Panel discussion (Mark J. Podolsky hosting) focused on whether new investors should target popular, competitive counties (example: counties in Arizona) or seek less-saturated markets. Panelists (Mike Zeta, Matt Forbes, Sam) emphasize that timing, persistence, and mailing at scale matter more than market saturation; the presence of established investors signals that the county works and offers 'safety in numbers.' Anecdotes about credit-card offers and persistence illustrate the timing/scale point.
Chapters
People new to the business have. So why don't. Why don't we talk about those things? So here's the first question she has. Like others, like most of the others in this group, I choose to work in a few popular counties in Arizona. I'm a newbie. And realizing now that the pros. I don't know, the pros are Mark Kudolski maybe, or some of the others have already sunk their teeth in, and a lot of wholesale is going on in these counties. Is there a chance for someone like me with a maximum of one or two properties that I may acquire in the future? Anyway, what she's getting at is, is there a chance for. Is there enough meat on the bone for her to work in a county where there are pros working? There are a lot of people working. A lot of people are doing wholesale. And are there just going to be enough deals? Should she switch gears to a less saturated market and then come back where the big players are? And she wants to. She wants some advice. Oh, oh, Mike Zeta, what are your thoughts?
So, my thoughts, it kind of. I think about the mailing side of things as well. It's like, all right, a lot of people are mailing this county. Should I even mail this county? Like, am I even going to get a deal? Right? So I think it's sort of a similar thought pattern, right? There's a lot of activity there. Sounds like she may have a couple deals. But I. I do think that that does relate. You know, this is something where timing is. You know, it's just the biggest thing about the mailing is the timing when it arrives on someone's doorstep, what's going on in their life. So that's why we always say all of us could mail and we could all buy property from different people at the same time. You know, it's just. So I think the same thing on the marketing side is she. She gets the. Sees the ad, and somebody is going to buy the property. It's just like, you know, you got people at a parade walking around with all those balloons and those carriages, right? And it's like, you know, they go up and down, up and down. And you may have seen that carriage go in front of you five or six times, but this one time, it goes in front of you, right? And you decide you're gonna buy a pretzel. You decide you're gonna buy a balloon. It's just the timing of it. So how do you know when you're at. Is gonna, you know, be in front of the Right person at the right time, it's just as likely that yours will as will certainly some of the quote unquote pros. So I think it's all about timing. I think it's all about persistence, and I think it's an equal opportunity. If you're going to come to this business and overthink that, you could overthink yourself right out of it and you wouldn't want to do that. It's a great opportunity here. Agreed.
Agreed. Matt Forbes, what are your thoughts? First thoughts when you hear those questions.
The safety in numbers. If the big dogs, I'm not one of them, but if the big dogs are in those counties, I would be in those counties. It means those counties work. It's the proof that they definitely work. Is it a little harder to get a deal, plausibly, that it could be harder there than in an untapped county where you may have zero chance of selling it? So, yeah, like, I want to call, I want to mail in Arizona and Colorado and Florida and all these other places, for sure. The reality is there's tens of thousands of parcels, tens of thousands. And, yeah, like, a lot more mail going out. That's. That's okay. It's not a big deal. Right. Because the safety of being able to sell it far outweighs the notion of I'm gonna go find a new county. And one thing I have done is I've, you know, I'm entrenched in the counties I'm in and I'm, you know, looking for new counties and new counties are hard, total pain in the ass. Because I don't know if I can sell the stuff now. I'm infinitely more cautious. And it's a whole other thing. If I'm starting out, if I'm new in this business, for sure I'm sticking where, you know, I see everybody else because there's safety there. And that trumps everything else.
Yeah, exactly. It's follow the breadcrumbs. Right, Right.
Yeah, for sure.
Follow the rules.
Good.
Bosman convinced me to get a corporate credit card for my business after talking with him. Right.
Come on.
Months ago. No, no, it was like, such sound advice. I have a million dollar company. I should maybe have a corporate credit card. I don't know. Everything's just cash. We just pay for stuff. We don't go into debt to pay for stuff. And I'm like, wow, okay. Like, Bosman's right. Like, I guess I should look and you know what happened in the next three, four days? I got like two or Three offers in the mail. I had never gotten those offers before, ever. Or had I had? I just been throwing them out day after day after day. They just hit at the right time. And now I have like a crapload of Marriott points and I'm getting a bunch of Southwest points because they hit right when I needed them to hit. How many more offers did they send me in the last two years, since I started? Three years. I don't know, probably more than zero, right? So it's just dumb luck when you hit. But that's why you mail at scale, right? So the scale makes up for it.
Really interesting when you think about it. I mean, someone's sitting there right now just like you were, like, hey, you know what, maybe I'll get a credit card. Or maybe, you know what? I'd like to buy a property in Arizona. And as they're, you know, thinking about it all day that night, they're getting sitting down in front of their phone or the computer, they're pulling it up and at that very moment, you're posting your ad and boom. It's like the universe comes together in a flash and they contact you. I mean, that's. But that's just one example of timing. It's just timing. Oh, like you said, man, you weren't. Were they coming before? Probably. Were you not paying attention? Most likely. Were they getting thrown the trash? Most definitely. But the moment you want it, it's like when you buy a car and also you see that same car everywhere. It's like, I haven't knew everybody draw these cars. Well, they're all. You just want to paint it.
It's all mindset, man. You see, your brain is attracted to what you're thinking about. So as soon as I'm thinking about credit cards for the business, like, wow, Marriott, you're so smart. I mean, I'm already a big Marriott guy from my corporate life. So I know for a fact they've sent me a mailer probably once a week for the last five years, or at least three years since I started this business. I mean, realistically, right? I'll pay attention from now on and see how many offers I got. I got one of them out today. I was like, hahaha, you missed out. Whatever.
Well, the reality too is, and we've talked about this before, there's somebody I don't XYZ county, say Apache. Maybe she's talking, she's saying Apache. Did she say the county? No, let's just Send Arizona. Someone 5 years ago started and they've made hundreds of thousands of dollars there. Someone's starting today, they're gonna make hundreds of thousands of dollars. Someone in five years is going to start and make hundreds of thousands of dollars. So what's our excuse? We shouldn't have them. The only excuse. I mean, there is no good excuse. The only reason why we wouldn't succeed is because we just don't pursue it and we don't stay consistent. And we do what says never to do. To quit.
Yeah, Just don't quit. All I have to do is not quit. So simple, so hard. Just don't quit. How did I run 13 and a half miles to do two separate half marathons at 340 pounds? I just didn't quit. I almost died both times, for sure. I had people who crossed the finish line, then ran back to get me. And I didn't even know these people. That's how bad it was. And they're like, honestly, I'm walking backwards faster than you're running. And I'm like, shut your pie hole. I'm dying. Look at me. I'm literally, I'm dying. And they rode me across the finish line. It's that bad. But you just don't quit, Sam.
