Welcome back to the Discount Property Investor podcast. Our mission is to share what we have learned from our experience and the experience of others to help you make more money investing like a pro. We want to teach you how to create wealth by investing in real estate, the discount property investor way. To jumpstart your real estate investing career, visit freewholesalecourse.com, the most complete free course on wholesaling real estate ever. Thanks for tuning in.

Mike: Good morning everybody.

David: Hey Mike.

Mike: Good morning Dave, how are you doing today?

David: I'm doing great Man, let's talk some real estate.

Mike: Let's do it, I love real estate man. We are having a pretty good year surprisingly with everything going on. I'm very happy, I feel very blessed that we have what we have.

David: Me too man.

Mike: I feel like we're doing really really good. We are still doing a lot of wholesaling, we're still doing a lot of rental properties, managing some rental properties, but we're also selling off some of them turn key just because the market so good, so we said why not? But the reason we're able to do that guys is because we buy properties at a discount and the way that we do that is through our wholesale arm and that powerful powerful arm managed by David Dodge here.

David: Thank you.

Mike: Freaking killing it man.

David: Yeah.

Mike: But one of the secrets that we use in our business is our CRM.

David: Yes.

Mike: And our CRM is responsible for- now Dave obviously manages it the most.

David: It's one of our secret weapons.

Mike: So, I'm not gonna try to say that it's not all Dave, but a little bit of help to our CRM and we just wanna kind of talk about the importance of using a CRM in your business so that you can do more deals and keep doing more deals and keep having an awesome year kinda like we're doing, despite this whole, you know, everything that happened this year. The coronavirus, it slowed us down significantly in the beginning of the year for the second quarter I guess, but again, we're just- we had so much in our pipeline that I really feel like we're going to have a stronger year than we've had in several years. It really is just- it's shapen up to be a great year for us if we're able to keep up this momentum through the 4th quarter, so I don't see any reason why we wouldn't because we're using our CRM and we're using REI blackbook, which just keeps getting more and more powerful for us. They keep adding more tools and I know I personally, I'm struggling to keep up with them now. All the new features that they add to it, one of the most recent ones, it integrates now with your cell phone. There's an app called and Dave, you know a little bit more about this than I do. I think they even- are they selling this completely separately from the whole system?

David: What's that?

Mike: The profit drive, the profit-

David: So, profit drive is the driving for dollars portion of it. It's a different service completely though.

Mike: Okay, I'm sorry that's profit- [inaudible] with profit dial is the other one.

David: Profit dial is the phone system that is a part of REI black book there in it, and you get an app and it's included in the membership. Now, depending on how much usage you use and how many phone numbers you have, you have to upgrade or you know, buy that stuff out of card every month, but it's all connected and you can manage profit dial from REI blackbook.

Mike: Yes, okay.

David: It's basically one and the same. So, profit drive is the only thing that's separate and it's basically a driving for dollars app, and you- and there's a lot of them out there as well. I personally don't use it, the driving for dollars app just because I have been using another one but they're all the same. So if you aren't using one, check it out.

Mike: Yeah, I mean there's probably [inaudible].

David: Simple as each one, right.

Mike: So, profit dial is really the one I'm talking about. I'm still playing catch up on that one just because again, we have such a strong team led by Dave with our other partners, we're just doing a lot of deals so it's very very cool. But, that's my point though, the CRM is kind of- if you think of it like a human body or a body, the CRM is really the heart, like it is the engine, it pumps the blood through your business. If you put your leads into it, it makes sure that they circulate, like it makes sure that you follow up on your leads, extremely important. It makes sure that you again, are making touches with those contacts when you need to. If you put it- if you set it up correctly, it's going to help you through the closing process, make sure you get the right information. It can help you send your contracts, it can help you do all sorts of things. So, it's a cross your t's, dot your i's situation.

David: Yeah, it's a full blown CRM with phone systems guys so you know, not only does it help to track the leads that come in, it helps track where the progress is on those leads with you know, notes and tasks and other automations, but then once you have the property under contract, they have a full system of displaying and marketing that property. So, you know when we first started using REI blackbook back in 2014, I mean literally we've done 500 deals with the help of this software which is awesome.

