Door-knocking in Austin with Bill Cook


You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
  • Posts
  • I’m tentatively scheduled to go out with Bill on Monday, April 23rd. There’s room for two more.

    Here’s what he wrote about how the day would go:

    We’ll meet at a McDonald’s close to a Walmart at 9 a.m. We head out around 9:50. From 10 until 1 I’ll show you exactly how I work when door knocking. From 1 to 1:50 we eat lunch. From 2 until 3:30, we only stop at houses with For Sale signs in the yard. We’ll knock on those doors, plus the neighbors’ doors – two to the left, two to the right, and four across the street. From 3:30 to 5, we stop only at houses with For Sale signs but do not knock on the neighbors’ doors. From 3:30 to 5, my focus is to get to sellers’ kitchen tables. We head back to McDonalds at 5. Finally, from 5 to 6, I answer any real estate investing questions you didn’t get answered during the day.

    The fee for the day is $297. I give an unconditional money-back guarantee: If you don’t think the day was worth your valuable time, you get a full refund.

    Eight out of ten sellers will invite us in. More importantly, we’ll make between 5 and 10 written offers. This is important because most investors don’t make 5 to 10 written offers in a month, much less in a day. This is why most fail. Making written offers is the lifeblood of successful real estate investing. Once an investor understands this, and sees how simple it is to make 5 to 10 written offers a day, the main reason for failing is taken away.

    If you’ll coordinate with me, I can coordinate with him.

    I’m not sure we’re going to have as much choice on where in Austin, but my preference is in the Buda / Kyle area.

    Bill

    Sounds like a blast. Let us know how it goes.

    This is a huge opportunity! If you live anywhere near Austin, you should go out door knocking with Bill Cook. You’ll learn how to buy a lot of houses fast using this technique

    I did this yesterday!

    We probably only drove about 4 miles total and made 8 written offers on Bill’s canvas card which looks a lot like a postcard.

    Bill’s method is to provide two alternative offers: a terms offer and a cash offer. The terms offer will be slightly higher than the seller is asking for, but be terms that would enable the property to cash flow. The terms offer is followed by the cash offer which is based upon the max allowable offer you can make and still profit. With the terms offer there, no one can ever say you only provided a low-ball offer.

    It was pretty amazing to take in the amount of thought that Bill has put into the art of prospecting by door-knocking. Lots of subtle psychology and even body language interpretation.

    During our day, we have two shadow sellers and got to one kitchen table and drew up a T-bar offer. Mind you, we weren’t moving fast because Bill was doing a lot of teaching all through the day.

    I thoroughly enjoyed the day and highly recommend going out with Bill sometime if you ever have the opportunity.

    Very few people are going to dig out sellers use door-knocking techniques. If people will just do this and be disciplined, the deals and profits will follow, in my humble opinion.

    I’ve never been out door knocking with Bill but I’ve heard it is fun and educational.

    I have been door knocking with Jack Miller and John Schaub. It is the fastest and easiest way to buy a lot of houses fast with zero marketing expense. And it’s just fun!

    You learn a LOT about what’s going on in a neighborhood when you talk to people. For example, you learn who is moving soon, who is getting a divorce and will need to sell, who can’t go up the stairs in their two story house and needs to sell, who is expecting twins and needs a bigger house, who is moving in to an assisted living or nursing home, etc..

    Jack Miller liked to ask if they knew anyone in the neighborhood who might be selling soon who is not listed with a real estate agent. That’s how you learn about what’s going on but it is also a good way to get the conversation started because sometimes people say “I” need to sell.

    Jack would spend time discovering WHY people needed to sell and what they needed to move on. It’s not always cash. It is more likely to be SPEED of selling that gets them excited. So buying subject-to or with terms was usually what the offer was. He would use a real option contract to lock up the deal.

    Jack’s whole strategy was to do at least one deal per day and he got most of them by knocking on doors!

    In Jack’s Negotiations classes, he would take the whole class to a flea market so we could get comfortable with negotiating deals. It works at garage sales too but a fleas market is easier for a group. As Jack would say =-== just have fun with it!

    All of us in the group were big Jack Miller fans. The two other guys had attended his seminars way back in the ’80s.

    At one point, Bill asked me to channel my inner Jack and play out how it would go if a seller didn’t like my offer. So it was something like:

    Yeah, I didn’t expect you to like it. I’m not even sure I do either. We’re just talking here. Let’s sit down and work this out. Tell me what you will do.

    You have to read that in Jack’s voice to really appreciate it. 🙂

    You can learn SO MUCH by watching Jack’s videos and listening to his streaming audios. It’s all in the attitude!

    Is there any contact information for Bill? I would love to see when he has upcoming canvassing excursions.

    I will ask Bill if it is ok to post his contact info on the site. I would not want to do it without his permission. I will also ask him to let me know when he is doing door knocking training so I can help get the word out.

    Yes just interested where and when he is doing in the future.

    I used Bill’s techniques this weekend for a couple of hours. You more or less just have to get used to talking to people and have an idea of what you can learn.

    In 20 minutes talking to a couple of ladies outside their mobile home, I learned:

    – Lot rent and how it had increased over time
    – What they paid for their house
    – What utilities run
    – What they paid to mow their grass and who
    – Who the manager was and how he treated them
    – The park had been bought 4 years ago and was being improved
    – Two smaller homes were for sale
    – Their work schedules
    – Etc.

    I could probably go on. I learned enough about that park to know I’d be interested in doing business there.

    I used one of Bill’s techniques: I mentioned that I had heard a home was for sale, but wasn’t sure which one it was. And then kept the conversation going.

    A lot of what I got out of my day with Bill was that I should not fear the interaction. And I resolved to get out there as often as I could to keep breaking down any fears that would creep in.

    Great job!!!

    When I’ve been door knocking I would never ask the people if they wanted to sell their house (unless there was a for sale sign out front), instead, I would tell them I like the neighborhood and would really like to buy a house there. I ask if they know anyone who has a house for sale who is not listed with a real estate agent. That’s when they really start to spill the beans about who is selling and why.

    Previously, I would go to houses which were listed for pre-foreclosure but did not have such good experiences with that. IN Texas, once they get the notice of default, the sale is 21 days later, so owners are super stressed. Not a good time to go knocking on their door.

    But just door knocking a neighborhood is an amazingly successful way to buy a lot of houses with zero marketing expenses.

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.