Today, I bring to you two proven real estate strategies for two different niches: investing and broker sales. Bryan Casella, who has 3 years of real estate experience and is on track to sell $20 million in volume this year, has found a unique niche to invest in, tax deed auctions, and has created an aggressive lead generation strategy, door knocking. In our conversation, he explained, in detail, his approach towards dominating both investing and sales.
Real Estate Investing Process – Tax Deed Auction
Brian discovered the tax deed niche after linking up with Mike Wolf, a big time investor from Canada that owns well over 350 properties in the US. Brian went on a tour with him to Houston, Atlanta, and Kansas City to experience, first-hand, how Mike was able to achieve such high levels of success. He discovered that Mike goes to tax deed auctions, which are held once a month, where properties were purchased for pennies on the dollar. On one occasion, a property worth $100,000 was purchased for $4,000. Needless to say, Brian couldn’t believe it. As a result, he learned the system and at his first auction in Houston, purchased two properties – one for $10,000 and another for $12,000 – with a combined market value of over $160,000. After minor rehabs, Brian is renting the first property for $900 and the other for just under $1000 a month!
The extremely low purchase prices are unbelievable, but the icing on the cake is that Brian was able to purchase these properties remotely. Once the initial structure is in place, the process is almost completely automated:
- Three to four nights before the auction, Brian is sent a list of the properties that are up for auction.
- Brian will select a handful of properties from the list, based on the following criteria:
- Middle-class neighborhood (i.e. families, first-time home-buyers, etc.)
- High potential (i.e. if he fixes it up, it is going to increase in value and is going to demand good rents)
- Attract tenants that are going to pay, are loyal, and will stay for a while
- Based on his research, Brian will send the properties he is interested in to a contact in Houston. This contact has access to the MLS, so he will send Brian sales comparables for more in-depth due diligence. The contact will also visit the subject property to take videos and pictures, which he will send back to Brian so that he can confirm the properties condition.
- For the properties that Brian deems acceptable, he will send a list of properties he wants to bid on, as well as the max price he wants to offer, to his contact
- His contact will attend the auction in person and bid on the properties from Brian’s list
Brian’s contact only charges him for properties won. If Brian doesn’t win a property, then the contact doesn’t get paid
Real Estate Broker Strategy – Door Knocking
Aside from purchasing properties at tax deed auctions, which he has commitment to buying 3 per year, Brian’s other passion is selling real estate. He has an athletic background – playing professional basketball overseas – so he applies the same competitive, disciplined, hard-working mentality to being a broker. As a result, he is on pace to rake in $20 million in sale volume this year.
Brian’s number one lead generator is expired listings. And his number one approach to chasing down these leads is door knocking. That is how he initially built his business and it is how he continues to grow at a rapid pace. Currently, since he has a team of agents working for him, the strategy has changed slightly, but the core essence is the same:
- Starting at 8:00am, one team member that Brian has trained will call all the expired listing
- At the same time, Brian will go knock on the expired listing property’s door between 7:30am and 8:30am
- If they weren’t able to make contact that morning, he will go back and knock on the door again that afternoon and the team member will call again as well.
Typically, if they talk to 5 to 6 people, they can usually get an appointment with 2, and will end up listing one of them.
This is a very simple, yet aggressive, in your face approach. As a result, rejection is inevitable. How Brian has handled this rejection has been an evolution over time. However, he believes that when you get to the point where you are confident in your ability, are genuinely coming form a point of contribution, and want to help people, they will see that. Therefore, when he knocks on a door, he reminds himself that he has no idea what this person is going through, so he doesn’t take anything thrown at him personally. Deep down in his heart, he wants to help them get rid of the negative situation they are in.
It was difficult at first because he was terrified because he had never done sales before. So the prospect of basically throwing himself into a pit of snakes was scary. But after a while, he built up some thick skin and his skill level rose. As a result, he believes that the person can pick up on his “confident and helpful” vibe.
Brian’s advice for those that may be afraid of the unavoidable rejection when door knocking is to come from a place of contribution, and not from a place of wanting to make a commission, because he has noticed that the person is able to tell the difference, which makes the interactions so much better.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or course of action.
