Aug
30Private Money – How to Get Your Name in the Media (and Keep it There!)
Filed in: Private Lending by Mike Lautensack on 08-30-09Now, do you think it would help you raise private capital (or do anything for that matter) if you had press coverage like that for your business? I literally had inquiries from new investor prospects before I had my first sip of coffee yesterday! Last week, I posted an article about how to raise private capital without advertising. You can clearly see the result of it now, but how can you do the same?
Lets cut right to the chase: Good news about you and/or your company in the media gives you credibility. Why? Because you are big enough to be in paper/magazine/tv and they must trust you if thats the case. Who are they? It doesnt matter. It doesnt matter because most people think they are smart and trustworthy. So if they trust you, then most other people will trust you too. They are really people looking for a story to tell in order to 1. Provide information that may interest their audience, and 2. Sell newspapers or magazines. So why not help them do just that while picking up your piece of the free trust pie that is being passed around? Granted, they can paint you in a bad light just as easily as a good one, and will sell just as many papers because of it. Its your job to get started out on the right foot from day one. Heres how:
Establish Your Experience
If you are brand new in the business of real estate investing, or any other business, it may seem difficult to get your foot in the media door. Journalists are looking for experts to quote in most of their articles. Good news: An expert is defined as someone who knows more than the average person about any particular topic. If average is 50% of the population, and you have completed one investment property deal (bought one, sold one, heckeven LOOKED at one), then you are now way, way above average and now qualified as an expert. Dont think Im serious? Take another look at the article that I was quoted in above. Im not the only person quoted in there. The writer was quoting me as a credible expert, but also intentionally quoted a beginning investor with much less experience. He even got to say Im looking to borrow money from someone elses IRA. Hows that for not advertising? So how do you get noticed by a journalist as a new or experienced investor?
Relevant Compliments
I have to give some credit to Than Merrill of FortuneBuilders and A&Es Flip This House for this step. Hes the one that originally gave me this idea for this strategy at his Wholesaling and Marketing Bootcamp a few years ago. Its worked great ever since!
Here are the steps to get your name into the media as an expert in your niche (example: my niche is private funding for real estate investment deals):
1. Start with your local newspaper: Find an article about your industry or niche. In my case, I look for articles written about real estate investing that include quotes from actual real estate investors in my marketplace. If the articles also talk about private funding, all the better, but general articles about real estate investing are really good enough. Also, read the entire article and make sure that the writer frames the expert in a positive light. You dont want to get a reporter that goes around bashing people. If you can help it, you only want your name in the media if they are saying good things about you.
When looking for an article that sounds like something you would want to be mentioned in, remember that even a good interview with a reporter does not necessarily yield a good article about you. Journalists have editors who control the content of their articles. If the editor wants a negative spin because it sells more papers, then thats what you get. In these cases, I always remember something that Donald Trump once said: It doesnt matter how you get your name in the media, just get it in. People wont remember how they heard your name, but they will remember your name just the same. (That was not an exact quote, but you get the message).
2. Construct a compliment to the writer: Writers love to get feedback on their work. Especially the good kind, and especially from people that dont want anything in return. Thats where you come in. Via e-mail, you will send the writer a message thanking them for the article, giving them praise, explaining why you are qualified to issue the compliment and why the article meant something to you. You will leave a way for them to contact you, but will ask for NOTHING in return. Heres how it might look if you are somewhat new in the business:
Dear Joe,
Thanks for your great article in yesterdays paper entitled No Banks Needed: How to fund your next real estate deal with self-directed IRAs. I am a relatively new real estate investor and have struggled for the last year to get 3 very simple deals funded. As the mortgage companies and banks were no help (as you well know), I turned to private money and was quickly able to fund my deals. It has really turned out to be a great win-win partnership between me and my lenders. I was so glad to see your article yesterday because there has been so much negative talk about investments that most people just want to keep their head in the sand and not talk about it. Articles like yours give people a new way of looking at things and open up opportunities for investors on all sides where there may not have been previously.
Thank you so much and keep up the great work!
Sincerely,
Peggy Smith
808-555-5555
peggy@happyhomebuyers.com
Now, if you received that e-mail, how would you feel about that person? What would you want to do after reading that e-mail? Would you think, oh, thats nice and delete the e-mail? Or, would you write them back?
