THE BIG PICTURE
DOOR KNOCKING
I specialize in helping home- owners stay in their homes, and I wanted to give you this free information package that goes into 10 options on what you can do to stay in your property. Tell me, what are you doing right now with your mortgage company? Be sure that as you go, you allow plenty of pauses for them to begin answering you if they wish to do so. Of course, some will tell me to get lost, but most will take the packet even if they tell me they already have things taken care of. That initial interaction puts them in control of the conversation and allows them to open up if they want to do so. As I said, about one in 10 (or two in 20) will.
they are not interested in working with you now? Of every 20 doors I knock on, I tend to walk away with contact in- formation in the form of email, phone, or both for about half of them. This is great information since, as we all know, “the fortune is in the follow-up.” To get those numbers, you simply ask for them! Even if a homeowner wants you to understand that they do not want to sell their house or move, many realize that they may be in a position that they cannot resolve and retain ownership of their house. These people will give you a phone number so that they can pursue the conversation later without acknowl- edging, subconsciously or otherwise, that they might be heading out of their home. RULE #3 ALWAYS BE SAFE Door-knocking is a great way to get ahead of your competitors in a hot market, but it is extremely important to stay safe. Always take someone with you, but be cognizant of how you appear to the home- owner as well. If both of you are tall, husky guys, then you might want to be aware that you may appear threatening. I find it works best for one of the guys to stand back from the door a bit (remaining visible of course) so it is as clear as possible that you are not trying to be intimidating. Also, watch your body language and personal space not just with the person, but with the door! Once you knock on the door, back away by about three feet. Don’t press your face against the glass like a Doberman. Also, in general, I don’t advise entering the house the first time you encounter that seller even if you have a partner with you. You have no idea what is inside. You can usually represent this as courtesy to the homeowner or company policy to avoid giving offense. •
Door-knocking may be a lost art, but it is still highly effective when conducted correctly.
TheArt of Effective Door-Knocking 3 SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL DOOR-TO-DOOR LEAD GENERATION.
If you go at the conversation from this standpoint, however, you will have far less luck: “Hi, I’m Joe, and I’m a real estate inves- tor. I was at the courthouse the other day and noticed you have a pending problem with your property. I want to talk to you about selling your house.” In this case, they immediately feel compelled to shut the door on you in most cases because if they are not yet in foreclosure, the odds are good they are interested in trying to save their home, not sell it. RULE #2 MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY Sticking with the 20-doors-2-solid- leads scenario, you probably can imag- ine that a single morning’s worth of thoughtful, targeted door knocking can be pretty great for your lead generation efforts. However, wouldn’t it be great if you could get additional leads with whom you could follow up later even if
RULE #1 REACH OUT TO HOMEOWNERS WHO ARE LIKELY TO NEED YOU In most markets, you can buy local lists of people who meet certain criteria such as living in their own homes, being a certain number of days behind on their mortgages, or falling behind on their property taxes. Sometimes, you can get these lists for free at your courthouse as well. For example, if I am interested in reaching out to homeown- ers who might allow me to take over their mortgage payments (and take ownership of their property), common- ly referred to as subject-to investing, then I would seek a list of local home- owners no more than 120 days behind on their mortgage and not presently in foreclosure. Then, I’d go to their houses and talk to them kindly, courteously, and using a specific script: Me: Hi, my name is Bill Twyford. I was at the courthouse yesterday and noticed you have a pending problemwith your property.
by Bill Twyford
difference for a distressed homeowner. Of course, there are some things that you can do to optimize this process and maximize your chances of success. Be- cause most people view door-knocking as a thing of the past, if you are willing to do it, you will eliminate vast swaths of your competition. My personal, unoffi- cial equation for door-knocking is this: If you go out and bang on 20 doors, 10 people will be home. You will talk to all 10. Of those 10, two will be genuine leads. Of course, to get stats like that, you need to adhere to a few rules that will help you refine your results:
The truth of the matter is that if you are well-prepared to work with a potentially motivated seller on the spot – and that includes turning a distressed homeowner into a motivated seller by presenting them with a solution to whatever is distressing them, usually using a packet of written materials that keep your investment solution in the conversation – then door-to-door lead generation can still be one of the best ways to find and do deals in your target market. This is particularly true if your preferred market is a hot one, where showing up in person can make a big
lot of real estate investors will tell you that door-knocking, the prac- tice of going from door to door at homes that meet a certain set of preliminary investment criteria for your personal real estate strategy, is obsolete. I cannot count the number of people who routinely in- form me that “driving for dollars,” another name for a related practice wherein you drive around and write down the addresses of properties that are for-sale-by-owner (FSBOs), appear to be vacant or neglect- ed, or that have legal notices on the front doors, and then contact the owner, cannot be done in person anymore either.
Bill Twyford is an active real estate inves- tor working in the hot market of Denver, Colorado. He is also co-founder of Colora- do REIA and the Investors Edge Universi-
ty. He may be reached at billtwyford@aol.com.
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