Wanna stop talking to cold leads in the real estate closers. You'll discover how to stop sourcing deals and start closing them. After working with hundreds of wholesaling businesses, Samantha and David share how you can build systems that give you motivated sellers on autopilot. And now here are your hosts, Samantha and David.
(00:25): Hello everyone. And welcome to this week's episode of the real estate closes this week. We're gonna be talking about the top five mistakes that real estate investors make in their business. A really important topic. We've worked with a lot of clients, a lot of investors we've seen, I think probably most of the mistakes that you you can make. So we want to share those with you so that you don't repeat that you can do the right things for your business. So what's the first thing. One of the first things that we see is investing in a paid training course with a real estate guru. Now that's not a bad idea. Don't get me wrong. Uh, that's fine, but don't just do that and think you're gonna be successful. So many people come to us after they've been on the, the training course with their guru and they've spent all their money for a start.
(01:14): So they've got no more money left. They haven't got any budget left to hire a cold caller or any kind of VA. And unfortunately they've got the expectations that they're gonna be millionaires within their first year. So they're gonna close loads of deal in month deals in month one. And that it's just gonna go from there and there's just gonna be successful. Like their guru is within a few months, just like magic, oof, like magic Abra, Cadabra. Well, look, you guys know everyone we're speaking to here today knows that is not the case. So by all means, go on a, an investing course, learn from somebody, you know, who's well known in the market. Someone who's well known in the industry, but don't spend all your money on it. Have some budget left over and please have the right expectations. What happens is these courses can be very, very expensive.
(02:06): As I say, it drains the marketing budget of the individual that's going on there. The new, the new first time investor, they just haven't got enough funds, not just to fund cold callers and, and lead managed acquisition managers. They don't have any funds left at all to actually market their business properly. Cause as you know, there's a number of things you need to do to market your business. As I say, the expectations, uh, are set are unrealistic is they think it's just some kind of get rich quick sort of method for them. And also the thing you need to remember and all these new people seem to remember going on these courses is there's loads of information out there that's already available on, on the web type it in there's lots and lots of YouTubed channels that often offer excellent information. A lot of these gurus have their own, uh, YouTube shows and, and episodes and training courses and things like that.
(03:01): So you don't necessarily have to spend all the money to go on the training course. That's what I'm saying by all means not a bad idea to go on a training course, understand the industry, understand how it works, some of the dos and don't, but don't think that is the be all and end all because it's not, that's just really the start of your real estate journey. Make sure you've got substantial funds left to really invest in your business in a cold call, perhaps also you'll need, uh, Facebook marketing, potentially other online marketing. Um, you may want to do radio advertising. You may want to do direct mail campaigns. There's a whole host of different marketing initiatives that you want to consider and have the budget for before you really start your business. So that's the first thing. Great to go on one of these courses, but don't think it's the, uh, the be all end all. I'm now going to hand over to Samantha, who's going to tell you about, um, getting the marketing implementation wrong. Another big thing we see over to you,
(04:04): Thank you, David, to bring me onto the second topic of what not to do as a real estate investor. And when you are launching a marketing campaign, we see so many investors who have got their marketing implementation wrong. And what do I mean by that? Well, really when you're starting a campaign, so many people have poor planning, so they don't execute properly. They don't investigate which markets they're going to be calling or marketing to they over hire, or they use, uh, the wrong company or they think that they can do it themselves. And really before launching into an expensive marketing strategy, whether it's Facebook or SEO or direct mail or cold calling, it's really important that you do your research, that you do your homework and that you have a plan in place. What do I mean by that? Well, what is your forecast? What are your revenue goals?
(05:11): They monthly, are they quarterly? Where do you see yourself getting to by a certain point in the year and have it more narrowed down, don't just start. Willynilly just throwing money at different, uh, marketing channels. And just hoping for the best that something will work, really focus, really go onto these mastermind groups or Facebook groups ask other investors at these groups or, or wherever you might be socializing with people in the same industry and find out what are they doing? What works for them? Obviously, each business is different. Each market is unique, but this will give you an idea to get some good referrals from companies to use so that then you can go and you can ask a couple of different companies and really find out which is gonna be the best provider for you. And not only that, when it comes to cold calling, if that's the avenue that you decide to use, if you're going to do it in house, or if you're going to outsource it now, because, um, at Noma Duck's whole selling caller solutions, we specialize in providing the cold callers, the lead managers and the acquisition managers.
