... continued from Cover Be sure to teach your ants exactly what they need to do when they find a FSBO sign. Instruct them to use their cellphone to take a picture of the sign in the front yard with the phone number clearly visible. Next, they need to take a picture of the house with the street number in view. Then, they send an email with both pictures and the physical address of the property to you or your acquisitionist. Your ants aren’t calling the number or talking to sellers; that’s your team’s job. Ants just need to look for FSBO signs and send that information your way. Step 4: Offer Compensation How much should you pay ants for their work? $10 per lead. Every time an ant emails you the pictures and address, that’s a lead. In my experience, it takes around 15 of those leads for me to buy a house. On average, I’m paying $150 to make tens of thousands in profit. That’s not a bad investment in the ant farm. What if it takes 25 leads before you buy a house? Well, that’s $250 to make five figures. Fifty leads? $500 for tens of thousands in profit. The math shows how ant farms pay off. I’ve found that it’s also good to offer ants bonus compensation. When an ant sends me a lead that I actually buy, I’ll pay them an extra $500 to $1,000. Not only do they get the $10 per lead, but now they have incentive on every home you actually buy.
Be aware that there might be a challenge with that kind of bonus compensation. In some states, the Realtor association could construe paying bonuses as a form of commission, which would be like paying someone who doesn’t have a Realtor’s license for Realtor work. You have to be careful. Check your local laws first, because I don’t want any of my readers to get a cease-and-desist order from the Association of Realtors. If you aren’t able to pay bonus compensation in your state, I recommend paying your ants $20 a lead. You’ll still have a huge return on investment. That said, I like to give my team members bonuses when I can. So another way to compensate reliable ants is by paying them bonuses when they send a certain amount of leads. Once an ant has proven themselves by consistently sending in leads, pay them an extra $1,000 for every 15 leads they send in. Since there’s no payment on sales or purchases, you don’t have to worry about these bonuses being viewed at Realtor commission. Step 5: Have Your Team Follow Up The ant farm is a two-part strategy. When ants send in leads, you, your acquisitionist, or someone else on your team needs to follow up on those leads right away. When my acquisitionist or I receive a lead from an ant, the first thing we do is pull up the tax information from the public records. This gives us a good idea of the heated square footage of the property. Then we start making those outbound calls to fill out the property lead sheet and begin the negotiation process. To recap, in order to run a successful ant farm strategy, you must do the following:
Have You Heard the Good News ... As It Relates to “Working Hard”?
1. Choose your neighborhood 2. Hire ants 3. Set goals and expectations
4. Offer compensation 5. Follow up on leads
Oh, my lands! I almost forgot the most important step!
Proverbs 6:6-11 (NIV) 6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, 8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. 9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? 10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— 11 and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man.
Step 6: Close Deals and Make Money The ants brought in the leads. Now it’s your job to close the deals.
When done right, guerrilla marketing tactics, like the ant farm strategy, can pay off huge for your real estate investing business. These are the kinds of strategies I’ll be covering at my upcoming Live Event on Oct. 9, 10, and 11 in North Carolina! Turn this newsletter over to get all the details or get registered now at JaysLiveEvent.com.
I look forward to seeing you in person at my last Live Event of the year!
–Jay Conner
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