In this business, you have to crawl through the broken glass to get the prize.
– Dennis Fassett
56 Deals in 2019 w/out Looking at Houses, Working 12 Hours/Week – Part-Time Investing w/ Dennis Fassett
With Coronavirus wreaking havoc on the economy, now, more than ever, part-time investing is helping people to not only subsidize lost income but to generate more revenue than they had ever imagined. In this two-part series, we will sit down with returning CarrotCast guest Dennis Fassett as well as Paul DoCampo.
We’ll talk about how you can get started, how you can do it while still having a job, and why you need to be a great real estate marketer to close the most deals.
Read the Full Show Notes Below…
In 2018 Dennis had 77 deals. In 2019, he did 56. These numbers are crazy high and the kicker is that he did the majority of them while having a job or consulting full-time for another company.
In fact, Dennis has recently started a new full-time job but is still crushing it when it comes to lead gen and getting deals closed. With everything happening in the economy right now, I am certain more and more people will want to pursue real estate investment in addition to their 9 to 5. Here is your map so you can do it too.
Dennis Is A Marketer, Not A Real Estate Guy
What I love about Dennis’s story, is that he is proof that you can get out there and design your business to be anything you want it to be. Dennis is great at getting leads but because he works, getting out to see houses during the day isn’t in the cards. Therefore, he has partnered up with the best wholesalers in the area.
He gets the leads, they see the houses, and the profits are split right down the middle. Now could he make more if he did it full-time, handling everything himself? Maybe. But then he would have to compete with those very wholesalers he is partnered up with today.
If he can match his current salary from his regular job working around 12 hours a week, why would he want to change that?
Ready To Get Starting Part-time Investing? Here is Your Roadmap
Your Time
If you are working a full-time job, don’t spend your work time working on your real estate deals. This can cause you to fall short on both. Instead, create a time when you can work on this stuff, whether it be 2 hours after dinner each night or you get up with the sun to work on your business before going into your full-time job.
For Dennis, he found that when he was trying real estate full-time, he actually became less efficient. He would think, “oh, I have all day fr this,” never getting into the rhythm he needed to get things done. When he knew he only had 2 hours, he was able to create a to-do list and knock them out one by one.
Your Marketing
When you are investing in real estate part-time, your marketing needs to be something you can do from your house, during the time periods you have available.
For example, you aren’t likely going to be doing much cold calling at first as that is typically something that needs to be done during the day. Dennis advises that during your first week you should:
- Set up a direct mail campaign and start mailing. It may take a while to build traction. In fact, it took Dennis 11 months to get his first deal before the floodgates opened up!
- Once you have that going, get your Carrot site set up right away. Having a high-converting, credible site, will help to amplify your offline marketing efforts.
Today, Dennis uses a highly targeted list and a carefully crafted mailpiece. He isn’t sending out 50,000 generic cards. He is finding his niche and building a rapport. The most important part is that you stay consistent with it. It can take a few months to get things going, but whatever you do, don’t quit.
Your Team
Many part-time investors struggle because they are trying to do it all themselves. If you are working full-time, you aren’t going to be able to market, take phone calls, and see houses.
Get out there and find the biggest buyers in your area and let them know about your incredible ability to get leads. Work out a deal and hit the ground running. If you are getting calls, hire someone to answer them for you during the day. And as you grow, find people to help manage your leads and your marketing.
Get your process down, do it all yourself, then plug in the right people to train and add to your team.
Taking It To The Next Level
Once you have your rhythm, going, you may or may not want to pursue real estate full-time. Either way, it can’t hurt to grow your business. One of my favorite thoughts on this comes from Jay Abraham who says there are only three ways to grow your business.
- Get more customers – with time constraints, this may be the most difficult way to grow. However, great marketing, amped up training, and more efficient processes can help you close more deals.
- Get your customers to work with you more often – many investors think that they will only work with a seller one time. However, always ask for referrals when closing a deal. That seller may have another property or they may have a friend or family member who is in a similar situation and ready to sell fast. These can be some of your best leads as they are warm and the skepticism has been removed.
- Increase your price – this can mean increasing your average deal size by changing who you are marketing to or cutting out the partners and doing it all on your own. That said, taking care of everything will require more time and energy.
Whatever you decide to do, keep going. Find something that can work for you and stick to it. Test things for 4-6 months before changing your methods. When you get out there, stack bricks, and build consistency, you’ll be able to crush it just like Dennis is doing.
Check Out Our Other Post In This Part-Time Investing Series!
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Mentioned in This Episode:
- CarrotCast Episode 169 featuring Dennis Fassett
- Our Three Leads Per Day Training Program
- How to grow a business – John Abraham