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The Secrets of Being a Successful Landlord

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By Kathy Kennebrook (The Marketing Magic Lady)

You’ve all heard the tenant horror stories from people who have had tenants in properties, but being a landlord doesn’t have to be difficult as long as you learn some strategies for handling your tenants. My husband used to say that handling tenants was like having a group of children that you have to train and discipline. But it doesn’t have to be that difficult.

You do have to make some specific rules for your tenants and stick to them. Every time you change the rules you give your tenants the upper hand. You must also have an iron clad lease that specifically addresses the issues that you may have with tenants including getting your rent paid on time.

rule-1752625_1280This is one area in which I am steadfast with the rules. I don’t care what the tenant’s situation is, their responsibility is to pay me on time and in full or they are stealing services from you without paying for them. My tenants are responsible for having the rent in our post office box or direct deposited through zelle or paypal on or before the date it is due or they are served with a three-day notice the next morning as required by law where I live in order to begin the eviction process. There are no exceptions. We even have tenants who send their checks to me priority mail to make sure they get to me on time. Most of our tenants have been with us a long time and many pay early.

You must also take the time to pre-qualify your tenants’ right from the beginning so you can avoid some problems right from the start. Don’t just accept a tenant into your rental property because they have the money to move in. Don’t let greed be your guide. Have your tenants fill out a specific rental application. Then you run must a tenant check with a reputable company. Don’t try to do this yourself just by looking at public record. You will miss credit issues and anything that may have occurred out of state. You need to find out the information you need to know about your tenants’ right from the start before renting them your unit.

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For example, if the tenant check shows the applicant was just evicted from another premises, this certainly isn’t going to be a tenant you want in your property. Or if your tenant has had recent felony convictions, this isn’t a tenant you want in your rental unit. If your applicant has multiple animals, this is also not someone you want in your rental unit. I will mention however, that I will allow a tenant with a small dog or cat to rent my units. I find that usually a tenant who has a pet that they have had for some time will make a good tenant who will stay longer in your unit.

I also have a separate pet lease which addresses specific rules regarding pets in my units. The pet lease requires that the dog or cat is an indoor pet and I have an additional non-refundable amount of security deposit for the pet lease and additional pet rent of 25.00 per month. I find that this works out very well. If the tenant gets a pet that is not on the lease, this is grounds for immediate eviction, and we do have someone who checks our units about every 60 days for us to make sure all is well with our rental units.

puppy-1903313_1280I also check out where they were living before by going by the address and checking it out and I talk to their previous landlord. I want to see how they have been treating the place where they were living before. If it looks like a pig pen or if they have multiple animals, this is not someone I want in my unit. If they don’t give me this information on the rental application, I won’t even consider them to rent my unit.

I know some of this is just common sense but it bears discussion. If a tenant makes it through my rigorous screening process, I also have them pay first month’s rent, last month’s rent and the security deposit either by cash, cashiers check or by money order. I do not accept personal checks for the move-in amounts.

During the following months I do not accept personal checks from them for the rent, we only accept money orders or direct deposit. The first time a check bounces for insufficient funds or any other reason, they must make it good immediately or I will immediately begin the eviction process. This is all covered in the lease they have signed. I also make sure that the person I have putting tenants in units for me thoroughly covers all the items in the lease with them before they sign it.

If a tenant does get their rent to us late, they are responsible for additional rental fees of one percent per day. These fees are in our lease as additional rental fees as opposed to late fees since some courts won’t allow you to get a judgment for late fees. Within the body of our lease we also require our tenants to have renters insurance and I want to see proof of the policy before they move in. This way I can’t be held liable for any injuries or the loss of their possessions due to an accident, fire, hurricane or any other natural disaster.

sale-3701777_1280Additionally, once my tenants sign a lease with me, I will not give them keys until I see proof of utilities in their name for the unit. In certain counties like ours, the landlord can’t turn off utilities in their own name. The only way the name changes on the utilities is with a new lease and then utilities get put in the tenant’s name. This rule may be different where you live, but a lot of the time if the tenant doesn’t pay their utilities it falls back to the landlord. This is just one way for you to protect yourself.

These are just a few of the basic techniques that will make you a happy and successful landlord. Monthly cash flow is a wonderful thing if your properties are managed correctly.

For more information on becoming a successful landlord and finding all the deals you need for your real estate investing business, check out my website at www.marketingmagiclady.com. While you are there be sure and sign up for my Free Monthly Newsletter!!

Women Who Behave Never Get Rich!!

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By Kathy Kennebrook (The Marketing Magic Lady)

I am often asked by women at events I speak at whether or not I think a woman can make a go of the real estate investing business on their own. My personal answer to this question is always a resounding-YES!

Actually, women have a distinct advantage over men in the real estate investing business. Sorry guys, it’s the truth! You see women are generally much more comfortable working with other women. That’s a given. So this makes the whole process go a lot more smoothly. And Men really like working with Women because it kind of levels the playing field. Women are seen as easier to work with. So Women end up doing really well in the real estate investing business even if they are working on their own.

man-and-woman-smiling-inside-building-1367269 smallMen are more comfortable working with a female investor for a lot of reasons. The first and most important is that there is no ego or testosterone coming into play in the negotiation process so generally a man and a woman working together are going to come up with a win-win solution much more quickly and easily than a man working with a man. It’s not like one of the guys “has to win”

Women can definitely be very successful in the real estate investing business working on their own. I am living proof of this fact. Even though my husband and I work together in the business, I am usually the one creating the deals, especially when working with senior homeowners. Once again; they just seem to be more comfortable working with a woman. I don’t mean to sound chauvinistic here; it just seems to work out that way. There seems to be a greater trust when working with a woman investor.

It also seems to go over better when I am the one asking for the deed to a property I want to buy subject to the existing mortgage. The whole scenario just goes better when I am the one doing the asking whether working with male sellers, female sellers or couples. I just think women are seen as more nurturing, empathetic and easier to work with. So yes, ladies; you can definitely have a successful real estate investing business all by yourself!

positive-businesswoman-doing-paperwork-in-office-3756678 smallI could share several examples of deals I have done myself, even very recently to drive this point home. I recently did a deal with a lady who had just turned 40 and decided to sell her home so she could use the proceeds to travel the country before she was too old to do so. She had been contacted by Real Estate Investors who were men and she wouldn’t sell her home to them. Then she saw our ad in a shopper guide and called me. We met and she agreed to sell me her house. She was just much more comfortable working with another woman, and being a single woman living alone, she was nervous about letting a man into her home that she didn’t know.

