He Closes 20% of His Leads. Other Wholesalers Called It Luck. He Just Hit $100K This Month.

What's going on guys. I got one of my clients, Cole. He's based in Ohio and he's totally crushing it. And we started working together around probably 3 months ago and he's doing really good. So want to have him on the channel and for him to kind of give his experience into how he is doing a ton of deals. Cole, you want to give us a little rundown of you, your business, what you guys doing right now?

Yeah. Yeah. So welcome all. My name's Cole here. Been wholesaling for close to 2 years now. Started off doing some original marketing, just the classic cold call stuff. Tried some text blasting as well. We got some results from that. Obviously, you know, starting off in the business, it takes a minute to get some momentum, understanding, you know, where you're at and stuff like that. But got onto this inbound lead train here and linked up with Fidel Guajardo. And, you know, we've seen some, some success starting the Facebook, Meta leads here. So yeah, it definitely has kind of transformed our business in a different direction and allowed us to get some cheaper cost per lead and some higher deal quality as well as lead quality.

Cool. So over there in Ohio, are you guys mainly wholesaling or are you also flipping?

Yeah. So we actually do both. So we started off wholesaling. Now most of the leads that we get, we tend to lean more toward, you know, acquiring it ourselves rather than wholesaling it to other investors. Mind you, the turnaround time is going to be a little bit longer on those, but our spreads are a little bit higher. Thankfully, we have, you know, a team and my business partner, Landon, as well to kind of, you know, take that side and, you know, get those flips and projects completed for us to get, you know, good returns on as well. So So that's what we've moved into, but obviously it all started with us marketing and wholesaling deals to other investors.

Nice. So over the last couple months since we started working together, how many extra deals would you say you've gotten in the last 3 months from the Meta side?

Yeah. Typically we were doing, I would say on average, 2 to 3 deals per month. You know, with the Meta when we first started, I think I got, I was closing like 1 in 4 leads, which was pretty crazy. But I think we've gotten a total of, I think like 12, 10 to 12 contracts, maybe higher actually. But within the past 3 months here, and we've gotten, I think like 6 closed deals, maybe 7, like closed and funded. Some of those we did purchase ourselves. So we're working on the process of obviously renovating and reselling or keeping them as rentals for, our portfolio, but some of them we also wholesale to other investors and got them closed and funded as well. So seen some success for sure.

Nice. And you're someone that we launched and then I guess the first week was a little slow. And then after that, it just kind of went crazy in those first 6 weeks. We had really, really good results. And then the campaign died down a little bit, had to make some changes. So I guess we can talk a little bit about that because a lot of people will say that they'll see crazy results like yours or like talking to Nick or my guy Eduardo, Kyle. And the reason why things work is because of course we always getting feedback from you as a client. Us, we have to do our part with the marketing, but it's always like a team effort to ensure that we get to the goal. So if something is not working the best, it's like, okay, what can, what are we, are you seeing in the leads? Like what's the feedback? And then that gives us enough ammo so that we can make changes according to what we're trying to get to. Right. So I know the first month, what, we spent probably like $2,000 and you got like 5 contracts the first month, something like that.

Yeah, it was pretty crazy.

Nice.

Yeah, it was like $2,200 or something.

Something like that, right? And then before Meta, like what were the main channels that you were doing?

Um, we were just doing cold calling. So we did an agency, um, that was our, probably our bread and butter for the past, I like 5 months just with marketing. But we were spending definitely way more on that than we were, than we are now on, you know, ad spend. So, yeah.

And what did you experience kind of like the quality and kind of like the type of lead when you get with Facebook and it being inbound versus kind of just doing outbound?

Yeah, I noticed that obviously people are more willing to, when you get them on the phone, they're more willing to, you know, have a conversation rather than just like, give me a number. Or this or that, you know, cold call leads, you have to break them down a little bit more, overcome a little bit more objection. Some Facebook leads and more inbound stuff, you can be a little bit more direct, a little bit more, you know, confident in the way you're talking to them. But I've seen recently, like, it's tough to get some of the people, some people just fill out a form and they don't even, you know, get back to you at all. So most of them are, that kind of dilutes our like contract or lead to contract. Ratio, but I would say lead to contract if we actually get them on the phone is like pretty crazy. But yeah, I think the workability is a little bit better.

Yeah.

On when you have conversations, I guess.