Mike: Yeah, it's pretty cool.

David: It's very very cool. But when we started using it back in 2014, we were using it solely for dispositions and now we're pivoting into just trying to learn and experience all of the other benefits that it has to offer in terms of automating, lead follow-up and so on so forth. So, but what I really like is it has websites that come with it and you can design those websites for you know buyer sites or seller sites or whatever you may want, and then you can list your properties on those sites or have individual property listing pages and then also the ability to email out and/or text blast out the new properties to your buyers list, and then the buyers list tools. I mean Mike, we have never really used any other tool to build our buyers list than REI blackbook now that I can think about it. When I first started, I was using Google Sheets and MailChimp-

Mike: Yeah, no together-

David: -which is a really really like rudimentary way of going about it. It works but-

Mike: Together we [inaudible]. Together, the only ones that we've- or the only thing we've used is REI blackbook and I'm proud of that and happy about it. It has worked and [inaudible] with it.

David: Yeah. Right right.

Mike: We also was something- it's funny cuz we put that together, our buyers list sign-up, that page, we put that together five, six, years ago when we started.

David: We haven't touched it, we haven't needed to.

Mike: We haven't touched it since.

David: We haven't touched it but we haven't needed to.

Mike: Yeah, cool.

David: So, let's talk about some other ways that we have used it to build a buyers list because that's really what we started with it for. I mean again, when we started in 2014, it didn't have 75% of what it has today of course, but even then it was still pretty kickass software.

Mike: It was still robust.

David: Right, right.

Mike: I men, cuz I used to think of it like- it's really hard to- you get overwhelmed when you just talk about all the things that it has, it does, and it's easy to be overwhelmed as an entrepreneur or a solopreneur, which is one of their packages there. It starts out as solopreneur, it's like hey you are the one man that's doing everything for the business and there is so much to it. You've got email systems to think about, phone systems to think about, follow-up systems to think about, website to think about, all these things and again, it's very overwhelming but they're all available in REI blackbook in this one place so I loved it for that in the beginning because it was very difficult back then to integrate a website with a form with a follow-up with a CRM, all that stuff and REI blackbook did that for you. It also provided the templates for the websites. Now they've been doing it for gosh I don't know how long they've been doing it for but they got some kickass templates to use.

David: 10 years I'd say.

Mike: So you can- again, you can basically kind of fill in the blanks and then launch your website. There's gonna be a lot, you're gonna have to edit to make it your own which is important but then they've got a-

David: But they give you the ability to edit it for SEO purposes and to customize it.

Mike: Right, and it's pretty easy-

David: But out the box, you don't really- if you're not like looking to build SEO Mike and you're just wanting to point traffic to a URL, the one out the box is great.

Mike: Yeah, well I'd say even- yeah I mean I'd say it's great either way.

David: You know what I'm saying? Yeah, sure.

Mike: Because they give you the option to on the website to create blogs, so then on the blogpost Dave, you can get that Google juice like you're talking about and try to build some of that SEO by posting articles and things like that. So again it- but again, that's getting into the weeds again. There's just- there's that so many things you have to tackle as a solopreneur from day 1 that can be made easier by using something to help you stay organized.

David: That's right. If you are interested in checking it out guys, go to REIblackbook.com/DPI. DPI for Discount property investor. That URL will send you to a special offer for all of the listeners of Mike and I's podcasts and that particular URL, REIblackbook.com/DPI will actually save you the $997 licensing fee. So when you sign up for REI blackbook, there's a- it's a monthly subscription, however, they typically charge a thousand bucks to onboard somebody and if you use that URL, you can save $1,000, get your onboarding done for free.

Mike: Okay, so you're probably thinking and I used to think this too is geez, a thousand dollars just to sign up for this plus a monthly fee is crazy, like- and it is but man, REI blackbook support is world-class.

David: It's really good.

