Question:
How would you suggest a rookie get their first deal?
Answer:
This is such an important question for so many folks. Because whether you been in business for a long time or your just getting started. It is so important that you really rev up your buying machine. That means that you have to do a significant amount of marketing in the beginning in order to get the attention. In order to get the leads coming in. In order to get the momentum in your business. So, I recommend that if you do not yet have your marketing ordered. If you do not yet have your marketing placed that is an appropriate use of time.
Now Paul what you don’t tell me if how much money you have to work with. Because my answer would be influenced greatly by how much money you have towards your marketing plan. There’s, basically, three levels in this business. There’s those with little or no money. There’s those with a bit of money so $100.00 to $2,000.00 a month that they can spend on their marketing. There are those that are fully capitalized and can afford $3,000.00 or more per month for their marketing. So therefore what I’m recommending is that you formalize a budget of exactly what you, Paul can afford on a monthly basis. Based on that we can develop a marketing plan. But without that I really can’t do too much.
Now let’s just say that tomorrow you want to go ahead and get some deals. I would recommend that you start by making outbound calls. Get your newspaper, go to the classified ads and start calling the for rent and then the for sale ads. This will reveal folks that are in the rental column that wish they weren’t. Folks that tried to sell their property and couldn’t. Now they’ve resorted to renting that’s a good resource. Then those who are burned out landlords are often also in the rental section of the newspaper running their property for rent. The others are the ones that have their properties for sale in the classified ads. Isn’t that really like people raising their hands and saying please call me about my property? So why Paul don’t you do that. Let’s just go ahead and make some outbound calls and use my script the seller questionnaire as a script. So that you can gather all the information you need in order to evaluate that deal appropriately. Make sure that you’ve reviewed volume one buying because it’s got an awful lot of answers in there on exactly how you need to approach the deal.
If you’ve been to millionaire jump start Paul, we’ve got an automated quick start checklist for how to create your business. There is a deal making checklist. There is a negotiating tips checklist. There is a ton of things in there that literally, if you will read it and do each thing on each line, check them off as you do them. Then you can not help but follow the program and win. By the way there is also suggestions there on how to get your marketing machine going.
Finally, Paul I would recommend that you call realtors and mortgage brokers. Because these folks, many times, have clients, that their working with, that they cannot sell their property. Mortgage brokers are trying to get people qualified for a loan for a new house and they must get rid of their old house. Realtors trying to sell people a new house, lets get rid of the old house. Also, people that are coming in and they can’t find a house for. There’s many things that we can do by creating relationships with realtors and mortgage brokers. Paul I would say finally if you have not been to millionaire jump start you absolutely need to go. Because we cover all of these things in great detail in millionaire jump start. Paul I’m going to tell you again market, market, market, market, market that’s how I would suggest that you would get your first deal.
Question:
What is the rule of thumb for the number of leads that lead to deals? I forgot she says.
Answer:
Well in the beginning Linda it’s a 100 leads equal 1 deal. A 100 leads equal 1 deal. But as you become skilled and you do more and more and you work those leads. Then you’re going to be able to increase the yield per 100 leads. Most of my licensee now especially my platinum group are getting 3 to 4 deals per 100 leads. An interesting additional rule of thumb is $1,000.00 in marketing equals 1 deal worth about $30,000.00. $3,000.00 equals 3 deals. $4,000.000 equals 4 deals. So, what we want to do and also in answer Paul is to rev up that marketing machine as much as possible.
Question:
To make a long story short with the help of a real estate mentor coach 3 years ago we decided to become real estate investors. My wife and I spoke to you while you were in Connecticut last month. We had been embezzled by this mentor/friend. Due to the situation that followed we had to declare bankruptcy on my wife’s side. We are starting from scratch financially due to the legal fees paid out. We are down to our last savings, owning no properties at the moment. Needing to move out of our house by Christmas. How do we even start our next deal buying our first true property? It will take at least 6 months to get our reserve again. We cannot afford a real estate web site at this time. We want to buy at least two properties or more in 2008 but how do we start? Is it realistic to attempt to buy properties next year? We have never been this financially challenged but something tells us that this is a hidden blessing. Please any suggestions are highly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help.
