by Delbert Ashby
Delbert Ashby is a highly respected note investor, broker and teacher with many years of profitable experience. He is the author of the principal guidebook on note brokerage, “Make Money Trading Mortgages,” which includes 14 field-tested contracts, forms and sample letters. For information and to order, click here or call 1-800-542-2270.
There are some very cheap ways to get your name before larger groups of people to let them know that you buy cash flow notes. To begin, how many pieces of mail do you personally send each month? I suspect that if you keep a tally, you will find that it is a larger number than you think. I have a label that says that I pay cash for mortgages and attach it to the back of every piece of mail that goes out of here except Christmas cards. They go on the electric bill, the phone bill, business letters, notes to friends and so on. I intend to ask some of my out-of-town friends if they will place them on the back of their mail as well. I may be able to develop some out- of-town market possibilities that way.
A cheap way is the “I HAVE MONEY” slip. This is a small piece of paper that simply says I have money to invest in mortgage notes. I will take a weekend drive and stop by real estate offices. I ask the receptionist if I can put one in each of the agents mail boxes. So far, I have never been refused since I show her a copy and tell her that I am an investor and that I can help her agents close difficult transactions. I also hand them out at real estate seminars, investment club meetings and anywhere else there is a group of people.
There are several mortgage broker’s receptionists who keep them on their desk for customers to pick up. This is not in conflict with the broker’s business but rather a help to him. I often use it instead of a business card. I also will include it in other things that I mail if it makes any potential business sense. Any time you or someone you know is making a mailing, the envelope, postage and labor are already paid for. Why not piggyback your piece of mail with it?
Did you ever notice that brochures or other merchandise are often included in your American Express or Amoco Oil bills? It’s cheap and effective. The way I prepare these is to type four copies of the message on a single sheet of paper, take it to the local copy shop and run off 500 copies. That costs me about $20 and produces 2,000 pieces after I cut them on the copy shop paper cutter. That is a penny each and darn cheap advertising. I have never tried putting advertising on car windshields in the parking lot of a shopping center but these slips might work for that, too. I assume that type of advertising must work since a lot of people do it.
In a recent article I mentioned a number of categories of people who know where the notes are, including estate attorneys, settlement attorneys and CPAs. For each category of person, there should be an association or some other group that holds meetings and publishes a newsletter. It would probably be an excellent idea to get to know someone who belongs to these groups and arrange to attend as a guest, be a guest speaker or to advertise in their newsletter. When you look at the number of such people in your community, they should keep you busy if you get to know them and get them to remember you when they find a deal. As discussed above, you might even do some piggyback mailings to their members via their newsletter mailings. You might even volunteer to contribute something toward their postage to get it done. It doesn’t take very many successful transactions to pay for that effort. You might want to change the copy a bit to offer a “Free Quote” or a “Free Consultation” to those that have a note to sell. There are hundreds of little ways that we can get the word out on a daily basis right along with the rest of our daily activities.
With these and all the other possible ways to get the word out, the real secret is a plan of CONSISTENT ACTIVITY and a COMMITMENT to carry it out. Commit to a certain number of mailings per week, a certain number of telephone contacts per week an a certain number of “found transactions” per month. A resource as simple as your yellow pages will show you the attorneys, CPAs, financial planners. etc. who operate in your geographic area. Call them. Mail to them. Have lunch with them. NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK and make yourself famous for buying notes. Again, this is a “build your business” business, not a get rich quick scheme. Build it right and the payday is great!!
Should You Advertise For Notes?
Advertising in newspapers has been generally unproductive and expensive for me. Any successful advertising I have heard of takes the form of a repetitive campaign in the same publications. These are typically small local newspapers or organizational publications such a religious, fraternal, and legal publication, etc. How about an ad in a retirement-oriented publication since many retirees are likely to hold notes?
As a matter of fact, one local Mortgage Broker advertises exclusively in a specialty yellow pages called the Shepherd’s Guide. Theoretically, only “Good Christian suppliers” are allowed to advertise in the book. It is distributed entirely through area churches. He gets all of his business, with implied endorsement, through this one advertisement. It is modestly priced at about $250 per year and has a circulation of about 70,000 families. (Editor’s Note: Don’t advertise in any “specialty directory” unless you can honestly say you belong there. To do otherwise is not only dishonest, it will actually hurt your business as people discover they’ve been deceived).
What About The Yellow Pages?
I can also add that the standard telephone company yellow pages is NOT the place to advertise. Again, be judicious with any advertising unless you can determine the strong likelihood of a payoff. The Yellow Pages can be extremely expensive.
25% Of My Business Comes From This One Sentence
End every conversation with “By the way, did I ever tell you that I buy notes and mortgages?” Probably at least 25% of my business comes through this. One of the underwriters in my insurance agents office held a note as did an engineering business acquaintance of mine. Her’s was on an estate property in Alabama and his was on property in West Virginia. Both deals were very profitable, with the West Virginia deal bought and sold on the same business day.
Try this sentence in every conversation. Those can be very profitable words and the best possible advertising.
Start A Data Base
There are many more creative ways out there to find notes: Bulletin boards (physical and computer), wearing T-shirts with “I pay cash for notes” printed on them, bumper stickers, magnetic door signs and more. Clearly, in an imperfect market, it is up to you to let the public know that you buy notes. It is also important to remember that the note holder who is not motivated to sell today may become motivated next month or next year. That translates to the need to keep them reminded of our interest. Start a data base of note holders and drop them a reminder in the mail from time to time. Your marketing plan should certainly include a consistent follow-up activity.
Delbert Ashby is a highly respected note investor, broker and teacher with many years of profitable experience. He is the author of the principal guidebook on note brokerage, “Make Money Trading Mortgages,” which includes 14 field-tested contracts, forms and sample letters. For information and to order, click here or call 1-800-542-2270.
