John Schroeder's RealProspect Software
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John Schroeder's RealProspect Software's Discussions

Where To Get Mailing Lists
6 Replies

Started this discussion. Last reply by Robert Marx Sep 27, 2009.

Direct Mail - Repeat Your Mailings
13 Replies

Started this discussion. Last reply by Randall Fujinaka May 22, 2009.

Getting Your Letters Opened
4 Replies

Started this discussion. Last reply by Sita Scotch Sep 21, 2008.

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John Schroeder, Technical Real Estate Investor

New real estate investing website management & marketing tool...

Finally after months of development and testing, the new website management and marketing tool for creative real estate investors is available…

real estate investor web sites

I created this product in response to hundreds of RealProspect customers who had asked if I had a website product available, and if I could create one for them.

So, instead of creating a template based product where you are limited in flexibility, I pulled out all the stops and developed a do-it-yourself website builder that you can create and manage up to 10 websites in one account.

Now you can create websites for buying houses, selling houses, and additional disposable websites for split testing marketing campaigns or for any other reason. 

There are no setup charges, and support is FREE!

Check it out today and setup a trial account…

real estate investing websites

Split test your direct mail campaigns and jack up your response rates...

Direct mail split testing is the process of testing two or more versions of your letter to determine which one produces the greatest response. It’s a simple concept, but has HUGE benefits when done properly. Direct response marketers do this all the time by testing different elements of the campaigns to ultimately product the highest possible responses.

A response is measured in a few ways, but ultimately it’s a measurement of the effectiveness of the letters ability to get your recipient to complete the call to action. That call to action could be to have them call you, visit a website, send back another letter, or perhaps send you a check (nice!). The response rate is just a percentage of actions that were completed for your mailing. If you sent 100 letters and received 3 phone calls, then you would have gotten a 3% response rate. Pretty simple stuff, right?

Ok, so the direct mail industry average response rate is something ridiculously low like 0.5%... but that takes into consideration all the bulk junk mail that gets sent to us. I would venture to say that we investors “that target our lists properly” are more likely to get a 2% or better response rate. If not, then something is wrong. Either the list is not targeted enough, or the letter isn’t hitting the right cord to get the reader to take your requested action.

But what happens if you have a highly targeted list, and a not so hot letter? You might get a low response rate… right?

Rather than throw darts and hope for a bull’s-eye, why not send two or more versions of a letter to one list and increase your chances of success? Just take that list and divide it in half and send one version of your letter to one half of the list, and the other version of your letter to the other half of the list. It’s the same amount of work to stuff the envelopes, and it cost the same amount of money in postage… but the difference could mean BIG profits if you hit a winning combination.

You should always split test your letters. The one that gets the highest response will be what is called your “control”. And with every mailing you should try to beat that control, and if you do… the new letter becomes your new control that you are going to try and beat.

So what should you change between each version? There are many views on this, but I personally feel that it really depends on the size of this list you are mailing to and where you are in the testing process. If you are just starting out with your test, then I would try using two letters with a different call to action, or tone. For example I often test the difference between having the letter come from my wife, or from me. I’ve tested sending from me as an investor, as well as looking like it came from a non-investor.

Once you get something that seems to be working the best you can begin to fine tune it by changing more subtle things like the headline (if you are using one), or the opening paragraph. Perhaps the paper it’s printed on, the text font, or the envelope you send it in.

It’s so easy to do, so why not do it? But don’t forget to print a code or something on the bottom of the letters so you can ask the seller to read it back to you when they respond… how else would you know which version it was?

I know it seems like more work, but it REALLY makes a big difference when you narrow down on a letter campaign that responds well with a targeted list. It means the difference between doing one deal a year, and one a week… and often on the same exact marketing budget.

Perhaps you don’t want to deal with all this and would like to have someone do all this testing for you. If that’s the case, then check out the letter templates that Steve Berchtold has created…

http://www.realinvestorsoftware.com/resources/reimletters.asp

Steve has created a series of letter templates that have all gone through rigorous split testing and will guarantee a high response rate out of the box. Then you can make your own tweaks to see if you can improve your responses from there, or just enjoy the results from his hard work. I have used a few of his templates myself and have had some impressive results.

