$75K+ in Deals on a $118/Month Budget: How Mark Outranked Competitors in a Tough Market
Mark turned a side hustle into consistent deal flow, closing $75K in assignments, 7 listings, and 3 wholesale deals in escrow — all with zero ad spend, just sweat equity and a Carrot site.
He ranks in the top 3 for many Arizona markets and now generates nearly a lead a day on average.
Here’s how he did it.
$75k in Assignments
Closed in 6–8 months, all from inbound SEO leads
7 Listings
From motivated seller leads that didn’t fit a wholesale deal
$118/Month Budget
No ad budget — only cost is time and his Carrot subscription
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The Challenge: Getting Consistent Seller Leads for Cheap
Mark was already a licensed agent in both California and Arizona, but he was tired of the grind of traditional real estate sales.
“I’ve always worked with wholesalers and investors from the sales side. I decided to start generating those leads myself since I already had the network.”
He wasn’t ready to spend thousands per month on paid ads. What he needed was a low-cost, high-leverage way to get inbound leads reliably.
He realized it was time to rebuild his investing business on proven, consistent marketing sources. That’s when he found Carrot:
The Solution: Launching a Carrot Site and Following the Playbook
Mark came across Carrot while researching websites for motivated seller leads.
“I was already running a WordPress site with BoomTown for my real estate business, but it wasn’t designed for investors. When I found Carrot, I knew it was built specifically for what I needed.”
He signed up at the end of May 2024 and spent the summer of 2024 following the Carrot roadmap: setting up his foundation, following our SEO training, and watching Evergreen Marketing Live.
“The tutorials, the Carrot YouTube channel, the Three Leads Per Day course—they walked me through everything.”
Demo Carrot: How many deals are you losing to your competitor’s website?
Steps for Success: Ranking in a Competitive Market with No Marketing Spend
1. Nail the Basics to Build Trust: Before diving into SEO, Mark made sure the fundamentals of his Carrot site were dialed in. He uploaded a professional photo, added a personal bio, included testimonials from past clients, and placed his logo across the site. These trust elements helped boost credibility with sellers and improve conversions.
2. Build Local Authority One City Page at a Time: In the Summer of 2024, Mark manually built out location pages for every major city in Arizona. He geotagged photos, used real local images, and optimized each page for SEO. “I manually created every page. It took a ton of time, but it worked.” *Now Carrot has auto-location pages to do this in far less time!
3. Stack Up SEO Wins with Long-Form Blogs: After the location foundation was complete, he turned to blogs. He pulled ideas from top Carrot member sites, found high-traffic keywords, and wrote 2,000–3,000 word posts. Each post linked strategically to his “how it works” page or relevant location page. He also used Carrot’s AI Rewrite Tool to improve clarity, structure, and keyword usage in his blog content.
4. Dial In Rankings with Daily SEO Tracking: Mark created and refined his blog content using Carrot’s built-in visual editor. He followed on-page SEO prompts and formatting best practices. To track results, he used the SEO Performance tab and Keyword Rankings Tool daily, keeping a close eye on movement and opportunity.Mark published and refined his blog posts using the Content Engine. He tracked performance daily using Carrot’s SEO Performance tab and Keyword Rankings Tool, keeping a close eye on shifts and opportunities.
5. Leverage Pre-built SEO Content That Converts: For long-tail topics like foreclosure and divorce, Mark used Carrot’s Niche Authority Builder to produce optimized content and downloadable lead magnets. His foreclosure guide quickly became one of his most clicked pages.
6. Trust the Climb — SEO Compounds Over Time: Even with a low domain authority (~6), Mark broke into the top 100 within weeks and was able to have confidence in his efforts thanks to Carrot’s SEO Tools & Tracking.
“At first, I felt like I was doing all this work for nothing. But when I saw myself break into the top 100, then top 40, then top 10—I knew the system worked.”
7. Expand Faster Using Auto-Location Pages: Now that his Arizona pages are performing well, he’s expanding into California using a new Carrot site for just $29/mo extra, and using Carrot’s Auto-Location Pages to streamline setup without compromising quality.
“There’s so much depth to the knowledge base. Almost any question I had, I could find the answer or a video on it.
9. Partner Up to Monetize More Leads: Rather than servicing every lead himself, Mark partnered with an experienced local cash buyer.
“That helped me convert more leads I wouldn’t have known how to work.
The Result: Proof that SEO can be DIY (when done with Carrot)
In just a few short months, Mark went from generating one lead a month to averaging a lead per day—all without any ad spend. Every single deal came from organic SEO, proving the system works even in competitive markets.
BEFORE Carrot: (May 2024):
Only had a retail-focused site
No Google rankings
ZERO motivated seller leads
AFTER Carrot (June 2025):
$75,000+ in assignment fees
7 listings closed
+ 3 wholesale deals in escrow as of publishing
Ranks across numerous Arizona markets
Cost per deal: Effectively $0 beyond sweat equity and a $118/month Carrot plan
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