You're listening to the REI Marketing Nerds podcast, the leading resource for real estate investors who want to dominate their market online. Dan Barrett is the founder of AdWords Nerds, a high tech digital agency focusing exclusively on helping real estate investors like you get more leads and deals online, outsmart your competition and live a freer, more awesome life. And now, your host, Dan Barrett.
Dan: Alright, everybody. Welcome to this week's episode of REI Marketing Nerds. As always, this is Daniel Barrett here, from AdwordsNerds.com, and this week, I've got an interview with Brian Tyson. Brian is really fascinating to me because Brian did what so many investors are trying to do. He broke in to a really competitive market very, very quickly. And he did that using Google ads. Obviously, this is right up my alley. Brian is one of these, like, he's a very understated person but he has an incredible understanding of how to use online marketing to break in and do wholesale leads. So if that is up your alley, please check out this interview with Brian Tyson.
Alright, everybody. I'm here with Brian Tyson. He's from LegacyREGrp.com. Brian, how are you, man? [0:01:34.8]
Brian: I'm doing great, Dan. How about yourself?
Dan: Eh, I'm doing alright. I told you before we started that I'm feeling a little bit under the weather, so hopefully, I, you know, half way through the podcast, I won't start telling you about like the little green men I see all over my scanner or whatever. But other than that, doing alright, man. So, I want to dig in to you a little bit. So you are a real estate investor. You're down in the Raleigh/Durham area. And we were talking about kind of target markets and where you are investing and you were talking about the triangle area, which is kind of like your zone there. Tell me a little bit about that market. Like what's that housing market like, and what's it been like for you as an investor there? [0:02:18.1]
Brian: Oh, over the past couple of months, it started out really, really hot in the area. It's since cooled down some. As an investor, still pretty, you know, pretty competitive. So, you know, we, you know we have a lot of other investors in the area that try to do pretty much the same thing we are, taking advantage of, you know, distressed homeowners and all of those things.
Dan: Yeah. So tell me a little bit about your model. Are you wholesaling? You're flipping? You're doing some kind of combination of things?
Brian: We are primarily wholesale. We have done a couple of flips in the past, but our primary focus is, we're all about wholesaling.
Dan: And do you feel like, are there a lot of wholesalers in the market, specifically, that are kind of going after the same properties you are? [0:03:06.4]
Brian: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. We certainly can get a lot of homeowners that tell us that someone else has called them or they've gotten someone else's postcard, things like that. We do get some overlap sometimes.
Dan: Well, how do you deal with that? Because I think that's a very common problem. Right? And you know, I have talked about it before on this show, the kind of sense of like, you know, you go in to talk with a seller and they've got a stack of postcards, like 100 deep, you know. And they're wallpapering their kitchen with it or whatever. So how do you personally think about that problem or deal with that? I mean, do you try to counteract it? Do you just say like well hey, you know, to the best investor, you know, goes the spoils? How do you think about that issue? [0:03:56.8]
Brian: To be honest with you, that's one of those questions that I'm constantly asking myself. One of those questions that I'm constantly trying to figure out the best way to resolve. What worked best for us is kind of two part. You know, we're big on rapport, so even though, you know, those sellers may have gotten another postcard, have 20 other postcards on their table, you know, we spend a lot of extra time just really making sure we know who that person is. So often times, the response we get is that they chose us because of the way we made them feel when we talked to them on the phone. And because we took a lot of time to listen to them. Outside of that, Dan, our primary way of counteracting that is we kind of switched gears a little bit to online marketing. Online marketing has kind of become our secret/not so secret weapon, over the past few months.
Dan: Yeah. There are people who are like, "You market on the internet?! What?!" So, that's interesting. I mean, do you feel like that's not as common where you are? I mean, is your market like a lot of people doing direct mail or ...? [0:05:09.6]
Brian: In my market, a lot of people do direct mail. A lot of people do cold call in my market. But you know, the question I get most often is What's PPC, right. Ask what we're doing. I say, "Yeah, we do a lot of PPC," and the question is "What's that?"
Dan: Right. Okay.
Brian: So.
Dan: So, that's good. That's good for you because there's pretty clearly like a knowledge gap there that certainly works in your favor.
Brian: Absolutely.
Dan: So we met, originally, because I think you came through our Search Click Convert bootcamp program, right. And that's how we met. So when you came into that program, like were you doing online marketing before that or was that your entry into the market?
Brian: I tried some on my own previously, feeling my way doing some display ads and I think I mentioned to you once before that I was using the Google representatives to set up campaigns and all of those things and it just wasn’t going well. I was spending a lot of money and it just wasn’t going well. [0:06:14.1]
Dan: Yeah. I've talked a lot about…. Like the Google reps, they, I'm sure they mean well, but investing is such a weird market and it's such a specific thing that I think it's very, very hard to step into it if you're used to like dentists or pizza restaurants or whatever. So yeah, I mean, and those things almost never work, at least in my experience. It sounds like it was pretty much your experience too.
