Posted by Chris on March 02, 2000 at 03:16:43:
Ben-
Would you please be so kind and tell us what the two URLs are for your sell side and buy side. I would like to take a look at your setup.
-Appreciate it, Chris
Business card / Ad question - Posted by Doone
Posted by Doone on March 01, 2000 at 21:07:01:
Hi,
I forgot to ask this question in my last post:
When you flip contracts, what do you put on your business card since you’re buying and selling? Do you make two different ones - one for the homeowner and one for investors? And how about advertising, do you need to seperate the two also - a bad idea to combine “I buy Handy Man…” with “I sell Handy Man…”
Doone
Re: Business card / Ad question - Posted by B.L.Renfrow
Posted by B.L.Renfrow on March 02, 2000 at 20:33:09:
The function of advertising, whether it’s a business card, signs, or whatever is to simply get your name in front of a potential seller (or buyer, in some cases). It’s not to give the seller a mini-course on lease options or flipping.
I have one card, which doesn’t say much beyond the fact that I buy houses and it has my name and various ways in which I can be contacted. I give it to buyers, sellers, and anyone I think might be either down the road. I carry around too much stuff already to keep track of more than one business card!
As for the risk of my sellers and buyers running into each other, I am in a small town, so it’s inevitable that’s going to happen. While I certainly don’t broadcast the difference between my purchase and selling prices, I do make it clear to all parties that I am in business to make money. They are aware I am bringing certain knowledge and resources to the table, as well as assuming risks they don’t want to take or don’t know about, and for that I am going to be compensated. So if a seller happens to find out that I sold her house for $10k more than I paid her for it, I don’t have a big problem. If the seller (or buyer) could have put together the deal on their own, they wouldn’t have needed me.
As long as you are operating in an ethical, above-board manner, and treating all parties to the deal fairly, I don’t think it’s a significant issue as to whether your buyers and sellers occasionally come together.
As far as seperate web sites, I’m not sure on that one yet, as I don’t have a web site, period! (It’s in the development stage.) I haven’t decided yet whether it’s preferable to have one URL for people to keep track of, or if the benefits of seperate sites outweigh the hassle.
Brian (NY)
Re: Business card / Ad question - Posted by TRandle
Posted by TRandle on March 02, 2000 at 08:45:37:
Doone,
I haven’t really done many flips, but why present two faces to the public? If you’re successful, people will soon know what you do anyway, so why bother with the extra effort? If Ben can keep that going, I think that’s great for him, but not my style. I buy and sell houses, what else does someone need to know? My business cards don’t discuss the numerous ways to get in or out - that comes later. My two cents…
Re: Business card / Ad question - Posted by Ben
Posted by Ben on March 02, 2000 at 02:38:48:
I completely agree with your premise of using two different business cards … one for “buyer” and one for “seller”. For one thing, I don’t want the “buyers” visiting my “Seller” web site, where I’m extolling the virtues of buying their home on a lease-option deal. I use totally separate web sites with unique domain names, and each business card will have the applicable URL typed on it.
I also agree whole-heartedly with your idea about advertising separately, and again, it’s something I do.
I sure would hate for one of my “buyers” to meet the guy who’s home I bought & lease-optioned to him, one night in a bar - have them put two and two together; I guess with the law of averages, if you make enough deals sooner or later that WILL happen - but in the meantime, I’m not going to give them any help!
Re: Business card / Ad question - Posted by ben
Posted by ben on March 04, 2000 at 23:18:59:
I disagree completely that there is any “hassle” in having separate sites. As for 'having one URL for people to keep track of", that’s also a non-factor because there IS only one URL for your intended buyers and ONE URL for your intended sellers; so none of these people would be concerned with more than one URL anyway. Further, if you are email-ing the URL, they simply are following the hyperlink. I email these URLs from my ACT database daily and all the recipient needs to do is click & bookmark.
As for having to “deal” with more than one business card - my simple solution is to carry a card wallet with both cards; if I’m speaking with a buyer, I give him a card from the back pocket of the card wallet - if I’m speaking with a seller, I give him a card from the front pocket of the card wallet. It’s obvious that you can’t mix URLs (or anything else) within two publishing templates so it is not possible to inadvertantly mis-print or cross the URLs on the wrong card.
It happens anyway, sooner than later… - Posted by Alex Gurevich, TX
Posted by Alex Gurevich, TX on March 03, 2000 at 18:23:13:
People will know what you paid and what you are selling their house for, even if you don’t have a web site. Information travels quickly, especially if you are doing any significant volume.
I recently had a case when one of my sellers came to the door of her former home and brought all our closing papers to show. The the tenant/buyer in turn shared her L/O documents with seller. Neither had anything against the numbers.
I just signed a Contract to sell a fixer-upper house for $32,000 (was asking $35K) in a worst part of town you can imagine. To call it “rough” is an understatement. I bought it in pre-foreclosure about 2 months ago.
Can you imagine my surprise, when a lady wanting to buy the house (she lives out of town), told me: “Why are you asking $35K, when you only paid $12K for it?” Believe it or not, this is exactly what I paid, and I haven’t advertised this fact; it wasn’t purchased through a realtor either. I had to remind her that my business is to buy low and sell high, and she understood it. Little discount on the price also helped.
Re: Business card / Ad question - Posted by JoeB(Atlanta)
Posted by JoeB(Atlanta) on March 02, 2000 at 06:33:50:
Hi Doone, my 2 cents about two vs one business card is:
We only have one business card that basically says: we buy and sell houses. All of our sellers know I’m going to sell their home as soon as possible, so I don’t think it’s a big problem.
I just can’t keep track of who I’m talking to and then which pocket I need to pull which business card out of, to hand them.
Best of luck,
Joe Brillante