Doing TV ads to market your real estate business isn’t common among investors. But this is a widely untapped opportunity that Tony Javier utilizes to get consistent leads. Tony’s been doing real estate for 20 years, and he’s already set up his own tried and tested system. In this episode, we find out more about Tony’s method for securing real estate deals through TV ads.
Back in 2001, Tony got interested in real estate after learning the No Down Payment system by Carleton Sheets. So he dropped out of college and spent his first 10 years in the business buying deals in Wichita, Kansas, and being very hands-on.
But problems started coming as he scaled up. This forced him to fire his entire staff and start again. Within 3 years, he was able to automate his business. Later on, he moved to San Diego but continued to buy cheap real estate in the Midwest.
Tony set up his own system in a way that anything duplicatable and anything done more than once or frequently is automated. His team is trained with how to use his system. Now, he spends only 3 mins or less looking through a contract – checking the comparable sales and budget, and 99% of the time, they’re good to go.
On average, he spends only 30 minutes on a real estate flip and is able to be hands off.
Tony got to where he is now because he embraced struggles and learned from them. At the beginning, he had hired the wrong people who later on stole from him or just never showed up.
He had to hit rock bottom before he realized what he needed to do. His first change was to bring his sister on board. From then on, he kept making good hires.
Tony also learned that it’s important to surround yourself with the right people. In 2013-2014, he attended a Mastermind event where he met high quality people. Now he runs his own Mastermind events.
The Midwest is very different from Southern California. Tony can buy a house for as low as $10,000. He usually buys homes for $60,000-150,000.
There are a lot of good deals to be found in the Midwest. One perk is that there are multiple exit strategies an investor can utilize. You can do a fix and flip, rent to own, etc.
Margins are also pretty good. You can make as much money in a $150,000 property with those investors in Southern California buying $500,000-700,000 properties.
Rehab costs typically run for $20,000-50,000. Tony then sells the property for $120,000-150,000 and ends up making $15,000-20,000 in profit.
When it comes to financing, Tony would sometimes pay in cash or bring in investors. There is also bank financing, but working with private money lenders is quick, fast, and easy.
His private investors would finance the acquisition and rehab, while Tony will carry the closing costs and all the other expenses.
Around 9 years ago, Tony came across TV commercials after playing poker with a guy who advertised his contracting business on TV. He got introduced into a media buyer who helped Tony get started.
TV ads allowed Tony to build branding and credibility. Since TV isn’t commonly used as a marketing source in real estate, not a lot of real estate investors were using it. So it allowed him to set himself apart from his competition.
At times, he was able to get deals over the competition because the people saw him on TV. TV ads also have a great return. When Tony started, he spent $3,000 and got $35,000 in return.
Now, he already knows which commercials work and which stations he needs to be on. Everything is highly automated. At one point, he used the same commercial for a year and a half.
With direct mail getting so competitive, Tony spends at least 50% of his marketing budget on TV ads. TV is now where he gets his consistent flow of deals. In fact, last January, he locked up 4 deals that he sourced from his TV ads.
People think it’s harder than it really is. Tony’s media buyer helped him through the process.
His media buyer is the one going to the stations and negotiating the rates on his behalf. The media buyer also has his own production crew – making it easier for Tony.
Investors won’t need to spend a lot of money. You can just spend $3,000 a month for running the TV ads. Just know that the more money you spend and depending on the frequency of your ads, the faster you will reach your market.
Tony’s market, Wichita, has about a million viewers. Investors can spend between $5,000-15,000 depending on the market they want to tap. If you can get a 2-3x return within a 6-12 month period, that would be a win. But for those starting out, a 1x return in the first 6-12 months wouldn’t be bad.
You just need to choose the channel and the time the ad comes on. Expect primetime news to be 3-5x more expensive. But consider late night dollar commercials as they also have good reach.
Tell the media buyer which demographic you plan to target, and he’ll be able to check and recommend which channels and time slots to choose. Tony targets the people in their 50s who bought their house 30 plus years ago and are getting tired of doing the maintenance.
Now, Tony gets a 10x return on his TV ad spend because he’d already found out what worked and what didn’t.
It all starts with having a really good tracking number and a call tracking system so that you’ll know where the calls are coming from.
Tony has a team who will answer the call and pre-qualifies the lead that came in. Then they’ll pass it on to the acquisition team who will take the lead, go on the appointment, and close the deal.
With COVID, people are at home watching TV more. Less businesses are doing commercials, so Tony plans to go back and renegotiate his rates.
Even with the popularity of online platforms like Netflix and Hulu, Tony isn’t worried. The local shows and stations have been around for so long that it will take some time for everyone to make the switch.
Also, since he caters to an older audience, he doesn’t believe that they will just give up watching TV, and people will still watch the local shows which aren’t available on Netflix.
YouTube TV might also present an opportunity for Tony since it shows commercials on its platform.
Tony plans to continue helping students learn his process as his way of giving back to the community. He will also continue to host virtual real estate Mastermind events.
People are a huge factor to your success. Whether it’s your staff or the people you meet in your business, you should always leverage by surrounding yourself with the right people.
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