Let me share another deal I did where a couple was being transferred out of state for business and needed to sell their home quickly. They had had another investor come out to see them before I showed up. He showed up in a suit and tie and they felt he was just too “slick” for them to be comfortable working with, so when I showed up in nice slacks and a blouse, empathized with their situation and showed them how I could help them solve their problem, they sold their home to me. I made a hefty profit on this deal! I also brought references with me so they could make sure I was really who I said I was and that I could really purchase their home.

I do have some advice for women working on their own based on my own experience. Here is some of the best advice I can give you. Ladies, if you are going to a property and you haven’t been there before and you don’t know the sellers, carry a cell phone with you and make sure someone knows where you are going to be. This is just common sense information to protect you. In my case, most of the time, the negotiations have been done on the phone before I ever go see any property.

woman-in-white-blazer-holding-tablet-computer-789822 smallIf you are going to a seller’s home and there is a couple involved in the deal, make sure they are both going to be home. You need both of their signatures on paperwork anyway.

If you are going to a vacant ugly house I suggest taking someone else with you or making sure someone knows where you are, just in case. Just remember to use a little bit of common sense and caution in your dealings and you will be very successful in this business.

For more information on Kathy Kennebrook check out my website at www.marketingmagiclady.com While you are there be sure and sign up for my free monthly newsletter!

Working With Motivated Sellers in the Spanish Speaking Market – Even if You Don’t Speak Spanish

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By Kathy Kennebrook “The Marketing Magic Lady”

One of the things I discovered early on in my business as a real estate investor is that there are many ways to reach all kinds of motivated sellers. The main technique I like to use to reach specific sellers in my market is by using a targeted approach, which for me is direct mail. We do add to the mix other types of marketing tools including business cards, signage, bus benches, ads, bird dogs and flyers to name a few.

I also discovered that there is another segment of the market in addition to English speaking sellers with folks who have homes they need to sell for all kinds of reasons. The market segment I am referring to is the Spanish speaking seller.

The obstacle I ran into was that many of these folks don’t speak any English and I don’t speak any Spanish. So I needed to develop a system to market to these folks effectively since they have the same problems every other seller has.

Many of my students were also contacting me to find out how they too could use direct mail and other types of marketing techniques to reach the Spanish speaking sellers in their areas. They are finding, as am I that these folks have homes they need to sell for a variety of reasons and no one is tapping into this market. Part of the reason for that is the difficulty caused by not speaking the language and not being able to be understood. I found the way to solve that problem for these sellers and for myself as the investor.

I had all of my marketing pieces including my direct mail campaigns for finding motivated sellers translated into Spanish. It was a huge undertaking but it was well worth the effort. The first thing I had to do was to address all of the dialect differences in the Spanish language.

I then sent these letters to the specific market areas where I wanted to buy houses. I sent them out written in English on one side and Spanish on the other. I also had all of my other marketing tools translated into Spanish as well such as signage, ads, lumpy mail pieces, business cards, and flyers which were also causing an influx of leads into our pipeline. Not only that, I even had my tenant referral program materials translated to Spanish since we have a lot of Spanish speaking tenants.

One of the things I discovered very quickly was that while I was getting a lot of response from the Spanish speaking market, I was unable to process the deals due to the language barrier. I solved this problem in two different ways. The first was to send the calls to a 24 hour recorded message which I had recorded in Spanish. I used a professional translator to do this for me so that the grammar, the dialect and the language are correct.

The second way I solved this dilemma was to use a Spanish answering service to take the calls and translate the responses into English so I could read them. We provided the telephone scripts for them to use. I have them both in English and in Spanish so I can provide these to the answering service in whatever format they want it.

You can do the same thing. You can take your own telephone script, give it a bi-lingual answering service, have them ask the questions in Spanish and then translate the responses for you in English so you can read them.  This gives the seller two different ways to contact us, depending on what was the most convenient and comfortable for them. I also provide these potential sellers with a response mechanism at the bottom of the letter I use so they can mail, e-mail or fax their responses to us as well.  The more ways you give a seller to contact you, the more of them are going to.

I then use an interpreter who meets with me and the seller so I can put the deals together. We meet at a location that works for all involved. The interpreters are very reasonable in their fees for their services and they are easy to locate. I found one in the yellow pages listed under “interpreters”. Do try to find someone who specializes in real estate. This makes the whole process a lot easier. By putting a system in place to deal with this market, we were able to do a lot of deals, make money and solve these seller’s problems.

The other method you can employ is to use a Spanish speaking Realtor to help you with your deals and act as an interpreter, and then pay them a fee for doing this for you. If you already have a Realtor on your team performing a variety of services for you, this shouldn’t be difficult to do. I would suggest paying the Realtor a fee separate from their Realtor commission. This is just another way to find a reliable person to act as an interpreter for you when you need to structure these deals.

If you are using hard money or private money to fund your deals, or you are getting the deed, you will be closing these properties with a title agent or real estate attorney. Almost every title agency in the country is bi-lingual. If yours isn’t find one that is. This is a very profitable part of the market that none of your competitors are going after because they simply don’t know how.

Once you get past the language barrier, there are lots of great deals to be made within this marketplace and with these sellers. Remember, these sellers have the same problems everyone else does when it comes to needing to sell a property. You can set up a system in your business that will bring you many deals from the Spanish speaking market.

In my system, Marketing Magic-Spanish Upgrade, I have all of my marketing pieces, both in English and in Spanish for you on CD Rom and I show you exactly how to set up an automated system to reach this marketplace and process these deals. I have basically done all the work for you so all you have to do is get busy and find some properties to purchase with no competition from anyone else.

Be sure and check out my website at www.marketingmagiclady.com for more information on how to find all the Spanish speaking sellers you need for your real estate investing business. While you are there be sure and sign up for my free monthly newsletter and receive an additional $149.00 in FREE marketing tools for your real estate investing business.

Kathy Kennebrook

Kathy Kennebrook is the ultimate success story. She spent over 20 years in the banking industry before discovering the world of real estate. After attending some real estate seminars this 4 foot 11 mother of two got really excited and before you know it she’d bought and sold hundreds of properties using none of her own money or credit.

Kathy holds a degree in finance and has co-authored the books- The Venus Approach to Real Estate Investing, Walking With the Wise Real Estate Investor, and Walking With the Wise Entrepreneur which also includes real estate experts Suze Orman, Robert Kiyosaki, and Dr. Wayne Dyer.

She is the nation’s leading expert at finding highly qualified, motivated sellers, buyers and lenders using many types of direct mail marketing. She is known throughout the United States and Canada as the Marketing Magic Lady. She has put together a simple step-by-step system that anyone can follow to duplicate her success.

Kathy has been speaking throughout the country and across Canada for over 14 years and has shared the stage with Ron LeGrand, Dr. Phil, Dan Kennedy, Mark Victor Hansen, Ted Thomas and Suze Orman to name a few.