Yeah. And there's always things that we can do on the backend to ensure we get like a higher quality lead, like asking more questions in the form or using the conditional logic where like, hey, like if it's listed, like they can't submit, right? But with Facebook, it's always like Facebook requires a little bit more effort, but that effort gives you like an outsized return for the time that we put in it because our cost per lead is cheaper and our cost per deal is also cheaper. So, and what I mean with that is like sometimes we may need to make new changes and different things like that. And I know you are, you know, kind of like local in your market, you're in different areas. And I think with you, we started with just like static images. And then we started adding videos where it was you like in the ad. And then we did some testimonials. So a lot of people think it's like, hey, you only need to do videos like if you're in your market. Of course, they're always going to work, but you can still get good results even with the pain-based images. That's how you got a lot of your deals first. And then we added more into what was working. So I feel like a lot of people have this misconception that you need to make a lot of videos. Of course, they're always going to help because they see you as more credible and just having that proof. And all that to say is because I know that you closed on some deals and you made this new ad and then it's working very well as far as giving us the volume.

Yeah, that was actually from a static image though.

Yeah. Yeah, so we got it from the image and then that's where we took a new ad with the seller and then it's trending really good, right?, but with Facebook, sometimes we need to kind of reassess, launch new things, and then go back to, for it to be, you know, kind of like optimized. What would you say has been the experience of kind of like you having to be in the videos and like recording those ads?

Yeah, I remember I recorded, like I'm a little bit on the younger side, so it's kind of tough to, you know, just be solo in the video. I recorded those ones like selfie style. I was my first time recording, obviously Those didn't like do too hot on the ad side, but I think, you know, building trust with the seller and giving them, you know, standing by your word and, you know, getting a deal closed for them, you know, goes a long way. And that, you know, allowed me to get on the phone with him and say, hey, would you be open to do a testimonial for us? And he said more than, he's more than happy. Right. So went out there, you know, and we, We've talked on the phone several times, so it wasn't anything weird or anything like that. He was completely open to it and just gave him the structure of, of how it went and how it was gonna go. And, you know, we, we got 'em cranked out in probably 10, 15 minutes. And, um, yeah, they're, they're doing fairly well right now.

Nice.

Good.

So something that we do is we always kind of give you the best scripts that are working.

Yeah.

Clients, and then we just try to follow that. And then of course you make it your own. But those tend to work very well. So I guess with you and your partner, Landon, how long have you guys been wholesaling?

Close to 2 years.

Okay. So you're on the newer side.

Yeah. Yeah.

Do you think that—

Took us a while to get us a deal first though.

Yeah. Do you think that having the ability to purchase these properties helps you close more deals, or do you think people can still wholesale even if they have no funding or maybe they don't have any hard money loans that allows them to take down the property. You think having the ability to take on a deal helps you when it comes to that confidence and ensuring that you put more deals on the contract?

I would say yes, it definitely does. It plays into account, but that's not saying that you can't wholesale, right? All these deals, we try to get them at wholesale price regardless. So we're getting the maximum spread or the lowest price possible. That's the goal. I think there's only one that I can remember that we purchased that we probably couldn't wholesale.

Okay.

Just because the spread was not there at all. But yeah, I mean, that's, I think it definitely plays into account confidence and stuff though, for sure.

Yeah.

Especially if it's in your market.

Yeah. I just think there's a lot of misconceptions out there with people that want to get into real estate where there's people telling them that it's going to be super easy and you just lowball people and you're—

Yeah, it was not that easy.

But when you're going through it, you realize how hard it is and all the moving parts that are involved in getting a transaction done. Right. So I just think people just need to have that expectation that it's going to be harder than they think. But as long as you're willing to show up and put in the time and the effort, I mean, you're going to be able to get the deals.

Yeah. And that's, obviously when we first started, we didn't know anything about the transactional side or title companies or finding buyers, like we knew nothing. So a lot of it comes with just trying to do it, I guess, and then learn on the fly.

What do you guys think do, what do you guys think that you do very well when it comes to your business? Because you're looking up like your leads to contract ratio, it's very good. Your close rate is very good as well. Your success rate is very good as well. So what are some of the things that you and your partner, Landon, that you do, that you think that you do very well that ensures that you have success?

Yeah, I think for us, we understand the market very well with where we're at and where we're underwriting deals and stuff like that. We also have a pretty in-depth calculator and down to like the dollar pretty much on where we need to be at price-wise with like our lenders and our costs and stuff like that. So we can kind of compare that to where other investors are going to be. I think that a lot of wholesalers run on just formulas for offering, and I think that hurts most of them. I mean, obviously if you can run on a percentage offer calculator, I guess, you know, it, it does work, but I think you're leaving some deals out there if you don't understand like the hard costs of investors buying properties, closing costs, interest, you know, rehab. So I think where we kind of separate ourselves is understanding how, like, what actually an end investor is going to end up spending on a specific property, right? And where they need to be at numbers-wise. I think that's super beneficial for us because we actually do buy the properties, you know? So I think that's something that separates us.

