The DealMachine Real Estate Investing Podcast

173: Why Build Good Relationships with Your City Officials

Hey everyone, Ryan Haywood here! In this episode of the Deal Machine Real Estate Investing podcast, I dive into a strategy that’s often overlooked but incredibly powerful: building relationships with city officials. You might wonder how this connects to wholesaling, but trust me, it’s a game-changer for getting high-quality leads. I share my experiences and tips on how you can leverage these relationships to find distressed properties and turn them into profitable deals without the usual hassle. Join me as I discuss the step-by-step process of connecting with code enforcement officials, the importance of showcasing your successful projects, and the long-term benefits of maintaining these valuable connections. If you're looking for an innovative way to secure free leads, this episode is for you! Episode Highlights: [0:00] Introduction to the power of relationships with city officials. [1:00] How code enforcement officials can become your deal finders. [1:45] Inviting city officials to lunch and presenting your success stories. [2:30] The importance of before and after photos in building trust. [3:05] An example of a personal project that turned into a profitable deal. [4:00] The benefits of establishing a track record of successful deals. [4:45] Caution about ensuring your deals are completed well to maintain trust. [5:20] Building lasting relationships with both city officials and investors. [6:00] Real-life example of a lead provided by a city official. [6:30] Closing thoughts on the benefits of free leads through strong relationships. David's Social: @dlecko https://www.dealmachine.com/pod Ryan's Social: @heritage_home_investments https://www.heritagehomeinvestments.com/

Duration:: 6m
Broadcast on:: 08 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Join me as I discuss the step-by-step process of connecting with code enforcement officials, the importance of showcasing your successful projects, and the long-term benefits of maintaining these valuable connections. If you're looking for an innovative way to secure free leads, this episode is for you!

Episode Highlights:

[0:00] Introduction to the power of relationships with city officials.

[1:00] How code enforcement officials can become your deal finders.

[1:45] Inviting city officials to lunch and presenting your success stories.

[2:30] The importance of before and after photos in building trust.

[3:05] An example of a personal project that turned into a profitable deal.

[4:00] The benefits of establishing a track record of successful deals.

[4:45] Caution about ensuring your deals are completed well to maintain trust.

[5:20] Building lasting relationships with both city officials and investors.

[6:00] Real-life example of a lead provided by a city official.

[6:30] Closing thoughts on the benefits of free leads through strong relationships.

David's Social: @dlecko

https://www.dealmachine.com/pod

Ryan's Social: @heritage_home_investments

https://www.heritagehomeinvestments.com/

Hey everyone and welcome to the deal machine real estate investing podcast. I'm your host today Ryan Heywood and today I wanted to talk about something I have never talked about on the podcast and that is the power of relationships with your city officials. Now you may be asking well how could that have any importance at all in wholesale and I want to tell you it is one of the coolest strategies that I have found and one of the most effective strategies where you can get leads that are literally done and ready to go and here's what you need to do. In your city I'm sure that you have found in the process of all selling you found properties that have a yellow tag or a red tag or they're condemned. The people that put those stickers on those properties those are your deal finders. So what I recommend and what I do look for those code enforcement officials in your city hall call and invite them out to lunch. Now a lunch is a pretty easy thing to afford but at that lunch what you're wanting to talk about and the way that I presented this was that I'm a local real estate investor and that I'm looking for distressed properties. Now I know that them being a code enforcement official they are going to see properties that are more than likely going to be great qualified leads for me. So what I did I had some other properties that we had done wholesale deals on that the investor had actually completed they had remodeled them that got them fixed up and rented and I got pictures of those properties inside and out where it was a very dramatic before and after and I took that to this lunch so that this official could actually see the change and the significant change that I was able to make on a distressed property and so I gave them the before pictures which were all the pictures of the house was all busted up. Specifically a house that I did what actually the very first project I did that was not a whole sale deal I I got it under contract expecting total sale it but it was too good of a deal as a thousand dollars so I decided I was going to keep it and it was a big project but what I did with it is I put lots of money into it fixing it up and made it super nice well I know when we started that project it had a yellow tag on it which was not a livable property there was no power there was no water there's no utilities it was condemned there was no one it's supposed to be allowed into it and so I had all the before pictures and I had all the after pictures and I was sitting at lunch with this code enforcement official and I was showing them all the before and after pictures and what the coolest thing about it was I didn't even have to present this option of them bringing me leads they brought that idea up as we're sitting there talking as I man you did a great job with this house would you be open to other properties that are in this condition and I was totally excited about it yes absolutely that was the intent of what I was going for anyway and so it was super beneficial to have that conversation but now now that we've done it we've been established in our market for five years so we have consistency in deals and I'm able to take those deals and show them regularly and they actually see that they can give me a lead and that that lead is getting fixed up and that they're eager to give me more leads now I would caution that if you're not going to do the before and afters or if you're giving this property to just any investor I would caution that this idea might backfire you want to make sure that you're giving them examples of properties that have been fixed up and have been fixed up good so that they can see the benefit of working with you what I could foresee happening is if they did give you a lead and the lead ended up sitting vacant for several more years they make question why did we give you such good information on that house or why did you fix that house up and they might be reluctant to to give you any so I would suggest making sure that you're making good relationships with your investors beyond getting the deal and then never talking to them again I guess you could just say in general relationships matter in this business and they matter because if you can build a relationship with an investor who's going to allow you to use their property as an example to help gain more leads that might be potentially used for them or deals that may end up going to them it's beneficial for them as well so making sure that you maintain a good relationship with your buyers and then also taking that relationship and presenting that to your city officials building trust with them establishing that trust because then from that point on you could get a phone call every month or every week saying hey here's a property go check it out it's it's actually I don't know if I'm if this will actually translate well but let's just check I've got a lead that I found I got from one of our city official guys it won't it's too blurry he sent me a lead he's like check this address out this guy's wanting to sell it here's his name here's his phone number thanks I'll call him and almost every time one of those leads turns into a deal for me and the good thing is I didn't have to drive for dollars for it I didn't have to send any marketing for it I literally got the seller's name and phone number for free from a city official simply by establishing a relationship with them showing them that hey I'm making an improvement in the community and that they can trust to bring more and more leads to me so I know this was a short episode but I think that this could be something that would work very well for you it's a good way to garner free leads and who does it want free leads and wholesaling those are the best leads ever so thank you so much for following along I hope you enjoy this this Pete this podcast today and we will see you soon thanks for listening to the deal machine real estate investing podcast please leave us a review and follow along wherever you're listening to your podcast [MUSIC]