Kathy is going to share with you how she generates a seven figure income by mailing a handful of letters throughout the year to highly selected targets by knowing exactly what to send them, who to send them to and exactly how to deliver her message. She will teach you the secrets of pre-screening and automating your marketing and follow up systems to put your entire Real Estate business on auto-pilot.

 

Uncovering the Secrets of Marketing To Motivated Sellers

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By Kathy Kennebrook, The Marketing Magic Lady

Several years ago, I attended my first real estate seminar and decided this was the business for me. I could do it in my own time and at my own pace and make great money. Considering I was still working a full time job at the time, this seemed to be just the scenario I was looking for. One of the things they taught us in those seminars was that finding truly motivated sellers was going to be the cornerstone to this business because without motivated sellers there simply are no deals to be made.

After spending a number of years in sales prior to becoming a real estate entrepreneur, I knew that when the prospect contacts you first, you have a much better chance of making a good deal. At the time I didn’t have a lot of money to work with and needed to make every marketing dollar count.

I discovered the same theory applied to working with motivated sellers. A motivated seller is the key to all good deals, and if they contact you first, this significantly increases your opportunity to make a profitable deal. There are lots of opportunities for those who want to find sellers, and some are more labor intensive and time consuming than others. Learning to influence motivated sellers to contact you first will increase your profits immensely, help you make better deals and most importantly save you valuable time.

One of the primary reasons for failure in this business is trying to create a deal with unmotivated sellers. It’s like trying to push a rock uphill. You spend all your time chasing dead end leads and getting nowhere. This is discouraging and can cause you to quit the business altogether before you ever get to see the long term benefits it can bring you.

Locating the truly motivated sellers is the key to your success as a real estate investor. Your money is made at the point at which you purchase the property, so an effective marketing plan is essential to your business in order to create profitable deals. The key point to remember is that most sellers are not motivated. The biggest mistake you can make is to try to make a deal with someone who doesn’t want to sell to you.

Effective marketing is the process of delivering your specific message to a targeted audience through the use of various types of media. Using this method enables you to find the sellers who really need to sell, as opposed to those who just want to sell. When you find the sellers who really need to sell, you’ll end up buying a lot more houses at much better prices and terms. The secret to the really great deals is to find them before anyone else even knows about them.

A lot of the deals you should be finding won’t even be actively marketed. These sellers have a variety of problems they simply don’t know how to solve. Their motivation comes in a lot of forms. Some of the reasons motivated sellers need to sell have to do with the sellers themselves, such as  age, health problems, financial difficulties, change in marital status, liens and judgments, job transfers, landlords who are tired of having their properties abused, or change in family size just to name a few. Other reasons are more directly related to the property itself, such as estates, properties needing extensive repairs, code enforcement violations or properties that have been vacant for a significant period of time.

So how are you going to find these sellers and how should you market to them? As a real estate investor, you have lots of choices. You can use classified ads, flyers, the internet, signage, websites, business cards, billboards, radio and TV ads and direct mail.

You should pick at least three to five ways to market your business. Put them to work for you simultaneously in order to promote your business and draw as many different sellers to you within your market. You must begin to understand a seller’s motivation for selling a property in the first place. This is going to be important for you because if you try and reach sellers in only one way, and you don’t find a property in a relatively short period of time, you may become discouraged and quit. You really don’t want to do this, trust me. There is more business out there than you can imagine! Accept the fact that you’ll need to do more than lay some flyers and hope some motivated sellers call you.

One of the first things you need to do is to identify your market, deciding where you want to buy and what types of properties interest you. Then develop a marketing plan that fits your personal needs and budget. This way, you eliminate the need to call sellers; you want them to call you first.

Marketing is a numbers game, the more leads come in, the more opportunities you have to make deals. You won’t buy every deal that comes your way, but when you develop a machine that you can control that brings in quality leads, you’ll be able to pick and choose the kinds of deals you want to do. As a real estate investor, you need to find a seller who is either flexible on the price of the property or on the terms of the sale. If a seller wants full price and all cash for a property, it’s almost impossible for you as the investor to make a good deal. The investor who wants to help people and make money should be looking for a seller who is flexible on the terms of the sale. Many of the people I send direct mail to practically beg me to take their properties off their hands for a variety of reasons. These are the kinds of motivated sellers you want to be dealing with.

The best way that I’ve found to “niche” market to motivated sellers and control the number of leads coming in is through the use of direct mail. The BIG secret to doing direct mail successfully is mailing the right letter to the right list and then mailing to them over and over. As you will discover, given time, almost every potential seller’s circumstances change and make them more motivated to sell. You must let the world know you buy real estate. The best thing about direct mail is that you can specifically target the types of sellers you want to reach and cultivate quality leads to work from.

I also find these mailings are very residual. These potential sellers will hold onto your direct mail pieces until their circumstances dictate that they contact you. When they are ready to sell, they will contact you first, since they probably haven’t had any contact from anyone else. Usually their properties aren’t even being actively marketed, therefore there is no competition for these deals. In the meantime, you’ve gained credibility with these sellers by doing repetitive mailings.

The biggest part of the secret is to find the sellers who really want to sell. I use different direct mail campaigns to locate different types of motivated sellers, such as out of state owners, properties which have been quit claimed from one person to another, expired listings, burned out landlords, and pre-foreclosures, just to name a few. The best part is that you can customize your marketing to reach exactly the kind of motivated sellers you want to deal with. This can best be done by locating mailing lists and refining them to meet your individual criteria and then mailing to them again and again.  Investors often neglect to market to sellers in this way because they think the list is just too difficult to get or they only do the mailings once and quit.

Let me tell you, these are some of the easiest lists for you to get and it will be very profitable to you to do so. You can go to a list broker or your local property appraisers’ office and ask them for a list, or you can create the lists yourself. It’s fairly easy to do. You can go to the courthouse and research the divorce cases, death notices, liens and judgments, tax liens, marriage licenses, bankruptcies and notices of default, which is the first step toward foreclosure.

Another way to find motivated sellers is to cultivate relationships with individuals who can help you find deals. One of the ways to do this is to write letters to attorneys who handle family law, estate planning and probate law, divorce and marital law, and corporation and business law and let them know you are in the business of buying houses. Once you develop relationships with these attorneys, they will call you when they have a client who needs to sell a property quickly. This is just another way to build another lead source using direct mail.

Another way to find motivated sellers is to write letters to the owners of vacant houses or houses that look like they need a lot of repairs. If you can find the owners of vacant houses, these are usually deals waiting to be made. The harder the owner is to find, the better deal you will make. There are lots of ways to find the owners of vacant houses, the easiest of which is to simply use a skip tracer to locate them for you.

