REI Marketing Tips

Last week I interviewed a friend of mine who is currently flipping 3-4 REO properties each month in Miami, FL.  What is most intriguing about what he’s doing is that he has systematized his complete process, and he has 2 interns helping him flip the houses.

He makes an average profit of $6,000 per flip, so you can quickly do the math and see how much he makes each month.

Last week (before the interview I did with my friend Alex) I spent 2 full days in Phoenix, Arizona.  I went out there with my real estate investing partner to evaluate the market for opportunities, and see if we wanted to expand there.

After 2 very busy days, we have decided that there’s plenty of opportunity in that market, and that we’re going to expand.  One of the obstacles, however, is that we don’t have a local set of eyes to do a lot of the work that we would normally do ourselves here in San Diego.

I’ve always been one to practice what I preach, so we decided that one of the best ways that we could immediately get some help would be to hire some interns to help us expand into a new market.

Since I’ve been a huge advocate of hiring interns for your real estate investing business for a long time, today I sat down as if I were a new investor and mapped out exactly what the interns would do for me, and how I would go about hiring them.

I’m going to map this out for your right now in this blog post, so you can duplicate our success.

1.  Decide What The Intern Is Going To Do: We’ve decided that we’re going to create 2 different internships for our expansion into Phoenix: a Real Estate Investing Internship , and an Internet Marketing Internship For A Real Estate Investing Company (note: those are the actual titles we used in the job description).  However this doesn’t mean that we’re only going to hire 2 interns.  We might actually hire 2 or even 3 interns for EACH position (we want to be prepared for attrition, and also to let the cream rise to the top and see who the best performing interns will be.

The Real Estate Investing Intern will be focused on “traditional” real estate investing work, such as evaluating properties, meeting with contractors and getting repair estimates, coordinating closings, and focusing on the transactional side of real estate investing.

The Internet Marketing Intern will be focused on using the internet for marketing our business.  Since Phoenix has an abundance of deals, this particular intern will be focused on finding buyers for our properties.  They’ll be doing this by building a blog, and then having an accompanying Twitter feed, YouTube Channel, and lead capture pages.  They’ll create content and set out “link bait” (in the form of articles, free reports and videos) to help us build a buyers list.

As you can see, the first internship will require someone who is interested in real estate, but the 2nd internship could be for anyone interested in marketing, internet marketing, or general business.

2.  Create a List of Responsibilities For Each Internship:  We created a list of probable tasks and responsibilities for each of the internships.  This might obviously change over time, but we wanted to get something down as quickly as possible.  These list of responsibilities also became part of our job description (more on this later).  Here’s the initial  list of tasks for each intern:

Real Estate Investing Internship
- Evaluating properties for acquisition
- “Walking” properties, meeting with contractors, and creating videos of properties
- Analyzing comparable sales data and estimating potential profit of individual deals
- Analyzing data for multi-family properties to evaluate cash flow, cap rates and profitability
- Tracking renovation progress and timelines to ensure deal profitability
- Coordinate closings and work with escrow company manage the process from contract signing to close of escrow

Internet Marketing Internship For A Real Estate Investing Company
- Using video and well written video descriptions to drive traffic to our sites and market our properties
- Become well versed in local search and SEO through our training, and implement these strategies to help us dominate the search engines.
- Use social networking, social media and social bookmarking to drive a flood of traffic to our sites
- Install analytics and goal tracking on all of our websites, launch experiments, and help us make our sites get more traffic and increased conversion percentages
- Build a new blog using WordPress (open source blogging platform)
- Build lead capture forms and landing pages to maximize conversions & build a list of buyers for investment properties

3.  Write The Job Descriptions:  Fortunately I’ve written plenty of job descriptions for plenty of internships, so I have a great idea of what needs to be done.  However, if you’re unsure, I actually have a webinar where I break down the 10 steps to writing a winning job description to get a flood of people applying for your internship.  (It’s actually an action packed webinar full of content about the top 3 internships you need to create for your company, but if you just want the information about how to write a winning job description, just fast forward to the 44 minute mark).

