Author: Kathy Kennebrook

When writing killer copy for an ad, there are several components that need to be addressed. The first of these is to grab the reader’s attention. If you don’t get the reader’s attention immediately, you will lose them. You need to remember that the average person is bombarded with hundreds of advertising pieces per day and yours needs to stand out. The second component is you have to raise their interest. Is the ad going to be something of interest to them? Does it spell out what you can do for them? The third component to a killer ad is desire. This is where you list proven benefits to your seller. And the fourth component to a killer ad is a call to action. You have to tell your seller what you want them to do or they won’t do anything. So let’s address these components one at a time.

The key component for writing any ad to attract motivated sellers is to begin with a killer headline. This headline has to answer the big question “what’s in it for me”? Using a really great headline can mean the difference between your success or failure at attracting motivated sellers using ads. Your headline is the very first thing a prospect sees when looking at your ad, or while scanning a page of ads, so it must deliver a clear and understandable message that makes your seller want to know more. You only have a fraction of a second to grab their attention so your headline needs to be strong and benefit driven or you’ve lost this prospect forever.

On the average five times more people will read just the headline as opposed to the copy, so your headline has to draw the reader in and make them want to read more. No matter how good your ad copy is, if you don’t have a headline that draws their attention immediately, you’ll quickly lose their interest. Your headline has to grab their attention and say, “Hey, I’m talking to you!!” It doesn’t matter how good you are at helping sellers if the sellers don’t know it.

For example, a headline we see a lot in real estate investor ads is “We Buy Houses”. This headline has been used for ages, but you have to admit, it’s not benefit driven and it’s become rather cliché if you ask me. Additionally, it’s all about you, the investor, instead of the prospect whose attention you are trying to get. Your headline should not speak in generalities; it needs to be very specific. I personally use a different headline in my ads. In fact, in a classified ad, it becomes the whole ad. It is:

“Sell your house for a fair price, on the date of your choice, without doing any repairs”

That’s it, that’s the whole headline and in some cases, the whole ad. It tells the reader exactly what they want to know which is “What can you do for me?” This headline is all about the seller and lets them know exactly what you can do for them. It sends a strong, benefit driven message that they can’t miss, which is; that they can sell their home for a fair price, on the date they choose, without having to do any fix up to the property. This ad addresses every concern a seller may have. My headline stands out like a beacon among all the other ads that surround it because it sends a distinct message to potential sellers. It makes them want to read the rest of “the story”, which significantly increases the response rate to the ad. Another sample of a killer headline would be:

“I Can Pay Your Price if You Sell on My Terms”

Getting the seller to read the rest of your ad and respond to it is the whole purpose behind a great headline. When writing headlines for your ads, you need to test new headlines to see which ones bring the best response. Sit down with a piece of paper and write several headlines, the more you think and write, the clearer your intent will become and the more practice you will get at writing grabber headlines. When writing a headline, make sure you use capital letters and lower case letters instead of using all capitals. It makes it much easier for your prospect to read and understand your headline.

Using quotation marks has also been tested and found to significantly increase readership as well. I always say that you should do that which your competition will not to get ahead in your business and creating killer ads is one main way for you to do just that. The most critical impact your headline needs to have is to make the reader want to continue reading, whether it’s an ad, an article, an advertorial or a special report.

Now let’s talk about the second important component which is grabbing their interest; the “what’s in it for me?” This portion sets the stage for the rest of the copy in your ad. Each sentence should make the reader want to read the next one and so on. Keeping your reader’s attention and conveying your message in a way they can understand and respond to in every advertising piece you create is the key ingredient to finding all the motivated sellers you will need for your real estate business. Just learning this one concept for attracting motivated sellers can make you rich. You need to give your seller a reason to keep reading.