You can also work with realtors who can give you expired listings. The longer a house sits without selling, the more motivated the seller will be. If you get expired listings for out of state owners, these sellers are usually even more motivated. You can often make a deal with a realtor who will supply you with the list. Tell them you will use them to make the offers for you, or simply tell them you’ll pay them a fee for their services.     

Mail these potential sellers a personal looking and sounding letter. Let them know that you are interested in helping them find a solution to their problem. Even if you don’t get a response right away, repeat your mailings at least every thirty days until you do get a response.

The main reason that direct mail works so well is that you are reaching targeted sellers, and you become the seller’s first option when they need to sell. Even if you are on a limited budget, direct mail is an excellent source of leads for you since you can buy more houses from fewer leads, thus maximizing your marketing dollars. As your business grows, you can increase the amount of mailings you do. You can also target specific neighborhoods or dominate certain parts of town. In doing so, you become a “property value expert” in those areas, which makes the offer making process that much easier for you.

In addition, you create an ongoing relationship with your target market which makes it easy for you to follow up with past inflexible or unmotivated sellers. Because these mailings are so targeted and so residual, there is virtually no competition for these properties, and it puts your lead generating system on auto-pilot, leaving you more time to make offers.

The most important thing to remember is to be consistent in all your efforts. The successful real estate investor has a network of people and strategies at their fingertips at all times. If you don’t develop continuity to your marketing campaigns, you’ll see your results begin to drop off immediately.

When you learn to get motivated sellers contacting you and then learn a variety of ways to purchase properties, the possibilities become almost endless. If you use several different ways to get motivated sellers contacting you, you will have more opportunities than you’ll be able to handle.

Using direct mail to develop a “cookie cutter” system to accomplish this is one of the most affordable, reliable, and effective ways I know to build your business quickly and have all the deals you will ever need.

For more information on finding all the deals you need for your real estate investing business be sure and check out my website at www.marketingmagiclady.com. While you are there be sure and sign up for my FREE monthly newsletter!

Kathy Kennebrook

Kathy Kennebrook is the ultimate success story. She spent over 20 years in the banking industry before discovering the world of real estate. After attending some real estate seminars this 4 foot 11 mother of two got really excited and before you know it she’d bought and sold hundreds of properties using none of her own money or credit.

Kathy holds a degree in finance and has co-authored the books- The Venus Approach to Real Estate Investing, Walking With the Wise Real Estate Investor, and Walking With the Wise Entrepreneur which also includes real estate experts Suze Orman, Robert Kiyosaki, and Dr. Wayne Dyer.

She is the nation’s leading expert at finding highly qualified, motivated sellers, buyers and lenders using many types of direct mail marketing. She is known throughout the United States and Canada as the Marketing Magic Lady. She has put together a simple step-by-step system that anyone can follow to duplicate her success.

Kathy has been speaking throughout the country and across Canada for over 14 years and has shared the stage with Ron LeGrand, Dr. Phil, Dan Kennedy, Mark Victor Hansen, Ted Thomas and Suze Orman to name a few.

Kathy is going to share with you how she generates a seven figure income by mailing a handful of letters throughout the year to highly selected targets by knowing exactly what to send them, who to send them to and exactly how to deliver her message. She will teach you the secrets of pre-screening and automating your marketing and follow up systems to put your entire Real Estate business on auto-pilot.

 

Molding a Million Dollar Marketing Mind Set

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By Kathy Kennebrook (The Marketing Magic Lady)

When you are getting started in the real estate business, I know that putting a solid marketing plan in place is going to be one of your first priorities. This will be the main strategy that will separate you from your competition.

Decide what your focus is going to be regarding the type of properties you initially would like to purchase in your Real Estate Investing business and create a plan of action that will begin to bring in motivated sellers in droves and create deals for you. If you don’t know what exit strategies to use, make getting educated one of your top priorities. Getting a good education in the buying and selling of real estate will quickly separate you from most of your competition. You can check out my website at www.marketingmagiclady.com for some really powerful tools for your Real Estate Investing business.

Don’t be afraid to do what those around you will not. Dare to be different and consistent in your marketing efforts and the results will be amazing. Niche your marketing and become an expert in your market place. Become educated within your market place so you know what your property values are and what your personal target market is going to be.

The first step that I take is to find out what my real estate market is doing. Are there a lot of pre-foreclosures? Do you live near a military base where a lot of people are being transferred? Are you in an area where there are a lot of ugly houses you can purchase inexpensively and then wholesale? Have you run demographics to find out what kind of income levels there are within your market area? Is the market slow and are there a lot of houses for sale?

If this is the case, then you know that it is a buyer’s market and there are a lot of good deals to be had. You just have to learn to be a little more creative in the way you sell your properties. If there are very few houses for sale and they are high priced, then it is a seller’s market and you need to adjust your marketing strategies accordingly. This is all part of discovering your niche within your market. Don’t allow yourself to be influenced by various advertisers or those who profess to be real estate experts in your area, take the time to discover what works best for you in your marketplace and stick with it.

The next step I suggest is to figure out what your marketing budget is and which marketing strategies will reach the highest number of sellers within your budget. For example, your budget may include signage, business cards, direct mail, flyers, ads, websites or a combination of all of these.

You should always have between three and five marketing strategies in place at any given time so you are reaching the largest segment of your market in a variety of ways. This way a higher number of potential sellers will see your message. For example, you may reach sellers by using direct mail that would never see your message in any other way.

I continue to test and track my results just as you should so you can make sure the marketing dollars you spend bring in the highest number of quality leads. If necessary drop the things that don’t work well and put that money back into the marketing techniques that are working well for you.  This is also how you will learn which marketing strategies work best for you.

Track your real estate market changes so you can change your marketing accordingly as you go along. Using this strategy in your real estate investing business will assure that you always have the highest number of quality leads possible coming in. More quality leads mean more deals and more dollars coming into your business.

Be aware of the special problems of your market. Are there a lot of layoffs? Are there a lot of folks who are part time residents? Is yours a very high end market with a lot of luxury homes? Discover these special differences and market directly to these folks. Figure out what it is that everyone before you has done and then you do it differently. Believe me when I tell you that this one strategy alone can make you big profits in your business.

For example, in my market almost no one does direct mail on a consistent basis, so I have made this my personal niche. By doing this, there is virtually no competition for properties whatsoever. Figure out what your niche is by figuring out what your competition is not doing and do more of it yourself. We created specific direct mail campaigns targeting specific sellers who are more likely to work with us. Then we send out our message on a residual basis and watch the deals continue to come in.