In any case, direct mail marketing is a very powerful marketing tool for us as investors, both for buying houses as well as selling houses. Split testing your letters can greatly improve your responses, as well as increase your profitability… even if you are working on a tight marketing budget.

Checkout Steve’s REIM letter templates here:
http://www.realinvestorsoftware.com/resources/reimletters.asp

Timing the real estate cycle, and getting in front of the next BOOM!

As you might already know, I live and invest primarily in South West Florida, and this area is among the top areas in the country that have suffered the most from this recent real estate turbulence.

In fact, just south of Sarasota (where I live) about 20 miles in Cape Coral is ranked on and off as the #1 area in the U.S. for the highest foreclosure rates.  And where I am it’s not much better.  When the real estate market was cranking, we were seeing better than 30% annual appreciation rates.  A house that you bought for $150,000 in 2003 was worth over $300,000 by the end of 2005… and then seemingly overnight it just came to a screeching halt!

Everyone was talking about how this market bubble was going to pop, but no one knew it would happen that fast, and this severely.   Financial institutions have mounted HUGE historical record breaking losses in the 100’s of billions of dollars on mortgage write offs (nice work short sellers!)… and when a financial giant like Bear Stearns almost goes belly up… you know there are some serious issues in the financial markets.  It’s this financial liquidity crisis that is really causing the pain right now.

Housing prices in our area are just about back where they were in 2003… so now that house you paid $170k for in 03 is probably worth just about that.  And now I hear it all the time from people saying… “I knew this was going to happen”… yet these same people are the ones that are over leveraged and have 5 or 6 properties headed into foreclosure.  It’s like the stock market correction in early 2000… everyone that got financially smacked around by that one will tell you now… “I knew that was gonna’ happen”.  Yeah… good job Nostradahmas!

Ok, so maybe we weren’t completely prepared for this drastic of a real estate correction… but perhaps we can get prepared for when the market starts to shift again.  This is where smart investors make their big moves… they get ahead of the market cycles and capitalize BIG TIME on them.

If you study the financial markets and economic cycles you would find that the stock market tends to lead the economy out of recessions.  Now I don’t know if we are technically in a recession or not, but it sure feels like one.  In fact, it’s often the case that the FED will go back and determine that the US was in a recession a few years after the fact because only then will they have enough statistical data to be able to truly analyze the situation.  So, for argument sake let’s say we are *almost* in a recession, and we should be looking for indications of light at the end of the tunnel.

And so if you follow the stock market, you would see that the market has been slowly and steadily changing direction and is within a few hundred points of being considered in a long primary trend… meaning its technically moving in a strong upward direction.  Its currently in a short-term and intermediate upward trend, so that is very promising. 

Then next positive indicator of a switch in the real estate markets is the fact that much of the initial losses have been realized in the financial intuitions and they are now for the most part starting to lend again.  But of course they are only lending to the most qualified of borrowers.  Building a buyers list is more important now than ever before as investors because finding a house for a buyer is much easier than a buyer for a house.

And the last indicator that I have been watching is the month over month MLS inventory numbers in my area.  Being that we are in one of the most depressed housing markets, it tends to speak volumes when you see any kind of positive change in our market.  The inventory here has stopped rapidly increasing, and were actually starting to see sales volume beginning to increase.  Buyers here are starting to feel comfortable with making a purchase, and FHA financing guidelines have increase the loan amounts to allow qualified buyers to purchase houses at higher price points, therefore the need for creative financing is not as necessary for properties that are purchase above the median home price.

And last but not least, were starting to see the new construction inventory begin to stabilize. Lennar homes is one of the nation’s largest home builders and they are starting to report better (not great) retail sales numbers, and large developers are beginning to buy up large tracks of land again.  These builders have the best resources to determine market conditions, and when I see them buying land for future development that is a pretty good sign that they are preparing for something.

Now the big issue is the cost of fuel, commodity prices, and the weakening dollar.  Many analysts believe that the commodities market is the next bubble to burst, and I happen to agree.  The question is when… of course.  But if commodity prices drop, then the dollar should strengthen…. And because Oil prices are pegged in dollars, we should see the cost of fuel and energy come down, as well as the cost of groceries, and so on.  All this makes it a little bit easier for people to buy a home.