Heres an example of how your e-mail might look if you are an experienced investor:
Hi Joe,
Thanks for your great article in yesterdays paper entitled No Banks Needed: How to fund your next real estate deal with self-directed IRAs. I am the President of a local real estate investing firm and weve been buying dozens of homes, renovating, then selling or renting them during the past many years. As the mortgage market started constricting over a year ago, we began looking for a solution to our funding dilemma. We ended up establishing a relationship with a local self-directed IRA company that turned out to be a great success for both of us. They educate their clients about possible investment opportunities within their IRAs, and we educate them on the ins and outs of certain investment models that we can provide. The IRA company is happy because their clients have a good place to invest their capital. The investors are happy because they have a safer, secured investment with a strong yield, and we are happy to have a small private bank of sorts from which to fund our projects. Articles like yours really help to keep people open-minded about alternative investment models and bring light to options that most people never knew existed. I think you are doing people a lot of good.
Thanks again, and keep up the great work!
Best Regards,
Ernest Jones
President, EJ Capital Group
808-555-5555
ej@ejcapitalgroup.com
This time the writer received a compliment from an expert. They take this seriously because they just received a big pat on the back from an important person. Not only that, but we told a short story of our success in the e-mail. Since writers are always looking for something to write about, you may have just given them their next story, along with a credible expert to quote in it (that would be YOU).
Your homework this week is to try out the above strategy. Contact 2-3 local journalists and follow the instructions above. Wait patiently and see what happens. Dont be surprised if you dont get a response, but also dont be surprised if you get a response and request for an interview right away! If you try this and dont get anywhere, keep it up. Persistence beats resistance. If you have some success, or challenges, please leave your comments here so we can talk about it further.
Next week, well dig into Part 2 of this strategy and discuss how to snowball your success above and take it to the national level on a consistent basis. I will also discuss the effective use of press releases and the power they have to drive massive traffic to your website and produce more interviews for you if used properly.
by Chris Yates
Popularity: 11% [?]
Aug
30Real Estate Investors – Using Newspaper Ads to Get Motivated Sellers to Call You
Filed in: Real Estate Investing by Mike Lautensack on 08-30-09Obviously you’re aware that in terms of the private lending process, I do not recommend newspaper ads for a number of reasons. To get sellers, newspaper ads work. They don’t work great and they have to be done right to get a good response, but what’s nice about newspaper ads is if they’re done right, they don’t cost a lot of money.
They’re completely evergreen, meaning once you set it up, they just crank week after week after week. They will produce a steady stream, not overwhelming, but you will get calls over time.
Use Small Newspapers
The important thing about a newspaper ad is you do not want to be placing it in a big newspaper like the Philadelphia Inquirer. In fact, the Philadelphia Inquirer may not be here in the next few months. If you live in a big town, the big newspapers are absolutely out of the picture. They’re very cost-prohibitive.
Target Your Area
Again, going back to our business plan: Hopefully you’ve all earmarked a particular township or borough or little town with 10,000 to 20,000 homes. Hopefully that town has a small little newspaper. Typically it may be a weekly paper. It may not even be daily in many cases. You could advertise in most of these newspapers for $15-20 a month or week. Not an exorbitant amount of money.
You work with the newspaper, you draft your ad, and that ad will just be there week after week after week. If you do it the right way, you set it up with voicemail system or the website, you can track the results to you know how many people are calling from that newspaper ad to your voicemail box by tracking it through that voicemail or extension number.
Set Your Budget
You can then make some estimates. I’m spending $20 a week. Maybe in a month’s time, maybe you got six phone calls. That’s not overwhelming certainly, but six phone calls, if they’re good quality phone calls, could be very profitable.
Maybe you’re not going to get a deal each and every month out of those six calls, but maybe the third or fourth month, every once in awhile you’re going to hit a really good quality property with a truly motivated seller who’s ready to do a deal.
Write Attention-Grabbing Headlines
I think newspaper ads should be part of your process. It is absolutely an effective way to get sellers to call you. It’s simple and easy. Some of the things you’ve got to watch out for obviously is space. You’re paying for space. Generally they’re not going to give you a lot.
You’re going to get a small headline. You need to put something in there that will catch attention. You could have maybe a sentence or two. Typically, not even a sentence or two; it’s a bullet point or two.
Part of what I’m going to give you on the download page is about probably 30 or 40 different newspaper ads that I’ve tried over the years. I’m going to give you all of these ads. You guys can look at them. You can change them or modify them but I’ll give you some examples.