Answer:
I’d say it’s a blessing because finally we are connected and I’m so proud to be able to help you. The answer is absolutely, positively yes you can buy properties next month and next year as well. The only thing we have to do is work together to get you some leads. With very little capital you can still do this business. I equated much this way. Energy equals money. Money equals energy. Now what does that mean? With little money you give energy. With money you get energy. So essentially with money you’re able to get people to respond and the energy comes back to you through the use of money to buy the advertising. Rather then to create the leads on your own. But at this stage we’re going to have to create leads coming into to you.
But one thing I would recommend is signs. If you can’t afford to get preprinted signs, handwrite the signs. Get poster board. Get something. People do respond to hand written signs. Even on where we recommend that you get your marketing materials. Which is www.wesellsigns.com you can see my full line of marketing materials there by clicking on Lou recommends or Lou Brown recommends. There you are able to see some of the signs that we have designed. You can purchase those. You cannot copy those. You can only purchase those because if you don’t purchase them from there you do not have the right to use that trademarked material. They’ve got some other unmarked trademarked material on the web site so you’re welcome to buy those. But the trademarked ones you do have to buy through this location. Now when you check out is asks for a promo code you put the word brown in there and you receive an additional 5 percent discount. Also, we have a special that we run for our coaching students. You can buy a gift card which is worth $500.00 for $399.00. So, you can get the $399.00 plus the additional 5 percent off by calling our office and purchasing the gift card for $399.00. So, that would be a good idea for my street smart students to do. That gives you a chance to buy some signs.
You said you’ve got some savings left but you know we’re going to have to invest some money in these marketing materials. I would also recommend that you get some magnetic car signs. You put them on your car your wife’s car and anybody’s car who will sit long enough for you to put a magnetic sign on it. Basically, you tell others that you’ll give them a referral fee if you’re able to buy a property. But it will have your telephone number on there. I would recommend to that you get the web site. But if you can’t get the web site at this time, you can go ahead and add the web site later. You know when you do get some cash to work with. Because I like to have your web site on every piece of marketing that you do. Because it’s like a silent century, basically, working for you all the time. Because it’s available 24/7 to answer your seller or your buyers questions. I really do highly recommend that you have web sites.
But in the meantime you know we can support you in getting these marketing materials. I would say also what I recommend that you do is the same that I recommended for Paul make outbound calls. You can get the foreclosure list and go door knocking on the foreclosure houses. I recommend when you knock those doors you say things like I am looking for a house in this neighborhood. Do you know of any for sale? Without bringing up to them that you know they are in foreclosure. Then if they say no say well by all means if you find any houses for sale or you refer any houses even your own. I am happy to pay you a referral fee. Let me give you my card and if your situation should change and if you find someone that has a house for sale or even puts a sign in their yard give me a call so I can pay you a referral fee for telling me about it. That referral fee is paid when we actually purchase the property. So now door knocking has generated some more leads for you. So we’ve got outbound calls, the for rent, for sale. We’ve got signs that are going to create inbound calls for you. You’ve got the foreclosure list that you can go door knocking with. You can send out postcards to the foreclosure list. You can send out postcards and yellow letters to out of town owners. Sometimes your local municipality or county court house will actually give you the list of the absentee owners. These are people that are having their tax bill sent to a different place other then the actual address of the property. So see if they’ve got those kinds of lists and all you have to do is just fill out your postcard and mail it off or like I said yellow letter and send that off. What is a yellow letter? This is where you take a yellow legal paid and hand write I am interested in purchasing your property. If you’re interested in selling give me a call and you give your telephone number. You can expand that too. You can say my wife and I are interested in purchasing a property in your area. If you’re interested in selling please give us a call. You can expand the yellow letter. But in any case it gets really good results it doesn’t cost much money. You can even handwrite your message and have it printed at a printer on the yellow paper appearing that it was torn out of a legal pad. Put it in an envelope. You use a loud stamp. Handwrite the envelope. Mail it and you’ll be surprised just what kind of responses you get there. Then finally I would recommend that you get on everyone’s wholesale list. These are the folks within your area that wholesale properties out. Just make sure you get on that list because often they do have good deals. Don’t predict just because it’s somebody in the business that they don’t have good deals, because they often do.