Mike: They're top-notch. Dave and I have used together I don't know how many software's, a lot of different software’s we buy them, we try them and one of the most frustrating things is when you run into an issue or you have a question and trying to figure it out. Well first off, REI black book's knowledge base is huge, the number of customers is huge. You're going to find a whole community on Facebook where people are asking the questions, you can check that out. They've got on their site itself, when you're in REI blackbook and knowledge base, but then if you really need help, you can submit a support ticket and their support ticket is top-notch.

David: Yeah it comes quick.

Mike: I don't know how often we've been on the phone, we're lucky enough they're actually St. Louis-based, so are we. We've gone down to their office and they helped us do things, like their support is just top tier. It's one of the reasons why we probably will never leave them for our CRM.

David: There's no reason to.

Mike: Yeah, I mean until we decide we're not doing real estate anymore, but I don't see that.

David: Can't imagine that's gonna be too soon.

Both laugh. 

David: That's right, that's right.

Mike: Unfortunately, you got a customer for life out of us, you know, whether you like it or not REI blackbook.

David: So but yeah, we get ques- we get asked a lot you know, what software’s are you guys using? and what part of each software is, you know brings the most value to you? and REI blackbook is probably the first software that I started using out the gate, literally the first one. It has a phone system built into it so it eliminates the need for a phone system. It has the ability to create contacts and make notes and tasks so it has a CRM built into it. It has the ability to email out your contact list, which basically has a email providing software built into it. It has the ability to create websites and use custom landing pages as well as web forms. So, if you already have your own website, let's say on WordPress or Wix or whatever, you can go grab the code from REI blackbook and drop it there.

Mike: Oh, I forgot about that, yeah.

David: And then that contact form gets sucked into REI blackbook versus just being emailed to you. It has all these different things built in so essentially this one service is the equivalent of you know, 6, 7, 8 different services that we would have basically had to piece together, so that's what I love about it and they're constantly building and making new things. And to be completely honest, Mike and I probably don't even use half of the features or the bells and whistles, but that's okay cuz we're learning as we go and we're making our systems better, but again, instead of going out and finding that company that can build you the website or doing it yourself, the phone system, the CRM, the ability to bring in team members, the ability to email and even text blast out your buyers list with you know new properties or updates within your business, it's all in one place so, you know, I give these guys five stars and two thumbs up all day because they do- it does it all, right? A couple things I didn't even mention Mike is the call tracking which is really really cool. It also has work flows, so you can create workflows for you know, investors on the seller side or buyers on the buyer side to follow up with these people with some- with some level of automation, which is very very cool. Shooting a text or a voicemail to these people every two or three weeks just saying hey I haven't heard from you, you know, I'm still here looking to buy something, if you're interested in selling now, call me, text me, whatever it may be and then like a lot of little tools like property analysis and comps. You know, like we do use Propstream cuz it's way more in details, but on the fly you can run comps in REI blackbook.

Mike: Yeah, see that's one of the tools I don't even-

David: We don't even use that often but it actually is pretty badass. Like, you can run that stuff in there and then of course, the property marketing engine. The ability to bring in your photos, bring in your descriptions and then put that on to a featured website or put that on to an individual website, an individual URL that you can then text or email out and then even some third-party if they have some publishing your properties or your descriptions or both, even to third party websites as well. So again, if you already have that carrot site, for example, or that WordPress or that Wix site and you don't want to use theirs per say, I would recommend you do cuz less is more personally, but even if you don't and you spent a lot of time and money investing into the SEO of a third party site, you can even use their marketing engine to pull that into that third party website. So, I mean, really it's kind of an all-in-one tool and if you're brand new, starting out, I mean this essentially is the software that I would recommend you go to to start with because you don't need to go find five others. I mean this particular one will do it all for you. So again, if you're interested go check it out: REIblackbook.com/DPI for discount property investor, Mike and I are the discount property investors and again REI blackbook wants to say thanks for us being customers for literally six, going on seven years and in exchange they say hey, if you guys have an audience that interested, you know we'll waive the 997 fee, which is massive. I paid it, Mike you paid it and then we merged our sites.

