THE BIG PICTURE
INVESTING STRATEGIES
As I detail in my book “Flipping Houses Exposed,” which is available from Amazon, the majority of my leads have come from my website. Over the 34 weeks that I documented my marketing and the off-market leads that were generated, 277 leads were from my website. Websites do take some time to get going, and simply building one does not guarantee that motivated sellers will come. Ways to generate immediate leads from your website include having your Web address on all of your other market- ing, using pay-per-click advertising on Google and Bing, using Facebook adver- tising and posting ads on Craigslist. I created LeadPropeller.com to address the issue of real estate investors not having a easy way to have a professional Web pres- ence. If you are interested in learning more, please visit LeadPropeller.com. CONCLUSION It’s really an easy decision: You can ei- ther pay a lot more for deals by having to outbid your competition for listed prop- erties, or you could do some marketing yourself to find people who are willing to trade equity for ease of transaction. I know I will continue doing things the easier and more profitable way. •
investors are fixing up and selling houses. The neighborhood you choose is important because you want one where there are vacant or run-down houses. If you drive a neighborhood that was built within the last 10 years, that’s probably not likely to happen. Choose a neighborhood that is at least 20 or 30 years old and drive every single street. Be on the lookout for houses with very overgrown yards and newspapers and door hangers piled up on the porch. Look for broken windows and peeling paint. Drive neighborhoods on trash day in the morning. Look for houses that don’t have a trash can put out. This will alert you to the houses to which you should pay closer attention. Also, be sure to stop by houses that are being fixed up because you just might find a great contractor to work on your own investment properties. BANDIT SIGNS These are the plastic corrugated signs that you see nailed to telephone poles all over BONUS TIP NO. 2
the place. You see them everywhere because they work. I recommend 18x24 white or yellow with black, blocky, bold text stating “We Buy Houses—CASH. 222-2222.” Make sure to get horizontal flutes if you are going to be nailing them to telephone poles (so that they don’t bend in the wind) and vertical flutes if you are going to use wire stakes to stick them in the ground. Also, be aware that in most places these are illegal and you can get fined— some investors just see that as a cost of doing business. Many times I notice the authorities crack down on signs in cycles. Wait for a cycle where you see signs staying up for more than three days and put some out. WEBSITES This one is my favorite. Websites give cred- ibility, allow people another way to find out more about you and what you do, ask the right questions of sellers in the right order so that you get all the information you need to determine whether a deal is possible ... and the list goes on and on. NO. 1 REAL ESTATE INVESTOR
DANNY JOHNSON
Danny Johnson has flipped hundreds of houses over the last 11 years in San Anto- nio, Texas. He blogs about flipping houses at FlippingJunkie.com and is the author
of “Flipping Houses Exposed: 34 Weeks in the Life of a Successful House Flipper,” a best-selling book on Amazon. He also provides real estate investor websites at LeadPropeller.com.
28 | think realty magazine | mar :: apr 2016
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