Question:
My question is about financing. You always say we should avoid going to the bank for a loan. But are there situations when it is okay to get traditional financing?
Answer:
The answer is yes. For example when you have a situation that’s a short sale or a wholesale deal or a bank owned REO. These are all examples of deals that going to require cash. You can go to the bank and get loans for that. That’s one way of course I recommended that the way you raise your money is privately through private money sources. However the quick and easy way is to go to a bank and get a traditional loan. Especially if you have quality credit it’s very easy to get a loan from a bank with good credit. So, that will be the answer is yes Judy, but try to avoid it if you possible can. So what do we do? We set up a business plan that allows us to have the time to talk to CPA’s, private lenders, individuals with IRA’s or personal funds. That would love to lend that money out if they just had the right message. So, I highly recommend that you get my borrowing volume six along with the lender presentation kit. Then start working on getting private money sources for your funding.
Question:
Now you go on to say in a subject to situation when the interest rate is high and payments are high, but there is enough equity to make it a good deal. Is it okay to refinance for a lower interest rate and recoup rehab costs etc.?
Answer:
Well I would say yes its okay to refinance. Another idea is get the seller to refinance at a lower rate. Then you take over that new loan. That’s another possibility. Another possibility is to have the bank lower the interest rate on the loan that your about to take over. You as a financial advisor for the seller you call up at the bank. You call up and talk to them about the situation and that is that they have a good term. Then you go on to day if so would it be best to structure the loan as an interest only payment as long as there is no penalty for paying more. The answer is no. I don’t want you to do a deal Judy where it’s an interest only deal. I want your deal to stand on its own two legs. That means that principle, interest, taxes and insurance, homeowners association fees, dues every expense needs to be calculated into that loan. Because otherwise you’re not really, you’re kind of tricking yourself, and fooling yourself and building a bad business plan. I’d rather you to know that deal is standing on its own two legs. That why you’re not putting yourself at risk as you build your business. One other thought Judy is to build your credit lines. I give you in the millionaire jump start the credit contest. That credit contest has so much value. Because we’ve had success, success, success. I give that as a contest prior to coming to millionaire jump start and I just highly recommend that you do the credit contest. Try to build up your lines of credit and lower your interest rates because that is a marvelous source of funds. Many times you can do deals right by just financing them right that way.
Question:
My question is that I am a licensed realtor that has recently left Century 21. My husband has his broker license so my license is now under his name. I am sending out the yellow letter and receiving a lot of responses. Some from realtors who have been hostile. I want to keep my name in good standing among realtors in a small town and would like to have a script in returning calls back to them to express how we may be able to work together. Thank you in advance.
Answer:
Here’s what I’d recommend. We’re going to turn lemons into lemonade. If you get a call from realtor like that here’s what I want you to say. Mrs. Jones let me assure you if the house is listed I had no intention of attacking your listing. I was doing a blanket mailing and it went to everyone. I didn’t check to see if the property was listed or not. So please me apologize for that. However let me ask you there may be a way for us to work together. Do you have anyone that just cannot get qualified for financing for a property? If you do I can probably help you because one of the things we do if we finance property for buyers. So, in our business plan we’re able to help people that are turned down by traditional lenders. In today’s market the very people that are turned down are exactly the people we work with everyday. So if you have customers like that please do send them on to us Definitely we are more then happy to pay you a referral fee for sending us a customer that you otherwise could not have done any business with at all. By the way we buy houses too. So, if you have any clients that you’re working with and you need an offer on a property or if the property does if the listing does expiring and you can’t keep the listing. Send that lend onto us as well. If we work it and we’re able to by that property we’re still happy to pay you a referral fee for having told us about that. There won’t be enough room for commission most cases if it went past that. But we can pay you a referral fee. Again you’re sending us a lead that you otherwise would have thrown away. So, wouldn’t that be a good thing Mr. or Mrs. Realtor.
Question:
I live very near to a very large mobile home park. It actual joins up to the edge of a subdivision that I live in. I have heard a few hints in some of your CD’s that you marketed to purchase mobile homes as well. What are some tips and watch outs when purchasing these using your system.
