Residential real estate investors can be some of the worst marketers for getting new deals. I should know – I used to be one of them.

Most real estate investors spend much of their time learning the technical aspects of the business such as how to purchase, what forms to use, how to analyze deals, financing strategies, exit strategies, etc.

Yes, this education is critically important, and I don't recommend skipping it but don't forget that your "real" business is generated from your front-end lead generation work that results in getting new deals.

Without effective front-end marketing, many real estate investors can suffer from a shortage of incoming deals. This is especially true for part-time real estate investors, who have a limited amount of time to spend finding new deals.

But I've learned from direct interaction with many real estate investors that they often find prospecting to be frustrating and time consuming.

So how is your particular "lead generating" machine running? Is it consistently producing new deals for you? You can quickly find this out by asking yourself the following questions:

- Am I consistently getting the amount of new deals that I want?


- Is my return-on-investment for my time & effort high?


- Is this valuable time that I'd rather spend somewhere else?


- Do I really know how to get new deals?

I've noticed that using "We Buy Houses" signs, placing newspaper ads, and making lots of lowball offers is the standard advice that's out there for generating new deals. These strategies can work well, but in general they aren't targeted to any specific area AND unfortunately most of your peer investors are using these same strategies.

For example, take my investment areas in and around Philadelphia. I consulted with the List Service Company I use by asking them for the number of active real estate investors in my four county investing areas (within approximately 40 miles of Philadelphia).

They forwarded me the following numeric list "counts" of folks who indicated that their lifestyle included real estate investing:

-13,750 real estate investors in Philadelphia County


-11,568 real estate investors in Montgomery County


-9,739 real estate investors in Bucks County


-7,280 real estate investors in Delaware County





Total = 42,337

Yikes! Granted these folks aren't exactly lining up to steal my particular deals but there are a heck of a lot of investors near me. Quite a "Herd", isn't it?

My advice to you is to do the same as I have done - get out of your area's real estate investor Herd now. Here's why it's important to do it, and do it NOW:

Reason #1: Your peer investors (in my case 42,337) are all using the same general strategies to get the deals. Make yourself different from them and watch your business increase.

Reason #2: 2007 & 2008 will be great Investing years:

- The current "selling" market is slow


- The current property inventory is high


- Home sellers are getting more motivated to sell


- Mortgage defaults are increasing (pre-foreclosures)

Reason #3: This is your big chance to "stand out" from the rest of your peer investors. Compare "apples to oranges". Give folks value, as compared to the standard "low-balling" investor. Offer them a plasma TV, a leather couch, or ??

Personally, I'm a big fan of targeted Emotional Direct Response Marketing in order to make myself different than the Herd and to get those leads to contact me. Using Emotional Direct Response Marketing is an excellent way to address a home seller's "wants" and then giving them a solution that fits their particular "wants".

Get inside the heads of your target market to understand their "wants" no matter who they may be. Get this right and you'll be very successful in your business.

My favorite way to get my Emotional Direct Response Marketing message to my particular market is by using Direct Mail. As far as the actual mail pieces go, I've found that using "Lumpy Mail" is a great way to differentiate myself from all the rest of the investors who may be farming that very same prospect or area.

For example - which mail piece do you think would get the attention out of a pile of direct mail pieces sitting in some "pre-foreclosure" prospect's mail pile? Will it be the plain envelope containing the standard letter stating "sell me your house now before it gets sold on the Courthouse steps" or the neon green card sized envelope that's stamped "Do-Not-Bend: Gift Enclosed" on it's outside, and that contains an obvious "lump" in it's center from some unknown "thing" inside?

I don't know about you, but those Lumpy Mail pieces are really interesting to me and to most people. It's kind of like getting a present in the mail. Once you get the prospect to actually open that envelope, why not make that "lump" be a piece of chocolate, a folded up dollar bill, or some other neat present to make yourself really stand out?

Believe me, if you do this you'll be remembered and you'll stand out from your competition. Also, don't forget to give people things of value for free inside your Lumpy Mail pieces. This is very important as well.

Something of value could be a Free Report that you wrote, or an offer for a "Free Home Audit" (you decide what that will be), or you could just entice them to call you and tell you their story. Once again, you'll be remembered and that's 80% of your goal with Direct Mail.

Using Lumpy Mail is just one example of how you can differentiate yourself from the real estate investors around you. Lumpy Mail should also be a definite component of your marketing system.

That leads me to one final point – your marketing system. If you're a real estate investor and you don't have a marketing system that's helping to separate you from the real estate investor Herd around you, you're wasting precious time and money.

Integrating Lumpy Mail into your marketing system will result in a definite increase in people wanting your services, and that's crucial. As a result you'll be able to save time, beat out your competition, and get more great deals. Lumpy Mail works. Be creative and go for it!