(06:31): I'm going to talk specifically now about the common mistakes that we see investors making when hiring a cold caller. This could be whether they're doing it in house, but it's also really specific and, and more common when they're outsourcing, this is what we've seen. And obviously this is what I call the three pillars of success. Now, the first pillar is obviously the agent. So that's our responsibility. If you're going to any outsourcing company and you are asking to get a virtual assistant to hire a cold caller, the first thing that is really, really important is that that person is trained. They've got experience and that they they're reliable. So the first pillar of success, well, that is our responsibility. How good is the agent? Are they showing up on time? Are they enthusiastic? Do they know how to handle rebuttals? Can they build rapport? And do they sound like the friendly next door neighbor on the phone?
(07:38): Because that's the idea when we're hiring cold callers, it's not a, a corporate campaign. You know, we're not calling bank of America. We're calling homeowners to see if they'll be interested in receiving a cash off from their property. And really the art of cold calling. It's a bit of a black art because you've gotta be able to grind and make call after call after call. You've gotta be able to handle rejection, but you've gotta be able to know how to talk to people. You've gotta be relatable and you've got to really be able to connect because at the end of the day, that's what our callers are doing. They're trying to connect with people to build a connection, to build trust so that the homeowner trusts that person on the other end of the phone and trust them with one of their biggest assets, which is their, their house, their property, their home, their nest, that's our responsibility.
(08:37): However, the next two are really common mistakes that we see investors making. The first one is data. If you and I can't stress this enough, if you don't have good data, it doesn't matter if you have the best, most talented cold caller that ever existed, your campaign will fail because if you don't invest in good data in good quality data, then there there's no point really, because what will happen is the contact rate will be appalling. Let's say the cold call is shifting through the data and they're getting wrong numbers, or maybe that the addresses don't pertain to the, the name of the property owner or vice versa. And there's just a lot of bad numbers, wrong numbers answering machines, or maybe it's just not sourced from the correct place. We've had situations where new investors, they pulled a list from the credit bureau instead of sourcing the data from batch leads or prop stream.
(09:47): We weren't aware of that, but by the time that we realized what had happened, it was a little bit too late because the lead count was so low. There were a couple of great nuggets, but the leads just, you know, the volume wasn't there because the investor hadn't sourced the leads from an accurate real estate lead source. So that's really, really, really important. So if you're looking at sourcing data, you really need to go straight to the MLS to the record county records, pull lists from, for example, prop stream batch. These are really well renowned industry leaders in pulling lists and getting that information that you'll need. In addition to that, obviously skip tracing is really, really important. There are a number of independent skip traces. Usually they they're from India or Pakistan. And then there are some really good providers. IDI tends to be the crem dire in the industry.
(10:51): So it's really, really important to get good lists with some relevant element of motivation. So what type of lists? Well, you could pull retired landlords code violations, ques vacant out-of-state owners, things like that. That is really, uh, I cannot stress enough how important it is to get your data right. Um, we have seen this time and time again that the investors, they maybe get their list. They've sourced it, but it's not high quality or they don't source more lists. So the cold call is dialing and dialing and recalling the same list. And then there's no new fresh leads we typically ask and tell each, call it to dial each list at least three or four times to fully scrub the list before moving on to a fresh one. And really, I know that it is a big investment. Obviously the more high quality lists that you get, obviously the greater the investment, but better data equals more revenue and greater profitability for your company.