Make sure you take the time to begin to build your dream team along the way. These are the people who are going to be helping you to locate deals and get them closed and then sold. This is how you make huge profits in the real estate business, by surrounding yourself with team players who want to see you make money so they can make money as well. There are many ways to use your vendors as “bird dogs” to find deals for you that you have virtually no marketing cost in whatsoever until you actually purchase the deal. At that point you would probably want to pay them a finder’s fee. This is a good way to keep them motivated to help you find even more deals.

I suggest that you make sure that you take a portion of the profit from each deal that you do, especially in the beginning, and put it back into your marketing so you can continue to grow your business. At the point at which you decide you have enough deals coming in each month, you will be able to determine exactly what your monthly marketing budget needs to be in order to bring in the number of deals that works for you.

Remember to set specific goals for your business and yourself and strive to meet those goals each and every day. By doing this, you are planting seeds of success for today and for your future. You won’t be able to see a clear picture regarding where you began or where you are going unless you do this. This is one way to keep focused and keep your business on track.

For everything you need to know about locating motivated sellers, buyers and lenders for your real estate investing business and creating a business plan to buy and sell properties quickly, visit Kathy Kennebrook’s web site at www.marketingmagiclady.com. While you are there be sure and sign up for our FREE monthly newsletter!

Kathy Kennebrook

Kathy Kennebrook is the ultimate success story. She spent over 20 years in the banking industry before discovering the world of real estate. After attending some real estate seminars this 4 foot 11 mother of two got really excited and before you know it she’d bought and sold hundreds of properties using none of her own money or credit.

Kathy holds a degree in finance and has co-authored the books- The Venus Approach to Real Estate Investing, Walking With the Wise Real Estate Investor, and Walking With the Wise Entrepreneur which also includes real estate experts Suze Orman, Robert Kiyosaki, and Dr. Wayne Dyer.

She is the nation’s leading expert at finding highly qualified, motivated sellers, buyers and lenders using many types of direct mail marketing. She is known throughout the United States and Canada as the Marketing Magic Lady. She has put together a simple step-by-step system that anyone can follow to duplicate her success.

Kathy has been speaking throughout the country and across Canada for over 14 years and has shared the stage with Ron LeGrand, Dr. Phil, Dan Kennedy, Mark Victor Hansen, Ted Thomas and Suze Orman to name a few.

Kathy is going to share with you how she generates a seven figure income by mailing a handful of letters throughout the year to highly selected targets by knowing exactly what to send them, who to send them to and exactly how to deliver her message. She will teach you the secrets of pre-screening and automating your marketing and follow up systems to put your entire Real Estate business on auto-pilot.

 

Marketing to Motivated Sellers in Rural Communities

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By Kathy Kennebrook

Since I am the type of investor who purchases properties in multiple counties and in multiple states, I have had lots of experience buying homes and vacant land in rural communities. In fact this is a part of our business that we find to be very profitable for us . I will share with you that buying properties this way is a science in and of itself. There are many different parameters and techniques you need to implement to buy properties in rural areas, but it can be a very profitable business for you.

First of all, if you like to buy vacant land, it can be a real challenge at times. For example, many times the parcels you are looking to purchase will not have a street address, making them more difficult to locate on public records to do a search. You will need plat maps and street maps in order to locate these properties. One advantage to buying in rural areas is that generally speaking the folks at the court house, the property appraiser’s or assessors office and the tax collectors office are usually easier to work with and very knowledgeable about the local area and property.

If you plan on buying vacant land, I would suggest getting a plat map book which shows the subdivisions and the properties in lot and block. The easiest way I found to do this is to go to the court house or property assessors’ office and ask if they have a copy you can buy. If this is not possible, find out if you can make a copy of the one they have. Sometimes they will let you borrow it, or copy it on the premises.

This is another main difference when working in rural areas; the folks at the Court House and Property Appraiser’s office are much more likely to be very helpful to you. Having a Plat Map Book available will make it a whole lot easier to locate the properties you are trying to buy. If it is possible, you may also want to purchase a computer program that shows this type of information so you have it at your fingertips. There are programs like Real Quest or Win2data available for this purpose.

The other thing you will also need is a street map of the community. Usually these street maps will also show subdivision locations. This also makes it easier to find the properties you are trying to locate. You can use the plat and the street map together to locate the specific properties you are interested in making offers on.

If you are looking to buy properties in rural areas there are three main ways to find motivated sellers. One of those is to work with a local Realtor. Usually, they are much easier to work with than those in larger cities. They are usually willing to share information for example on why a seller needs to sell. If the first Realtor you talk to won’t help, find another. You do need to be careful in one respect when working in rural areas with Realtors. Many times the Realtors themselves are investors, so you need to make sure they won’t snipe deals from you if you ask them for help with comparables before you have a property under contract. Also make sure the Realtor you are working with has access to the MLS because some of them do not. Sometimes there are MLS listings in these rural areas that can produce good deals for you as well. Additionally, if you plan to list properties with a Realtor, you want to make sure they get listed on the MLS.

The second way to find motivated sellers is to simply use signage. Usually in a smaller community, the sign ordinances are not nearly as strict as they are in a larger city. When you put signs up in the ground or on poles, they are likely to stay there for long periods of time, so using signage usually works very well to find motivated sellers.

The third way to find motivated sellers is to do direct mail campaigns to non-homestead exempt or absentee owners. The programs I use to do this are called Real Quest and FIS Data.  If you go to my web site at www.marketingmagiclady.com, you will find a lot more information on these companies. These programs can provide plat maps, sales information, property information, comps, and more. I personally use these programs to find motivated sellers in the community I like to buy in.

Another way I use to find all the motivated sellers I need in rural areas is to send direct mail to owners of vacant land whose tax bill has not been paid. This is an easy list to get and can be obtained from the tax collectors office. Usually these are folks who have inherited properties they really don’t want or need and this list is an extremely effective list source.

There is absolutely a lot of money to be made in rural communities and people sell for a variety of reasons. I find the main ones to be estate and probate and pre-foreclosure. All of these situations create wonderful opportunities for buying properties well under their value. Just remember that you will have to be a little creative when you resell or lease these properties since you are dealing in a very small market area. Usually I will advertise in the newspapers of bigger cities surrounding the rural area or work with a Realtor who can get these properties list nationally. There are lots of people who are looking for vacation properties in rural areas.

You will also need to set yourself up with a title company who understands your business, even if you have to train them yourself. I know that the first couple of deals I purchased into land trusts I had to explain to the title company. I even provided them with the deed that included all of the duties of the trustee. Once you have them trained, they can be a real asset to your business, especially when it comes to working with out of state sellers.

Buying properties in a rural area is a real learning experience, but I will tell you that if you take the time and the energy to do it, there is a lot of money to be made, and there is almost no competition for these properties at all.

