If you’re not good at putting certain pieces together, find someone who is. A partner or a vendor like Carrot. Nobody is good at everything.
– Adam Mitchell
The “Hidden Door” Deal w/ Adam Mitchell & Lance Doty
Read the Full Show Notes Below…
In this episode of Behind the Deal, we are back with Adam Mitchell and Lance Doty to go behind the scene of one of their most recent transactions. You’ll learn how to find cash buyers, how to host the perfect real estate meetup, and how to make cash offers with complete transparency while turning a healthy profit.
The Deal
This particular deal involved a mobile home on a piece of land in a popular area. The lead came in via SEO and was a young woman who was helping out her grandparents. They had been living in a run-down mobile home that the neighbors were eager to see gone. Lance and Adam were able to…
Help the seller pay off what was owed
Help the buyer find an ideal piece of land
Help a contractor who needed the mobile home
And still turn a great profit on a deal where everyone came out ahead
Finding Cash Buyers
One thing a lot of our listeners ask is how to find cash buyers. So much of our marketing is dedicated to finding sellers – it’s important to have a way to sell properties once you have them under contract. Adam and Lance find buyers by…
Searching the top real estate Facebook forums in their market
Getting deals in the door – this will always help to generate new leads
Utilizing SEO and a dedicated Carrot site to find cash buyers
Hosting Meet-Ups
Through networking, both online and in-person, Lance and Adam have been able to grow their buyer list to over 600 people.
The Perfect Real Estate Meet-Up
Most people attend a Meet-Up expecting a pitch. These gatherings usually have a catch, with something being sold at the end. Adam and Lance look at things a bit differently. They are there to share what they know, to network with the community, and to learn. While it has been a great way to find cash buyers, it has also been a great way for them to build credibility in their community. Another great thing they do is to host the Meet-Ups at properties they have under contract. Instead of a bar or restaurant, people can come and see a house mid-construction and when it’s finished!
Making Transparent Offers
So many investors walk into a house, acting as if they will be using their own funds to close when it simply isn’t the case. If you are unable to find a buyer, you will have to cancel the contract, waste the seller’s time, and worry about tarnishing your reputation. When Adam and Lance are wholesaling deals, they are very transparent with their sellers. They let them know that they will use the option period to get a buyer in the door, and once that’s done, they will close. We’ll have more on the ethics of wholesaling coming up in the not-so-distant future – so watch your inbox!
Tips That Actually Work: SEO Grader
Our SEO Grader tool will give you a high-level view to ensure you are doing the right things for SEO. It isn’t overly complicated – it will help you improve your social previews, title tags, and meta description. Be sure to take a look at this great tool when creating any content for your Carrot site!
SEO is the type of marketing that gets cheaper over time.
– Andy Kolodgie
60 Leads Per Month. All from SEO & Carrot w/ Andy Kolodgie
From a full-time software engineer for the Navy to a full-time real estate investor, Andy Kolodgie has found his place as a “real estate marketer.” In just over a year, he’s figured out how to use SEO to generate 60 motivated seller leads per month, while providing a simple and hassle-free selling experience. Today, you’re going to get a glimpse into how he does it, so you can do it too.
Read the Full Show Notes Below…
Hitting the Ground Running
Andy started his business right around the beginning of COVID. He was looking for time and location freedom and knew that one of the best ways to do this is with real estate. Cold calling and direct mail just wasn’t Andy’s style. With his background in engineering for the US Navy, he wanted to utilize his skill set, honing in on the data and how we could make it work for his business. Since starting his business, Andy has been able to generate 60+ leads per month, all from honing in on his SEO.
Landing Pages
Andy has taken a slightly different approach to his landing pages than many of our other clients. As he is searching for motivated seller leads, he has chosen not to niche down, and instead focus on landing pages that target his state. This helps to capture all of the leads who are just on the outskirts of town or who may not be searching with the city name. A great strategy is to create a robust landing page for your state, that includes information on the cities in which you are buying.
Content Quality vs Quantity
Many people believe that they have to be writing blogs every day to improve SEO, but this simply isn’t the case. Andy has found that an abundance of informational content wasn’t attracting the sellers he was looking for. By reducing his posting frequency and focusing on the content that was of the most value to people, Andy was able to trim the fat and score more leads.
Avoiding Bad Backlinks
Backlinks can have a positive effect on your SEO, but should always be done in the right way. Many people will try to take the easy way out, buying links that may not be valid or beneficial. Google sees this and will in turn lower your credibility and ranking. You could be flagged and all of the work you put in could be lost. Instead, utilize methods like HARO backlinks to generate legitimate, trustworthy domain authority that will build your credibility. If you’re a Carrot member, you can also check out our backlink-building service in the marketplace.
Creating a “Content Pillar”
Let’s say many of your leads come from probate situations. We recommend creating a piece of pillar content around this that is several thousand words. Under this article, you can have shorter posts that a related to your topic. We recommend having 4-5 content pillars for your business.
Andy is helping other investors take advantage of the data in their markets! Reach out to him at thehouseguys@thehouseguysdc.com or at 202-570-4651 to find out what he can do for your business!