4.  Decide Where To Post The Internship:  If you watch the the same content webinar I reference above, you’ll see that we reveal our list of Top 25 Internship Job Posting Websites at minute 54.  However, for real estate investors, we recommend that you post your internship to a local college or university where you plan on investing.  The reason is simple: you’re going to want your intern to go out and look at properties and find deals for you.  That’s why for these 2 positions we’re posting our job to Arizona State’s intern job posting board.  It’s free to post there, and we’ll find an intern who is local and knows the area well.  If you don’t know whom to contact at a particular school, or where you can find interns looking to gain experience in a particular field (like real estate or marketing), then watch this short video.

5.  Call The Recruiting Coordinator At The School Where You’re Going Post The Internship: As soon as I had my job description ready I called the recruiting coordinator at the school I was going to post my message to.  If you’re wondering what’s the fastest way to find: A) what schools you should even be contacting or B) what the name, phone number and email address are of the recruiting coordinator, then watch this short video.  Once you know who you’re calling, pick up the phone and call them.  I’ve actually prepared scripts for calling into these schools (more on this later), but because I’ve done it so many times now, it’s easy for me (and it will be easy for you as well).  Today I found out that at ASU it’s free to post, and that my account would be “approved” to post a job within 24 hours.  But making a phone call first, BEFORE posting the job, makes it much more likely that your account will be approved quickly.  In fact, today, by making the phone call, I even found out that ASU has a real estate investing club, and that I could post my internship there.  Talk about an easy way for me to find my new interns!

6.  Start Reviewing Resumes:  At this point all I need to do is review the resumes of potential interns.  I ask them to include a cover letter explaining whey they’re a good candidate for the position.  If they can’t include a cover letter (and fail that test) they won’t get a call from me.  It’s a simple test to see if they can follow instructions.

7.  Conduct A 1st Round Of Interviews Over The Phone:  For candidates who sounded good on paper, I’ll email them and set up a phone interview.  On the phone interview I want to find out about them.  At a minimum, I want to know the following information:

- What made you apply to my job post?
- Why do you want an internship?
- What do you know about the position? (in other words, what do you know about real estate investing or internet marketing)
- When do you plan on graduating? (we’ve made it a policy to not accept freshman/1st year students since they are adapting to school life and adding an internship is too much)
- How heavy is your course load?
- How many hours per week, at a minimum, can you dedicate to the internship?
- Are you looking to earn credit for your internship?
- Do you have the tools necessary to complete this internship (PC, cell phone, skype, video camera, car for the real estate investing internship, for example)

I have a list of dozens of other questions, but you get the point here.  I’m trying to do some initial screening and fact finding, and see if we “click” and a I get a good feeling about the person.

8.  Invite The Top Candidates Back For A 2nd Interview:  After the first round of interviews I email back the people I liked and schedule a 2nd interview.  I ask more questions, and at the conclusion, if I think that they could make a good intern (and addition to our team) I give them a specific deadline (usually 48-72 hours) to send me an email with the following information:

- Are you still interested in the internship
- Why would you be a good candidate for the internship
- The specific start date that you can begin
- The minimum number of hours per week you can commit to
- The end date of your internship

9.  Extend The Invitation:  At this point I’m ready to extend the offer to the prospective intern.  As I mentioned earlier, many times I’ll hire 2 or 3 interns for the same position.  They can work together as a team, and the best interns will quickly show their stuff.  Interns also like working in a team environment, and let’s face it: they do have exams and a social life, so if an urgent task pops up, I’d like to have 2-3 people who can complete it, not just one.

10.  Put Them To Work:  As soon as the intern accepts the offer, I put them to work.  I usually start out with a “kick start” call to make sure that they understand the big picture: what our company does, how we make money, who our target audience is, and what we’re looking to accomplish.  I can’t tell you how important this is: your intern is probably going to work on some very focused tasks and projects for you, so it’s important that they understand the big picture.  Then, every single day that they work on their internship, they have to send me an email detailing:

1.  What they did that day, and the results that they got
2.  Any problems or challenges they encountered
3.  Any questions they have for me

Sending these 3 items to me in a daily email is a MUST, and it’s a non-negotiable.  They simply have to do it.

Next Steps:

Hopefully between the interview with Alex, and the steps that I’ve laid out for you here, I’ve inspired you to take action and hire an intern for your real estate investing business.  You’ll be amazed at how much more productive you become, and how having an intern forces you to create documented systems that only help your business.

