I’ve managed to stay pretty busy of late with REI-related things, despite not getting anywhere close to an actual hammer or paint brush. Which is kind of nice in some ways, but annoying in others, as I’d much prefer to be dealing with the hands-on, dirty work, instead of all of this other crippety-crap such as lining up insurance for House #3, building websites, working on spreadsheets, designing business cards, yada yada yada.
Like lots of things, it kind of snowballed from something seemingly simple. I was over at House #3 measuring the windows and got a chance to talk to the neighbor across the street, and was asking if he knew anything at all about the owners of the abandoned eyesore right next to mine. He was curious about my plans for the house and seemed pretty relieved that someone was fixing it up, and also that I planned on keeping it as a rental, as he knew a family member potentially interested in renting it, etc.
He asked for my phone number when we were done talking and I had to fish out a pen from my truck and write it on a scrap piece of paper. Very professional, indeed, and not exactly maximizing one’s marketing opportunities. In this case, not a big deal, as it’s easy enough for us to find one another, so the fact that I didn’t have a business card in my wallet isn’t a huge deal.
But it’s something I know I need to do, so I designed some simple business cards for my real estate scheming. Cool, done.
Except, well, not so much. It’s kind of dumb to just hand out a business card with my number on it when there’s the magical thing called the Internet. I’d grabbed a decent domain name for my real estate stuff but hadn’t bothered building a site for it. Most of the hesitation was that I didn’t feel comfortable blaring something along the lines of “Cash offers for your piece of junk house!” when I wasn’t in the position to really make a cash offer, as I couldn’t really swing that before I had the line of credit in place.
Now, though, I can. So I’ve been working on a website for the real estate scheming, as it’s something I should have done long ago, but especially should do if I end up picking up various rental properties. And especially if I’m going to target abandoned, unloved properties like I’ve been leaning towards, as I can’t rely on the MLS to find those, so I need to get more serious on the marketing front, as far as offering finders fees for leads that I buy, maybe spending some money on an ad in the local paper, some yard signs, etc.
So that’s kept me pretty busy of late. I’ve also been trying to scope out 2-3 potential properties each week, just from driving around town and looking for abandoned houses, then researching via the country records to see who owns them, if they own other property in town, if they owe back taxes, if they tried to sell them in the past on the MLS, etc. I’ve got three or four form letters that I then send out, based on the circumstances, basically just telling them I’m interested in buying their property and will pay cash.
Based on poking arond online, the response rate to such letters is usually pretty abysmal, so I’m not expecting much at all. Most are going off to PO Boxes, which is likely even less fruitful as I don’t even end up with a physical address that I could poke around in trying to contact the owner. But it can’t hurt and if nothing else it’s pretty cheap marketing, as I’ll be including a link to the website once I’m done, possibly a business card, etc.
Part of me has to grind my teeth to do such things, as I just don’t have the marketing gene inside me. Well, that’s not exactly true, as I can market the hell out of something sneakily, via SEO/Web content, but I’m completely lacking in the “Look at me! Look at my business!” side of that, as far as more traditional marketing.
I think my accountant suspects I sell drugs or something, as he always looks at me oddly when we actually get together face-to-face once or twice a year for my business returns and filings (which is basically the affiliate marketing/freelance poker content work I do). Net profits for the last 3 years have been in the range of $25,000-$40,000/year, but I have zero inventory costs and my expenses are next to nothing, basically a $150/month dedicated hosting package and domain name registrations.
And, frankly, that’s the perfect business in my eyes, as far as absolutely no silliness or trappings of pretending its some grander business than it is. I sit in front of a computer screen and type type type, but have managed to find ways where I get paid enough to make that typing fairly lucrative. But in the end it’s still just typing. The typing is what I get paid for. The more time I spend pretending to be A Big Serious Business, the less typing I get done, and the less money I make.
I’d like to treat real estate the same way, as far as quietly and invisibly doing my thing and making money, with the least amount of fuss and grabbing of attention, but that’s just not the reality of that business model. It’s not impossible, but you’re inevitably leaving money on the table if you don’t put yourself out there and network as much as possible.
Which I’m slowly, painfully coming to grips with.