People ask, “How do you convince people to take a low offer on a property?” We don’t. It’s either a cash deal opportunity or a listing.
– Lance Doty
The “Hidden Door” Deal w/ Adam Mitchell & Lance Doty
Adam and Lance are two of the best in the business. Their dedication to transparency, service, and providing sellers with options has allowed them to create a profitable and scalable business.
Today we are going Behind the Deal to learn how Lance and Adam were able to increase a home’s square footage, help a homeowner through a difficult time, and walk away with $80k.
Read the Full Show Notes Below…
Adam and Lance are operating a lead generation business. They have found great success in real estate because they always offer transparent service and refuse to box sellers into one type of solution.
Their focus on inbound leads and hybrid solutions has allowed them to maintain a 1 in 10 close-ratio, with their numbers getting better each year.
Here’s a look at one of their latest deals which resulted in a great profit, a happy seller, and a mysterious room behind a hidden door.
The Deal
Adam and Lance rely on inbound leads to run their business. Facebook ads and SEO are 80% of their business. Their form is set up to provide them with all of the information they need when going into a call.
They know going into this deal exactly what the homeowner was dealing with and what they wanted to get for the home.
Their initial offer was low and after running the numbers they were able to get closer to what the seller wanted. After purchasing the property for $185k, they were able to sell the property for $370.
After their renovation costs, holding costs, and selling costs, they were still able to walk away with a profit of $80k.
The “Hidden Door” & Lessons in Square Footage
After buying the property, they discovered a 12×14 bonus room that was located off of the garage. Because there was no direct access to the house, it was not included in the square footage of the property.
Adam and Lance were able to add a door through the existing laundry room and into this bonus room, thus adding more square footage to the property. While they contemplated turning it into a full-blown mother-in-law suite, the returns just weren’t there.
Being Approachable
One of the most innovative things Adam and Lance incorporate into their marketing is the use of video texts. After Lance meets with a seller or talks with them on the phone, he will send a short video text telling them more about the business and thanking them for their time.
This quick video helps people get to know him while making the business stand out from the rest. It personalizes the experience, which is an effective marketing tactic in any industry.
Winning with the Hybrid model
Listing homes is not what Adam wants to do. However, The Home Buying Guys are dedicated to finding the selling solution that will best benefit the client. By bringing an agent onto their team, they are able to funnel the retail leads and split the commission 50/50.
Fewer leads are wasted and more homeowners are being served. By offering multiple options, Lance and Adam are able to have a greater impact on more people.
Tips That Actually Work: Adding a Bio Block
We are all about transparency and credibility and a great way to convey that is on your About Us page.
The seller needs to know who they are working with. A great feature of your Carrot site is the bio block where prospective buyers and sellers can learn more about you. Add some photos of who you are and what you’re all about.
For Adam and Lance, this means having their faces all over their site, letting people know that they are just two good dudes, doing good work.
Beau Hollis is the founder of SimplySold in Louisville, Kentucky.
He’s been investing in houses for the past 7 years.
Currently, the majority of his business involves acquisitions that he does himself. He also has an acquisitions person and a full-time videographer.
It’s a low-key, small operation, but it has a high intention, and they go aggressively after deals.
“You know, I spend my time and effort and energy to do this business to provide for my family, not only money but years of my life, getting this up and going to have it, work is worth, the journey is not in vain.”
From Beau’s Carrot leads, his average profit per deal is nearly $40,000.
He’s done $400,000 in assignments in his Carrot site alone in the last six months.
Before using Carrot, he had no online presence and no experience in building websites.
“I had no world tech experience, and I just didn’t have an online presence. I didn’t want to have to build a website. So Carrot made that really easy for me.
Obviously, people cannot find you, people have no clue who you are, they can’t find your business, they don’t know if you’re in business at all, and so if they can’t find you, they can’t do business with you.
So you have no lead flow inbound from a website.”
At first, his vision was to dominate the outbound marketing space, whether it was cold calling, texting, or other things.
However, the lifespan of somebody doing outbound marketing all the time is limited.
“I have come from a background of sales, and I understand that you’re gonna do this one thing all the time, whether it’s cold calling or texting or putting out bandit signs, and there’s a lifespan to that.”
Outbound versus inbound leads are two things that are drastically different. Outbound leads are when you’re seeking out someone. A lot of work, effort, and energy is going into it before you even think about reaching out to the person.
Inbound marketing, or evergreen marketing, is a completely different mindset. You optimize your website with content: videos, blog posts, and testimonials.
Inbound offers a whole other world. People are seeking you out.
The challenge: Creating the path to the world of inbound marketing
This is a business to close deals. Serious real estate agents and investors want to make Evergreen inbound marketing a real avenue, not just a little street but a highway.
Evergreen inbound marketing takes a plan and plenty of patience. It takes a lot of video work on YouTube and on-page SEO with keywords and good content for high rankings.
“My expectation was that I’m just going to turn it on, get it up and live and then it would just bring in the people just saying, please take my house, that’s why I thought it was at the beginning when I first got, I just got it up and I just had, I just had it out there, I didn’t do any kind of optimization. I did zero, absolutely zero customization to the website.”