Moving on to the third important component in writing a killer ad is the “desire”. This is where you might use bullets for example to provide a full list of stated and proven benefits to the seller. This is where you might say something like:

? I can take over payments and provide debt relief
? I can stop foreclosure and help you repair your credit
? I can close on the date of your choosing so you can close when you need to
? I can buy your house in the condition it’s in so you don’t have to do any repairs

You get the idea. This is where you make your case and you could even back it up with testimonials from satisfied customers if you are doing an advertising piece like an advertorial for example. You can leave it this short or you could expound on each point if you want. You just need to let you seller know why they should want to sell to you and how you can help them solve their problem. After all, that’s the whole point isn’t it? We want to create win-win solutions for ourselves and our sellers.

And last but not least is the “call to action”. What do you want your prospect to do? How do you want them to contact you? You need to let them know this in no uncertain terms. If you don’t tell your seller what you want them to do, don’t expect them to do anything.

For example, putting your phone number at the end of an ad doesn’t tell your seller what you want them to do, but the words “call me now” and then your phone number does. If you are writing an ad and you can give them more than one way to contact you this is even better. For example, you could put “call me now” and your phone number and then also provide the prospect with a website to look at as well. Now they have more than one way to contact you. When you give prospects more than one way to contact you, more of them are going to. You want to make it as comfortable as possible for sellers to contact you.

Now that I have covered for you the four components to writing a killer ad, you have no excuse but to go out there, run some ads in your local newspaper and shopper guide following these guidelines and watch the leads come in. Every ad you write, every advertorial or special report you write needs to meet these guidelines.

For more information on writing killer ads and marketing to find motivated sellers, visit my website at www.marketingmagiclady.com. While you are there be sure and sign up for our monthly newsletter and receive $149.00 in amazing bonuses.

 

Kathy Kennebrook continually gets e-mails and calls from her students all over the country regarding contracts and other legal questions. For this reason Kathy Kennebrook wanted to share some important information you need to know in order to “bullet proof” your Real Estate Investing Business.

Kathy Kennebrook is including with this article a link to information about a legal service that she feels you must have in order to help you to achieve the success you deserve. It is unfortunate that today we live in a very litigious society, and investing in real estate makes you far more likely to end up in a legal situation than your average American citizen.

Kathy Kennebrook explains how this service can help you: Each state has different specific requirements for rentals, evictions, contracts, lease/options, agreements for deed, land trusts and other documents that are important to your real estate investing business. When you purchase Kathy Kennebrook’s Marketing Magic system, you are entitled to support both for your marketing and for your deals. What you will not receive from Kathy Kennebrook is legal advice since she is not an attorney, however Kathy always recommends that you have your contracts and documents looked at by an attorney in your local area. But having an attorney review each document can be very expensive. Even if you don’t yet own Kathy’s system, you should still have legal coverage for yourself and your business.

Kathy Kennebrook has a way that you can afford to do this that is very reasonable! For $25.00 or less per month (depending on your state) you can have an attorney at your fingertips to review documents and agreements, and answer legal questions about real estate or any other business or personal matter you may have including traffic citations.  In fact they will also prepare your will for you if you don’t have one and review yours if you do. This service will get you the legal advice you deserve at a price you can easily afford! In fact I have included a link below where you can listen to a very informative teleconference I just did on this very subject.

This service is called Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.  Kathy Kennebrook has personally had this service for over seven years. Not only has it more than paid for itself over that time, it has given her a tremendous sense of peace of mind and confidence in running her real estate business and in her personal life. It has saved Kathy thousands of dollars over the time she has had it and she personally can’t imagine how anyone would want to be without it.

Think about it, you have medical insurance for illness, car insurance for accidents, why would you not have legal insurance for all kinds of things that can happen to you both in your business and in your personal life? Just listen to the incredible teleconference I just had on this very subject.

Please visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website to check out this wonderful service and see how it can help you in your real estate investing business and your personal life at: www.chooseyourlegalplan.com . You can review all the services they offer and sign up on-line if you’d like.

Kathy Kennebrook highly endorses this service and she feels that Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. coupled with your Marketing Magic System is an unbeatable combination!

