Flip Tip Summary
The only way to create a successful real estate investing business that stands the test of time, is to create systems that help you operate efficiently. Otherwise, you run out of your own time. Joe McCall is a master, and his willingness to share this knowledge with others helped him earn the 2014 Best FlipNerd Automation Tip! Watch it here!
Flip Tip Transcript:
Mike: Hey, it’s Mike Hambright from FlipNerd.com and we have a quick Expert Tip to share with you from Joe McCall who’s going to share a tip on a simple tool to use to outsource your CRM.
This Expert Tip is sponsored by RealtyMogul.com, B2R Finance and AceBusinessFunding.com.
Joe: Hey, guys. Real simple. One of the things I think a lot of investors struggle with is this yellow pad of paper here. You talk to a seller, you write down all your notes feverishly and you say all right, I’ll get back to you, let me crunch the numbers, sharpen my pencils, let me get back to you. And then all of a sudden at the end of the day you’re left with five pages of notes of all the sellers you’ve talked to or you have a bunch of post-it notes on your desk and you’re like “Where do I even start?”
Then you find yourself spending at least two hours a day on the laptop or on your computer updating your CRM, whatever your using, FreedomSoft or Podio or RealFlow, whatever. There are a lot of good tools out there. And now you find yourself exhausted and spending all this time making sure everything is in there or trying to play catch-up or, worse, when the seller calls back, you’re trying to fish through all your notes trying to find where was it that I talked to you.
Well what if you could just completely outsource your CRM? Now this stuff is so simple, once you grasp this concept you’ll be hitting yourself thinking, “Why didn’t I do this before?” Everybody’s got VAs for the most part, right? Or assistants. Well, why not have your assistant or your VA update your CRM for you? I was looking for my phone, I’m actually looking at it right now, I’m talking to you on it. But what if you could take your smartphone right here and turn it into . . . use it to have your VAs update Podio or update your CRM for you.
So it’s really simple, get a dedicated email address, just for your assistant that only him or her can email you at that email address. So every morning, just email to you the first three things that you have to do. Call this seller, and that email contains all the details. The second email is call this seller and that contains all the sellers, right? You open up the email address and your assistant is getting this information from the CRM. You open up the email, you see who you got to talk to and you call them up and maybe you still use a legal pad, you write down your notes and this is where the power of this comes in.
You use a smartphone app like Voxer, V as in voice O-X-E-R, Voxer. I use it all the time. It’s a voice messaging app, kind of like a walkie-talkie for your smartphone. There is also WhatsApp. WhatsApp you can use. It does voice messages really easily. Then you send a voice message to your assistant. “Hey, Jeannie, I talked to the seller at 123 Main Street, the lead is dead. Go ahead and mark it as dead but send them a letter anyway, okay? And remind me again in six months to call them back.” You send that voice memo to your assistant and you take these notes that you had, I love throwing away things, and you throw it away and it’s done. It’s out of mind, you don’t have to worry about it anymore.
You go to the next email, you delete that old email. You go to the next one, you call that seller up, talk to the seller. The listing, it’s already listed with the realtor. So you do a voice memo to your assistant, “Hey talk to this seller. They’re motivated but it’s listed with the realtor. But go ahead and submit an offer, send them an offer in the mail for 90,000. Remind me again to call them again in two weeks and send them a text message and . . .” You tell them what to do and they just get it done for you.
After you go through your three emails, send them another voice memo, “Okay send me the next thing I got to do.” So now what are you doing? You’re focusing on your highest revenue generating activities which is talking to sellers and making offers, right? And you let someone else handle the details and updating the CRM for you. And all you need is email, and a voice messaging app like Voxer, or WhatsApp to then communicate with your assistant who is updating the CRM and then only sending you the reminders of the things that you have to do next. Does that make sense?
Mike: That’s awesome, yeah. I think a lot of people, once they finally adopt the CRM, they still are stuck being the administrator of the CRM as well and you’re taking it to a whole other level.
Joe: I tell you, guys. So many of us want to try automate and systemize everything. But sometimes the best automation you can have is a good virtual assistant. Don’t worry about plugging in all of this extra stuff to do this, to get the system to do this and this for you. Just get a good VA, that works 9 to 5 your time. It’s important that this assistant is working your hour no matter where they are and just communicate with them with this voice messaging apps to update the stuff for you and remind you of the things that you have to do.
Mike: We’d like to thank Specialized IRA Services, National Real Estate Insurance Group and VirtualStaffNow.com.
Please note, the views and opinions expressed by the individuals in this program do not necessarily reflect those of FlipNerd.com or any of its partners, advertisers, or affiliates. Please consult professionals before making any investment or tax decisions, as real estate investing can be risky.
