real estate business without coming out of pocket?

The answer lies in what should be a familiar topic, if you’ve read my previous (awesome!) lessons: Strategic Partnerships.

So we’re going to reach out to real estate professionals in your area who have a grossly underutilized asset: their database. And we’re going to offer them the opportunity to squeeze more profit out of their list without doing any additional work themselves.

Ready?

Building Strategic Partnerships

Here are the steps you can take to building a Strategic Partnership that truly helps your partners AND puts more money in your pocket.

Step 1. Make a list of people who likely have a lot of old leads or “dead” leads -buyers or sellers. This could be other investors, wholesalers, mortgage brokers or Realtors.

Your best connections will come from people you already have a relationship with, since they trust you. But you’ll want to reach out aggressively to folks outside of your circle as well to grow your network.

Step 2. Find a value-add in your specific market.

follow-up It’ll come as no surprise that folks aren’t just going to hand over leads that they could easily convert on their own.

But the fact is that most people in the real estate industry (and business owners in general) have very poor follow up. What’s more, a lot of leads that come in won’t be a perfect fit for them, so they’ll throw them in the junk pile. Or they won’t be ready to buy or sell now, so they go in the junk pile.

Now think about the value you can provide…

Let’s say that you connect with a Realtor who, over the past 6 months, has 50 leads of people looking for lease-options. He’s probably not following up with them because they aren’t a good fit for him as a Realtor. But these people still need a house!

What if you get access to these leads, follow up with them, get their criteria and start bringing buyers to the biggest lease-option players in town? Or, what if you have your own potential lease-option deals to flip to them?

Probably some money to be made there.

The beauty is that you don’t come out of pocket for these leads. It’s perfect if you’re in “lean start-up” mode or if you’re trying to grow without piling on more marketing expenses.

Why Realtors Give You Free Leads

So, in our example from above, you might be asking, why on earth would Realtors give you those leads for free?

In exchange for a piece of the back-end is why!

You can structure this type however you want, but you may want to offer a 25% split on profit from any buyers you close deals with.

This is a true win-win. That Realtor will NEVER see a dime from those leads if he doesn’t hand them off to you. Now he’s got the opportunity to profit from dead leads without even lifting a finger. Sounds enticing, right?

Variations of this example apply very closely to hard money lenders, private money lenders, investors and wholesalers.

I only used lease-options as an example here (although it’s a good one to pursue and there should be a high volume of leads to be had).

Find the sweet spot where you can provide value and create money for someone else where there wasn’t any previously.

Special Note: Make sure to check the protocol in your specific state about licensed professionals sharing leads, so you’re in full compliance.

Step 3. Outline a follow-up system that will allow you to systematically reach leads.

This will ideally be multi-channel. The more forms of communication you can use to reach these leads, the better.

Emails are getting ignored more than ever. So make sure you’re incorporating phone calls, email and text. Text is an awesome lead follow-up method. If you’re not using text to follow-up with your leads, you’re missing out big-time!

Depending what point you’re at in your business and what volume of leads you’re able to bring in, you may want to hire an assistant or VA to help with follow up.

Even better, think about bringing an assistant in and paying them a piece of profits from any lead they cultivate that ends in a deal.

Once again, we’re in the business of managing expenses and leveraging other people’s assets for everyone’s gain.

So the 3 main pieces of information you’d hope to have for dead leads are:

Phone Number
Email Address
What they initially contacted your referral partner about

With this, you’d be able to put together a simple plan to call, text and email. Direct mail would be nice, but we’re trying to keep costs down, so that can wait!

Create a 2-week reengagement campaign:

Day 1: Call and text

Example text:

Hello (first name), a few months/weeks ago, you reached out to my partner XYZ about finding a lease option house in (your area). I believe I can help you with your search. Can we set up a time to chat so I can get a better idea of what you’re looking for?

Best,

(Your Name)

Day 3: Email

Example email:

Subject Line: Quick question…

Hi (first name), hope all is well!

You reached out to my partner XYZ about finding a lease option house in (your area). I may be able to find what you’re looking for.

I wasn’t sure if you received my call or text a few days ago, so I wanted to check in to see if you’re still looking for a home?

Can you send me a quick note back with your plans when you have a minute?

Best,

(Your Name)

And, touch base every 4-5 days after that either by phone, text or email. Then space out follow ups every couple weeks after the initial reengagement campaign.

This is just a starting point. Don’t be afraid to adjust and adapt based on your results. But keep it simple. That’s the best way to ensure that you execute and see results.

More to Come

Okay, Moguls, that wraps up today’s lesson, but here’s what I’m bringing in Part 2 of this 2-part series…

In the second installment, we’ll connect the dots. I’ll cover how to start the conversation with potential partners, advice for keeping track of all the leads, ways to build trust with partners and how to exponentially increase the return you get from this strategy.

Talk to you soon!

Doug Van Buskirk