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If you’re not generating leads, then you’re not really in business. No matter what else is going on, you must do what it takes to generate leads in order to run a successful real estate investing business.
Hey Moguls, it’s Jamel Gibbs here, and I know those are strong words, but I never want to sugarcoat the truth about building a business.
Again – if you have no leads in your lead funnel, then you’re not in business! It’s that simple. So, I thought I’d share with you what my highly-effective lead funnel process looks like…
How to General Leads
There are several things you can do to generate enough leads to do multiple deals per month.
The #1 lead source that I use is direct mail. The reason I prefer direct mail is because it’s scalable. I can control the amount of leads that come into my business. The more money I spend on postcards and yellow letters, the more deals I’ll close on a consistent basis.
Other resources for generating leads are:
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FSBOs
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Realtors (higher competition)
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Online
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Bandit signs
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Drive for dollars
All of these are good and doable. But as I said, I prefer direct mail. If you’re not using direct mail, you’re missing out on the big picture.
Prescreening
Once you’ve generated the leads, the next step is to prescreen them.
Major Tip: DON’T take incoming seller calls yourself if you want a long-lasting real estate investing business.
This is where most investors take a wrong turn…
See, they don’t understand that 99% of the people who call with a house for sale are simply not truly motivated.
So you’ve gotta wrap your brain around this: You don’t want to do business with that 99% - you want to do business with the motivated 1%. By understanding that concept and knowing that it’ll take a lot of calls to generate deals, you’ll be much better equipped to become successful in the real estate investing business.
Run Your Business
Don’t cheap-out on yourself in this area. Pay someone $5 per lead sheet that they fill out for you. You don’t see the owner of a McDonald’s franchise out front flipping burgers. No – they’re running the business. You want to do the same with your business. Outsource that task and free yourself up to do what brings in the cash flow.
I pay someone $5 per lead sheet, so if they send 10 forms to me in a week, that’s an extra $50 out of my pocket. But if it results in a $5k-$10k deal that I can close, it’s definitely worth that investment.
To outsource, you can use:
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Virtual Office VA Staffing
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Pat Live
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Hire and train a VA yourself
Personally, I would pick one of the first 2, because those services provide people who are already trained in the real estate investing field.
Qualified Leads
If you hire someone to prescreen leads, you’ll talk only to those who are qualified.
Once you’re talking to those who appear to be good prospects, then you can set up an appointment. Meet them at the property and make an offer on the spot. I am not going to take the time to see the house if I’m not prepared to make the offer. This should be your plan as well.
Out of 100 leads that come in, 10 might be qualified. Out of the 10, 5 may be worth setting up an appointment. Make the offer at that point.
Once you’re driving consistent leads into your business, and you have someone who is trained to take those incoming lead calls, then you’ll be much better positioned to focus directly on the truly motivated sellers, who have already been qualified.
Bottom line… this is how your valuable time should be spent. By doing the lead process this way, you’ll be able to close more deals, quicker, and with fewer roadblocks.
Final Step
If you do make the purchase, the next step is to decide if you will wholesale, fix & flip, or fix & hold to make residual income. But it all starts with generating leads.
And, if you’re a visual learner, here’s what your lead funnel should look like:
{Mogul Elite: Download a PDF of this graphic in the Power Pack Tools
for this lesson}
How Do You Generate Leads?
As I mentioned, my #1 way to generate leads is direct mail. What’s yours? Tell me about it in the comments section below.
Ensure that lead generating is at the top of your priority list at all times.
Understand the structure of your lead funnel; know how it works in the most efficient way.
Choose the lead generating resource that works best for you (I prefer direct mail).
Outsource prescreening of calls – do not do that task yourself.
Jamel Gibbs
is also a mentor for other real estate investors helping them to achieve their goals. He is the owner of Mill Street Properties LLC and he invests in real estate all over the United States. Jamel's skills and drive were the winning combination to develop his efforts into a repeatable system. This system is now making him as well as many others tons of money.