We often hear people say, “I want to make more money investing so I can quit my job”. That’s a great starting point, but let’s dig a little deeper. What does it mean to ‘make more money’? If that person makes an extra 10 dollars in the coming year, does that qualify as making more money? Sort of, but did it help that person achieve their true goal? That’s doubtful. Try making a SMART goal, and then you’ll know specifically what you need to do to achieve it. Here’s how it works:

Specific: Be very specific in what your goal is
Measureable: Create an exact metric or target. This can be a dollar amount, a specific action, etc. Put something concrete here so you’ll know what you are working toward and also so you can look back on it and know whether or not you achieved it.
Attainable: What actions are you going to take that will get you to your goal? Put your project plan here, and include the steps you’ll need to take to achieve your goal.
Realistic: Is it reasonable for you to take all of the actions you have outlined in the time you have allotted? If you take the actions in the timeframe you have set, will you achieve your goal?
Timely: Set a precise deadline to achieve the goal. It also helps to set deadlines for milestones along the way so you’ll know if you are on track or if you have fallen behind.

Here’s an example:
Specific: Earn $200,000 investing in wholesale real estate transactions in 2012
Measureable: $200,000 is the target for the year, so if I average $16,700 per month I will achieve my goal. If I average $8500 per transaction, doing two transactions per month will get me to $200,000 in 2012.
Attainable: Create a leads pipeline that consistently generates 100 phone calls from motivated sellers each month. I need to convert just 10% of these calls to my pipeline, and close 20% of the transactions that enter my pipeline
Realistic: Yes, if I make it a priority. I need to follow through on consistently filling my pipeline and also achieve my monthly goal every month. If I do those things I should hit my annual target of $200,000.
Timely: Goal of $16,700 every month and annual goal of $200,000 by 12/31/12

Making a good living in the real estate industry can happen for you. The first step is figuring out what is important to you, and then setting specific goals so you can achieve those things. Try this approach to set yourself up for success!

It’s that time of year again, the holidays, baking cookies, time with family… and also time for reflection on what you achieved over the last year.

This is when people who are serious about improvement take a few minutes to analyze what they did well, what they did that did not go as well, and what actions they need to take to make sure they are more effective next year.

Look back on the goals you created last January and see how well you did on each of them. Did you hit each one out of the park, or did you do well on a few and need to refocus your efforts on others?

Maybe one of your goals was a new approach for talking with sellers, maybe one was delegating more to your virtual assistant, or maybe one was just trying to do more transactions. Whatever your goals were, if you created strong, specific goals for yourself and were diligent about checking your status, you know if you were successful in achieving them.

If you did not to create goals for yourself, think about what you accomplished over the past year. Did everything work out perfectly? If you’re like most of us, probably not. Now that you have the benefit of hindsight, what can you do differently next year to be more successful?

Want to send a thank you card to someone, but don’t have time to go to the store and get the card, then go to the post office to get a stamp?

We have you covered! Now you can send one thank you card whenever you want, with any message you want!

Here’s how it works: simply tell us what you want your card to say and the return address for your envelope, and we’ll have one of our writers hand write your entire card, including handwriting the envelope with both the address and return address. Then we’ll put a commemorative first class stamp on the envelope and put it in the mail for you, all for just $2.99!!!

So you’ve found someone who wants to get away from their house payments, you’ve walked them through their options, and they’ve decided a lease option is the approach they want to pursue. You get the property under contract and now it’s time to find a tenant buyer. Getting the right person in the property will set you up for success. Here are a couple things to consider:

Stability is huge. A good way to check this is to make sure the people have steady employment. Many of these folks have been through a life-changing event recently. Maybe they lost their job a few years ago or went through a divorce, but no matter what it was, their credit took a hit. You’re looking for people who have rebounded and now have found steady income again.

A large portion of the tenant’s commitment to the property comes from their down payment. They need to have set aside some funds to get into a property. Make sure the down payment is enough that they will be unlikely to walk away from the property. If they only put down 1% of the property value they probably won’t look at the property much differently than a typical rental. You want someone who will view the property as theirs, so they’ll take care of it like they own it.

Now you can make money just by talking to your friends! Join our affiliate program and earn a commission on every referral, whether it’s for letters, leads or both. There’s no fee or investment to get started and we take care of all of the work. Just tell your friends and colleagues about us and starting earning your commission today!

There’s an article on us in the September/October issue of Personal Real Estate Investor magazine. It’s on page 43, and it talks about the effectiveness of handwritten direct mail. Pretty neat, huh?

This is a great question and the answer is… it depends. The biggest factor to consider when choosing a mailing list is your target audience. Are you looking for a property seller, a property buyer, or both?

Popular lists for finding property sellers include Pre-Notice of Default (Pre-NOD), Absentee Owner, and High Equity leads (also known as Free and Clears). A Pre-NOD lead is someone who is 30, 60 or 90 days past due on their mortgage, and they may need to sell their property to prevent foreclosure. Absentee Owner properties are typically vacation homes or rental properties, but can also be homes that someone has moved from but not yet sold. There are also High Equity leads, which are people with at least 50% equity in the property. For more information on these leads, click here.

The more frequently used lists for finding buyers include Renter and High Net Worth leads. Renter leads are people who are currently renting. They may be living in an apartment complex or a duplex. High Net Worth leads are people who have liquid assets of at least $1 million, and this list can be filtered by people who are or are not real estate investors.

These leads all come from credit bureaus, they are not public knowledge. This means someone using one of these lists will have much less competition for a property or individual because the information is not publicly available.

We have a new online special for each of these leads, order now before it’s gone!

All we need from you to get started on your marketing campaign is the 10 zip codes for your leads. Now it’s easy to find those, too! Just click here and you’ll be directed to Hipcodes, a great new site that will help you find your zipcodes!

We get this question a lot. How can people possibly get a 5-15% response rate with a direct mail marketing campaign? The simple answer is that our letters don’t look like a typical marketing letter.

Our letters use the handwriting of a person, not computer generated font. There isn’t a clear window on our letters, they don’t come in a business-size envelope, they don’t have a bulk mail stamp, and most importantly, the envelope isn’t typed! Since our envelopes are hand addressed and the letters are printed using a person’s handwriting, people want to open them to see what is inside. Our letters look like an invitation or a thank you letter, not a marketing letter.

Still skeptical? Request a free sample today and see what it’s like to receive one yourself!

We just added a Return On Investment Calculator to help make your investment process even easier. It’s simple to use and will help you determine the return on your marketing investment. Click here to try it out.