Mike: Yeah, we merged-

David: Or our companies together, our subscriptions together and I don't know if we paid it a third time or not, but you know-

Mike: You know, I think-

David: Getting that waived is huge, I mean that's a thousand bucks and if you're going to be putting that thousand bucks into marketing like lets say mailers or postcards or you know getting a list and skip tracing it, that will go a long way so highly recommend you guys check it out: REI blackbook, we've been using them literally going on 7 years and it's an all-in-one service. It will literally prevent you from getting six, seven, eight different monthly subscriptions for all the things that they bundle in one.

Mike: Yeah, I mean again, that's one of my and I'm just- you kinda wrapped it up but I just go off on tangents when I think about it, how cool it is because the Internet is like oh, it's so powerful and you can do all this cool things, and then you try to do and you're like well wait a minute okay, I need to get WordPress and a plug-in and then this and then MailChimp and then a phone.

David: Phone system.

Mike: And like you've got 30 different things then you gotta figure out how to connect them all.

David: Yeah and then I got to control my contacts then I want to email those contacts, I need to- you know one of the things that I really often overlook is just their simple landing pages that capture data, but then you can push that data into certain areas. So for instance, I've never not used REI blackbook to build my buyers list. I shouldn't say never, for three to four weeks I was using excel or Google sheets but then once you get 34 people on there, you're like man, I can't keep up but if you use a simple landing page that says hey what's your phone number? What's your name? What's your email? And hey, here's 5, 6, 7 different types of properties that I'm going to be marketing, which of these are you interested in? And that also Mike helps a ton from reducing opt-outs. If you just have one big buyers list and 50% of that list is landlords and they don't care about fix and flips and 50% of the deals you're sending out are fix and flips, that is the best way to lose buyers. They're going to unsubscribe, opt out. You're not putting them- putting in front of them what they're wanting so if you can segment that list and say hey- and ours isn't even segmented by landlord, rehab but it's segmented into area.

Mike: Yeah, kinda.

David: Which is even better though in my opinion so hey do you buy in North County or do you only buy in South City? and if you want one of the other that's fine, I'm going to send them to you but at least I'm not going to be sending you all these emails or you know messages about a property that you're not interested in, then they can also go on and update those settings at any given time. So, just a tremendous amount of value that they provide and so many services combined into a single login. I mean it's really kind of-

Mike: Yeah, it's a lot.

David: I mean, it's awesome though is what I'm saying though like literally if REI blackbook went away, we'd have to go find five or six different services.

Mike: Yeah. There's definitely not anyone as- I mean again, I'll say this: not anyone as good. I mean, I've used several different CRMs in the pa- I mean in the past and then up to recently too, I still use them for other things and REI blackbook still is one of my favorites. I'm surprised that we haven't seen a big push by them to just be I don't know blackbook or something, you know, yet to just take on so many other things but they still are real estate focused which is really neat for us because again, all the landing pages, all the home pages.

David: Yeah, and they actually have a lot of customers that aren't even real estate investors. The majority of them are of course, but I mean, you know, for anybody that's wanted to run a business that needs a website, needs landing pages, needs a phone system, needs a CRM, and then needs a marketing engine. I mean it's pretty awesome.

Mike: Well exactly. Any small business that wants to be online can use it, just- I mean literally just take away the real estate part of it and plug in their own pictures or text.

David: Right.

Mike: It does the same thing.

David: Yeah, it's pretty awesome.

Mike: And it's really good at doing that. We're digressing, time to wrap this up.

David: That's right. Guys, get started today, build a predictable real estate investing business with REI blackbook. Again, Mike and I have been using REI blackbook for going on seven years, it is literally one of our secret weapons so if you're interested, go check it out REIblackbook.com/DPI. Don't forget to add /DPI because that particular link will save you the 997 when signing up and again, I don't know what I would do without it. So, check it out, signing off. Thanks for listening.

Thanks for listening to the discount property investor podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please like, share, and subscribe to help us reach a wider audience to jump-start your real estate investing career, visit freewholesalecourse.com- the most complete free course on wholesaling real estate ever. We would also appreciate it if you left us a review on iTunes or Stitcher. Thank you in advance for your support and remember you make your money when you buy, you get paid when you sell. Now let's go build some wealth