Yeah. And I think it kind of correlates a little bit with the other question is, you guys would have the ability to purchase, which kind of gives you that confidence and like, oh, we need to be here. Right? Because I know a lot of people try and do innovations and then the innovations just sit on the market for a long time. And the only thing that matters is if we're able to sell a deal, because a contract doesn't mean anything unless we're able to close it. Right? So I think if you can become really good at all these different things, like underwriting, talking to the seller, negotiating, having different buyers, it's going to help you out a ton in order for you to just keep on having success and getting the extra deal flow?

100%.

Sorry, I'm telling my wife to close the door because my kid's crying.

It's funny.

Okay, cool. So how much extra revenue you think Facebook has been adding per month? To what you guys were doing before? Like how much were you doing before average monthly? How much are you doing now? And how do you project it going in the future?

Yeah. Yeah. Obviously, you know, our flips are a little bit, you know, prolonged on timeframe, but extra revenue, I would say, I mean, probably an extra $40,000 per month-ish. Just based on, you know, where they're at. Probably could be more if we count in, you know, flips that are prolonged. But obviously that stuff's just going to keep stacking up. And yeah, as long as we keep, you know, getting deals under contract and getting them closed.

Yeah. And we're only spending like $3,000 to $4,000 per month. So we're still getting a 10x. Which is really good. Yeah. 100%.

For sure. Yeah. And obviously once we keep getting more ads to run and more stuff like that, we can start increasing spend and obviously more quality leads, more deals you can get closed. So.

100%. Do you think kind of looking at the Ads Manager is complicated or like what is your feedback on it?

Yeah, I did. I mean, I still do. Like I don't, I tried to understand it as much as I can. Like, I definitely understand it, especially after watching Sterling for, you know, him kind of going through that stuff. He's a dog. But yeah, I didn't really quite understand how it operated, how to create a campaign, ad set, stuff like that. But now I definitely understand, you know, how to use it. I wouldn't, you know, necessarily want to do it myself, like right away, um, it's definitely tricky and I feel like you could definitely dump a lot of money into something that you're not getting return on.

Yeah.

If you don't, if you don't understand it to the fullest off, off the bat, so.

Yeah, and I think something's important, like something that's important for me is that you guys just get the context of how it works because like the more feedback that we're able to get, the more that we can optimize. But if you think about it, I think besides closing, Being good at marketing and understanding it is the highest leverage, like the highest lever that you can pull for, like for your business, for you to get an awesome return, uh, back to the time investment that you have into the business, right? Because in the end, like real estate wholesaling and flipping is mainly just marketing and sales. And the better that we can get at marketing, the more deals that we're gonna— we're going to—

yeah. And then, and I think it's easier to close, right? It's way easier to close deals with with quality leads without question, obviously.

Nice. So I guess what's next for you guys? Like, what is, what is your next goal? Like, how much are you, like, how big are you guys trying to get?

Yeah. So, I mean, we're obviously looking to grow, you know, the Facebook, Meta stuff and, you know, and keep increasing spend and getting more quality leads. We are also doing some cold calling again. So we're trying to double up the marketing. As well so we can get more volume because we hired an intern, I guess a sales, I guess you can call him a junior acquisitions. So kind of getting him trained up and we need a higher volume of leads just so we can, you know, keep him on the phones and, and obviously more deal flow. But, you know, the thing with Facebook is you can't really just like crank it up, right? Like if, if there was cold calling, you know, we can just say, all right, let's just get 5 more cold callers, right?

Yep.

With Facebook, we can't really just say, we can just dump $5,000 into this again. You know, we probably could, but we need the ads to support it. We need the testing. We need like the algorithms to understand that here we're dumping money into something that we know is going to give a return.

Yep.

But I think that's kind of where we're at right now is we're on the brink with our ad campaigns and we're trying to like, all right, let's test a little bit more because we have a little bit more a budget, and then if this works, cool, let's keep doing that. Let's double it. Let's triple it. We can put more money into it on something that's working. If it's not working, we'll just turn it off and make something else, right? So I think that's kind of where we're at is looking to increase, but increase correctly. And then, right? So yeah, exactly. Just make sure we're not dropping quality, make sure we're not raising cost per lead and just staying steady on lead flow and quality. I've seen like, obviously the quality and location have dropped a little bit. So we're trying to reel that back in so we can start closing deals like, and that we know that we can close. Because I hate getting stuff under contract that I'm just like, ah, well, I don't, you know, I kind of don't know if it'll close or not. Yeah.

No, 100%. And it's always going to come down to looking at the data, looking at the KPIs, checking what the quality is. Cause then it's like, okay. —like we're talking today is like, hey, we're getting a lot out of these area leads. Okay, let's do targeting. Let's do this. Let's do this. Like the things that I suggested that we did and we're going to see it perform, right? But as we increase budget, one thing with Facebook is like, okay, can we still keep the same cost per lead and can we keep the quality? Because we don't want to just spend money and for it to not give us returns, right? So I guess you guys want to get to what, like 10+ deals a month?