Based on the few market reports I subscribe to and the industry analysts that are tracking this type of economic and financial data… this commodities market should shift sometime in the summer or later part of the year… which historically is the busiest part of the real estate market (in most parts of the U.S.).  Plus… Wal-Mart, McDonalds, and many other large retailers are reporting great earnings, which for the most part seems that the consumers are still consuming. (must be that $600 bucks that G.W. gave us)

So, what I personally derive from all this information… is that we’re at the bottom, and it’s time to get your game face on.  The smart investors are getting prepared to take advantage of yet another amazing opportunity that real estate has to offer.  So even if you were beat up, or discouraged by what has happened in the last two years… get over it!  Nothing in life worth having comes easily.

Anyway, I hope this post will give you some inspiration to do your own homework and look at the true market conditions in your area… and don’t let all the doom and gloom reporting (FOX!), and whiny investors out there get you down.  Just remember, problem solving is how we get paid. And the bigger the problem… the bigger the payday.  This current real estate market is just a GIANT problem, and if you keep your eyes open it could mean a tremendous payday for you!

To your investing success!

John Schroeder

Filtering targeted mailing lists from county tax roll data...

I’m often asked from RealProspect software users, and on occasion when I do a tele-seminar or podcast… “Where do you get your mailing lists from?”

And while the answer is easy for me, it’s a little difficult for me to explain.  You see, I get my mailing lists by filtering my county tax roll data using specific criteria that I am looking for.  And I can get my entire tax roll data on a CD for just $25!

While that sounds great, it’s a little easier said than done.  This weekend I was trying to explain the process to one of my RealProspect software customers and decided to create a video that explains the entire process step-by-step. 

I’ve uploaded this video and made it available for anyone who is interested in learning how to take a large database of records, and filter out a small targeted mailing list to use in your direct mail marketing campaigns.

Keep in mind this may not work for everyone, but if will work for you I can guarantee you will benefit GREATLY from knowing how to do this.

click to watch the online video now

NOTE:  Please be patient while it may take a minute to load, and you will need a broadband internet connection to watch the video (Cable or DSL, etc).

Enjoy!

John Schroeder

Outsourcing your direct mail marketing...

Here is an excellent service that you can use to outsource your larger direct mailings. You may have already heard about it, but I think it’s a great resource and wanted to let everyone know about them just in case.

The service is called Click2Mail, and they are a mail printing and processing fulfillment house that handles all the actual printing, addressing, stuffing and mailing of large mailings.

This may not work for you if you hand address your mailings (which I would highly recommend), but if you are using post cards... this is a HUGE time and money saver.

You can download templates from their website that you can open in Word and then design your post card, or letters if you want them to do that.  Then you can upload your mailing list to them and they will print it out and process it for you.

You can integrate this with RealProspect also.  If you are using the mailing campaign management feature in RealProspect, then when any mailings need to be printed you can export those prospects to a CSV file and upload to Click2Mail and have them process your mailing.

It’s probably not that effective for your every day follow-ups, or small mailings, but if you are going to send 50 or more at a time, then this is a really great service to look into.

Check it out:
http://www.click2mail.com

Here is a link to the online demo on their website:
http://www.click2mail.com/how/demo/index.html

Perhaps it will work for you?

A wholesaling tip for new real estate investors...

So, let’s take that $200,000 house example… 70% of that would be $140,000… and then subtract repairs and your wholesale fee… let’s call it another $15,000. That means your maximum allowable offer on that property would be around $125,000. So, now here is where I have to ask you if you can get this seller to accept an offer of $125,000 for that property…

WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU WHOLESALE THAT!

If you can get a house that cheap… KEEP IT! Call everyone you know and put together the money to buy that house… that’s the kind of stuff you want to keep… NOT wholesale! This is where so many new investors struggle… because finding a deal like this is not so easy, and when you do find them, you want to keep them. Instead, wholesale the ones that you get at 80% of the value… because there is a buyer for that house somewhere, and if you can get it under contract for $100… why not try to wholesale it?

Here is what I mean by that… if you can get a seller to accept an offer that is about 80% of the value of the house, and you can get it under contract for $10 - $100… then why not stick an ad in the newspaper and put some corrugated for sale signs out by the highway and see if you can get a buyer for it? Everyone has their own perception of what a deal is, and not everyone went to the same seminar you did. There are a lot of people out there that would LOVE to get a house at a 20% discount… and you can make a few thousand dollars for finding it for them.