His website had been just sitting there for a long time. Years.
Then Beau had a conversation with Trevor to get the ball rolling.
He started implementing on his website and using the tools Carrot provides our members. Keyword tracking, campaign tracking, video postings… and over time and hard work, Beau’s inbound marketing started to click.
Once he started optimizing his site, he could see a bit of movement in his rankings.
That movement proceeded forward for a year or two then it was time to dive into the PPC world of inbound marketing. The one-two punch of paid and organic traffic really exploded his business.
In 2021, Beau’s Carrot leads have had an average profit per deal of roughly $40,000.
In comparison, Beau’s outbound leads have had an average profit per deal of roughly half that.
The tools: Carrot features
Although the real estate niche can sometimes be inconsistent, Carrot brings consistency to Beau’s business. He can count on deal flow.
It’s good because when you can count consistent leads, it means that you’re not stressed all of the time.
For Beau, Carrot has become a hub that brings all his inbound marketing efforts together. Since he’s driving traffic from all inbound marketing efforts to his Carrot site, he can track performance across all campaigns and channels, giving him the clarity needed with his marketing.
Here are some of the tools Beau is using to tie together his marketing efforts:
EvergreenTraining Beau needed to get many unqualified outbound leads to close deals. More leads meant more time and expense to sift through the tire kickers.
Automated blogs Carrot’s pre-written automated blog posts have allowed him to stand out in his market as an authority. This saves time and money and puts SimplySold at the forefront of its industry with expert quality content that he can customize for his needs.
Keyword Tracking How do you know if your SEO rankings are climbing? Tracking is easy with Carrot. Simply input the keyword, and we’ll track where that particular term ranks each week, making optimizing accordingly easier!
Campaign Tracking Links Learn how many leads you generate with your ads by following the conversions from them. Easily see which campaigns produce results and create a link to track click-throughs and leads better.
CarrotCamp CarrotCamp is a place where people come to get inspired by other entrepreneurs, hear first-hand stories about how they built their successful businesses and strategies for success. The knowledge Beau has gained from meeting these individuals has been essential in helping him grow his own real estate investing business.
The results:
Beau has been successful in implementing an Evergreen inbound marketing plan. He went all-in and began building his SEO content, which he followed up with PPC. Now he has a team and consistently closes inbound deals to grow his business.
He also knows how to scale his business using Carrot and inbound leads.
What about you? Are you ready for consistent and predictable growth in your business?
This episode is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
You have to be willing to respect the people who are involved in your transaction – the contractor, the title company. Be willing to respect those people’s time as much as you respect your own.
– CC Moreno
Attorneys + Wholesalers | 18 Legal Tips for Better Closings w/ CC Moreno
How’s your relationship with your attorney? While many investors are looking for cheap advice as quickly as possible, it’s more important to take the time to build a genuine and mutually beneficial working relationship. Real estate attorney CC Moreno is here to teach you why you need to consider your attorney or title company a partner in your business as opposed to just another vendor. She will be sharing with you exactly what to ask, what you should watch out for, both now and in the years ahead.
Read the Full Show Notes Below…
Here at Carrot, we spend a lot of time teaching people how to get leads and develop a great mindset. But one thing that comes up a lot, that we haven’t addressed as frequently, is the legal aspects of wholesaling and how it all works. CC Moreno, Esq. works in property law and is the brains behind Wholesale Hackers – the private Facebook group she runs with her husband Brent Moreno and where you can see CC’s full list of 18 tips.
4 Things That Prevent Fast Closings
CC runs into many things that can delay a closing – but that can also be easily avoided. Some of these things include:
The contract is filled out incorrectly
No earnest money is being offered
There is no “out clause”
There are liens or judgments on the property
While CC can search the title for you at any point, every investor should know how to do a search themselves. Most states have an online database where you can pop in the address to find everything associated with the property in question.
Wholesalers, Ask Your Attorney these Questions:
When choosing an attorney or title company to work with, there are a number of questions that you should ask. Many are used to one type of closing, done a certain way, and may not have the skills you need to close on time. When working with a new attorney or title company, be sure to ask…
Do you work with investors frequently?
What is your hourly rate?
Do they understand double-closings and what are the laws in your state?
Are you able to handle out-of-state closings?
What’s in the settlement fee?
Does it include document preparation?
Does each closing come with title insurance?
When do you run the title on the property?
Do you offer wires and paper checks?
Maintaining a Great Relationship with Your Attorney
As an investor or agent, you’ll quickly learn the value of good relationships. Your contractor, title company, accountant, and attorney all play vital roles in the success of your business. Don’t take these people for granted or be disrespectful of their time and efforts.
Don’t ask for stuff for free
Stick to your appointments
Respect people’s time as you would respect your own
Pay whether or not you close on a deal
Don’t change the contract without informing the person preparing the closing documents
Bad Apples & The Future of Real Estate: Hybrid
Real estate investors have often been associated with the underbelly of real estate. Sadly, a few bad apples have tarnished the industry in the eyes of many. As legislation changes for wholesalers throughout the country, one of the main things we expect to see is a licensure requirement. We’ve been talking about the hybrid model for years. Being licensed may have different requirements, but ultimately it will help build your credibility while allowing you to cash in on your retail leads.
