[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Elite Agent Investors where we talk about next level tools, tech and tactics used by the top 1% real estate professionals. I'm your host Pete Thorpe. You can find me on social media@Pethorpe IO. We bring on active real estate professionals including agents, brokers and investors to share their most advanced marketing tactics. Today's episode is sponsored by Real Fuel. Powered by big data. Real Fuel analyzes thousands of data points to service leads that are likely to sell in your chosen market. They Boast a 271 increase in seller response rate when marketing to their AI scored leads versus a general list. Check them out at RealFuel AI. Today we've got Tony Green out of Baltimore. He is a local investor, Realtor, been in the business for 20 plus years now. Joining me in the old age group.
As you know, Tony, welcome to Elite Agent Investors.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Welcome. Thanks for having me, Peter.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: So as you know, our podcast here is about helping other people level up and learning things that other people are doing that's currently working for them. So what is something that you're doing right now that is helping your business grow and continue to be successful?
[00:01:08] Speaker B: I think you know me being in this game a long time, Pete, getting your systems in order and in place is, is huge because you're just, you're pulling teeth at this point trying to do everything down. And if you have systems in place as far as, you know, having your CRM, having acquisitions, having dispositions, you know, having all those tools in place, it helps. And one, and one thing that's really helped me, Pete, is really, you know, focusing on the niches versus, okay, I'm going to hit an appsitee owner list. I'm gonna hit a, you know, you know, vacant list where everybody's being bombarded. You know, that list could comprise maybe 5 to 10,000 leads versus if I hit, you know, some pain points, pre foreclosure, probate, inheritance, you know, that bundles that list down to maybe a thousand or maybe less and then you can really target and hone in on those, those client, those potential sellers and just you know, hammer them and see what, see what the outcome is. That's been my, that's been my. Sorry, you mean interrupt you? That, that's been my, that's been my really success in doing this because I did it, I did all of it. You know, absentees, you know, sent out 5, 10,000 mailers a month. It doesn't work. Absolutely. You know what I mean? But I rather focus on the niches.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: Yep. It's funny you say that because it must be something in the Air today. Guest I had on earlier today, Ali Shri out of Boston literally said the exact same thing. That you got to focus on one or two things that you do really well and stay in that, in that niche. He's, he's really good at numbers. He likes commercial and so he, that's, that's what he did. He, he was on a retail side and he just didn't like, he was, wasn't excited about the, the, the, the marble, the kitchen, the bathroom that was done. But he does get excited about numbers.
Same thing you said. All right. You, you focus on what vacants or you focus on absentee or you focus on whatever it might be that you focus on it and you niche down into that and you get really good at that one thing. And when you've got that mastered, then you can add something else to it, another pillar. But you got to have systems in place to make sure you support everything. So you got to have a CRM, you got to make sure you know what you're doing with it. Got to have yourself a website, a business profile on Google, all those things kind of absolutely hold it all together. Yep. And a lot of people just a, they try to do it all themselves. But you got to have a team that can handle some of that stuff for you. You can't. There's only so many hours in a day. And if you're out there actively investing, you can't go drive and look at the site, you can't go look at the project and still prospect. You got to have something that's doing that for you. Unless you're looking to be a. There's nothing wrong with being small if you're look. But if you're looking to be like a one man show, you're only going to be able to do so much.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: Absolutely. And you know what, to be honest, it, it gotta pay to play, you know. So if you're a one man band, you know, it's gonna cost, you know, to get all your systems in place. So that's why I tend to show friends of mine and you know, I don't have any students but you know, people who ask me, you know, how do you do it if you're just starting out? You're gonna have to simplify this game. You can't go out of the gate spending, you know, five to $10,000 a month in marketing. You know you're gonna go broke.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: You know, so will it get the phone ringing? Sure. But I mean it's Just to be consistent with that type of marketing budget. You know you're going to go broke if you're just starting out.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: Yeah, you need, you need that little bit of Runway. We tell everybody, you know, you're looking at anywhere from you should really have 90 to 180, 180 days of marketing in place. Are you going to get, you know, a one hit wonder early? Maybe. But more likely than not, you're spending five grand a month. You got to, you got to be able to bear six months before that turns around. There's that meme out there with the guy who's digging gold and he stops, you know, he's got three quarters way through. He stops one swing before the gold hits. I feel like that's the five or six month mark for most realtors and investors where they, they, they, they swung the pickaxe, they did a few things, they tried this, then they got distracted and they tried that, then they tried the other thing and then they say none of this works. It's all trash.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: They were right there.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: Yes, yes. Before the phone started to ring. You know what I mean?
[00:05:16] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: I, I think focusing on the free county data that's available to everybody, me being in the, when I did pre foreclosures. I'm sorry, when I did foreclosures for Fannie and Freddie, I got to know all those pre foreclosure attorneys. I know where they're going. Either going to BWW Law Group, you're either going to, you know, a few others, but you get to know who those attorneys are and just pop them in the land records. People say we're not supposed to do pre foreclosures. That's absolutely false. You can, so you can market to pre foreclosures. You just got to know the law.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Sure.
Yep. Well, not only that, I mean you're helping people before it gets foreclosed. So at the end of the day, you can help people out of the position they're in. Like you said, solving problems. Go to the pain point, find the pain point, solve that problem.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: You're going to be good to go.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: Exactly. There's plenty of free data out there, even the register of wills, you know, hit those personal reps and just hammer them. Say, you know, what do you have planned with the, with the property that's for, that's available with this estate? You know, you just got to get out. It's how bad do you want it? You know what I mean? Because you know, you can be a rock bottom and one year can change your life dramatically in this business.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Yep. You know, crackhead never says in the morning, I'm not gonna get crack. They're gonna go out there, work and find it.