Brian: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Dan: What was the, like, what was the process of going through the bootcamp like because I mean, you, this is partially for, I'm being a little bit selfish, because I, you know, for me it's a little bit hard to remember what it's like to go through it fresh, and you know, I've been living with this concept for so long. So what was the process like? Was it digestible? I don’t know, kind of break that down for me a little bit. [0:07:07.7]
Brian: It was awesome, Dan, to be quite honest with you. It was perfect in a lot of ways. It was definitely digestible. It was actionable, is probably the best word I would use to describe it, and it wasn’t overwhelming. It was enough information on the day-by-day basis that you could take those steps, implement them that same day, and start seeing the results same day. So it was a pretty awesome experience for us.
Dan: That's awesome. And do you, so, we talked about this a little bit before, so I know that you got some deals from the campaign that you ran. What was your return on that, if you don’t mind sharing that?
Brian: I think the first campaign I ran, or the first ads I set up during the bootcamp, I think we spent about $500, and our return on that was about $8000. [0:08:03.5]
Dan: Awesome.
Brian: So, yeah. So pretty good return.
Dan: Yeah, well. Yes. It's alright. It's alright. Yeah, man. I think that's huge. And I think it's like, you know I've said this before, but it's all about execution and I think that the thing that you did that I really loved was like you really got behind it and executed it and got it running. You know what I mean? I think it's one of those things where you got to have some skin in the game to make money off it. I think you did a really great job of committing to that. So, yeah, it was awesome, man. It was great having you in the bootcamp, and I'm happy it worked out. Give me, give me some context on you, man. Like how did you get into real estate investing? Like what was your "in" to this kind of weird world that we're both part of?
Brian: I've always kind of been on the outside looking in. Both my parents were in real estate. You know, my father did a few rehabs here and there, so I was kind of always the gopher helping him rehab the house. [0:09:05.3]
You know, they had a brokerage at one point when I was younger, you know, so I was the one at the front desk, you know, filing paperwork and all of that kind of things. So I always kind of had a finger in real estate, in one way or another, and you know, we, you know, this might date me a little bit, but we were, had those big, those big green Carlton sheets, binders, that were supposed to tell you how to invest in real estate. So that was kind of my entry into it. You know, my first experiences, just kind of watching it from afar. And then, I just, you know, over time, I just kind of always, I was always drawn to it. So, I attempted to do a couple of things in Florida where I'm originally from, and then when I moved to North Carolina, you know, I had a couple of other businesses that you know, for personal reasons, they just met their demise. And real estate was still calling me, so I decided to pick up wholesaling again, and we have been rocking and rolling ever since. [0:10:13.1]
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Dan: Yeah. So like you obviously have the entrepreneurial streak, right, because you had other businesses, you know, before you kind of settled into this one. What do you like about the real estate business versus you know, whatever other kind of business that you might be tempted to run?
Brian: The scalability of it, the ease of entry, especially when it comes to wholesaling. If you're willing to, you know, there's, you know, and I think a lot of people see this as kind of a get rich quick type thing, you know, you don’t have to put any money in the game, but you do. But there's a low cost of entry to real estate investing. If you're willing to put a little money in, and the time, and learn a few things, you can really grow pretty quickly.
Dan: Yeah. And I think that's the, you know, it's interesting, there's a lot of talk about the kind of like no money down kind of thing. But you always invest, right. I think you're exactly right. You either invest money or time, and I think that whole idea of, you know, real estate investors, more than anybody I've ever met, are people who invest their time in acquiring skills, right. It's like you, you're investing time in understanding how to acquire deals or value deals or you know, how to get leads or you know whatever it is, how to close, all that stuff. [0:12:08.0]
And the people that I've met that have a lot of success in this industry are like just the biggest lifelong learner type people you could ever meet, you know. I always find that really kind of fascinating, and it seems like that's been a pretty big kind of part of your journey. Did you ever, I mean, did you ever do the whole like, like did you have a coach? Like, how did you decide to jump into it? Or was your background and kind of like the stuff you picked up, was that essentially enough on its own?
Brian: I never had a coach. I, you know, I went to YouTube University.
Dan: Yeah. That's where I learned most of my jujitsu moves, and ….
Brian: A lot of YouTube stuff. A lot of, you know, kind of trial and error, to be honest with you, you know. I watched, originally watched a lot of Preston Healy and people like that when I initially started learning about wholesaling, and then over time, I just continued to kind of dig and learn and you know, just take action, you know, imperfect action, you know, so, you know, I would start out by whatever I learned or whatever I pieced together, and then I think my first deal came from a yellow letter that I sent out. [0:13:27.8]
They got it and it turned into my very first deal, but I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t have a closing attorney. I didn’t really know how to fill out the assignment contract. I just kind of pieced it all together, and it worked. So it was just kind of, you know, being action oriented.