So here is where I get on my soap box about systems… if you have a SYSTEM in place to find these properties, and get a system in place for building a buyers list, then you can easily create a nice cash cow of a business by wholesaling these. And when you do find the one that fits your MAO formula… KEEP THAT ONE and add it to your inventory.

Let’s do some math… If you can get 20 houses under contract and have $100 tied up in each one to bind the contracts…. You have a total of $2,000 invested. If you are getting $3,000 - $5,000 as an assignment fee on each one that you wholesale, then you only need to get one of them sold to cover you investment… and make a small return. But if you can sell 3 of them… then you are making some money.

Now, CRANK IT UP… load up RealProspect with expired listings and send out your mailings, and get as many as you can under contract at 80% or less of the value… and get your buyers list cranking, then before you know it, you will be getting $5,000 checks a few times a week! Keep tweaking your system to get a higher response rate on your mailings, a higher close rate on your offers, and a higher wholesale rate to your buyers… and that is where you spend your time. And when you get a property at a HUGE discount… keep it, rent it, and slowly build your portfolio of passive rental income so someday you can retire and spend your free time doing whatever it is that you want do with it.

Ok… so that’s my thought for today. They come randomly, and usually after talking to a customer on the phone… so perhaps you got some value out of it.

I want to thank everyone for the great testimonials....

I was updating the homepage on my website today, and I thought it would be a good time to add some of the many great testimonials that I have been getting over the last year. So I opened up my email and looked in the folder that I have been sticking all of my feedback and testimonial emails… and WOW!!!!

I know I read all of them as they were given to me, but when I went to read them all this morning at once, I was kinda blown away by how good they really are!

So, I wanted to thank everyone that has been supportive of the development of RealProspect, and all those that have helped make my software such a huge success.  It really does mean a lot to me when I hear how much someone loves using my software, and how they are referring it to their friends.  And it really means a lot to me when someone notices the length at which I go to support them.

I personally think that support is just as important, if not more important than the product itself.  I’ve worked hard to provide a support structure that includes a dynamically growing knowledgebase, as well as a library of video tutorials to help everyone get the most out of using RealProspect.  In addition I’ve responded to thousands of email inquiries, as well as personally contacted quite a few people to help get them setup and walk them through the software… so when it comes to support, I take it very seriously… and I truly appreciate when it is noticed.

Again, thank you everyone for the great testimonials.  I put many of them up on my homepage, and I am working on getting the rest up there too.

All the best,

John Schroeder

Great deals on REO and bank owned real estate...

It’s no big secret that the foreclosure rates in the US are soaring at all time highs, and there is no doubt that it’s a GREAT time to buy properties that have been taken back by banks, otherwise known as HUD properties.

But the problem you might face is that these banks are so overwhelmed with these properties right now, that their REO (Real Estate Owned) departments don’t have the luxury of talking to everyone that is interested in buying one of their houses, so they tend to do one of two things:

1. Find an exclusive Realtor in each area that they have houses in, and let them handle the process of liquidating their REO properties

2. Move all the properties to another entity so they can get them off their books and let them handle the process of auctioning them off.

The problem with the first one is that once the properties gets into the hands of a Realtor, then you lost the opportunity to get it at a discount.  Even though they are loaded with properties, they are forced to list them at 80% of the value of the property, and that’s not really enough to get us excited.

The second option is a challenge because it’s almost IMPOSSIBLE to get in touch with anyone at these liquidation companies, and eventually those properties will be handed over to an REO Realtor to sell on the market.

So, what I’m trying to say is that there are certainly deals there, but getting in touch with someone before it goes to the REO agent is very difficult.  And once it goes on the MLS… its over.  Even if you can negotiate a good deal, it’s still not nearly as good as it would be if you could get in a little bit earlier.

 

Here is how the process generally goes:

- A Lis Pendens if filed when the bank is starting the process of foreclosure

- The court sets a for the property to be sold at the court house to the highest bidder

- The bank sends a proxy agent to the auction to bid up to the full amount of the mortgage balance (and almost always gets the property)

- Within a few weeks of the foreclosure the bank receives the certificate of title (could take longer in some states)

- The bank owns the property and either gives it to a Realtor to sell, or bundles it with a few hundred others and moves them to another company to handle.