For more information on finding motivated sellers in rural areas and the Real Quest and FIS Data programs, along with all of the other tools you need to find motivated sellers, visit my  website at www.marketingmagiclady.com  I am one of the top Trainers in the country with regard to marketing and finding profitable real estate deals and I offer ongoing support to all of my students and customers. While you are at the website be sure and sign up for my FREE Monthly Newsletter.

Kathy Kennebrook

Kathy Kennebrook is the ultimate success story. She spent over 20 years in the banking industry before discovering the world of real estate. After attending some real estate seminars this 4 foot 11 mother of two got really excited and before you know it she’d bought and sold hundreds of properties using none of her own money or credit.

Kathy holds a degree in finance and has co-authored the books- The Venus Approach to Real Estate Investing, Walking With the Wise Real Estate Investor, and Walking With the Wise Entrepreneur which also includes real estate experts Suze Orman, Robert Kiyosaki, and Dr. Wayne Dyer.

She is the nation’s leading expert at finding highly qualified, motivated sellers, buyers and lenders using many types of direct mail marketing. She is known throughout the United States and Canada as the Marketing Magic Lady. She has put together a simple step-by-step system that anyone can follow to duplicate her success.

Kathy has been speaking throughout the country and across Canada for over 14 years and has shared the stage with Ron LeGrand, Dr. Phil, Dan Kennedy, Mark Victor Hansen, Ted Thomas and Suze Orman to name a few.

Kathy is going to share with you how she generates a seven figure income by mailing a handful of letters throughout the year to highly selected targets by knowing exactly what to send them, who to send them to and exactly how to deliver her message. She will teach you the secrets of pre-screening and automating your marketing and follow up systems to put your entire Real Estate business on auto-pilot.

 

Using The Right Mailing Lists to Locate Motivated Sellers (Part 1)

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By Kathy Kennebrook “The Marketing Magic Lady”

Implementing the right list and using the right letter when creating your direct mail campaigns to locate motivated sellers is crucial to your success as a Real Estate Investor. There are lots of different ways to find these lists and lots of different types of lists to choose from.

The easiest way I suggest to locate a list to use for mailings is to simply go to your property appraiser’s office or auditor’s office and have them create it for you. There are many different parameters you can use to create these lists.

Some of the lists you could create might be directed at out of town owners, deed transfers, zip codes ranges, sale dates, estates, evictions, delinquent taxes or pre-foreclosures. These can all be good lead sources for you to use to find motivated sellers and these are lists that I use in my business on a daily basis in addition to several others.

Sometimes these records are available on CD and sometimes they are available as a paper copy. Every county differs in how they distribute this information. I suggest going down to the property appraiser’s office and speaking with someone there directly. Do not call. You may get someone on the phone who doesn’t understand what it is you need and you will not get the lists you need. Since you will be using this list for several months to do repeat mailings, it would behoove you to get the right list the first time.

There are also mailing list services that provide this service for you and usually you can locate them online by searching mailing lists or mailing services. Just be sure that whatever list source you are using has a list that has current information. Otherwise you are wasting your time and money on list that will net you zero results. I suggest getting a small list of around 100 pieces to send a sample mailing in order to test the list before spending a lot of money on this resource.

There are a lot of good internet resources to use to find excellent lists for finding motivated sellers using specific parameters. Once again, make sure you check the age of the list and the reliability of the company before making a long-term commitment.

Another way to find lists of motivated sellers is to go to the courthouse and check property records. One of the lists you can create is notices of default or lis pendens. These are people who are in pre-foreclosure. There are also probate and bankruptcy filings you can find at the courthouse that will provide a resource for leads.

When you invest in my Marketing Magic System I provide the letters for you to use along with resources for all the mailing lists you will ever need to create successful direct mail campaigns.

For more information on mailing lists to use in you Real Estate Investing Business check out part 2 of this article. In the meantime, check out my website at Marketingmagiclady.com for all the tools you need for you Real Estate Investing business including all the resources and letters you need to create successful direct mail campaigns for your real estate investing business.

Kathy Kennebrook

Kathy Kennebrook is the ultimate success story. She spent over 20 years in the banking industry before discovering the world of real estate. After attending some real estate seminars this 4 foot 11 mother of two got really excited and before you know it she’d bought and sold hundreds of properties using none of her own money or credit.

Kathy holds a degree in finance and has co-authored the books- The Venus Approach to Real Estate Investing, Walking With the Wise Real Estate Investor, and Walking With the Wise Entrepreneur which also includes real estate experts Suze Orman, Robert Kiyosaki, and Dr. Wayne Dyer.

She is the nation’s leading expert at finding highly qualified, motivated sellers, buyers and lenders using many types of direct mail marketing. She is known throughout the United States and Canada as the Marketing Magic Lady. She has put together a simple step-by-step system that anyone can follow to duplicate her success.

Kathy has been speaking throughout the country and across Canada for over 14 years and has shared the stage with Ron LeGrand, Dr. Phil, Dan Kennedy, Mark Victor Hansen, Ted Thomas and Suze Orman to name a few.

Kathy is going to share with you how she generates a seven figure income by mailing a handful of letters throughout the year to highly selected targets by knowing exactly what to send them, who to send them to and exactly how to deliver her message. She will teach you the secrets of pre-screening and automating your marketing and follow up systems to put your entire Real Estate business on auto-pilot.

 

Choosing the Road to Wealth

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By Kathy Kennebrook (The Marketing Magic Lady)

More people are becoming millionaires today than ever before in the real estate business. So what makes these wealthy entrepreneurs so different? They chose the road to wealth and real estate as the vehicle to get there.

When choosing the road to wealth, there are some important distinctions that set the truly successful folks apart from everyone else. Some of those include the ability to visualize a specific outcome, pursuit of a dream, constant motion and a relentless determination to reach the goal. Giving up is not an option. Like the saying goes, “Quitters never win; winners never quit!”

I have found in the real estate business that there are two kinds of people, the “doers” and the “wannabes”.  There are truly focused folks who get up every morning with a clear and defined direction who want to make their business work no matter what it takes. They pursue their dream relentlessly and continue to grow on a daily basis, garnering all the education they can along the way to take them even further along in their business.

Then there are the people who go to seminars or buy books and tapes and do absolutely nothing with them once they get them home. I have personally witnessed this over and over again.  They have one excuse after another why they can’t do this business.  For them, the status quo is the easy way in any situation.

I used to be one of those people who did absolutely nothing. I continued to work day after day at a job I hated, and I had every excuse there was for not getting started in the real estate business.  So I can relate. You could say, “I’ve been there, done that.”

There were three main things that held me back:

  1. Lack of focus.
  2. A true desire.
  3. Abundance of fear.

You can absolutely tame all three. I am living proof that you can. The biggest change that occurred for me finally was the desire to succeed.  An even greater desire was to get back all the money I had spent on courses and seminars.  As I always say, “Whatever it takes to make you move forward!”