(12:07): Therefore, having a healthier bottom line, it's really worth the investment rather than trying to just go cheap, get those some mediocre lists, but not getting the full results. And, um, another mistake that we see with investors when they hire a cold caller or any other type of VA, not necessarily just a cold caller, but for this example, we'll use, it is a lack of communication. It's so important, even though you are outsourcing your VA it's imperative that you keep on top of them in the sense that you don't necessarily need to be micromanaging them. Because obviously that's one of the benefits of hiring us. We're in the background, we have team of team leads, quality control, and assurance. We do the payroll reporting and things like that, but you really want to make them feel like even though they're remote, there's still a valued member of your team.
(13:08): So if I were hiring a VA, I would be for having calls with them, motivating them, giving them feedback about their leads, following up, letting them know what deals are under contract, which one of their leads have closed. And just keeping that contact with them. Now, at the beginning of the campaign, I tend to recommend that contact is pretty frequent, could be a quick call before or after their shift or weekly. And then once the campaign is running and everything comes into fruition, then you can be in less contact and maybe have a call with them every two weeks, something like that. But yeah, they're really the main mistakes that we see investors making when they start hiring their, their staff, just poor planning, poor execution, not a focused specific plan, lack of goals, lack of goals for their business, for their revenue, but also goals for what they want their call to achieve.
(14:16): What are their KPIs? What are their expectations, poor data, and a lack of communication, lack of communication between them and the agent, but also a lack of communication between them and their service provider. So the campaigns that really are the most successful that we see our portfolio of clients are the ones that have really frequent and healthy communication. They're constantly sourcing fresh data. They have good skip tracing. They know what their financial goals are and they set clear KPIs and realistic expectations for their VAs. So I'm just going to pass the, uh, torch back to David. And he's going to be talking about another common mistake that we see that real estate investors make.
(15:12): So right. Thanks Samantha. Yes. So this third, uh, mistake that we see, so we've covered two so far. This third is an age old problem for any business. You'll have heard it lots of times you've applied it to yourself. You've applied it to your staff. It's something that's been around forever. Since time began. Business began poor time management. We've all, we've all been, um, guilty of not managing our time. Well enough trying to cram too much in not finishing things that we've done. How many times have you got to say lunchtime and your to-do list of 10 things for the day has only got one crossed off. I know I have, and it's something that's very, very important. It's something that I'm constantly trying to understand and get better at for my business. And that is managing my time. You've got to manage time and not let time manage you.
(16:03): That might sound odd, but if you let time chase you and you're chasing around and you're ineffective, you're into sort of headless chicken mode and you're just not getting the important things done. You're not prioritizing you. It really can, uh, have a very, very negative effect on your business and your business can surf. So what, what, what are the results or what are some of the, what are some of the problems of poor time management? Well, we see a lot with our clients or some of the things that they do or don't do. One of the first things is we see a lot of clients, not really delegating tasks, they're trying to do everything themselves. And that's one of the things we get, especially from new investors who call us up and say, look, I need help. I need somebody to help me in this business.
(16:47): They're trying to do everything. They're trying to do the call calling. They're trying to manage the leads. They're trying to do acquisition. They're sending out contracts. They're following up with clients, has the contract come back. They're trying to follow that deal with that as well. They're trying to do absolutely everything. And what that does. It just negatively affects your business. I think we spoke last week about what are the key successes for a business, the very objective of a business, the definition of a business, something that makes generates revenue and makes profit. You're not going to be generating a lot of revenue and making a lot of profit. If you don't manage and button down your time management. So things like you are doing the call calling well, who's closing that lead from yesterday. Who's sending out the contract to the client. Who's following up with the inbound call that the client's making to just ask a few more questions or to follow up.
(17:39): If you are doing cold calling all day, you're not doing the other key aspects of your business. And that's something that can easily be outsourced. So the best way to at being the most efficient you can with time management is first of all, writing a list, just try this tonight. If you're one of the new investors that are listening to this, try this, get a piece of paper and a pencil, do it on your PC and write down the things that you think you could outsource. And one of them will obviously be the cold calling lead management can be outsourced. Acquisitions can be outsourced because what you should be doing is looking, taking a, a helicopter view. If you like of your business from above and seeing what is requiring your business, what strategies are in place, where is your business going? Where's your growth coming from?
