Tim Bell introduces a supplemental list titled “50 Ways to Find Properties” and frames property-finding as the core income-generating activity in real estate investing. He presents the list as a buffet of options—each method works for someone—and urges viewers to pick methods that fit their personality, time, and budget, prioritize them, and implement them in sequence; he also gives a practical signal for when marketing volume is ‘about right’ (having slightly more leads than one can follow up on).
Questions this video answers
50
Number 20 on the list
When you have a few more leads than you can follow up on in the time you allocate (example: it’s 11:00–11:30 PM and you have a couple of unreturned messages).
Chapters
Okay, now we're going to talk about 50 different ways to find properties. Hopefully, you've come to the conclusion that finding properties is an important part of your business. If you haven't come to that conclusion, you haven't been paying attention, okay? Because finding properties is the most important part of your business. It's the part that will actually make you the money. It's the part that will actually help you to be successful. If you're not finding properties, as I said, you don't really have a business. So you've got to be finding properties, analyzing them, and making offers. So we're going to talk about 50 different ways to find properties. Now, one of the supplemental information that I provided for you is right here. Let me grab this on the computer here and show it to you. And basically, this information is in the supplements that I provided for you. Okay? Again, it's called, oddly enough, 50 Ways to Find properties. Yay. Yeah. So at any rate, there are a bunch of different ways to find properties. Now, I will tell you that number 20 on the list right here is the MLS and real estate agents. As I mentioned, the MLS and real estate agents is one way to find properties, but it's certainly not the only way, and it shouldn't be your only way. If it is your only way, you probably are not finding enough properties. You're probably not doing enough business. So at any rate, we're going to go through each one of these, and I'm going to talk a little bit about each one of these. Now, as we go through them, I recommend that you think about this list. This way. One of the ways you could think of the list is as a buffet restaurant. Okay? We've all been to that buffet restaurant where they have lots of different kinds of food. Okay? The truth is, no one eats everything at the buffet restaurant. No matter how hungry you are, you. You only eat the things you like. Okay? You might take the prime rib and leave the halibut. You might take the green beans and leave the broccoli. You might take the chocolate pudding and leave the vanilla ice cream. Again, it's up to you what you like. Pick and choose the things you like. Well, that's one way to use this list. Pick and choose the things you like. All the items on this list work. They're all currently working for someone somewhere. You just need to decide which ones you want to work with. Okay? Now, some of the things on the list are expensive. Number 12, I think it is. Billboards. Pretty expensive in most markets. Other things on the list are completely free. Most are somewhere in between expensive and free. Time could be another consideration. Okay. Some of the things on the list are very time consuming. Other things on the list take very little time. Some are most somewhere in between. Most are just somewhere in between time consuming and not time consuming. Okay, so again, only you know how much time and money you have to market your real estate investment business. So again, you can choose accordingly. That's why I provide a list of 50 different ways. Because no two people are going to choose exactly alike. You need to choose what's right for you. Now, occasionally I get a very driven type A personality that says, no, no, no, Tim, don't tell me 50 ways. Just tell me the ones that work. Well, the truth is, they all work. The question you ought to be asking is not which ones work, but which ones am I going to work on? Go through the list. Figure out which ones you are going to work on. I have found over and over again that as people look through this list, when they work on things that they like, when they work on things that are appealing to them, the things that make sense to them, the things that they have an orientation towards, they do better. When they try to go outside of their comfort zone and do things that aren't part of their personality or whatever, they struggle. So again, you want to figure out which ones are right for you. I can't do that for you. Only you can choose which ones might be right for you. Now, as we go through the list, I want you to let the list stimulate creative thinking in your mind. Okay? You may think of something that is not exactly what we say on the list, but something similar. That's great. If that happens, terrific. That just means that you've got an additional method to use. So again, that's how you want to think about it. Now, as we go through this list, I suggest that you, number one, take notes, write down some ideas on those that sound appealing to you. Number two, go through the list again and prioritize those you initially chose. I like this one best. Number one. This one. Next. Number two. Number three. Number four, on and on. Then number three, immediately implement the first one on your list and then the second one, then the third one, then the fourth one again till you have all of them in place. Everybody's going to have different numbers of things that they're going to use to market their business. Only you can decide what's right for you. Now, also, only you can decide how often or how involved or how aggressive you want to get with these various different Methods. Okay, I have some students that implement one new method every day. I have others that are a little bit less motivated that implement one new method a week. I have others that are on a little bit slower pace that implement one new method a month. Only you know how much time and money you have to devote to your business. So only you can decide how often you want to start implementing new things like this in your business. Now, a lot of people ask me the question, well, how do I know when I've got enough of these methods in place? Here's how you know when you've got enough marketing methods in place for your real estate investment business. If it's 11:00 o' clock or 11:30 at night and you've got a couple of little extra emails or a couple of notes or couple of messages that you haven't returned and you're just too exhausted and it's too late at night to return those messages for those leads, that's when you know your marketing is just about right. If you have just a few more leads than you can possibly follow up on in the time that you've allocated for your real estate investment business, that's how you know you have just about the right amount of leads. Okay? That's how you can tell. So until you get to that point where you have just a few more leads than you can possibly follow up on in the time that you've allocated for your real estate investment business, you know that you need to start implementing more marketing methods. Okay? Now one other caveat I want to give you about these things. Some of the things on the list require connections. Okay? Some of the things on the list require that you know someone to get the information or whatever others anyone can get. It just depends. Okay, again, I don't know which ones you're going to choose. It's up to you to choose some based on your personality. The amount of time you have to invest in your real estate investment business. The amount of money you have to invest in your real estate investment business. Okay? It's all up to you. Now, as this says, there are no magic bullets. There's no secret formulas for finding properties. If you do the work, you will succeed. If you don't do the work, you won't succeed. Okay? The thing you need to realize is real estate investment is work. Yeah, it's work. It's interesting work. It's enjoyable work. It's challenging work. It's well paying work. It's flexible work, but it's work. Okay, again, think about a job in America where you can make between 100 and 400, $500,000 a year with. Without doing any work. Okay? There isn't a job like that. So if you want to make that kind of money, you've got to do the work. It's good work, it's challenging work, it's interesting, it's fun, it's exciting, it's well paying, but you have to do the work.