Working with the right attorneys, title companies, and other professionals will ensure you experience fast and efficient closings, without any surprises. Be sure to visit the Wholesale Hackers Facebook group for further explanation on these great tips.
A lot of people have it in their head that marketing is hard – but once you learn it, it is the most valuable skill out there.
– Keith Sant
Growth Hacking Real Estate Marketing: 5 Uncomplicated & Unheard of Online Tips
Keith Sant hates cold-calling. He has always focused on inbound marketing, whether it is through his website, his social media, or even with his bandit signs. What he realized is that his lead to close ratio and average profit per deal were higher with these inbound leads.
So he focused his energy on bringing more traffic to his site by using some incredible growth hacking strategies.
Now he is closing 6-10 deals a month online. Today we are diving into what growth hacking is and how you can use it to grow and scale your business no matter the industry.
Read the Full Show Notes Below…
Growth hacking is taking data and experimentation, mixing it with marketing and psychology, then adding technology, tools, and automation.
Great marketers share this incredible mindset that allows them to take something that isn’t working, tweak it, and have it work amazingly well. When Keith started with Carrot, he wasn’t doing much online.
He used bandit signs and was using his Carrot site to amplify this form of marketing. But with some testing and tweaking, he now does the majority of his business with online leads.
Here are 5 of the best growth hacks he used to grow his business over the past 4 years.
Amplify What You Are Already Doing
The best way to use your new Carrot site is to amplify what you are already doing. For Keith, that meant putting his website on all of his bandit signs. He also added a link to his Craigslist ads, helping him to build trust and credibility.
Craigslist is still working in Keith’s market, so he has a VA post on his behalf each and every Friday. Using tracking links on his Carrot site, he can see exactly which ads are performing well.
Budget for the Right Keywords
Many people will take all of their marketing budget and throw it behind keywords such as “sell my house” or “we buy houses.”
While these work great in some markets, this isn’t true for all. If these keywords aren’t performing well in your area, take your budget and focus on the keywords that are performing.
Use Calendly Links
A simple and effective growth hack Keith used was to add a Calendly link to his website. This allows people to jump ahead and instantly book their own time for Keith to come out and see their property.
They don’t have to wait for a callback, they can arrange a meeting simply by visiting Keith’s website.
He included this link in his first follow-up email and on the “thank you” page a person sees after filling out a contact form.
Get Creative Backlinks
Backlinks will build trust in the eyes of Google. While you can go for the low-hanging fruit on social sites and Zillow, there are some other ways to get creative backlinks.
Sign up and learn how to use HARO to answer questions, generate backlinks, and build authority.
When networking, ask to exchange backlinks
Collaborate with other investors
Ask for reviews on Yelp, Zillow, and the BBB
It is important to think about where your ideal lead is looking. Many people aren’t a fan of the BBB and how their business model works, myself included.
However, many people in an older demographic will utilize the Better Business Bureau to determine the credibility of a business.
Edit Your Forms Wisely
Small changes can have a big impact. For example, Keith had a form on his website that was rarely filled out. He added a small money bag icon to the form and almost immediately, one-third of the form submissions on his site come from that one.
Unless you are paying for traffic, you will need to tweak and optimize to get more people on your site.
Using these creative growth hacks can quickly change your rankings, traffic, and sales!
Which growth hack will you try first? Remember, a year from now you’ll wish you’d started today!
If you’re a wholesaler or a real estate agent that’s looking for motivated sellers, I’m going to show you how to grow your real estate business into multiple markets, get leads for $20 to $30 per lead and cut your Google pay per click ad costs by 50% to 75% by going regional or national in this video right here.
So guys and gals, a couple of weeks ago, I was talking with one of our clients that they were pulling in leads from Google pay per click for somewhere between $20 to $30 bucks a lead.
Now, you can even, I’ve heard stories of $10 bucks a lead, $50 bucks a lead, the whole thing.
The thing they did was they went from just being a local investor or local hybrid agent investor, looking for sellers in one market, to they expanded to national.
So, now they’re using their Carrot website for national lead generation.
So, what I’m going to do in this video is I’m going to walk you through it. We’re going to dive into my iPad.
I will show you how to go from a local website with Carrot to regional or statewide.
And then if you wanted to expand to national, they’re all completely different business models, so I’m not saying that you should do it because you have to then figure out, of course, all the different moving parts of how to turn those leads into deals, how to analyze deals in different markets, the whole thing.
We’re not going to cover that in this video. We’ll cover that in some other videos. But let’s dive into the iPad because we’re going to show you exactly how to set up your Carrot website, depending on whether you’re local, regional, state, or national.
Let’s dig in.