Answer:
Well Jim you’re absolutely right. I’ve bought a lot of mobile homes over the years. I can tell you a few things. You can do the same and mobile homes are extremely easy to buy. The sellers are usually moving onto a house or they can’t afford the home anymore. I have been paid over and over again to buy mobile homes. It is a marvelous thing just imagine when you can get paid to buy something, anything. But I would recommend this. If your taking over a home in an existing park and it does not include the real estate that the properties on. Then you must absolutely must get into a relationship with the park. These parks have learned that the people that live in them are somewhat difficult to manage. Therefore their rules are usually extremely stringent. They often have rules against landlords and rental properties. They’re only interested in homeowners in the park. We can do that because of my agreement for deed paperwork. We can change that to agreement for title and we can definitely provide owner financing. Therefore meets the parks criteria.
So, I’d recommend Jim that you get into relationship with the park manager. You find out what the rules are. You tell them that you want to be a good neighbor. That what you do is finance homes if they have restrictions against rentals. Now I’d also ask them do they know of any homes for sale in the park. Then finally I’d ask them do they know of any bank owned properties in the park. Because typically what happens when the home goes into foreclosure and it gets take back, then the bank has this mobile home. Well what are they going to do with it? So, they leave it in the park and they pay part rent. Sometimes yes, sometimes no they make a deal with the park manager. They receive the benefit of the park manager helping to find buyers for the property as well. So definitely these park mangers often get a little extra from the lender for helping find a buyer. So, you want to get on their list and that can be a marvelous thing. Especially in your own backyard Jim, as you know that’s one of my hallmarks is to teach you to build a business in your own backyard. So, that’s a great thing.
Question:
I live in L.A. lower Alabama and I have a deal that came my way. Another investor has offered me a package deal for six houses. All of them should be in the $65,000.00 to $75,000.00 price range. That’s definitely a different L.A. then the L.A. that I just left Lawrence. The L.A. I just left you might as well add a zero to those numbers. The appraisals will be done soon you say. All of them are section 8 with tenants that have been paying and been in them for two plus years. Some with five plus years and they have a potential of $150.00 to $200.00 a month cash flow each at 8 percent interest. Two of them he will let me have with $30,000.00 and take over payments $25,000.00 to $30,000.00 each. The difficulty comes with the other four. He wants cash for some other opportunities and will sell them for $200,000.00. I don’t think I can come up with that much with conventional financing and I like this deal. How would you make this deal work?
Answer:
Well first of all Lawrence lets pick up on some ideas I gave earlier in the call and expand on it. It sounds like two of these properties have existing financing on them. The others are free and clear. If that’s the case then I would definitely recommend you get on the phone and start calling CPA’s, financial planners, doctors, lawyers, and you explain to them you have a very good place to put their money. That you’re in the real estate business and you are here to help. Ask them if they have their money in an IRA. Ask them if they have a 401K. Ask them if they have it in the stock market. Ask them if their disappointed in what their stocks have done over the last four years. Then tell them you may have something better. You’ve been expanding your business. You’re ready to buy more properties and all you need to capital for those properties. You buy way belong market their money should not be at risk and you’d like to talk to them further about this. Set up meetings. Go to meet with them using the lenders presentation kit and the borrowing system Lawrence. It also by the way has the script for what I just went over with you. Then go sit down and hammer out a deal. I’ve got all the paperwork for the mortgage if they require mortgage and the promissory note in the borrowing system. So, that should help you with what you need. But I would definitely look for some under performing funds to be able to pull down some of that $200,000.00.
I would recommend that you go back to him. Structure a deal in that you give him some now and the balance later. Let’s fair it out exactly what he needs this money for. What exactly amount is it that you should know about. Once you know what number your working with then you can back into the deal from there. Cash being one factor in this overall deal. The other factors we’re going to look at is the cash flows and how you can afford to pay on owner financing. I would love to see him carry back owner financing. Another question I would ask Lawrence, is did you do the cost to sell worksheet? Because it has a marvelous result of lowering the cost of properties. So, I highly recommend that you try this with the cost to sell worksheet and back into the numbers from there.