I invite you to learn more about Marketing for Private Lenders and get FREE instant access to a 60 minute audio titled The Marketing Plan — Learn the Marketing Secrets of How to Get People Calling to Give You Money For Profitable Real Estate Deals! by going to http://www.realestatewealthtoday.com/PLS-Vol3-Signup.html
Mike Lautensack is a full-time real estate entrepreneur in Philadelphia, PA and creator of the Private Lending Presentation Kit. This powerful done-for-you kit is loaded with tools and techniques to attract and develop a consistent stream of private investors into your real estate business. To learn more about this kit and receive your FREE Real Estate Wealth Newsletter go to Private Lender Presentation Kit
Popularity: 6% [?]
Aug
27Property Management – FREE Audio on the 10 Success Secrets of Property Management
Filed in: Property Management by Mike Lautensack on 08-27-09Do own a Rental Property or have you ever thought about buying a
rental property?
Have you ever had a problem with one of your tenants like
nonpayment of rent, late rent, complaints about maintenance?
How would you like to become a more professional property manager
and move beyond “mom and pop management”.
I just completed a 60 minute audio titled “Learn the 10 Success
Secrets of Property Management Every Real Estate Investor Must Know
to Manage Your Own Investment Properties for Profit and Avoid
Tenant Headaches!”
If you would like to listen to this FREE audio please go to
http://www.realestatewealthtoday.comPropertyManagementSecrets.html
Here is what you are going to learn and discover in this brand new
tele-seminar:
* What is Property Management and why it is absolutely essential to be successful in real estate investing…
* How to use both offline and online marketing techniques to get the phone buzzing with qualified potential tenants…
* The 3 keys steps you MUST take to screen potential tenants and maximize your potential of getting good long term tenants that can make landlording a joy…
* Discover the advantages of a true professionally lease designed to protect the owner versus a “store bought” lease which favors the tenant…
* How to Get Your Tenants to Stay After the First Year…
* And of course, a whole lot more!
If you would like to listen to this FREE audio please go to
http://www.realestatewealthtoday.comPropertyManagementSecrets.html
Thanks
Mike Lautensack
http://www.LearnRealEstateInvestingBlog.com/
Popularity: 9% [?]
Aug
19Private Lending For Real Estate Investors – Training Vidoe – Volume 1
Filed in: Private Lending by Mike Lautensack on 08-19-09Aug
18Learn 4 Ways to Raise Private Money For Real Estate Investors
Filed in: Private Lending by Mike Lautensack on 08-18-09Now that the mortgage market for buying investment real estate is all but dead – investors need to have other sources available or go out business. Fannie and Freddie will no longer be available for investor mortgages, traditional banks and saving and loans will not touch investors loans for many years to come and hard money lenders, when available, can have total cost over 25%.
The answer is private money raised from people, not banks, through a process called private lending. Here are the four top ways to attract and develop your group of private lenders.
Private Lending Group Presentations
A private lending presentation involves getting 5 to 20 people into a room and doing a group presentation where you lay out the details and benefits of your private lending program. This may not be for everyone depending on your comfort level of talking in front of a group of people. But there is big advantage of doing group meetings. When people start to ask questions and tell positive stories a certain level of group think starts to take effect and can be very powerful on the attendees.
One-on-One Meetings
If you are not comfortable with group meetings – one-on-one meetings are a great alternative. I generally recommend a breakfast meeting in a quiet restaurant where you can have 15 to 45 minutes of time with your prospect. Like the group meeting you need to lay out your private lending program’s details and benefits.
Out of Town Prospects – Creditability Kit
If the potential prospect is out of town you will need a good creditability kit you can send in the mail. It is very important to follow up two or three days after you send the package to see if they have any questions. Even if they do not participate right away, keep in contact and they may invest some time down the road after a number of follow up contacts.
Existing Private Lenders
If you already have a private lender, or lenders, be sure to keep asking them if they would like to participate in more deals. You will be shocked that most investor only give a very small investment to start and wait to see how things turn out before giving you more money. So keep asking and do what you say you are going to do they will develop a better relationship and trust level with you. As the relationship grows they will invest larger and larger sums to grow your real estate investing business.
And I invite you to learn more about Private Lending and get FREE instant access to a 60 minute audio and 20-page eBook titled “Discover the Secrets of How to Fund Your Real Estate Deals with Private Lenders!” by going to http://realestatewealthtoday.com/FREE-eBook.html
Mike Lautensack is a full-time real estate entrepreneur in Philadelphia, PA and creator of the Private Lending Presentation Kit. This powerful done-for-you kit is loaded with tools and techniques to attract and develop a consistent stream of private investors into your real estate business. To learn more about this kit and receive your FREE Real Estate Wealth Newsletter go to Private Lending Kit
Popularity: 10% [?]