How to Grow Your Real Estate Business Into Multiple Markets
So, we’re right here on the iPad. The very first thing, this is where most of our clients are, most of our clients are in the local bucket. Meaning, you’re in one market, you’re in Cincinnati, you’re in Tampa, you’re in Roseburg, Oregon. You’re in Phoenix, Arizona.
Single Market Real Estate Website Strategy
Of course, the bigger the city, the more opportunity there is to pull more and more leads out of the city because the population’s higher.
So, in a single city market, your website’s pretty much going to look like this. You’re going to have your homepage right here and it’s going to be, “Sell your house in city.”
Pretty much those types of phrases. Over here, you’re going to have your standard, what we call authority hub pages, which is your “sell a house” page.
It’s going to have a call to action on it. Your “how it works” page. Reviews page with testimonials to build trust and credibility, maybe some FAQ, and then you’re about page and contact pages. That’s what we call the core conversion pages here at Carrot.
To be in one city, that’ what you need.
That’s pretty much all that you need.
You can use our tools and systems then add automated blog posts, or to use our video post feature, to build further trust and credibility. But that’s how you would lay it out.
Your homepage is focused on the city at that point, sell your house fast in Cincinnati. And then you would talk about that, show Cincinnati pictures.
Your location pages might be set up for different keywords in that city. So, maybe you set up a location page for cash home buyers in the city, or sell your inherited house in Cincinnati. That’s how you’d leverage that.
So, let’s say now that we wanted to expand out beyond that one location. If you’re in a city, you can pretty much expect somewhere between 10 and 30 leads a month once you get the SEO and/or Google pay per click launched in that one area.
It depends on the population and your market.
If you’re in a 10,000 person city, then you’re probably going to be maybe three, four, five leads a month from Google PPC or SEO.
If you’re in a two million person population market, you might be able to get 30 to 50 leads a month, if you’re ranking really in Google and doing some Google Ads.
Regional or State Website Strategy
So, now we’re going to move into the regional or state set up on your website.
Statewide Real Estate Website Strategy
The regional or state set up on your website is basically going to be kind of like this, the only real core differences are your homepage now, your homepages focus on the state.
So, rather than your homepage focus on just one city, we’re going to focus on the entire state or the entire region that you operate in.
If you’re in the entire state of Texas and you have four prime cities, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston, as an example, then you’re going to have your homepage be, “Sell your house fast in Texas,” basically.
Then you’re going to have pictures that have a broad array of pictures of the different markets that you buy houses in, or that you’re a real estate agent and/or an investor in.
Then down at the bottom of your website, you’re going to have a link to your prime cities in that state.
You might link up to five, six, seven, eight of your cities to those city location pages.
Over on the left side, those are what we call location pages. So, you’re going to set up a new page for every single location or every single city in that state. Sell my house fast, Dallas. Sell my house fast, San Antonio. Sell my house fast, Katy, Texas. Whatever those cities are.
City Location Page Strategy
I want you to focus on just looking at those on a quarterly basis. Every quarter, do I need to add any new city pages or location pages within this state?
Now, let’s say you’re in three, or four, or five states. You’re in a region. Your homepage would then be, “We buy houses in the tri-state area,” or look for tri-state investment properties.
Then on the homepage, talk about the three states you do business in and maybe some of your primary cities. Then you would create pages for states and cities.
Some advantages here, your homepage is focused on the state. You can start to rank really well at the state level and at the city level.
Location pages for each city, like I said, now you can get those rankings in Google for each city. Your URL is going to look kind of like this, whatever it is .com, forward slash, sell your house in X, Y, Z city.
Your PPC, this is where is where the lead costs get lower. If you’re marketing, doing Google PPC in just one market, your PPC cost is going to be the most it can possibly be because you don’t have a very broad targeting there.
The broader you’re targeting, the lower your click cost tends to be.
But once you start to get down in here into the state and region, and you’re marketing a wider audience, your PPC gets cheaper and your SEO momentum actually grows because now you’re setting up multiple pages in multiple cities, the 10th location page, 11th, 12th, 15th, ninth, whatever it is.
As you built up the SEO and your overall domain name, each one of those is going to rank in Google faster and faster and faster.
So, a lot of people ask, should I set up multiple websites? Should I have a website for every city?
And my suggestion is, if it’s all for motivated house sellers and you are okay with having one unified brand that will work well in all those cities, then I would suggest setting up the one motivated house seller website that encompasses all of those cities because the SEO juice is going to feed into every location page you create, and they’re going to rank faster and quicker.
National Website Strategy
So, now let’s say you want to go to the national.
National Real Estate Website Strategy
We have a lot of our clients using Carrot to do national house buying, national investment property websites, things like that.
The main difference that you’re going to do here is your homepage now is going to be more generic.
So, rather than sell your house fast in Cincinnati or sell your house fast in Ohio, now it’s going to be “sell your house fast”, “how to sell your house fast for cash”, or “we will make you a cash offer on your home.”
Then on that homepage, you’ll talk about that “we buy all around America” and then you might have a link to maybe some of your primary markets that you buy in.
Link up to some of those states or some of the cities that are the primary markets that you buy in.