Finally I recommend a bank line of credit. A bank line of credit could tie into my answer with Judy earlier with some of the other ways I recommended to her that she get the money. Also, Lawrence you could have your seller do as I suggested to someone else on the call. I think it was Judy and suggest that the seller can refinance these properties, get a loan in place, have the cash they need. Let you take over that existing financing and wa la the cash is on the table.
Question:
What is the difference between a land contract of sale and your agreement for deed?
Answer:
What we’re going to do is understand that a land contract and an agreement for deed is exactly the same thing. I call it agreement for deed because it more clearly defines exactly what we’re doing. We’re doing an agreement for the deed. Land contract doesn’t really clearly say that that’s exactly what that is. But when you hear the terms land contract, contract for deed or agreement for deed. Just think of them as all the same thing.
Question:
I have a rental property in California. I had considered selling before attending MDM. Taxes and insurance have increased greatly. The loan is fixed at 6.625 percent but my payments increased $475.00. Countrywide and I settled on a monthly increase of $150.00. I must have the leased renewed with an increase and pet deposit. Currently they are paying $1,475.00. I need $1,615.00 to break even with homeowner’s association fees and PITI. The PMI of $75.00 will be removed in February 08. I don’t want to lose these tenants. I don’t think they will go for that much increase. They expressed a desire to purchase from me next year when his 401K increases. I told him my property management company would be sending him these forms which would explain his options. It was suggested to me to give them three choices. A six month lease with a big increase. A one year lease with a $50.00 increase or the sweetest deal a lease option. Their original security deposit plus an option fee would be credited off of the purchase price. I have your rental agreement but I’m not sure which forms to use for the option agreement.
Answer:
Well before I proceed on answering that Velva, I first want to address a couple of things. Number one you and countrywide settled on a $150.00 increase what happened to the rest? Are they adding that to the backend of the loan? Did they modify the loan or are they eating it? If they’re eating it I’m fine with that. But if they’re not eating it you really don’t need the $1,615.00 to break even. You need a lot more then that. You need whatever it is that they’re adding to that loan to break even, which says to me that the property really needs to be sold. What you need to do is work with the people that live there right now. One great thing about our system is once you move them into a lease option even with very little down. They can now qualify for a refinance of the property rather then a new purchase. In most cases a refinance is much easier to get then a new purchase loan. So moving them into a lease option would be a very wise thing to do if they’re serious about buying the property. I would first Velva test the waters. See how much money they have to work with. Ask them if I can work out something today let me see what I can do. Always have a higher authority, your partners, your parents, somebody else that you need to clear this with. But let me ask you something. How much money do you currently have to work with towards your next home? If they say well we don’t have much to work with. Say well can you get it? Now that may be where the 401K comes in. Velva I would simple ask how much can they get right now from the 401K. You can always take a note for the balance. So let’s say if we can get them qualified for a new loan. Lets just go ahead and get the $13,000.00 or whatever’s in there and then you take the balance. Let’s say the balance is another $10,000.00 you take that in a form of a promissory note as a second mortgage against their new financing. That will give you the chance to have enough equity in the deal for them to be able to purchase the property. Get rid of this stinky loan and have you in a cash flow position instead of a negative cash flow position.
Very, very great question now I’ll go ahead and answer your next question. I have your rental agreement but I am not sure which form to use for the option agreement. Would it be BSH1511CS or BSH1303 page 117? Well the answer is BS1303 that’s the option when you are buying. So that’s volume one. You are buying not selling. So, in this case you would be selling Velva to your customer. So, in that case you need to use a different form. When you are selling you need to go to volume two selling and holding. So really what you need is BSH1511 and that’s the option for a cash sale. Now if you’re looking to do a lease with the option to buy and provide backup owner financing. That form is contained in volume nine options. That’s our lease option system. If you don’t have that its $695.95 and it’s ever form you need to do the lease option program. Both on the buying side and on the selling side. It’s got a lot more then just your quick start version that’s available in volume one or volume two. It goes into an entire system for buying or selling using lease options. The marketing, the marketing material everything. So that form is called OPT option 9210SF. That means seller financing. That means you are going to provide the backup owner financing. Once the buyer has paid enough money into the down payment. Then you can convert them from a lease into an agreement for deed. So, the option 9210 seller financing is really part of our homeowner and training program where the new buyer has an option to purchase the property, which we then convert to owner financing once they’ve paid enough in. So, that will give you some foundation to work with Velva. Many folks have our volumes one through thirteen so I really don’t when I’m taking if you’ve got that or not. But I don highly recommend it.
