Archives for November 2017

We live in a hyper-connected yet very distracted world.  Our minds are wired to take in information at all times (which in nature was a great asset to sense danger) and with so many information sources it becomes very easy to become distracted.

This factor leads to procrastination not necessarily because of laziness, but because of instinct.  If your goal is to have consistent motivation, focus, and be as productive as you know you can be, then this skill needs to be practiced just like learning how to play the violin.

Having a crystal clear direction as to where you want to go, why you want to go there, and what it would mean for you/family/customers once you get there is critically important to keeping you on the pathway to reaching your goals.

Airplanes are off course over half of the time on long trips, but the auto pilot keeps adjusting the plant back on course – clarity of your vision is what will bring you back on course in your business or personal life. Further, this clear vision will also allow you to measure your progress to see if the activities you are focused on are getting you closer or further away from that destination.

For instance, if you wanted to grow your real estate portfolio in Calgary, Edmonton, or across Canada to 100 doors in 5 years then you could break down that objective into quarterly and monthly milestones.  What is your vision for your company? Your family? Your community?

Let me know your thoughts.

Respect The Hustle,

Tim Reid

We are back with V3 of the flipping fundamentals series – in this edition, we will be covering how to market for deals in any market.  One of the fundamentals of any business is to have a product that you can sell at a profit, sounds simple right? In concept it certainly is, execution in real estate on this point is more complex than most.  If you were to create a company that sells widgets you would naturally go to the widget wholesale in your area and then create an account, buy inventory, mark that inventory up, then sell it to customers that came into your widget store.

In real estate, there are no wholesale warehouses you can go to in order to obtain inventory at a discounted price. (see rule#1 in real estate – always get a discount)  Therefore, you need to market to the public so that owners with distressed homes and/or distressing circumstances will contact you.  After all, it would be a better method to have the business come to you rather than you chasing the business!

There are a number of ways to market for these properties:

1. Direct Mail
2. Online via social media, website, google ads
3. Door knocking
4. Networking with realtors
5. Networking with mortgage brokers
6. Creating relationships with foreclosure lawyers or insurance companies (IE Genworth, home guarantee)
7. Kijiji and other free classified services
8. Auctions called sheriff sale Canada
9. Foreclosure listing services
10. Driving communities to look for neglected or vacant homes
11. MLS listings over 100 days on the market
12. Wholesale Investors

Because they’re a lot of ways to market your intention to buy houses to potential sellers, I would recommend that you pick 2-3 strategies to focus on depending on what best suits your budget at the beginning of your real estate career in Calgary or your local market place.

Before picking the strategies that you think will work best, you need to define your target market – which means in our context a market such as “ugly houses wanted” or “any condition as is welcomed” these would-be owners that have very distressed properties and may not be able to sell the property the traditional way due to its condition. (you can pick any distressed circumstance that you like to market to)

Once you have your target market (or markets) picked out then you need to craft messages that will resonate with those homeowners to get them to take action and contact your company.  In marketing there is a concept called test, measure, adjust.  Think of your marketing machine like an old FM radio: you pick a station you want (your client) you tune the radio to where you think the best reception will be (your marketing message to be tested) then you see how you did (the reception on the radio or your conversion rate with your customers) then adjust accordingly to get better sound on the radio or more calls and emails from your target market.

This concept is also known as A/B testing where you may have 2 marketing messages running at the same time to see which one is working better then you keep the top performer and then create a new message to test/measure against.

Once you are getting leads, you need to come up with a systematic way to:

1. follow up with the homeowners
2. view and estimate the properties
3. run the numbers to ensure profitability
4. make offers quickly and efficiently
5. Finance the property
6. Flip the property

It is common to go over 100 leads shortlist 10 make offers on 5 and 2 will get accepted and 1 of them will be a profitable deal.

Real estate is a game that is won based on the numbers, we will dive into that area in the next edition with some examples of deals, the process for due diligence, and more!

Respect The Hustle

Tim Reid

Balance in business is B.S – I have to come right out and say it.  Some will disagree withe me on this point for sure…and that’s OK.  I have read a lot of material on success, wealth, and making money over the years and I would have agreed with the “balance camp” in the past for sure.  When I was working in my career as an engineer for a large corporation I was always seeking the fabled “work life balance” that gets talked about often, yet rarely achieved.

I had higher than industry standard vacation days, and in almost 10 years working at that company more often than not I was scrambling to use them all before the end of the year! (it was a use em or lose em’ structure). How does one find balance in that circumstance? There are many careers that face the same dilemma, and we are becoming a nation of distracted/over worked balance seekers.

I feel that there is no such thing as balance in your career, business, life as a whole – I just watched a video by Grant Cardone one of the thought leaders I have a lot of respect for and his stance is that you need to commit to excellence in all areas of your life not just average results in many trying to keep everything “Balanced”. I have to agree 100% because I have made a lot of sacrifices since I chose to leave the corporate world last year, and the further I get away from what most people would consider “balance” the more opportunity I see, more contacts I meet, and the more successful by business becomes.  That is why I think balance is BS.

Respect The Hustle,

Tim Reid