Dallas-Fort Worth Real Estate Investor Club

HI DFW REI members, 

I posted a couple of months ago that my leads had gone down by about 40% for back to back months... A couple of people chimed in and said that business was getting better eluding to that it's a good market right now... I'm still consistently getting only about 65% to 75% of the number of leads that I was getting in 2014... I'm curious how others are doing and if I'm still alone in the "slower leads" scenario...

Thoughts? 

Brian R. Baker, MBA

Texas Housing Partners LLC

Brian / Robin / et al,

You're right. 

For the vast majority of investors (and Realtors) 2015 is NOT as good as years past. But for a few of us, it's freakin' AWESOME! 

As a guy who makes his living providing the tools, training and leads investors and Realtors need to build really successful businesses, this dichotomy was driving me crazy. Like Robin, my personal investment business has never been better. On the consulting and Real Estate leads side I have investor and Realtor clients who are KILLING IT (buying GREAT and PROFITABLE DEALS on a regular basis); but I know 10x's as many who are not. So I spent months researching why. What I found is that 1) most investors / Realtors do what is cheap, fast &/or easy (which no longer yields profitable results), 2) the market has radically changed over the last few years and only a handful of Realtors / Investors have changed with it, and 3) MUCH of the advice / information new investors / Realtors are now receiving is WRONG (or flat-out lies). Gone (for now) are the days when you could log on to the MLS and in about 10 minutes find 3 deals that would each make you $20K in profit. What HAS NOT CHANGED are the fundamentals. 

It turns out successful investors and Realtors all have the same recurring traits in their businesses, with one being the most important. Here it is - they spend money, time and effort on their businesses and run their businesses LIKE BUSINESSES.

Regardless of whether you are a Realtor, new or seasoned investor, or the maid who cleans my house, apply the fundamentals to your business (think deeply about what you want to achieve, seek out GOOD advice on how to achieve that goal from someone who is already doing what you want to do as a full-time job, work HARD every day executing your business and your business' plan, implement continuous improvement, and market and sell LIKE CRAZY - AAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL THE TIME) and you will be successful.

If you want to delve deeper into this either PM (greg at ridglea dot com) or post here and I'll reply.

Have a great day!

-Greg

Wow, thank you all for your quick responses and educational insight, it’s VERY appreciated… As far as what is considered success vs not successful is relative by individual…. For me 2015 has been a successful year (by my standards of what is successful, considering that I have a full-time job), but just not as successful as 2014 was (including Q1 2015)…. I’m not unhappy with where my business is, rather, Q2/2014 – Q1/2015 was a FANTASTIC 12 months for me and I’m not seeing that same level of success since that time frame (specifically in Texas) and just wanted to reach out to others….  

I think Greg that your comments are especially well received… While I do (try to) run my business like a business, I do not allot a significant number of business hours toward Real Estate… I have a full-time job that I don’t plan to give up anytime soon, and I only have 10 hours per week of additional staff hours allocated toward my (Texas) company.

My bottom line is that my momentum from the 12 month period outlined above is on the decline… Nothing startling, but as a business owner, my expectations are for my business to grow year after year unless there are extenuating circumstances (like a housing crisis) that prevents steady growth from occurring… Perhaps my expectations are not reasonable for REI, or reasonable for me personally as a business owner. 

Frankly, by all accounts of what I’m seeing, my business is just not doing as well as it was last year and my goals of revenue growth are not occurring… That falls 100% on me as an owner… I’m happy that I’m still ~¾ of where I was last year, but am unhappy with the decline….

All, I appreciate the market insight!!  Thank you!!!

Brian R. Baker, MBA

Texas Housing Partners LLC. 

brian@texashousingpartners.com 

Our last 2 Saturday meetings (Oct 17 & Oct 24) have been on "How to be a Deal Magnet" and "How to Find Super Deals in a Seller's Market."  BTW, Video and Audio files of both of those meetings is available here at www.DFWREIClub.com.

My wife, Cindy, and I are indeed Deal Magnets; especially in 2015.  Using the methods shared in those 2 meetings, we've seen our business increase by more than 50% since February of this year.

One critically important tip is to not get locked in to one or two methods of finding deals or to what may have worked for you in the past.  Constantly reexamine what you're doing to find deals.  Be nimble, and be willing and able to change.  Develop a multifaceted strategy for finding and structuring deals, keep the pipeline full, and I'm pretty confident you'll like the results.

If you'd like to chat about this topic, feel free to give me a call at 817-300-1132.

Thanks,

Thank you Robin and Dwayne,

I have been using the same strategy (which I have felt is unique and outside the box), but again has not been quite as successful as before (still getting a consistent amount of leads, but it's consistently less than it was last year)... I had to hire staff to help me with my overflow leads... Now I have the staff, but not as many overflow leads (ugh, more tough decisions to make as a business owner)!

I appreciate all of the candid thoughts and advice here. It's all well received. Dwayne, I think that you articulated your response very well and I think that you're right on.

Robin, I think that your right on point with your thoughts/suggestions as well.....  Thank you!

Brian R. Baker, MBA