Let’s see here next question on your question. Should his payment be written into the land trust account or management company, which is actually my L.L.C. account? I have been putting this off for some time. Because I wanted to do it correctly. I have the enchiladas junior at this time. There you go you did tell me I’m sorry that you have the junior. Thank you so much you rock. Well Velva thank you so much for saying that.
Here’s what I’m telling you to do. His payment should be written to you comma as agent. Then you will deposit that into the trust bank account. You will not deposit into your L.L.C. account because we do not want the tenant to know where the money is kept. So, it’s going to be deposited into the trust bank account. Then it will be paid out to whatever entity is the beneficiary. So, if you are the beneficiary you get to use the money. If an L.L.C. is a beneficiary of the trust then the check gets written from the personal property trust bank account into the L.L.C. bank account.
Question:
Sold a house in August 5, 2007. The title company gave it clear title. This month I received a letter from the title company saying the new owner’s were just billed for the past two years of unpaid homeowner’s association dues. The title company paid it before contacting me. The expect me to reimburse them. I signed the owner’s affidavit with no knowledge of any active homeowners association. I have never received an invoice notification regarding payments, meetings, budgets, nothing and neither had my neighbor. I mentioned this in the presence of the buyer’s agent and the closing agent at the closing table. Prior to selling my neighbor and I had become very concerned over numerous vacant houses and grossly neglected yards. Property values were already plummeting. We did not know who to contact since we had no knowledge of an HOA. No contact info. We complained to code enforcement. They have to go through lots of read tape before they actually maintained those lawns. I couldn’t wait. I contacted owners out of state. One had his lawn mowed. Others had no listed numbers. I decided to hire a crew to machete bushes, remove small dead trees, and mow the worst lawns. I paid hundred of dollars out of my pocket. Would I have done that if an HOA were active? Of course not. There was no one to contact. Now out of the blue two and a half months later someone is attempting to collect for the past two years and threatening liens. I feel this should have been disputed. It is not a valid debt. I do not feel it is my responsibility and do not plan to pay. The title company should not have been so quick to pay. Can there be any legal ramifications against me by the title company? The house is in Lake County Florida.
Answer:
Well I recommend that you absolutely take a stance that you’re not going to pay a dang gone thing. The reason is the title company gave it clear title. Let me be very clear. These things are recorded on public record. Homeowners associations are sometimes made part of the deed itself. If not the are in a planned unit development filing with the county. In either case this should have been revealed through a proper title search. That search was not done so the title insurance is at fault. The title insurance has the problem. The title insurance indeed should have paid it because it made the mistake. To write to you and ask for the money is simply to see if you’re that stupid. You had no knowledge and I would recommend truthfully answered the question. So therefore you want to write a letter that says I truthfully answered the owner’s affidavit that you had no knowledge of the HOA. That they had the responsibility to uncover and discover the HOA that you never found. They owe the money because they insure the title. You have absolutely no intent to pay it. If you do, if they do pursue it. Well in fact Velva describe to them all the repairs and everything you made. Then I want you to write a separate letter. Just came to me want don’t you also write a letter to this newly found homeowners association. Present them with the bill. Present them with the bill of everything you did. Ask for reimbursement for that. So number one you write to the title company. Tell them no way Jose I’m not paying it and here’s why. Then number two write to the homeowners association separately. Don’t tell the title company that you’re doing that and ask for your money back. I hope that just made you some money. Okay keep me posted on how this comes down.