Speaking of documented system, we do have a system that we’ll be releasing to the public in the very near future.  It’s going to be extremely affordable, and inside of it we’ll include the 2 job descriptions for the 2 internships I talk about in this blog post.  Plus it includes scripts, templates, internship agreements, instructional videos and a whole lot more information.  It’s extremely affordable, and as soon as it’s ready I’ll update this blog post with a link.

In the meantime, I want to leave you with comment from someone who has our system, and also a video.  The first is a comment from Jesse C’de Baca in Denver, CO who writes to us and says:

I’m always looking for ways to scale my business – whether through automation or outsourcing, both which have their inherent drawbacks. The concept of getting unpaid interns as a solution to bridge those flaws has been such a mindset-shift for me.

I already have 2 interns working for me within 2 months, and they work about 20 hours a week each for me! I haven’t even yet called any of the schools directly, which I plan on doing soon to get more interns.

Not only have they gotten good work done for me for free, but they have FORCED me to develop duplicatable systems for my business processes, which has really helped me to hustle and get more done in less time.

Not only that, having interns make me look a hell of a lot “bigger” in my clients eyes, which feels pretty good too.

Thanks so much again for showing me a way too scale my business at near-zero cost.

The final thing I want to leave you with is proof that interns can help grow your real estate investing business, and find you deals.  Here’s video of “Ben The Intern” who found a killer deal for us during his internship.  Imagine not having to go to a closing, but have your intern attend on your behalf instead:

As a reminder, we’re releasing an updated, more cost effective version of our intern system in the next few days.  Be on the lookout for it!

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Do I have a treat for you today! It’s a FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE private lender powerpoint presentation for real estate investors that is available for instant download!

There is no cost to download this private lender power point presentation, designed for real estate investors. After you download it you can customize it with your business information and use it in your business when you’re looking for private lenders for your real estate investing business.

This is so simple and easy to use. There has never been a better way to create a private lender presentations. I’m not sure how much longer they’re going to be giving away free private lending power point presentations, so make sure you download your copy today.

Also, be on the lookout for another blog post from us tomorrow, as we’re going to be telling you about a brand new iphone/ipad app that will totally change the way in which you evaluate properties.

This app is going to be free, so check back here tomorrow for a download link.

In the meantime, but sure to download your private lender power point presentation before the page comes down.

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Here is the replay from last night’s training call with Jamel Gibbs. We covered how ANYONE can flip properties like they’re pancakes. This is a content packed training that can show anyone, even if they have no cash, no credit or no experience exactly how to flip houses in today.

If you enjoyed this training please leave any comments or feedback below.

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This past Tuesday night I held my Foreclosure Master’s Coaching Club monthly call.  For only $7.95 to get started (and then a measly $49.95 per month thereafter) there’s no question that it’s the best value for those looking for help with their real estate investing business.  On Tuesday’s call I reviewed my day, which consisted of:

1. A BPO for another short sale deal that we’re working on, where I met the appraiser (who was actually a W2 salaried employee of Bank of America) who told me that my offer price of $460,000 “sounds about right for this property” (SMILE!).  During Tuesday night’s call I also reviewed some basic but important things that you have to do ANYTIME you go on a BPO appointment.

2. The fact that we closed on a half million dollar condo in La Jolla, CA, and to close the deal I came out of pocket $30. This is a renovation/flip deal in which I have a partner on the deal.

3. LIVE Q&A and answering of questions by people (note that if you want to join my Foreclosure Masters Coaching Club, you get to chat with me live, 1-on-1 about your real estate investing business. This is the last time I’ll mention it’s only $49.95 per month. You can get a trial membership for only $7.95 here: www.BestForeclosureSystem.com/oto)

I decided to post the audio replay to the this month’s coaching call, because it was full of great information, and I want you to see how you can personally get on the phone with me once a month and get your real estate investing questions answered.  You can listen to this month’s training call here.

On the coaching call this past Tuesday night I outlined (VERY QUICKLY) how we structured the La Jolla deal, and then answered a few questions. However it dawned on me that a LOT of people in our community (even the ones who aren’t in my Foreclosure Masters Coaching club) might want to learn more about how this deal was structured, and how I can close on a $500,000 property with only $30 out of pocket (and NOT flip it right away, but hold it so we can do the renovations and make a $125,000-140,000 profit on the backend).

Oh yeah, and I’m not doing ANY of the work related to the rehab (my partner is doing it ALL).

So what I’m going to do is host a special teleseminar (audio only) next week to break down this deal.