Dan: Yeah, and I think that's the lesson there, which is so huge, is like you were getting in the game before you were 100% sure how it was going to go, right. Because, you know, for everything that you learned on YouTube, and I'm the same way, like I love learning stuff online and obviously, you know, I teach people online every day, there is no substitute for just doing it. Right? [0:14:14.6]
You learn so much more quickly if you're like, hey, I gotta get this contract filled out, and you know, I'm supposed to close in, you know, whatever it is, a week or whatever it is. That really puts the pedal to the metal in terms of your learning curve.
Brian: Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. There's no better way to learn that to just get out there and do it.
Dan: Yeah. What is your, what is kind of next for you, man? I mean like, what's your goal for… so the company just, what, we can kind of back up. So the website, I said this before, it's LegacyREGrp.com. Is that for Legacy Real Estate Group?
Brian: Exactly.
Dan: Okay. So what is the plan for the business? I mean, do you have kind of like a trajectory that you're like I really want to do this specific thing, or are you kind of taking it as it comes? Like what's your plan for the company? [0:15:07.1]
Brian: No. We are in the process of scaling. I mean, we're looking to, you know, really increase our deal flow locally and in one or two other markets. We're looking to start really doing some virtual wholesaling too. We're actually looking to go into an additional market, late 2019, early 2020, if not sooner. So, yeah. We have got some pretty big plans for the next 12-18 months.
Dan: That's awesome. Yeah. Well, the PPC too is a great channel for that, because you can dip in and out of so many markets. So it'd be pretty quick to kind of launch at least your ads there. So that's pretty awesome. Are you planning on still doing online marketing? Like how does that fit in to your kind of strategy moving forward? [0:15:57.8]
Brian: Online marketing is going to be a huge part of our strategy. Like you were just saying, that's actually our game plan is to start by, you know, generating those online leads in those new markets as we're rolling out, even before we, you know, deploy any other marketing, you know, getting those online ads out there in those areas is going to be, you know, a big part of our plan.
Dan: Yeah, yeah. I think the, you know, the thing that attracted me so much to online marketing is the speed, or at least for PPC, the speed at which you can deploy it. But then too, like you get a lot of really objective numbers back, and you know, we even had people in the bootcamp where you know they launched in a specific market that they thought was going to be their market, and they just realized like wow, it's so competitive here, that they ended up switching markets and having way more success, you know. So it's like one of those things where the feedback is so instantaneous, I love that about that kind of strategy.
Brian: Absolutely. Absolutely. [0:17:00.8]
And it's been great for us here, locally. And that's another reason why what drew me to it also, you know, online marketing, you know you're meeting people where they are, you know. These days, if you're looking for something, you're looking online first. You know. There's no more white pages, yellow pages, that type of, you know. Google is your first point of contact in most cases. So the ability to get out there in front of so many people so quickly, it's awesome. We love it.
Dan: Cool, man. Well, I think you guys are totally crushing it, and I was super, super happy to have you in the bootcamp. I thought you guys did awesome, and I'm really, really happy you guys got deals and you know, had a great time. If people want to follow up with you and learn a little bit more about you, where should they find you online?
Brian: They can reach me, they can find out some about me on our website, legacyregrp.com or they can find me on
Instagram @MrTyson2.0 on Instagram. [0:18:05.6]
Dan: Oh, okay. I didn't know about that. I want to look you up on Instagram, now. That's cool. Is it "mister" like m.r. or m-i-s-t-e-r?
Brian: No. Mister, m-r. Yep. MrTyson2.0.
Dan: Alright. Cool. So, and for everybody that's listening to this, I'll have direct links to Brian's stuff, both on Instagram and to his website, on the show notes for this episode, which you can get at AdwordsNerds.com/podcast. Brian, thank you so much, man. This was a blast, and like I said, you were an absolute pleasure to have, pleasure to have in class. And a real asset for the whole bootcamp, so, I really appreciate it. And yeah man, I'm very much looking forward to hearing about your future success.
Brian: Thanks, Dan. I appreciate you having me on.
Dan: Alright, man. My pleasure. Alright. Talk to you soon, Brian. [0:18:56.3]
For us, this week, as always, you can check out the stuff that I do, my company does, Ad Words Nerds, at Adwordsnerds.com. Most of you guys know, we do online marketing for real estate investors, but we also have coaching programs. So we have got mentorship programs. We have got all sorts of stuff - SEO - not to mention search engine optimization. We are really trying to innovate and make this space much more efficient and effective. So if that is up your alley, check us out at AdwordsNerds.com. I'd really appreciate it. That's AdwordsNerds.com. And as always, thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this show. I really appreciate it. And I will see you next week. Cheers, everybody.
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