Oh, yes, yeah, of course, yeah.

Okay, that's kind of like what the goal is?

Yeah, yeah, I would say, you know, any, anything $100,000 or over is like our, our goal. I mean, we're going to hit 6 figures probably in August, I would say, just from like our, like an easy 6 figures just from like our flips and stuff. We're not, our wholesales are like quick turnarounds. I mean, we could have wholesaled them, but might as well make more money. We have the processes, the crews, everything down. So I mean, that's, that's where we're at on that. But I mean, the inbound leads are amazing for us on flipping as well because we can be super straightforward and I can even go out there and like get it under contract if I'm like, all right, this is bread and butter, we're flipping this, right? Yeah. Cold calling, you obviously can do that, but it's more of a cold approach. So they don't know, are they local? I don't know if they actually do this. They call me on telephone, right? If it's, we're flipping, you know, and that goes hand in hand with wholesaling though. I can actually go out and meet them or, you know, we, we do stuff obviously all over Ohio, so I can't always do that. And we've closed several deals where it's been 100% virtual, but just those, you know, leads and people in our market that we can really capitalize on, those give us our highest returns. Yeah.

The way that I like to think about it is you want to have your future money and then your today money, right? So you take down the flips that you know are going to make you $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 per deal. And then if you can do 2 of those a month, you know that eventually that'll stack up, right? And then the smaller deals you can wholesale, that's more for today money, paying the marketing, paying the team, and then we make kind of like the big, the bigger checks with those flips. So I think that is really good. And if we optimize for that, we still can keep the marketing cost in check and still have like an outsized return for the marketing that we actually put in. So that is—

Yeah.

Nice. For sure. So I guess anyone that is watching that is considering kind of running ads. What has been your experience with us, with me and the team? You happy? Would you recommend it?

Yeah, of course. That's very happy with how everything's gone. Been extremely helpful. They don't, you know, not only do they run the ads, but they also kind of inform you, teach-ish, like what is going on. It's not like a big ad agency, which I love. It's more of like a community. I feel like we are friends now, which is awesome. Like being able to make connections and I know Nick referred, uh, you know, us to you and now like we know Nick, you know, you, and then I feel like getting on those calls and stuff, it's kind of cool little community where we can bounce ideas and kind of see what's working for other people and you can take little bits, tidbits of information from everybody and implement it in your business. And I feel like everyone's helping each other. Yeah, not everyone trying to one-up, you know, it's pretty cool to see and to be a part of, honestly.

So nice, man. Yeah. And we talk pretty frequently, so it's—

Yeah, yeah, it's great. For me, I just want to talk.

I just want to work with people that are, you know, like you, like Nick, Kyle, Eduardo, that take the time, take the action. They don't make this whole bunch of excuses because like sometimes like people watch these videos and then they jump on a call and they're like, oh, my goal is to get to $50K a month, $100K a month, and then It's like, okay, well, this is what you need to do. You need to spend that amount of money. If you don't know how to do this, this is how much it costs. And then, you know, like, it's never— their actions never correlate with what their goals are, right? So I feel like as long as we just kind of stay consistent and disciplined, we're able to beat everyone because not everyone has the work ethic. But I do love the community and kind of just being able to, you know, help you guys grow a little bit and, you know, just give you any insight that I can in order to kind of just help the business. But yeah, man, I'm very proud of you. It's been great watching you kill it.

And I know you guys are going to just keep crushing, man. Hell yeah. That's the goal, right?

Yes, sir. Well, how can people find you if they want to send you deals in Ohio? Which area do you buy in? You want to kind of—

Yeah. So if anyone watching, we're all Northeast Ohio. So Cuyahoga County, Lorain County, Lake County, Summit County as well, even down to Stark into Canton. Pretty much that Northeast Ohio region. We love those areas to buy. Typically we like to stay closer to Cuyahoga Lake in Lorain County, but we're open to looking at deals anywhere there. You can find me on Instagram at my first last name, so Cole Sowers. You can find my business partner, Flip with Landon, on Instagram as well. We have a company page, Landco Property Group. On Instagram as well. If you want information on that, you can reach Fidel here and he'll give you that stuff. But yeah, always looking to buy more. So we work with wholesalers, agents all the time, as well as our own direct-to-seller marketing. But I think we're buying 3 deals from this month from wholesalers and agents. And then obviously our other stuff we got under contract from direct-to-seller. But Yeah, so we're cranking away. Amazing.

Cole, thank you so much for jumping on, bro. Let's keep on crushing it, bro. And let's get to work. Yes, sir. All right, brother. Have a good one. Bye-bye. Yeah.