Now what we’re going to do with our location pages is this, instead of creating location pages for a city at the root level, we’re going to create location pages for each of your primary states.
State Landing Page Strategy
Let’s say you’re a national buyer, but you focus on 10 states. Create a location page for each one of those states. It could be “sell my house fast Florida”, or sell my house fast Georgia.” Basically, it’s “sell my house fast, insert state.”
Now what you’re going to do is create city pages for each one of those states, which are the primary cities in the state that you buy in.
If it’s Florida and your primary cities are Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville. You’re going to create a Jacksonville page, sell my house fast in Jacksonville. For Orlando, you’re going to create an Orlando page, sell my house fast in Orlando. You’re going to do the same thing for Tampa.
Those would be underneath the state of Florida. This is what it would look like over here on the URL. It’d be your site .com, forward slash whatever that state is.
So, that’d be Florida, forward slash Florida, and then forward slash sell my house fast Tampa.
That would be the name of that page, sell my house fast Tampa. The name of that page would be Florida, or sell your house in Florida. That is your structure.
Your PPC gets the cheapest here with this strategy. Now, this is where you’re going to start to get your $20 cost per lead. Your $30 cost per lead. Your $50 cost per lead in Google, in the exact same markets, that before you might have been paying $80 bucks, a hundred bucks, $150, $200 per lead in the exact same market.
You might be saying, “Why is that? Why does the cost per lead in Google Ads get so much cheaper?” Or even Facebook if you go broader. Because you’re targeting a wider audience and when you target a wider audience, Google actually has more data to feed back into your campaign to get your click costs and lead costs lower.
Your SEO scales way faster too.
If you already have 10 20, 30 location pages, and you have some SEO juice on your website.
When you set up that new page and that new market, it’s going to get ranked really, really fast, because you’ve already done all of this work.
Creating this amazing national website with the state pages and the city pages, and you’re eight months in, a year in, two years in.
Google loves your site. They see you as an authority, it’s got some great link juice. Every single page ranks faster now.
At this level (national), you can expect 100 to 1,000 leads a month, depending on how well you’re doing the marketing. At the state and the region, you can expect between 30 and a hundred leads a month. Of course, depending on how well you’re doing your marketing and SEO and PPC.
Recap: How to Grow Your Real Estate Business Into Multiple Markets
Let me recap real quick.
The best way to expand from local to national is to create a new cadence or new setup with your location pages.
You go city and then state, and then also you start to scale out your Google Ads. Because as you scale out your Google Ads to more states, more locations, they get cheaper and cheaper.
And that’s how the big lead generation services do it. That’s how our biggest clients do it and get way more leads at a way cheaper cost because they’re going national.
Check out our other videos in this series and on our YouTube channel.
Hit the subscribe button on our YouTube channel because every single month, we put out new content that teaches you how to be an investor or an agent, or a hybrid investor agent, and generate more leads more consistently in an evergreen fashion on the internet.
You can finally get more freedom, finally, make a greater impact with your business. Go to carrot.com/evergreen to check out our webinar on the topic of evergreen marketing. If you enjoyed this video, we’re going to dive way deeper into that training.
Go to carrot.com/evergreen. Have an amazing rest of the week, like and subscribe to this video, we’ll see you in the next video.
We recently surveyed our Carrot members about their lead-to-deal conversion rate — that is, what percentage of leads become deals. We also asked them about the source of these leads (Carrot leads or Non-Carrot) to determine which efforts provide the most high-quality leads and thus the most deals.
Demo Carrot: How many deals are you losing to your competitor’s website?
The results were exciting. They indicated that Carrot leads convert 7 times better and are 2.5 times more profitable than non-Carrot leads.
This is something we’ve known anecdotally for a long time — from all of the reviews we’ve received from our members. For example…
“Carrot literally changed my life. Trevor and his crew are the best people on the planet. Get plugged into their system and culture, and you will start generating leads!” – Brian Rockwell
“I have generated just over 200 leads in a little over 4 months using my Carrot site. I couldn’t be more thankful for the services they have provided. Thank you Carrot!” – Hank Tobler
“Closed 3 deals exclusively from SEO leads / Carrot conversions. No PPC. No attribution to any Facebook ads. Just Google search results and credibility.” – Daniel DiGiacomo
… but still, it’s refreshing to see the actual data.
Let’s take a look!
Not a Carrot member? Take a free demo…
The Survey Data & What it Means
To be clear, non-Carrot leads refer to any leads that didn’t come through an investor’s Carrot website. Maybe they called, texted, or emailed instead.
Carrot leads, naturally, refer to any leads that came through the investor’s website. They visited and opted into a CTA that looks something like this…
So, what exactly were the results?
Well, we asked Carrot members for their lead-to-deal conversion rate and their average value per deal for both Carrot and non-Carrot leads.
We then used those numbers to calculate the survey respondents’ average value per lead.
Here are the Carrot vs. Non-Carrot results:
Amazing, right?
Carrot leads had an 8.2% lead-to-deal conversion rate, while non-Carrot leads had a 1.11% conversion rate.
