Oct 12
11

3 of Our Marketing Systems for Real Estate Investors – What Are Yours?

6 Comments

Over on our Rev N You website I posted an article about 4 Must Have Business Systems for Real Estate Investors … I covered the big things around the team, filing, property management and marketing but there is SO much to cover in this subject that I wanted to add a secondary spot where I thought we could all share our MUST HAVE business systems. We aren’t very fancy or high tech with how we run our business – spreadsheets and simple services like constant contact are mainstays in our business … but we know there are a lot of investors out there that LOVE the latest & greatest systems and processes for marketing, managing and money collection.

First I will tell you ours … but I hope you share yours in the comments!!

The other 3 important systems – all marketing specific – we put into place to make our life as real estate investors much easier.

1. A phone service where the number can forward to us if we want to take the call or forward to a voicemail so we don’t get disturbed at all hours. If you use your cell phone for ads expect to have your personal life and personal time disappear very quickly. Companies like Evoice and Network Telsys have good, inexpensive systems.

2. A spreadsheet that tracks WHERE people found your ad. This is especially important if you’re paying for any advertising. Track the results all the way through to determine who you end up renting to. By doing this, for example, we found that while we received a lot of calls from Craigslist all our renters actually came from Kijiji and none of them came from the local paper. Now we know where to put our time and money when we’re advertising.

3. An educational website for our rent to own business to minimize the time we spend training our prospective tenants on how our program works. We funnel all leads through that website and it significantly increases the quality of candidates that contact us and reduces the time we spend educating them. Now when a candidate walks through the door we can get right down to whether they are a good fit for us and whether they qualify.

We don’t use any software programs for our real estate business except Constant Contact for emailing the rent to own prospects and a simple online system for the forms we have on our website for sellers and tenants. We also don’t use anything fancier than Excel and Quickbooks for our budgeting, renovation expense tracking and financial reporting. We also use a great spreadsheet Dave created for ROI calculations, JV structuring and financing calculations. Our spreadsheets work, don’t cost us monthly fees, and actually provide us with a lot of flexibility while keeping things simple. All traits we like. Doesn’t mean it’s the best way – but it’s a good way for us.

And of course, now that I have an iPhone and an iPad and our office is all set up virtually (like I discussed in 4 Must Have Business Systems for Real Estate Investors) we can handle almost anything from anywhere … kinda cool. I’m pretty sure that’s an entire blog post on it’s own – the mobile real estate investor.

So … tell me … we’re kind of basic around here. What are YOUR must have systems for running your real estate business?

 

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This entry was posted on October 11, 2012 at 12:32 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Real Estate Investing Self-Managing Your Rental Properties by Rev N You 6 Comments

6 Responses to "3 of Our Marketing Systems for Real Estate Investors – What Are Yours?"

  • qmanrei says:
    October 17, 2012 at 11:13 pm

    Hi Julie,

    Great articles on systems. I’m working on something pretty cool for Durham REI on business systems, it will be a great surprise. :) You could write a book on specific systems.

    Here’s a few:

    The phone system (Grasshopper) but with phone options to filter calls based on importance as well as a tenant specific web site http://myappleridgehome.ca

    Specific emails addresses for specific tasks – vacancy, repairs, JV info

    Spreadsheets that track mortgages due dates, post dated cheques, etc

    I try to turn everything into a system that is repeatable and scalable whenever I can.
    qmanrei´s last [type] ..Welcome Durham Real Estate Investors

    [Reply]

    Rev N You Reply:
    October 23rd, 2012 at 11:15 pm

    These are great examples!!! I had never thought of specific emails for specific tasks but that is a cool idea as well.
    The spreadsheets are our life line for sure!!
    THANK YOU!!

    [Reply]

  • mobilehomegurl says:
    October 19, 2012 at 11:04 pm

    I really enjoyed your article on systems, Julie!

    I like that you believe in balancing the systems and processes by outsourcing the things we don’t like doing but still can control. There have been countless fellow investors I’ve known who have tried outsourcing everything and depending too much on people which a lot of times ends up in disaster. I think we talked about this before but folks try to work things this way by becoming too “hands off” (many times citing the “80/20″ rule!).

    For me personally, I do have some systems in place but they are pretty low tech. (does that count? just kidding!) Most of my systems are not what many folks consider to be “hands off.” Actually, they are more “hands on” but I find them to be the most productive and effective use of my time.

    One of them involves marketing to buyers when I have homes on the market. Usually, I end up talking to folks in the neighborhood going door to door. And, this usually ends up getting me the best qualified leads – those who have friends and family who live in the area and would like to live there too.

    Some people have questioned this method asking me if maybe I could hire and outsource this work out. I’ll tell you, I’ve done it before and it’s really not that easy to train someone to do something that requires a skill set that I’m already good at doing. (In this case, networking).

    What usually happens is I kill two birds with one stone. By talking to people in the neighborhood, many times I get both buyer and seller leads. Plus, with what I do – the park managers/owners like to see me out there working. It’s kind of like advertising as they see me over and over again. If a lead were to come up, whether a buyer or a seller, then they usually do call me. So, it’s really helped.

    Another system I have in place is constantly building my team of experts. Usually what I do is when I encounter a seller or talk to the park manager/owner, we get into stories (as you probably know already!) and I always try to see what types of folks they are using and recommending for fix-up work (i.e. cleaning services, a/c repair, appliance repair, etc).

    I jot their numbers down and give them a call trying to get an idea of their expertise to see if we are a fit. Then, I end up using the ones I like with high recommendations for small jobs in that neighborhood (since they have already done business there) to test them out. If they do good work, then I use them again. So, I find myself (like you) constantly adding folks to my team.

    Just a few of my low tech systems. I guess my systems may not be what others consider to be systems as they are more “hands on” than “hands off.” This is a great topic for discussion! :)

    p.s. I’ve tried the answering machine method a few times. It’s really been a toss up. Most folks I’ve encountered want to speak to a real person. In doing more target marketing (in specific neighborhoods) by networking with the folks there and also the park managers/owners, I receive fewer calls but more qualified prospects. I’ve marketed before to retail businesses in the area with varied results. Just my experience in my niche, could be different for others! :)
    mobilehomegurl´s last [type] ..Does it Look Like a Deal?: 2/1 Mobile Home In a Park

    [Reply]

    Rev N You Reply:
    October 23rd, 2012 at 11:17 pm

    Rachel – as always – FANTASTIC input so thank you!
    We definitely prefer to speak directly to people but especially when we had jobs we couldn’t have the phone ringing whenever. We found it was easier to send it to voicemail and then return all calls at once. That said, there is NO substitute for meeting people in person and spreading the word. It’s just a lot of effort and not always possible. Nice suggestions. Thanks for taking the time.

    I hope everyone reading this has checked out your book!! It’s full of helpful advice just like all your comments!
    Julie

    [Reply]

  • Lee says:
    November 9, 2012 at 12:06 am

    Everyone loves what you guys are up too. This kind
    of clever work and exposure! Keep up the wonderful works guys I’ve included you guys to blogroll.
    Lee´s last [type] ..Lee

    [Reply]

  • Devon Ferguson says:
    March 3, 2013 at 11:25 pm

    Thank you very much for your posting, I always find you comments insightful and applicable.

    [Reply]

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