Hi, thanks for making this forum Seth!
My question for everyone is that when you write your direct mail, do you put more emphasis on making an offer on behalf of your company or using your personal name? For those who invest near their homes, is there a fear that sending out lots of mail might get to the point that people start recognizing your name (in a bad way)?
@oranjoose I always err on the side of too personal rather than too professional.
For me, the demographics of who I'm dealing with when buying property tends to resonate more with me being down-to-earth over coming across as though I'm some big shot.
I think my first couple of campaigns didn't even have my company name on it and my current campaign includes my picture on the mail piece so they can see who they're working with.
I don't invest near where I live, so I can't speak to that part of your question, unfortunately.
@Jarenb thanks for the response and insight. The photo idea sounds like a good one.
I suppose if you invest pretty far away from home, then it's not much of an issue. I have a fairly unique name, so it makes me feel a bit more cautious about all of this.
Personally if I was investing near home I would use your unique name. In the end you might get a few people angry about your low offer, but they will start to recognize you as an investor and if they ever get in a bind, they will want to look you up. I have rentals, flipped houses, and did remodeling work for many years in my hometown area, and due to my last name being well known in the community, it opened a lot of doors of trust with new clients.
I am currently sending out mail with my company name and address, but I have my name written and signed as "aquisitions manager". Even when selling on facebook I use my profile, and real name with my picture. A trick to sales is to write, and speak with people in a way that builds rapport... This for me means to position yourself as a good friend and advisor to them. I take this approach and tell them how to avoid scams and pitfalls, and am generally open to them with info which makes them trust you more.
This is literally what Seth (and Jaren) have done with REtipster. They are so forthright and open with the information, what they are doing etc that people see them as an authority in the industry and would therefore trust them to do a deal.
@jawollbrink Thanks for the affirmation and sage suggestions.
My family name has already been building good reputation over the decades with the SFR business, and I wouldn't want to sully that by people associating me or my family name with the "we buy junk houses" bandit sign kind of business, which I think locals connote with opportunism and exploitation. If I can balance out any negativity coming from the cash offers on land with a kind demeanor and some other way of helping the community, then maybe that would help if I understood your advice correctly.
I saw the postcard vs mailing offers thread on this forum. Which strategy does anyone think better preserves reputation? Or maybe I should ask in that thread.
Personally I think you need to get past any guilt about what you are doing. It's not oportunistic to offer people real money offers on land, which in many cases can take them years to sell. All the people I am buying from are glad to sell to me, for whatever reason because I am fixing their problem. All good business fixes a problem for people. I have bought many "junk houses" and every house that I have bought cheap was always fixing someone's problem.
I would focus on learning the philosophy of the business and learning from other investors, in their customer service. Most of them are very polite, and I beleive if someone in your family is a realtor etc that is worried about you doing this will somehow mess up their reputation, well that is their business. If you want to go anywhere as an investor you need to understand that WE are in the minority. We show up with cash and buy things normal buyers wouldn't touch. We may be catering to a smaller niche, but I have bought property, both houses and land from people in the last year who were quite literally going to lose it for back taxes, so they were ELATED that I RESCUED them.
In the end, how you do your business is completely up to you, his is just my 2 cents. Blessings, Jason
@oranjoose - I've had similar concerns in the past about using my personal name on a mail piece. Even so, I've put it on MANY postcards and blind offers... and it hasn't ever come back to haunt me.
I think part of the reason is because I lead with the business name, and unlike @Jarenb, I don't put my picture anywhere. At most, I'll include my personal name at the end of the message, but that's it (the return address has my business name and address, not my personal info - I'll also include my company logo, so the recipient can see it's a business, not just a random guy).
Now, if you were sending out this correspondence via email and including your full name, or posting it on a public forum (where it's very easy to share or copy and paste your message to someone else), it might be easier to tarnish your name online, because it's so click-button easy to spread stuff around online - but if you're keeping it strictly to mail, there's more of a barrier for people to go psychotic and try to destroy your reputation (not impossible, but not as simple).
Along these lines, when I send out automated offers via email, I end the email with my first name only, not my first and last name.
All in all, it would take a highly insecure (and possibly mentally unstable) person to care that much about your low offer that they'd go out of their way to make trouble for you. A reasonable person will just toss it and move on with their lives.
@oranjoose Makes a lot of sense!
A BIT off topic, but asides from the name to get personal...
Another way to get very personal is using something is what some coin as copy cosmetics. I found that I got a better response rate (some have reported up to 50% the response rate) when some copy cosmetics are included. I literally have a hand written "Thank you" and a smile face drawn on the letter (doodles!).
Here's a page of a guide we're working on for REI Conversion, but here are some ideas for copy cosmetics you should consider that can help with your mailers @oranjoose
I'd encourage you to experiment with some of these:
@Jessey wow! This is gold! Thanks for sharing that!
@Jessey I keep looking for the Like button. Nicely done.
@Jarenb Hey Jaren, I watched your interview with Seth from 2017 and listened to your recent podcast with Seth and it sounds like you've had a couple transitions between those two points in time. I have a personal interest to ask a bit more about those transitions. Can I send you a PM?
@oranjoose sure thing! We could potentially jump on call too - I'll PM you my scheduling link.