Question:
I recently purchased your whole enchilada package at the November 3rd seminar in St. Pete Beach Florida. Including the buying, selling, and lending web site, which had been created. Brilliant man Jason I highly applaud your decision. I have some questions regarding their interaction and structuring of the web sites, an answering service, and my business card. Regarding the answering service my understanding is that my advertising should be geared towards directing prospects toward the appropriate web site for efficiency and cost. That makes sense. If my advertising also includes a telephone answering service how should the answering service be structured for the lowest overall cost. Should it cover all three web sites? Press one for buy. Press two for sell. Press three for lending. Should it direct prospects to my web site where possible? Have automated machines in for on various subjects. If so what subjects? Speak to an operator only after a last resort or should that be taking a message and reading an appropriate script by our seller questionnaire. If the person insists on talking to someone instead of filling out the web site on line form, can I should I have the answering service operator input the prospect in for directly into the web site data base. Is that possible? What would be the security risks or should I just have my own separate business line, local or 800 number with an answering machine to review and screen at my leisure. Wow Jason you covered a lot of ground there.
Answer:
Well let me tell you something I have a solution for every single question you asked. Let me describe to you exactly what I recommend. Number one on all of your marketing, you’re buying, your selling, and your borrowing. Each of them are separate businesses and therefore have different customers and different messages to the market. Therefore I recommend that you get three different business cards. One for buying, one for selling, and one that kind of combines who you are and what your business is all about for lending purposes. The message to the market on the backside of that is talking to them about their IRA, 401K’s, personal funds and how you can help give them a higher return. Call you for more details. Now each one of those as I’ve taught you, you’ve got three different web sites.
You’ve got three different messages to the market. Therefore you should have at least two telephone numbers and possibly a third one. I recommend we have a system that we’ve been working with some time that’s worked out extremely well for our clients. What it is is a software based system. Now this is not a voiceover internet protocol. This is not a voice. This is actually real landline or whatever you’ve got now. That through the use of a piece of software that’s loaded to your computer actually gathers when the telephone call is intercepted. It runs through your computer, even if your computer is completely shut down. It’s captured by your system. Now this system actually captures every call. So, whether the person hangs up while listening to your prerecorded messages or whether they don’t hang up. You still have captured their telephone number. Which allows you to be able to click on that number at any time and it dials out and calls the customer back. You don’t even have to right down the number. The system captures the telephone number. Now what makes this really compelling is that it’s so very inexpensive. The next thing that it does also is that it’s a digital fax service. So if you have e-fax or you have a fax line you can get rid of that. Because any faxes incoming it actually captures those faxes digitally so you can look at them from any computer in the world. The next thing it provides is conferencing features, it provides recording features, it provides so much that I can’t even go into it. It’s got over 10, 000. Mailboxes just for you so that when you do your marketing you an actually put on each marketing piece a separate id number. A separate extension number and that extension can identify where that marketing came from so that you can determine exactly what kind of results your getting from your marketing. I really like that feature too. What it does, basically, is there are a series of prompts in the system. You can have as many prompts and as long as a message as you want to. So that also allows you in your marketing to say that you have a free 24 hour recorded message. Or 24 hour recorded message. Then when people go there they can actually listen to a story about what your business is all about. How you can help. Now where in the world are you going to get all those words?
Well this system that I just describe to you is only $49.95 a month. So if you have two, three, four lines you can get rid of all of those. All you need is one single telephone line. It can even be a cell phone. It doesn’t even have to be plugged into the wall type system. What’s great about this is now with the use of cellular technology you’re able to really truly automate your business. Now here’s exactly how it works. The customer calls in we have already prerecorded messages for you. So, those are prerecorded voice scripts. So, along with the system you can separately purchase our prerecorded scripts. We’ve got scripts for buying and for selling. Now what I recommend Jason is you get two telephone numbers at least. One for buying and one for selling. Well what’s this going to mean. That you have to spend $49.95 for the second one? No you only spend $49.95 for the system. Excuse me its $99.95 regular $249.00 for the software. I provide all my coaching students that software for $99.95 and then the ongoing fee is $49.95 a month. If you want to add a second line that’s an additional $3.00 a month. So, for a total of $52.95 you can have not one but two telephone numbers. But they don’t stop there. They are also 1-800 numbers. So, if you’re marketing out of your area you can use 800 numbers. If 800 numbers are common in your area, if you’re in a metro area then even use the direct 800 numbers. Either way if you obtain a local number they can do that too for $20.00 and then once that number is obtained they port it, which is to point it to your system, your voice message system. So, this is what we call our street smart voice wiz. That actually is the system, the software and separately the voice scripts.