I discovered there were some very easy ways to get focused and get on track.  One was to define the specific reason I wanted to succeed.  For me it was to get back the money I had already spent on educational materials and to get rid of a job I hated.  At the time, my job entailed being on the road for long periods each week which resulted in my not being home much, something I very much wanted to change.  I spent many years in a “dead-end job” making a lot of money for other people.

For you, it may be putting money away for your kid’s education, taking a trip you’ve always wanted to take or maybe becoming involved in charities you want to support. Whatever that reason is for you, commit it to paper and out loud to those around you. There is nothing I know that will force you to take action more than committing to a goal out loud. Become persistent in the realization of your dream. Use the knowledge you already have and move forward from that point.

Visualize your success!  Every extraordinary, successful person has visualized their success in their mind and then on paper first.  Their dreams were put into action, resulting in a reality of success.  Bottom line, this is the outline of the road to wealth.  Unfortunately, most people get stuck in the “dreams” part of that road to wealth.

Enlist the help of your local real estate club or a mentor to stay on track. If there isn’t a real estate club where you live, contact other investors in your area and form your own group. This is a great way to network and get the support you need. I had a mentor early on in my business and I attended meetings of our local real estate club on a regular basis. I found this to be a great way to stay focused and excited about the real estate business.  I continued to work with other investors in my area who were already doing the business.

If people around you are telling you it won’t work, don’t let them “steal your dreams”. Only you can make the decision to be financially free. I know that lots of my friends and family members thought I was crazy to want to do this business. I’m glad I didn’t listen! Hang around with like-minded people, wherever you can find them. Learn from people more successful than you.  Hang around with people who make more money than you do. Decide what it is you want to do for your business on a daily basis and implement a plan of attack.

Enlist the help and support of your spouse and children or a partner while growing your real estate business. There are lots of things they can do to help and you’ll achieve a feeling of team work which will keep you moving forward. Write a specific list of goals you want to achieve, no matter how small. Set goals for tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. This is one way to create a road map you can follow toward attaining your goals and growing your real estate business.

Do whatever it is you need to do to keep moving in a positive, forward direction. Don’t let the “naysayers” get you down. They just want to keep you where they are. Don’t take advice from anyone who makes less money than you do. You have a right to live the kind of life you want, so be willing to do what it takes to attain it.

Real estate is one of the best ways I know to grow wealth quickly. If you believe you can’t change your attitude about the opportunity to create wealth through real estate, I assure you that you can. You just have to make the decision to choose the road to wealth.

That road to wealth is to stay focused and to never give up.  Success can be yours…today!

For more information on Kathy Kennebrook’s systems for the Real Estate Investor be sure and visit her website at www.marketingmagiclady.com. While you are there be sure and sign up for Kathy’s FREE monthly newsletter and received $149.00 of real estate tools absolutely FREE!!

Don’t Leave Thousands on the Table at Closing

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By Kathy Kennebrook (The Marketing Magic Lady)

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me in the real estate business is how many investors leave hundreds or thousands of dollars on the table at closing due to errors in the closing documents. This is an area where many investors need to be educated. Many times investors get excited about the bottom line and forget to check the figures on the documents.

It is a mistake to assume that the HUD or closing statement is correct or that the closing documents are correct. The person preparing the closing statement can make mistakes. In addition, the person preparing the closing statement and documents is using figures that they have acquired from other people who could also make mistakes, such as the insurance company, the Realtors, the lender, home inspection service, or the surveyor.

You need to take the time to read all the documents carefully before closing on any deal. I have personally seen errors on the HUD at almost every closing I have ever been part of. Many investors only look at the bottom line and think “yes that’s enough money” but they fail to look at the whole closing statement, and in doing so possibly leave thousands at the table. I just had a closing take place recently where there was a mistake of a thousand dollars on the HUD. They put one of the buyer’s expenses on my side of the closing statement. I don’t know about you, but I think a thousand dollars is a lot of money to leave behind when you are entitled to it.

If you are looking at a closing statement and you aren’t sure why a figure is there, ASK the closing agent or attorney what it is and why it’s on the closing statement. It’s their job to make sure things are done correctly and all the figures are on the right side of the statements at a closing. Until I thoroughly learned the real estate business, I questioned every closing statement I looked at to make sure there were no mistakes.

There are some areas in particular that should be checked thoroughly. If there is a Realtor fee, make sure the percentages are correct and the payment amount to each Realtor is correct if more than one Realtor was involved in the deal.

Make sure you check the per diem interest to make sure this figure is calculated correctly. There are programs online that can help you with these calculations. I recently had a deal where I was the lender and my borrower was paying me off with the sale of the property to a buyer. When I received my check for the payoff on my note, I had been overpaid by $750.00. The per diem interest and pre-payment penalty had been calculated incorrectly. Had I not caught the error and written a check to my borrower, he would never have known there was an error. His mind was on nothing but the bottom line and he left at least $750.00 at the closing table. Compared to big checks, these may seem like small amounts, but multiply these amounts by how many closings you will do over a period of just a year and it adds up quickly! If it’s your money, you are entitled to it.

Make sure that the figures on the HUD from the insurance company, termite inspection, home inspection, survey, realtors or any other fee that should be carried to the HUD are correct. There have been many times when these figures were either incorrect or there were fees on the HUD that I had already paid out of pocket before the closing. If there are home owner association fees, make sure the pro-rated amounts on these are correct. If there is a home warranty to be paid for the buyer, make sure it shows up on the closing statement. These are all errors I have personally experienced on closing statements.

Check to make sure that the pro-rated property tax figures are correct on the HUD and appear on the correct side of the HUD. If you are due pro-rated taxes from your seller, make sure they show up as a credit on your side of the HUD. If you owe pro-rated taxes to a buyer, make sure these show up as a credit on the buyer’s side of the HUD. If there is a new loan amount or a payoff figure from a lender make sure these figures are correct. Make sure that any pre-payment penalties have been properly credited or charged. If you are paying off a mortgage, also make sure you are not charged a pre-payment penalty when none is due. This is another error I recently encountered on a closing statement.

There are other areas where I have frequently found errors so make sure you check your documents carefully before the closing. It’s much easier to deal with problems at the closing table than have them show up later and have to be corrected. If you are assisting a buyer with closing costs, make sure they don’t charge you more money in closing costs than they are entitled to. If you are assisting a buyer with closing costs and you see a big pay day on their side of the HUD, you need to open your mouth and protest it. Most lenders will not allow a buyer to take any more than 500.00 away from the closing table, especially when it is your money. If there is money left over from seller assisted closing costs, it should be credited to the seller who assisted with closing costs. It shouldn’t result in a big payday for the buyer.

