6 Ways to Drastically Improve Your Real Estate Results

There is serious money to be made in the real estate market, regardless if the market is going down, sideways, or up. Some strategies require little or no personal investment or credit risk, making them some of the most attractive deals in today’s market. Your real estate training has covered a few of these. 

Today’s blog continues to build on this important real estate investor advise with five things you need to do that radically take advantage of today’s unique real estate market.
Just as a previous blog discussed, how to qualify buyers that will be able to obtain a mortgage when it comes time to exercise agreements, you need to be diligent about the sellers that you pursue. Does this sound familiar?  
            First off, You spend 10 minutes on the phone with a prospective seller that wants to understand your "our" program. Next, you spend 50 minutes driving out to meet with the prospect and view the property. You spend 45 minutes explaining the program and 30 minutes examining the property. Now, it’s time to talk detailed terms but all the prospect will say is “I’ll think about it”. Now it’s another 50 minute drive back to your office and two 10 minute follow up calls over the next week without even the slightest commitment. Total time expended is 205 minutes or almost 3 ½ hours. Results are zero.
 You’re much better off spending 30 minutes on the phone upfront to explain your program and end by asking for a commitment: “If I examine your property and am willing to make an offer, are you willing to put a deal together in the next two days?”
Using that formula, you speak with almost seven times more prospects in the same time you would have driven to each property and only follow up with the ones that make a serious level of commitment. I assure you that your percentage of successful deals will go up drastically.

2. The second technique is all about why you want to be pursuing deals in today’s market. The most successful real estate investors are niche investors. They focus on a very specialized part of the market. It changes as the market changes but they avoid being a jack of all trades – master of none. For instance, right now is a bad time to be a commercial real estate loan broker unless you have some extraordinary contacts in the banking business. I wouldn’t even list that as a skill right now because those deals just aren’t getting done.  

3. Whether you are networking with other investors or marketing to prospective clients, you often have about 30 seconds to explain what you offer. It’s called your elevator speech. You can spend that 30 seconds touching on half a dozen subjects like rehabbing or wholesaling or some other broad subject you know a little about. Or you can use that time to go into detail about how you specialize in these deals like no one else. Talk the benefits you offer those you work with. Be sure they understand you are the best one in this niche; it’s your professional specialty. 

4.You need to be using technology properly to maximize your results. The days of thumbing through a Rolodex are long gone. You have to be using a computer spreadsheet or other suitable customer service software to keep track of completed deals, active potential leads, and long-term potential leads. Names, contact information, and more.  

There are many different uses for this information. Email lists delivering quality information is a great way to demonstrate your deep knowledge of your strategy to prospects.
Keeping personal preference information is imperative in today’s high tech marketplace. You should have no trouble at all saying – “Hello Mr. Carver, great to hear from you again. When we spoke three months ago, you were interested in a four-bedroom lease option purchase with a 5% down payment. Is that still your preference?” How much better is that compared to – “Hello Mr. Carver, I recalled we spoke before, can you refresh my memory about when it was and what we discussed?” Customer service is a no-brainer in today’s market.

5. Staying up to date with the market. The real estate market is always changing based on any number of influences. Some times it’s caused by the economy in general or it could come from changes in consumer preferences, or government tax incentives. Typically, major changes occur when several tends converge, such as this past spring’s surge in home sales when pent up demand, government tax incentives, and low interest rates drove up sales. 

Every active investor in real estate needs to stay current with what is coming next to understand what niche is going to bring the best deals in the near future. One of my goals as a real estate entrepreneur is to bring you exactly that information. You don’t need to know everything about real estate when you specialize in a niche but you exude credibility when you are aware of developing market trends. Better yet, working closely with a real estate couch always has you prepared to be on the cutting edge when the next major money making niche emerges.

6. Maintain and follow a marketing plan. Just using current technology won’t position you in front of potential buyers and sellers unless you follow a detailed marketing plan. One mistake I’ve seen many so called experts make is only executing a marketing plan when there is plenty of cash flow to support it. Certainly, when you have good cash flow, its’ a good time to maintain the momentum with an effective marketing plan.  

But unless you are hiring staff, JV partners or excited to work very long hours, when things are going well might not be the best time to increase marketing. The best use of a marketing budget is to have a reserve available for the slow times. When business is off a little and you need a few more deals in the pipeline is a much better time to amp up the marketing budget than when the pipeline is humming along full of deals.
Following these six methods and will drastically improve your investment results.

-adopted by Peter Vekselman  edited for Triemm by Tyson