(It’s also an awesome business opportunity if you’re looking for one)

P.S. As a bonus, if you sign up through Kathy Kennebrook or her website you will receive her Personal Path to Prosperity Course absolutely FREE! This is a $99.00 Value that will answer many of the questions you have about real estate investing.

For more information on Kathy Kennebrook and her many real estate investing systems, visit her website at www.marketingmagiclady.com. While you are there sign up for Kathy’s free monthly newsletter for the real estate investor and get an additional 149.00 in investing information absolutely FREE.

 

By remembering just a few basics, you, as a Real Estate Investor, can quickly determine whether or not a seller is motivated to sell their property. First of all, a motivated seller will ask questions like “how soon can you buy my house?” or “How can you help me get out of this situation?” or “How soon can you get here?” An experienced Real Estate Investor knows these are really good questions for a seller to ask.

There are two types of houses we are going to buy, either pretty houses or ugly houses and there are motivated sellers in both of these categories. When you are marketing to sellers, there are certain types of sellers who are much more likely to have a house they need to sell.

For example, I personally like working with out of state owners (folks who own a property where you live but don’t live there full time), heirs, divorces, vacant houses, estate and probate properties, military transfers and pre-foreclosures. These sellers are much more likely to have a house they need to sell “right now” and that’s the kind of seller you want to work with. As a Real Estate Investor, you may also run into landlords who are fed up with tenants ruining their properties over and over. These are all good sources of motivated sellers. Most of these sellers are folks who don’t live in these properties.

Okay, so how are you, the Real Estate Investor, going to identify a motivated seller? First of all, don’t be afraid to ask questions. This is a basic truth in the real estate investing business. The more willing a seller is to answer whatever questions you ask, the more motivated they are. Never be afraid to ask “Is that the least you would take?” You might be really surprised at the answer to this question, especially if you are dealing with a motivated seller.

For example, I recently worked with a seller who was asking $205,000 for a property in good condition worth $275,000. This seller was already motivated, but I ended up paying only $180,000 for this property simply because she asked if they would accept a lower price. So be willing to ask questions and know that the more willing a seller is to answer them, the better deal you will make. This is going to be very crucial to the success of your real estate investing business and the amount of profit you make on your deals.

Another basic truth is that the more equity there is in a property, the better a deal you are likely to make, especially if the house needs repairs. Usually if there is a lot of equity and the sellers have owned the home for a long time or if they have just inherited it, the more likely they are to let you have a large chunk of that equity for your profit.

If there is very little equity in the property, you are much less likely to be able to create a good deal unless the property owner is simply willing to deed you the property for the balance of the mortgage and walk away. As a seasoned Real Estate Investor, I can personally tell you this absolutely happens. So don’t be afraid to ask the question “Are you willing to sell for what you owe?” If they say yes, you are dealing with a motivated seller who is likely to deed you the property for the balance of their mortgage, which not only will lead to a good profit for you, but you don’t have to worry about where the money is coming from to fund your deal.

Another truth is that the uglier the house, the more motivated the seller is likely to be. If you aren’t getting your offers accepted on ugly houses that you can quickly wholesale, you aren’t targeting the right kind of junker properties. Ask any Real Estate Investor who has been in the business for awhile and they will tell you there is a fortune to be made in ugly houses. The more difficult it is to find this type of seller, the better deal you are going to make.

Another situation that arises fairly often in today’s market and creates motivated sellers is a simple one for you to spot. If a seller is behind on payments, this is definitely going to be a motivated seller. If a motivated seller is behind on payments and they have a lot of equity, this is an opportunity for you to make a really good deal. You as a Real Estate Investor just have to learn to use a script to ask the right questions to determine if a seller is motivated and what kind of deal you are going to make with them. It’s not magic; it just takes a little negotiation and a few questions to pre-screen sellers and create some really good deals.

Just remember this, the seller is either in or they are out, don’t waste your time chasing dead deals. If you follow this simple rule, you will make a lot of money in your real estate investing business.

For more information on pre-screening sellers, locating motivated sellers and buyers and exit strategies, visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at www.marketingmagiclady.com.