Make sure you also check loan documents carefully. Check the interest rate, the balloon date and amount, and the amount of the note. I had a note and mortgage just recently where I was funding the deal for the buyer and the payee of the note and mortgage was the seller instead of me. They also had the balloon date wrong on the note. It showed a ten year balloon instead of a one year balloon because someone accidentally added a zero.

If there is an interest only payment to be made each month, make sure this is clearly stated in the note and mortgage. Also make sure that terms for late fees are clearly stated if you are the person holding a note for your buyer. Make sure names and addresses are correct and spelled correctly. Make sure you get an amortization schedule whether you are the mortgagor or the mortgagee. This is the best way to track a loan.

All of these are important points to check before any closing occurs. Don’t assume the title agent or attorney will catch the errors. They do many closings each day and they usually are unable to catch every mistake. In addition, very often the title agent or attorney is transferring figures they got from other people such as the Realtor, the lender or the insurance agent so they my not be aware that these figures are incorrect. It’s your deal and your closing, make sure the documents are correct so you don’t leave thousands at the closing table or create title problems later that could have been solved at the time of the closing of the deal.

Make sure all the documents that are to be signed and notarized are done properly. Make sure social security numbers or Tax ID numbers are correct on the 1099 so you are taxed correctly. I just recently had a closing where they put my social security number on the 1099 instead of the corporation that was supposed to absorb the income from the sale of the property. These are all real errors that occur all the time. Make sure you protect your interests when closing on properties whether you are buying or selling or simply holding a note so you don’t leave thousands on the table at the closing.

For more information on all the tools you need to find deals and automate your real estate investing business, visit my website at www.marketingmagiclady.com. While you are there be sure and sign up for my free monthly newsletter.

 

Following Up with Motivated Sellers Can Make You Millions

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By Kathy Kennebrook (The Marketing Magic Lady)

Let me ask you a question; are you properly managing your prospects? Are you taking the time to follow up with the sellers who didn’t initially accept your offers, or the sellers you still need to make offers to? Did you know that you are leaving thousands of dollars in potential income behind if you aren’t following up with sellers? One of the easiest ways to make a fortune in the real estate business and gain the advantage over your competition is to take the time to follow up with motivated and semi-motivated sellers. You’ve already got the seller in your pipeline, you’ve already done the marketing and spent the money to find this person, now all you need to do is to follow up with them until they either sell you their property or tell you to go away. How much simpler could it be?

There are two types of sellers we are going to follow up with, those we’ve already made offers to who haven’t accepted our offer and those who have not made any decision after our initial contact with them. Quite often, you will need to make multiple contacts with sellers before their situation changes and dictates that they sell their property to you. If you stay in touch with these sellers, you build credibility with them and when it comes time to sell they will contact you first, even if they have been contacted by someone else in the meantime.

There are a lot of investors in the market these days, and most of them have a very limited knowledge of how the whole follow-up process works, not to mention the inability to create successful deals. What they don’t realize is that many of the sellers you will be dealing with have a variety of problems they aren’t sure how to solve until they are contacted by you.

Some of those may include divorce situations, estates or health issues where there may be emotions tied to the property. With these sellers it may take a little longer before they make that final decision to sell. Most of your competitors will simply throw these potential deals in the trash when they don’t get the property under contract after the initial contact or offer is made. I have made deals many months after the initial contact with the seller was made simply because I took the time to follow up. Not only did I build credibility with the seller, but now they like me better and trust me more than the next investor who may come along.

These are the types of sellers I will place in my follow-up system and follow up with at least every thirty to sixty days if not more often. I have made thousands of dollars on deals other investors would simply have thrown in the trash because I took the time to follow up with a semi-motivated seller. Probably half of the deals I do in a typical year come from following up with these sellers.

In addition, with the help of a fellow investor who is also a software developer, I now have an incredible software system that does all the work for me. It reminds me when I need to do my direct mail campaigns, it reminds me when to follow up with sellers, it has a section to track potential buyers and build a buyer’s list, and it keeps all the information on the properties stored including a photo.

In fact, once I have followed up and purchased the property, my system will match the property with one of the buyers on my buyer’s list, so now; even that part of my business is automated. And once again, isn’t that the whole point to this business, to automate as many things as you can so you can work with the sellers and make the deals happen. You don’t need software to get started with this type of a system. You can simply use an auto-responder and a folder system to begin following up with motivated sellers.

Here is a recent example from my files- I contacted a seller who had inherited a property in Florida where I live and he lived in Michigan. The home belonged to his aunt who had pretty much raised him his whole life. When she passed away the home was left to him and he just couldn’t bring himself to sell it right away. I actually met with the seller and made an offer on the property. He had initially accepted my offer, and then he decided to hold onto the property for awhile and use it as a vacation home. After a year and a half, he got tired of having to deal with all the maintenance issues on the property and ended up selling the property to me for the initial offer I made because I took the time to follow up with him every thirty days or so.

I actually ended up making even more money on this deal than I would have in the first place because the house had appreciated in value during the period of time that he kept it and he had made improvements to the home. Most investors would have thrown this deal in the trash as soon as the seller said no to their initial offer, but because I took the time to follow up, I purchased the property and made a significant amount of money on this deal. I still get holiday cards from that seller.

I’m sure you’re already aware of how important it is to follow up with sellers. It only takes a few minutes each week to follow up with these sellers if you have a good follow-up system in place. I use my follow-up system to follow up with sellers I have made offers to but who haven’t said yes or no to my offer, and with sellers who own homes in areas where I want to buy. I do this by using both direct mail and e-mail to follow up with these sellers. Sometimes if the situation warrants it, I will call them. My system even reminds me to do the follow up. How much simpler can it be? AND…since the seller has already been getting contact from me for a few weeks, if their situation has changed they are ready to sell to me. This is a pretty typical scenario.

With sellers who specifically have properties in areas where I want to buy, I do repeat mailings to a specific list with specific parameters in mind such as out of state owners, quit claim deeds or old sale dates. Each time I do the mailings I continue to clean the list I am using by taking out bad addresses, deals I have purchased or folks who tell me not to mail to them again. The more I mail to these folks, the more credibility I build with them. If you are using a follow up system in your business it is very easy to track these mailings. This is an absolute marketing machine because not only are you doing deals day after day, you are constantly planting seeds for future deals.

If you take the time to follow up with motivated and semi-motivated sellers, you will make more deals and buy more properties with absolutely no competition for these properties whatsoever. It’s a win-win situation for you and the sellers.

For more information on following up with sellers, check out my website at www.marketingmagiclady.com. While you are there be sure and sign up for our free newsletter and get $149.00 in bonuses absolutely FREE.