Even more surprisingly, Carrot leads that became deals had an average value of $23,089.26, and non-Carrot leads that became deals had an average value of $9,159.11.
That makes the average value per Carrot lead $1,893.40. That is enough to pay for an entire year of our top subscription plan, by the way! And, the average value per non-Carrot lead is $102.07.
Something is going on here, and let’s talk about that.
But before we do, understand that we’re not saying you shouldn’t generate leads one way, but you should generate them another.
Every real estate investor has to find what works for their business and their market, which usually is a mishmash of various marketing tactics.
Here, we’re just looking at some high-level trends that might be helpful for investors to consider.
Why are Carrot leads so much better than Non-Carrot leads?
There are essentially two questions we have to answer.
Why do Carrot leads become deals much more frequently than non-Carrot leads?
Why do Carrot deals have much bigger profit margins than non-Carrot deals?
And the first thing we need to examine is where these leads are coming from. After all, the source determines the quality.
Non-Carrot leads is a broad term that includes a lot of different sources: cold calls, inbound calls from direct mail campaigns and door knocking, flyers, business cards, bandit signs, and so forth.
You might not notice it at first, but all of those sources have a similarity: they all represent outbound marketing efforts.
That is, you go out and try to find people who might be interested in selling their home. You offer them a fair cash offer and a quick turnaround time. You do this by sending them mail, knocking on their door, or calling their phone.
Of the people who contact you via outbound marketing methods, it’s safe to assume that many of them are just curious. They’re not motivated to sell by any particular circumstances in their life, but your offer caught their attention, and so they call you to find out more.
That’s how most non-Carrot leads are generated.
Now let’s look at Carrot leads.
We’ve built Carrot websites with wicked-fast load speeds, mobile friendliness, and a clean tech stack.
Carrot sites rank for high-value phrases in Google more than any other site builder in the industry (terms like “sell my house fast in ” or “sell my house for cash in .”
Third-party data from Fresh Chalk pointed this out. Here are page speed scores for different website builders (a huge factor for Google rankings).
The same is true for Carrot’s mobile performance (which is now a huge part of internet traffic).
This graphic represents the recent updates that Carrot developers have made to our member sites to get ahead of the latest Google Core Web Vitals update. Learn more about what this graphic means and the changes that we made here.
But that’s only one of the many reasons that Carrot sites sit at the top of the rankings.
The secret to quality lead mastery
Our members also create Evergreen content for their blogs every single month, content that’s optimized to rank in Google.
We also give our members the ability to:
Track their rankings right inside of their account.
Ensure that every page and post is optimized to rank (via a simple checklist).
Create long-form evergreen content by transcribing video content with the click of a button (VideoPost).
This is the difference between hamster wheel marketing…
“If you’re creating a piece of content and you just put it up on Facebook or Instagram, it’s going to be there for 24 to 48, maybe 72 hours before it gets pushed down, forcing you to get back on the hamster wheel and post again, and post again and post again, because the life span of that content is so short.
The lifespan of that content is so short that you have to be on the hamster wheel continually.
If you get off of the hamster wheel, if you stop doing those postings, if you stop doing direct mail, if you stop cold calling or doing RBMs, then your leads will eventually dwindle to a stop, and you’ve got to restart and get back on the hamster wheel.”
“Get into a routine of creating content. Another piece of content this week, another piece of content next week, a blog post next week, a video post, a video post, a location page, and eventually, you’re going to have a brick wall that does all of the work for you.
Remember, it’s going to be slow going in the first three, four, five, six months potentially.
But as long as you’re consistently stacking bricks of quality content that answers real questions from your market, you’re entertaining in your own way; you’re going to start to pick up that momentum.”
At Carrot, we focus on evergreen marketing — consistent action that produces long-term results.
Now, why all of this information about Google rankings, page speed, and tech stack?
Well, because of the way Carrot sites are built, they typically generate a good chunk of leads via evergreen marketing through search engines like Google — this means that motivated sellers find you rather than you trying to find motivated sellers.
That’s called inbound marketing.
And it almost always results in higher quality leads than outbound marketing.
So that answers our first question.
Why do Carrot leads become deals much more frequently than non-Carrot leads?
There’s a high likelihood it’s because many of them are likely coming through search engines.
When you think about it, it’s not all that surprising that outbound marketing leads tend to be lower quality than inbound marketing leads. It’s the difference between you looking for motivated sellers and motivated sellers looking for you.
We get feedback about this difference all the time from our members…
“I consistently get organic leads from my Carrot website. I have purchased my best deals to date through my websites. I highly recommend you implement training and tools available through the platform.” – Beau Eckstein
“I’m getting 2x more motivated seller leads with my custom Carrot site than my old site, and the tools and content help me stand out in my crowded market.” – Tyler Ford
“I am saving between $20,000 and $50,000 every single month in lost lead-gen closing potential after switching from my expensive custom-made site to my Carrot site.” – Carter Steph
And it’s not just hearsay. When we take a peek at the source of traffic and leads for our members, we can see a good chunk coming from the organic content that Carrot helps to provide. So far, in 2021, organic traffic accounts for 25.8% of our member leads.