Aug
16Real Estate Investors: Discover How to Find High Net Worth Investors For Your Private Lending Program
Filed in: Real Estate Investing by Mike Lautensack on 08-16-09The key for real estate investors to finding high net worth (HNW) private lenders is first the marketing image and then a consistency of purpose.
Marketing Image
It’s essential to know that most affluent potential investors are NOT attracted to the typical private lending marketing. I receive loan requests all the time from friends, investors and others and most are very ordinary and uninteresting. Very few seem interested in getting to know me or my investment needs.
Affluent investors are not going to respond to the same marketing you use for middle-class mom & pop investors.It takes a unique marketing edge to attract HNW investors.
We all have association links in our brain. Those associations will cue us to make snap judgments based on past experiences.
Take the affluent investor…
Most of their advisers use the personal approach in selling services to them. Have you ever seen the business card of an investment banker or wealth adviser?Was it riddled with “Earn 12% Interest..” and their entire pitch front & back?
Was it printed on bright green card stock?
So do you think the wealthy investor will give much credibility to your fluorescent business card that’s printed with 400 words?
Be sure to have quality marketing materials that show you in a professional light.
Consistency of Purpose
It is very important that when marketing to HNW people that you have a consistency of purpose and stay with your marketing.If you plan to send one or two marketing pieces to a HNW with no further follow up you might as well not do any and save some money.You need to have 7 to 15 steps in your marketing plan to HNW.
They will almost never respond to the first couple marketing pieces.These type people are busy and need to see your message on a repeated basis.You should plan repeated marketing step over at least one year period with many different types of marketing including post cards and letters.
But is very important that at some point your marketing tries to get a one on one personal meeting with the HNW person and that is where the real deal will be made.
I invite you to learn more about Private Lending and get FREE instant access to a 60 minute audio and 20-page eBook titled “Discover the Secrets of How to Fund Your Real Estate Deals with Private Lenders!” by going to http://realestatewealthtoday.com/FREE-eBook.html
Mike Lautensack is a full-time real estate entrepreneur in Philadelphia, PA and creator of the Private Lending Presentation Kit. This powerful done-for-you kit is loaded with tools and techniques to attract and develop a consistent stream of private investors into your real estate business. To learn more about this kit and receive your FREE Real Estate Wealth Newsletter go to Private Lender Money Kit.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Aug
15“How I Turned $1,000 Into A Million In Real Estate—In My Spare Time”
Filed in: Motivational by Mike Lautensack on 08-15-09Long before Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Art of the Deal and the gazillion other books on how to get rich in real estate were published, William Nickerson was the author everyone read. I recently poured over his cla
ssic How I Turned $1,000 Into A Million In Real EstateIn My Spare Time and think its still the best of the genre.
Nickersons formulawhich he calls pyramidinginvolves buying properties that need a little work, fixing them up and renting them out at higher rates. You then use the equity you build through that process to trade up to a larger property. Nickerson starts with a duplex and ends up with a 30-unit apartment building.
The first version of his book came out in 1959. I was struck by how much of what he wrote is still relevant today. Granted the first duplex he bought cost $8,500 and the initial rents were $90 a month. But the interest ratesat 5%are about what you would pay today.
Nickersons description of how the housing market sunk in the Great Depression also sounds familiar. Home owners took out high-interest loans, 8% at the time, on a short term loans. The loans left them with much larger payments due in five years. When the big payments came due they were unable to refinance and got foreclosed on.
In between his financial wheeling and dealing, Nickerson spins some homey business advice. For example, never use the same Realtor you used to buy a property to help you sell it later. Thats because the Realtor will have the low price you paid stuck in the back of his mind and hell try to get you to accept less in order to close a deal.
In a section on leasing your apartments, Nickerson reminds the reader to never forget to say Buy before Goodbye. Its another way of saying Dont forget to ask for the order. Nickerson advises that when youre showing an apartment to prospective tenant make sure to ask questions that lure them into saying yes, such as Would you like to move in on he first of the month?
Nikcerson updated his book every decade or so. The $1 million in real estate became $2 million, then $5 million. He died in 1999penniless.
Just kidding about that last part.
Popularity: 55% [?]