(18:26): Where's your next growth state? Where are you gonna develop into what's your new market? You should be looking at all these kind of things, not just running operational tasks in your business. Cuz if you try and do everything, your business will definitely, definitely fail. So look at the things that you can outsource and, and call a company like me. Brook's wholesaling, caller solutions. That's what we do. As, as Samantha mentioned in her earlier piece, we do a lot of the background work where in the background, we're making sure the agents are monitored. We're making sure the agents are paid, making sure we're required that any training or coaching that's required, we're effectively managing that part of your business. So you don't have to. And that leaves you more time to guess what to make money for your business. The more time you can spend on the key aspects of your business, the more money you will generate and the more profit you will make.
(19:19): It's, it's not rocket science. It sounds easy, but it can be very, very difficult to do. As I say, many times I've looked at my own time management and thought, wow, I shouldn't be doing this. I should be doing less of this. I should be doing more of that. It's not easy, but working with an outsource partner to outsource the aspects of your business, that don't really need you to do them is really, really important. And then you can focus on the big ticket items, the things that are really gonna generate profit for your business and make your business successful. So there they're the key things, delegate task effectively outsource what you can outsource that you don't need to do yourself. Focus on the things, the big ticket items, the big priorities that make you money, that generate revenue that is gonna make your business successful now and forever in the future.
(20:10): So time management, absolutely key. It's the third thing we see, uh, the biggest mistakes that the, it happens a lot. If you can get time management, right? You're well on your way to having a successful business. And by talking to people like us, Medock wholesaling, caller solutions, working with company like us. We can take a lot of those tasks and operational areas from you that you don't really need to focus on. So that's just, uh, something very, very important that as I say is number three on the list. Two more to go. I'm gonna hand over to Samantha again, cuz she's gonna be talking to you about wholesaling without a strong network of buyers and what, what that can result in we'll you
(20:49): Samantha, thank you, David. So the fourth mistake, which is very common, which we've seen, and this is what I've seen particularly in wholesalers is starting wholesaling without a strong network of buyers. And this also comes along with kind of the poor timing, poor time management and, and poor, um, marketing implementation. Because when a lot of new investors they get started, they're focused on building up the pipeline of motivated sellers, which is great. That's what they should be focused on. But as a wholesaler, you also need to make sure that you have an equally high amount and high volume of buyers. And not just that strategically knowing what their criteria is, what type of properties are they interested in? What range can they buy at? Where are they based? If you are just in one market, you need to make sure that you have good list of solid trustworthy buyers.
(21:55): If you're doing this in several markets or nationwide, then that's where it gets a little trickier, but you still need to make sure that you have good buyers list. So a lot of our investors that work with us that are a lot more experienced, they already know this. So what they do is they actually sometimes get our call callers to call a buyer's list where simply what they're doing is, is just getting more buyers added to the portfolio so that they have properties that they can assign the contract over to. Because what happens is it can create a bad image for your company. If you are signing over a contract or say, for example, you find a motivated seller price is right and it's a great cash offer. Let's say property, isn't a bad condition, a motivation's high. All of it. It's just like the classic perfect cash offer deal.
(22:59): You put the property under contract, but then you don't have an end buyer for it. So then what you're gonna do, you're gonna have to go back to the property owner and cancel it. So that creates distrust and, and it can create a bad reputation. So you really need to make sure that you have a solid, trustworthy base of good buyers, responsible buyers that you are sure about their criteria, what properties they can buy and are making sure that you can market them successfully to the empire. Uh, so that's a really common mistake that we have seen. And again, these things, you get to learn more about this with experience, but for those that are just new to the industry or starting out, please make sure that you have a good network of buyers. I'm going to, uh, pass the torch over again to David. And he is going to talk about the final fifth mistake that we see that investors make.