But what about the second question: why do Carrot deals have more significant profit margins than non-Carrot leads?
Part of the answer is likely the same as the first — since Carrot sites drive organic leads through search engines, investors don’t have to directly pay for those leads like they would have to with a direct mail campaign.
This makes a big difference in per-deal profitability. But that’s not the entire story.
Again, we have to look at where these deals come from.
If someone receives your mailer and it makes them think about selling a property that they’ve owned for a while, and so they call you, they’re probably not going to be as willing or motivated to accept a lower offer.
But if someone is actively looking for someone like you who can buy their home as-is for cash, they’re probably more motivated and thus more willing to accept a lower offer, which results in higher profit margins.
And so that answers our second question…
Why do Carrot deals have much bigger profit margins than non-Carrot deals?
It’s because inbound marketing efforts are less expensive and generate leads that are more motivated to accept lower offers.
Final Thoughts
If there’s a lesson to be learned from all this, it’s about the value of inbound marketing.
When you create an online presence that allows motivated sellers to find you, you can expect to generate much higher quality leads for less money and increase your per-deal profitability.
That’s not to say that you should stop sending direct mail, cold calling, door knocking or driving for dollars. We are huge advocates of those strategies, and they support many Carrot member businesses!
While you’re working on SEO and content, you can also run PPC ads and send direct mail to generate leads more immediately for your business.
That’s the balanced approach that has worked for thousands and thousands of real estate investors, and there’s no reason that it won’t work for you, too.
Click below if you’re ready to take the next step.
The “Contractor Bailed on Me” Deal w/ Keith Sant | Behind the Deal
Keith Sant is a long-time friend of Carrot, a five-time Carrot Camper, and returning guest here on the Carrotcast.
Recently, he closed a deal that was plagued with difficulties from beginning to end. He will walk us through how he dealt with the contractors disappearing and his buyer bailing out at the last minute.
After all was said and done, Keith even walked away with a higher profit than what he was expecting. Here’s an inside look at how he did it!
Read the Full Show Notes Below…
Frequently you will hear about a deal’s numbers, but you won’t hear about all of the pitfalls, surprises, or how the investor got the lead.
As our friend Keith Sant puts it, we’re not in the business of real estate; we are in the business of problem-solving. It is only when we solve the big problems that we get paid big money.
Behind The Deal
The seller called Keith after finding his phone number via a Google search, and they were able to meet right away. The house needed some work and wasn’t in any condition for the MLS. The seller was moving and needed a fast closing.
Because they were asking about $450k, there was an inspection and a 60-day close. While the price was steep, the home had a conservative ARV of $650k.
The Hurdle
Keith faced multiple hurdles throughout this transaction. His contractors skipped out and, at the last minute and his original buyer fell through.
With only a couple of days before the promised closing date, Keith had to call the seller and let him know about the situation and that there would be a delay. It wasn’t an easy call.
The Solution
Instead of backing out on the deal, which he could have quickly done, Keith powered through. He reached out to another potential buyer and was able to push the deal through just 3 days late.
While the seller was not happy with the delay, Keith kept his word on the deal. He knew that he had promised to solve this seller’s problem, and finding a solution was the right thing to do.
He took a smaller assignment fee to get the property sold. However, his original buyer had put down earnest money, which allowed Keith to walk away ahead.
Spending Your Marking Dollars Wisely
When we first met Keith, he was doing a lot of bandit signs and ringless voicemails – hundreds of thousands of them.
Today, over 80% of his deals come from Carrot.
He is doing more business and spending less time because his organic leads have grown year after year.
Additionally, Keith sets up tracking phone numbers for each marketing channel. This tells him exactly where his leads are coming from, allowing him to focus on his marketing budget better. The saying goes… Half of your marketing doesn’t work, but most people don’t know which half!
A great benefit of your Carrot site is the ability to create campaign links. You can use these links on your Facebook ads, retargeting ads, Google My Business page, and anywhere that links to your website. Then, you will be able to track your leads to know precisely where they came from.
Sellers Setting Appointments
A great tip Keith shared with us was his use of the Calendly app. Adding this feature to his website allows potential sellers to easily schedule their own appointment time right there on his website.
They don’t have to wait for a callback, making them less likely to jump to the next website when looking for a buyer. You can also put a link to your Calendly app in your auto-responder emails and texts.
Since implementing this feature on his website 6 months ago – he has closed 8 deals. The people scheduling appointments are ready to sell. They are usually much more motivated than people you are cold calling.
Tips That Work – Citations
A citation is like a business card that you put around the web. Think business directories, Google My Business, Apple Maps, and social media sites. You’ll want to fill out your business information, adding photos where applicable.
You can spend a few hours/days setting these up, you can utilize software to help you through it, or you can hire a pro. No matter how you do it, these backlinks will help you build credibility with your potential clients and with Google – thus helping you rank higher in organic search results.
Join Us Live!
Join us every other Thursday on Facebook Live. We’ll be taking you behind the deal with some of the top guys and gals in the industry. Get answers to your questions live on air while learning the fundamentals of the business.
