With foreclosures due to reach record levels in the US in 2008, this is a fantastic time to be a creative real estate investor! Not only are you in a position to genuinely help people who are struggling under the growing weight of a sub-prime mortgage, for example, but you can also make significant amounts of money in the process.
Whatever strategy, or strategies, you favour - flipping or fixing, owner financing, real estate notes - 2008 has the potential to be the year when you make your fortune.
However, what is the one hole in your business plan? What is the one weakness at the heart of all your investment strategies? What is your Achilles' Heal, the one thing you can barely admit to yourself, let alone other people?
I don't know you personally, but I can make a fair guess.
The one thing that is tripping over your real estate investment plans is that you simply can't find enough deals! And you can't find enough deals because you're not talking to enough motivated sellers, and that's because it's hard, time-consuming work. Am I right?
Well, I'm going to share a secret with you right now that the vast majority of real estate investors don't understand. Get this, and get it right, and you'll never be short of deals again.
The secret is this...
Your creative real estate investment strategies mean nothing without good marketing!
You see, you can have all the real estate investment knowledge in the world, but if you can't market effectively to find motivated sellers who are ready and willing to work a deal with you, then you have no way of turning all that knowledge into cold, hard cash.
Now, let me ask you a question.
Does good marketing mean...
* Scouring the newspapers every day for foreclosure notices?
* Buying foreclosure lists and working them, just like every other investor is doing?
* Making cold-calls to home-owners who may or may not be motivated sellers?
* Driving around the neighbourhood looking for foreclosure signs?
OK - they are slightly loaded questions, but you can see where this is going, right? If you do what everyone else does, you'll be forever operating in a crowded and competitive space, and finding the next deal is always going to be difficult and time-consuming.
Now, if you had to imagine a scenario that was significantly more profitable, that took a lot less work and stress, and that took away the problem of constantly going up against your competition, what might that look like?
Imagine, for example, that you had motivated sellers calling you. Every day. Wanting to talk to you about doing a deal on their home.
* One wants to sell their home to you and then rent it back
* Another just wants to sell and get out to avoid foreclosure.
* A third wants to sell fast, and is happy to carry paper on the deal.
All on one day!
How would this scenario transform your real estate investment activities? How would it transform your life if you never had to 'cold-call' anyone ever again, and as many deals as you can handle simply presented themselves to you, day in, day out, year in and year out?
Well, it's perfectly possible to achieve this exact scenario through clever, targeted direct marketing that is specifically designed to bring you a constant stream of motivated sellers, desperate to do a deal with you.
However, you need to forget anything you know about marketing in other businesses. Real estate is different because your customers are under stress a lot of the time, because you're providing a much-needed life-line in many cases, and because you're helping people through a difficult, traumatic phase of their lives.
What you need, then, above all, are three key elements.
1. Understanding. You need to fully understand the sellers' situation, in depth, and you need to show the seller that you do understand - preferably better than anyone else!
2. Compassion. Beyond understanding lies compassion. Where understanding is relatively cold and fact-based, compassion is that person-to-person connection that says, "I know what you're going through, and I'm here to help".
3. Integrity. Call them back within a reasonable time. Be on time for your meetings with them. Do what you say you're going to do, when you say you're going to do it. Be utterly straightforward and honest in all your dealings with all your customers, and you will be rewarded many times over.
(These three elements only apply to your customers, of course. Another huge benefit of having a systemized direct marketing system running 24 hours a day is that you have the luxury of picking and choosing your customers! If someone is difficult on the phone, or not motivated enough, or rude, or whatever, then you just move on. With a constant flow of prospects coming in, you don't need to take on 'problem cases' any more!)
You need to be marketing to people's emotions here. Show them that you understand the issues they're facing, and you assure them that you can lead them along a safe route through the chaos.
When your prospect trusts you, everything else becomes plain sailing.
And you can see how this is the complete opposite of what most investors do - cold-calling, being pushy, focusing on the deal rather than the person, on the cash for themselves rather than the outcome for the customer.
Distinguish yourself through your emotion-based, direct response marketing.
Have your marketing completely systemized so it runs 24/7 without too much input from you.
And that leaves you free to talk to prospects who really want to talk to you, and do the deals!
For a free report on getting a constant stream of motivated sellers to call you, go to