So the ideal place to get in on these deals is either pre-foreclosure (after the lis pendens is filed, but before the court house sale), or just after the bank gets the certificate of title (but before it goes to the REO agent).

But how do you do that? It’s not easy, but fortunately for you, you’re not going to have to worry about it anymore…

I just came across this website that focuses on providing you with a comprehensive list of government, and bank seized properties so you can easily locate the deal that is perfect for you.  It’s a website, so you can login and just search the records and locate properties in your area that are bank and government owned, and pick up some great buys.

If you’re a real estate investor looking to take advantage of the latest pull back in the housing, you might want to check out the following site:

Click here for seized properties in your area!

Real estate direct mail marketing for creative real estate investors

If you’re like me, then you probable use direct mail marketing as your primary method of advertising to find motivated sellers.  I have had great success with this as my primary marketing method, and to be honest… I could use this alone and buy enough houses to keep me busy.

I’m often asked by RealProspect users if I have any letter templates available for them, and up until this point I had to say unfortunately, no.  I have a few letters that I had written and tested for my specific investing strategy that I’m not sure would work anywhere else, so I wasn’t comfortable with making promises with them.  And I haven’t had time to create a series of letters and test them to make sure they work because I’ve been so busy developing RealProspect and supporting my customers.

But, I was recently contacted by one of my customers who has been using RealProspect for about three years now, and he told me that he created a set of letter templates that he has been using and tested, and is now offering for others to benefit from as well.  He created a whole series of letter templates for just about any investing strategy to locate motivated sellers.

If you want to get your direct mail marketing cranked up, and not have to waste your valuable time hacking away at your keyboard trying to create the perfect letter… then I highly recommend you take a minute to check these out by clicking the link below:

The REIM Real Estate Investor Marketing Letter Series

And if you’re a RealProspect user, he has provided a quick import utility so you can easily import the REIM templates into RealProspect in a few quick clicks so you don’t have to monkey around with copy and pasting!

A great inexpensive solution to manage your email marketing....

Email is a great way to stay in contact with your prospects and buyers, and there are hundreds of hosted solutions and applications available out there to help you with this process. But there is some confusion by many people as to how this whole thing works, and I want to help clear that up if possible…

Here is the scoop.  It doesn’t matter what you use to "send" email.  Typically you can use any email program, and any SMTP server to “send” email out through (you should have had one provided with your internet service).  For example, I use Roadrunner for internet access, and there SMTP server is smtp-server.tampabay.rr.com.  So this is what I use when I set any software settings for outbound mail delivery. Anther words, this is the server that will handle the routing of the email when it is “sent out”.

So what does this mean exactly?

Well, sending mail out can be done independent of your mail client (Outlook, Yahoo, MSN, Gmail, etc).  But all mail being sent "To You" will be sent to your inbound mail server.  Then you receive responses in your preferred email viewer.

So essentially you can have one program to manage your email blasting, and get all your responses in your regular email inbox in your preferred email program.

Now, the trick is to send out your email properly so you don’t get caught in SPAM filters... as would most definitely happen if you tried to stuff 3000 contacts into a BCC field.  That is no good.

I use a program called Mailloop (www.mailloop.com) for all my email marketing and autoresponders, etc.   However, if you just need a simple program to manage your email blasts, here is one that I found on jitbit.com for under $30.

(Mailloop is a much more robust program that can handle any aspect of your email marketing, and it installs on your computer so you do not have any monthly expenses…  I have tried them all, and this one works great!  The other program available from Jitbit is a simple program that can be used for just sending out large email blasts.  It’s a very inexpensive solution, but has some limitations.)

What these programs will do is allow you to design your email message, and then import your list, and then it will send each email individually, and allow you to drop in fields for personalizing each email just like RealProspect does. 

In the settings for these programs, it will ask you for your SMTP server address.  In this case, use the one that is given to you with your internet provider (i.e. smtp-server.tampabay.rr.com).  Then set your response email address to be the email address that you use for handling your prospect responses.

Now you have a program that can make your email marketing very efficient, highly personalized, and most importantly not prone to getting snagged by those SPAM fileters!

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