Yeah, you've heard that saying. Like, I think Brian Stuman was out there. He's like drug addicts, like, they don't, they're gonna go find it, right?
[00:06:41] Speaker B: They find a way. They find. Let me tell you, if. If somebody was offering you a 2025 Bentley for $500, you will find a way to find that $500.
[00:06:51] Speaker A: Yes. You gotta, like you said, you gotta want it. That is the, that, that's the biggest thing. You gotta want it. Gotta kind of know what you're looking at. And if you can find. I know you said you don't have students, but if you can find like a mentor, right? If you can find somebody, kind of point you in a direction, here's, here's the other big thing that I've, that I've learned through. I'm only 10 plus years in the, in the space.
And that is fine. You know, you find that mentor, don't put your spin on it. Right. Some, another guy that I know has gone out. He's. He's been on big stages and he'll say things like, I'm telling you exactly what I do. And he'll put his, he'll put his stuff, he'll put his business plan on the board. He's like, this is what I do. Step by step by step by step. Because he's like, I know that 99 plus percent of the people in this room will not do it. Because they'll say, that won't work in my market. Or, well, I would do that, but I'm going to try and put my spin on it. And then when it fails, they say, oh, Tony's process doesn't work because I tried it. I didn't do what he said to do, but I tried what he said and I did it my way and it didn't work. Well, guess what? Tony's been doing it 20 years. His way works if you do it his way. Right. So until you have process and procedures down, you can put your own spin on something, but don't try and spin it before it's working.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: Exactly. Let's be honest, Pete. Everybody's doing the same damn thing. You know what I mean? So, I mean, it's just how being consistent and, you know, building that rapport with the seller and just getting it done, you know, are you going to win them All. No, but not every. Not one. Same investor can buy every house. Just can't.
Yeah. So you're going to start eventually.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: You gotta. You gotta know your market in Baltimore, too. You know, some areas you don't want to buy in.
I could walk down to the city right now with thousand dollars and pick up a shell.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:08:37] Speaker A: Do I want to pick that shell up? No.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: Hell no. Hell no. I buy them certain pockets in the city, you know what I mean? And anything county, of course, but, you know, you just got to be careful. And for your own safety as well. It's the wild, wild west down there sometimes. So you got to be careful.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I mean, not only there, anywhere. I mean, I did BPOs for a long time. For those of you that don't know BPO's bank price opinions.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: Which by the way, have been on the rise as of late. I don't do them anymore because they're trying to get us to go out there for like 25 bucks to do evaluation on a property. And I'm like, you're out of your mind.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: You got to hit the right ones, though. I mean, I had to do them when I got reos, so. I mean, you got to hit the mill, the BPO mills and the ones that give you, you know, give you the listings. I mean, we can share that off air. I can put you the right one.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. But. But all I would say is I would go out to some of those places all over the place between Maryland, Pennsylvania, and I'm licensed carry in both states. And I carry it everywhere because, you know, wild animals inside of vacant houses.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: I've been in places before. I walked in, you didn't hear anything. You're like, all right, whatever. I'm doing my thing. Power's off, and they must have saw me coming up the driveway. They're in the basement, and I got to go down there and take a photo of the power panel, you know, flashlight. And you're swimming down.
You don't know. So, you know, that's a careful there as you go into. That's all.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: Yeah, been there. Got that T shirt.
[00:09:57] Speaker A: Yeah. So you obviously focus in Baltimore. What's. What's the niche that you're working right now that's working for you?
[00:10:04] Speaker B: I'm doing a lot of pre foreclosure probates, senior list. I mean, you can go around in there. Brighton, full of senior list. If you put. Put it in public records correctly and just have my cold callers hit them.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: Yep. That's Definitely a. A good path to go. And again, this is why we call this elite agent investors. Tony's obviously an agent or has least has access to the MLS like most agents should, and an investor. That is the future. The. The. The future is being hybrid, being able to offer dynamic solutions to other sellers. You know, you can help them with. There's a variety of exit strategies. Hey, do you want to get out of this place tomorrow? I can get a cash offer. Do you need more time? We can get you this. Do you want to do a seller? Steel can do that. Retail can do this.
Having those multiple options.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: You know what I mean?
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: Innovations, which seems to be the craze now. So, I mean, there's so much stuff you can do in this business.
You know, it's just not like going to somebody's house, listing a property and selling it. There's so many other ways you can make revenue in this business.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: Exactly. And at the end of the day, it's still help helping that seller figure out what they want to do and, you know, solving a problem for them. So it goes back to 100. Being good at what you know and solving problems.
[00:11:14] Speaker B: We are problem solvers.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: Indeed. So if people want to find you, where can they find you online, Tony?
[00:11:21] Speaker B: They can go to my website, www.sell to harbor.com if they need to. Email me
[email protected] if they want to give me a call. 443-865-2477, selltheharbor.com which you're in Baltimore, you.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: Know the harbor is.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: Yes, that's why.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: So, yeah, there you go. There you go. Awesome. Well, Tony, thanks for coming on. We're gonna go ahead and get it all buttoned up. And like Tony said, make sure you stay in the niche that you're really good at or find the ones you're good at. Find yourself a mentor. Follow through on the process. Make sure you do what you're supposed to do, all the mundane things, that's where the money's made. It's not all glitz and glam. You got to just do the do the basics, do them well, do them off, and be consistent with it. So if you know anybody that would like to be on the podcast, have them reach out to eliteagentinvestors.com and one more time, if you are looking for some of the latest data, go to RealFuel AI. They've got AI algorithms that will go ahead and give you some highly ranked, highly likely to sell people in your area. Fantastic company. We use them ourselves. So check them out there and we will see you guys on the next one. Thanks.