Here’s what we’re going to cover on this special “Case Study” teleseminar:

- You’ll get to meet the person who FLIPPED the deal to me.  (I was actually the “CASH” or “C” buyer on this deal).
- He’s going to break down how he found it, how he negotiated it, and how he flipped it to me.
– He’ll share with you why I was the PERFECT buyer for this deal.
- I’ll share with you how I got the cash for this deal (hint: private money).
– I’ll tell you how I structured the deal so I only had to put $30 into it.
- I’ll let you know how I structured the partnership with the person who is going to do 100% of the rehab work on the property.
– I’ll share with you some killer resources and ideas for how you can raise private money (for your own deals).
- I’ll talk about how having access to private money TOTALLY changes the way you can approach real estate investing, making offers, and closing on deals that you never could have in the past.

All of the call-in details can be found here: http://instantteleseminar.com/?eventid=18763446

Make sure to add this to your calendar. You can put questions in the chat box on the teleseminar page, and we’ll also take LIVE Q&A questions about how we structured this deal on the call as well. Go here now to get all of the details on this free, live, “case study” training call: http://instantteleseminar.com/?eventid=18763446

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Recently we’ve sent our email subscribers lots of information about 2 important subjects:

1. Furthering your short sale education AND

2. Finding cash buyers

I wanted to illustrate this point even further by showing you copies of the last 2 checks that we’ve collected THIS MONTH (February 2011). You’ll have to remember that the name of my company that flips houses is called JL Investing, LLC. With that being said, “check” these out:

Now first let me point out to the you that the check for $119,941.56 isn’t the NET profit on that deal. The actual net profits, once private lenders were paid off, was about $33,000.

But the second check, the one for $35,100 was 100% profit (we assigned the short sale to a cash buyer, and never even closed on it).

So why I am posting pictures of checks here on my blog? To brag? Not in the least. In fact, if you’ve been reading my blog you know that I pretty much never flaunt checks in your face. I don’t need to. However, because of what’s going on RIGHT NOW, I felt like showing this proof was important, for the following reasons:

1. Both of these deals were short sales. Both of these deals came from a “secret source” that I’ll be sharing with others for the first time ever, LIVE, on stage (I NEVER speak on stages) next weekend at a short sale investor event. The event is being held by my friends Sam & Mike, who might just be the BIGGEST short sale investors here in San Diego (they closed 24 deals in the past 2 months). I live in the same city as Sam & Mike, so to “compete” with them I need to find deal sources that they don’t know about.

Like to learn this “secret” deal source? Come and spend the weekend with me, Sam, Mike & the nation’s #1 short sale attorney, Ron Ballard, in Los Angeles February 25th-27th. You can register for the event for only $17 by visiting this special webpage.

2. Both of these deals were flipped to cash buyers. I didn’t have to mess around with retail buyers, hoping they could get financing. I had no seasoning issues, and on the deal where the check is for $35,100, we didn’t even close on the property! That’s our assignment fee. But the key to the deal was having cash buyers (a different cash buyer on each deal) who could close! To get a FREE list of cash buyers in YOUR area, right now, head to this special webpage. It’s part of some really great videos some friends of mine are giving away. The bottom line is, you NEED cash buyers, and this website is the fastest, quickest, easiest & cheapest way to get them.

Some of you had problems accessing your list of cash buyers, so I even made the following quick instructional video for showing you EXACTLY how to get your list. The short 6 minute video is here:

How To Find Cash Buyers For Your Real Estate Investing Business

That’s all for today. I hope that this blog post has inspired you to do 2 things:

1. Come out to LA for what promises to be the best short sale investing event of 2011 (February 25th-27th) and discover what this “secret strategy” is (and how I’m getting these juicy short sale deals) AND
2. Download your FREE list of cash buyers right now!

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Some of the most common complaints (or fears, depending on how you look at it) I hear from new or “up and coming” investors are:

“I’m worried that I won’t be able to find a buyer for my property” or
“There are no cash buyers in my area” or
“No one is buying real estate right now.  I won’t be able to get rid of this property”

Nothing could be further from the truth!