Now what’s great about this is when you order the system and the scripts at the same time they will actually preload these scripts for you. So, you don’t have to do any of that grunt work. They set up all of your voicemail, all of your boxes. Every message to the market has already been recorded and guess what Jason we’ve already determined what you need to say to your customers. We had them professionally recorded with a nice female voice that sounds very non-threatening. That goes through the entire system and explains it. It also prompts them that anytime within that call they can press zero for a live operator. Now you have your third step in the system to answer your question about the live operator. Next we have a connection with a live operator service. Now these folks are not just people who answer the phone all day long. They actually work with real estate investors from around the country. So, they are very used to the very calls you get on a daily basis. What they can do for you because you have the web sites Jason is when your telephone number comes up they instantly pull up your web site. They instantly begin asking the questions on the web site. As those questions are answered they type them right into your questionnaire. When they are done with that customer they press submit. The deal automatically comes to you by email. They also can separately send you a text message and it auto loads your backend data base on your street smart web sites. So, what I just described to you is a completely automated system. Now that operator service is $49.95 a month. Now most of you have heard of this same company on their own web sites their $99.95 a month and at most events their $79.95 a month. But for us because we use the power of street smart and I negotiate like a son of a gun to get you guys the best deals. Then we actually have that available to you for $49.95 a month. Now everybody just needs to pause for just a second. For literally $100.00 a month you have a completely automated system. For an additional regular $399.00 we giving it to you for $299.00 you get all of your prerecorded scripts uploaded for you. Everything is done for you. So literally you have hired a staff person for $100.00 a month. Where in the world are you going to do that? No where. The answer is absolutely no where on the planet. Now this is what Lou Brown is all about. Automating your system as much as possible, so that you have the very, very best deals and very best use of your time. I want you valuing your time at $500.00 an hour and anytime you’re not doing anything at $500.00 an hour you are losing money. So, that is worth $500.00 an hour. So, I want you to focus your money that you are saving from having a staff person on your marketing machine that feeds back to some of the earlier calls we had and this creates an incredible, unbeatable system.
Question:
Also, there is a question here from Jason on business cards. Should my business card list all three of my web sites, buying, selling, and lending? The reason I ask is that in the training material it states do not let your sellers know how you sell. Your buyers know how you buy etc. So, I’m a bit confused. Does that separation apply just to the advertising then? In other words have targeted advertising for buying, selling, and then leading?
Answer:
Yes Jason you want targeted advertising for each message to the market. Because it’s going to attract a different kind of customer. So therefore I recommend that you get separate business from that same source that I mentioned before. That we have our marketing materials at our sign wiz wesellsigns.com. You can either go there or call the office and they’ll fax you the order information from wesellsigns. That’s where you can get the big discount on buying your package of materials too.
Question:
When recording a land trust do you send a copy of your present deed with the new affidavit? Also, if this is a property in Baltimore City who should I send it to?
Answer:
Here’s what you’re going to do. Your note going to send a copy of your present deed. You’re going to create a new deed. This new deed the new warranty deed or grant deed or whatever is common in Maryland. You’re going to send that along with the Lou Brown affidavit of trust. It’s so critical as an exhibit to do that new deed. So, you’re going make that an exhibit A to the new deed. The old deed you’re just going to keep. The old deed is also on public record so there is no need for you to provide that to them again. They’re merely going to now update their records with the transfer from the old deed to the name on the new deed. The second question you had is if this is in Baltimore City who should I send it to? The answer is the recorders office. So if you don’t know that call the local court house and ask them where the court records are kept. Typically it’s at the county court house. Because regardless of what happens, most real estate records throughout the country are kept by the clerk of superior court in the county court house in the county in which the property is located. So, Trenita that’s where I’d recommend you call first. Then if that’s not the place they’ll tell you where to go.
Question:
Do your classes qualify for continuing education credits for California real estate licensees or CPA’s?
Answer:
Well the answer is I’ve never pursued it. They probably would however so if you can get me information on how to qualify the classes. They usually ask for a syllabus and other things like that. But if you can get the information for me. We will be glad to submit the answers to the California Board of Realtors. Probably they will grant that status for our classes. We’ve just never pursued it. But I know that’s its available because we’ve looked into it in the past.