(24:03): So yes, this is number five in the top five mistakes that real estate investors make in our experience that we've seen. And this is again, a very, very important one and something to be avoided. This one is where we have clients that only invest in the market that they know it's an absolute classic mistake. I was either born here or I've worked here all my life in this state. I understand the people, I understand the culture. Great. That is a great place to start no doubts and there's nothing wrong. In fact, the opposite. The other side of the coin is sometimes we have investors that try to expand too quickly into too many different markets all at once. And that's, that's just as bad. That's an equally bad mistake to make, but we do get people who are just so nervous about expanding into other markets.
(24:51): Because as I say, they know their mistake, they know their people in it. They feel comfortable there. They've lived there and uh, they, they know it very, very well. But the problem with that is if you don't have plans to expand, what's gonna happen when that market is say saturated. One of the things we see with our experience, we can tell a lot of the markets out there. A lot of the states that are saturated, the ones that are great to go into that are developing ones that are growing ones that are reducing because we, we get so many clients from different states. So we gather all this information and data and kind of market research. If you like not having another market to go into what happens. If something happens in that area, there's, there's a large unemployment or something happens in housing regulations there where it makes it more difficult to manage your business or to run your business.
(25:39): You don't have an alternative market to go into an alternative marketing strategy. Your business basically stops. And then you spend your time trying to pull together another marketing strategy, reviewing markets. And meanwhile, your revenue stops coming in back to that revenue. Again, , that's why you're in business to create revenue and to generate profit. So if you don't have a pipeline of markets and strategies to grow into in your business, that's when we're we see a lot of problems and people come to us and say, well, I was doing really well, but well everything's dried up. Well, what about going into another market? Well, that's a great idea. I didn't really think of it. I was too busy with a market that was in, I thought it would last longer. I thought there was more, um, resources there that I could use. I thought there was more potential in the market than there is.
(26:28): I thought it would last longer. So having another market, having that next plan, what's the next plan? You know, it's like any business, um, a lot of businesses. Why do you think that Sony, for example, that have so many different products, they're looking at products that they're gonna bring to market 10 years in advance, not just a few months, not just one year, they're looking at 10 years, what, what is gonna be the market gonna be like, what are the products that people are gonna need? And that's what these big companies do. They invest for the future 10 years in advance in some cases. So I'm not saying you should do that in your business. We're not talking about necessarily Sony or Proctor and gamble. There's things we can learn from those companies and there's reasons why they're so successful. So always have that next plan in mind and look at the hottest areas.
(27:12): Do you research, what are the hottest areas? Do web research speak to contacts in the business when you're at some of the mastermind events or conferences, real estate conferences that you all attend, talk to people from other areas, what's your area like, how are you finding it? What do you think the next hottest market might be? And get that market research. You're always looking at where the next place can be. So you're ahead of the game. So if something happens in your area that you are working in, your market becomes difficult to, to work in, you've got the next one to go into. And the next one after that and the next one after that, and that creates longevity for your business. So the more that you review the market, the more that you review your approach, what's working well, what's not working well. And then translating that into a new business plan for the next market that you're going to enter.
(27:59): And you really focus on that, that equals longevity for your business that's future of your business. That means your, the difference between your business lasting one year and lasting for the next 10 years. The difference between being able to hand that business over to your family, to your son, to your daughter, to your partner and not being able to, because the business is gonna be finishing in one or two years time. So always be ahead of the game and don't just invest in the same market. Sure. Start off in the same market, find your feet, get your skills to the right area at right level, get your processes and procedures in place, and then consider that next market. Where are we going next? What do I need to do to keep my business growing into the future? And, uh, that is number five. That's the final one. So Samantha, I think we've covered them all. Haven't we?
(28:49): Yes. I think we have, we hope that you enjoyed this week's show, uh, please check out our website and if you get a chance at, uh, WW dot nomad ducks.com, when you're on that, uh, landing page, you could also fill out your contact details on our form, on our contact form, or you can click on the green button and you can send me a WhatsApp message directly to my phone. Also, if you go onto the landing page, the first page and scroll down, you'll see our client testimonials to take a look and see some more of our satisfied customers. Have a great day, and we'll see you next week. Byebye,
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