Here’s a video showing you EXACTLY how to get a FREE list of cash buyers in your local area:

How To Find Cash Buyers For Your Real Estate Investing Business

Here’s the page you go to so you can create your own personal list of cash buyers: www.REIMarketingTips.com/cashbuyers

Once you pull this list you’ll know:

1.  WHO the cash buyers are in your area (they’ll want to buy YOUR deals, as well, if they’re priced right).
2.  If there are ENOUGH cash buyers in your area to make it worth your while to try and find deals there (you might need to try another area).
3.  WAY more than your competition, (who are posting bandit signs & talking to tire kickers who aren’t “really” cash buyers).

So, what are you waiting for?  The instructional video above shows you EXACTLY how to pull the list.

Here’s the webpage you’ll want to visit after you’ve watched the instructional video: www.REIMarketingTips.com/cashbuyers

Feel free to leave me a comment as to whether or not the video, or the free access to cash buyers was helpful.

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Earlier today I got Barney Killinger of Foreclosure Auction Quick Cash fame on the line to get him to answer any and all questions people had about making big cash in foreclosure auctions.

Watch the replay of this training below.

Remember that you can get started with Foreclosure Auction Quick Cash for as little as $397 since they introduced a 3 pay option earlier today.

Also, if you get stared using this special link, you’ll be eligible to receive all of my bonuses, (simply the BEST bonus package available for Foreclosure Auction Quick Cash) which I’ve also listed again below the video.  Enjoy the replay of the Q&A session with Barney!

Insane Bonus #1: FREE Foreclosure Blog set up for you.  All you have to do is pick a website name, and my developer will build you your very own blog so you can quickly and easily post all of your deals to it.  Do this so your blog can: A) prove to cash investors that you have real deals available for them and B) build your buyers list of new cash buyers even faster.  Note that one of the bonuses that comes with the Foreclosure Auction Quick Cash system is a video presentation called “The Credibility Booster Sales Presentation”.  Imagine having this video put DIRECTLY into your very own blog!  Now you can, and for free, when you purchase through my special link.

Insane Bonus #2: Free 60 minute bonus mastermind call with Justin.  You’ll get 60 minutes 1-on-1 with me to help you through any part of your real estate investing business.  Free bonus webinar revealing all of the tricks and tools to quickly and easily find all of the passive cash buyers in your area who are looking to acquire more properties.

Insane Bonus #3: Free bonus webinar revealing all of the tricks and tools to quickly and easily find all of the passive cash buyers in your area who are looking to acquire more properties.

Insane Bonus #4: Free trial in the Foreclosures.com members area so you have access to ALL of the data on every foreclosure in your county.  This is the perfect supplement to whatever data your county does (or does not) provide online.

Insane Bonus #5: FREE set-up for your very own SaveMeFromForeclosure.com territory in your county making you the foreclosure prevention expert AND giving you INSTANT credibility and also a perfect track record with the Better Business Bureau!

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Today Dreama and I will be releasing a series of videos to you that is going to RADICALLY change the way that you think about doing business moving forward.

These videos aren’t real estate specific tactics and strategies.

They are business building videos that will explode your real estate (or any other) business faster than you ever thought possible.

We’re going to show you how to really build your company, achieve your dreams (like financial freedom) and have more time to spend doing things you love and enjoy.

I know this all sounds vague and fluffy, but I don’t want to “ruin” Thursday’s surprise.

If you can do Dreama and I a favor and on Thursday, open my email and watch our new video, we’ll truly be honored.

In the meantime, you won’t be getting any real estate specific information from us over the next few weeks.

Don’t worry, REIMarketingTips isn’t going anywhere. We just want you to really check out our business building videos and take a step back from real estate.

Speaking of real estate, here are 2 cool resources for you to check out before Thursday
for you to get your real estate fix in:

1. Check out this hilarious video and chance to win a Hummer H2.

2. Here’s a website that is giving away a free REO investing blueprint AND online DVD showing you exactly how to invest in REOs.

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Here’s the replay of the training that we did the other day. It’s called “7 Sneaky Ways To Find Buyers”. Watch this now and then go out implement some of the strategies:

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Short video I recorded yesterday with “The Real Estate Drill Sargent”:

Register for the webinar here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/730477675

The webinar is LIVE, this Tuesday, September 14th at 5pm PST/6pm MST/7pm CST/8pm EST.

There is no charge to attend this free, live training event. No products with be pitched at the end. Instead, during the webinar “The Real Estate Drill Sargent” will share with you his “7 Sneaky Ways To Find Buyers”. Join us on Tuesday night by registering here.

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