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The Titanium Vault hosted by RJ Bates III
RJ Bates III, affectionately referred to as the Viking Wizard by his students, started his real estate investing career in 2014 after attending a real estate education program that put him $65,000 in debt. RJ contracted his first deal he found on the MLS and wholesaled it for a $7,500 assignment fee. That was the end of his former life and the beginning of his venture into becoming a real estate investor. Since that moment, RJ has become an influential figurehead in the real estate investing industry. He has successfully purchased and sold over 2,000 properties all across the USA including wholesale deals, rehabs, rentals, owner finances and short term rentals. One of his passions is being the host of The Titanium Vault Podcast where he interviews the top real estate investors and finally, RJ has won back to back Closers Olympics earning him the reputation as the King Closer!
The Titanium Vault hosted by RJ Bates III
Real Estate Hot Takes with Christina Krause
Join Christina Krause and RJ Bates III in this episode of Real Estate Hot Takes as Christina answers five different questions while attempting to eat the hottest buffalo wings in Tampa, Florida. Enjoy the laughs and hopefully enjoy the interview!
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All right. Hey guys, welcome to Real Estate Hot Takes, episode number three with Christina Krause. All right, christina, here's the deal. Okay, I'm going to ask you a question. You have to take a bite of that wing. It's the hottest wing we can find here in Tampa, florida, okay, and then you answer. Okay, the longer you answer, the better, because then people learn more about you and it also gives you a break in between.
Speaker 2:I thought the show was you have to eat with me.
Speaker 1:No, no Dang, all right, it's my show, I do whatever. Okay, all right, right, yes, question number one We've known each other for like seven years and I have no idea what the fuck you do. What do you do I?
Speaker 2:hear that a lot. I'm the 12-year-old boy. You better get away from me.
Speaker 1:What he doesn't follow the rules.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm really just kind of a professional 12-year-old boy and everybody likes to have like a little bit of that around every once in a while.
Speaker 1:That's what you are. You're a 12-year-old boy.
Speaker 2:And then they're like okay, I mean, it's not as fun as I thought it was going to be. I wish you knew how many times I've heard that in my life. But wait, what are we talking about?
Speaker 1:again. What do you do in real estate, in real estate?
Speaker 2:Yes, so most people know us by our company, postal Impact. We're kind of a data analytics company so we do motivated seller lead lists to direct mail marketing and just study every single little piece of that tracking mail through the sales pipeline, okay, performance stats. And then most recently we've kind of gotten involved in the back end. So helping people usually investors book 25% as a contract. If you go out into appointments, generally speaking they're going to book about 25% of those as appointments. And what happens to those 75%? Well, it's normally not in their wheelhouse, but oftentimes we can bring fund or institutional buyers to the table or you know different kinds of things. So we do that sometimes with our clients, just using different, I should say exit strategies, which I think everybody should do Like normally people have a wheelhouse. You should probably stay in that, make sure you perfect that and then look at the other stuff that you're getting shots at and figure out how to monetize it.
Speaker 1:How are the wings Come on? You said you were good with spicy. I am, that's what I said.
Speaker 2:This is not even is this a hot wing. Did you guys give me the wrong ones?
Speaker 1:No, oh wow. It's called extreme plus, plus, plus plus and you took it like a champ. All right, question number two Got it, Got it. So, based off of what you just told me that you do with the analytics and everything like that, what advice would you give to newer investors getting in? As far as lead generation right now in 2024?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it depends right oh that's right. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:Got it. Everyone always forgets that part.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, you're very conversational.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like you just want it to be a normal podcast, you know.
Speaker 2:Okay. So if you're a newer investor, depending on your budget, but if you have a limited budget, I'm not going to lie. Unless you're targeting a super niche list, I actually wouldn't do direct mail. Direct mail is expensive. It's incredibly effective, but it's expensive Particularly because with direct mail, the key is to drip it. Usually, about the third or fourth drip is when the magic kicks in on direct mail. So if you were just starting out, to fourth drip is when the magic kicks in on direct mail. So if you were just starting out, what I would say is I would try to hone in on more of a niche list and then go do things that other people won't do.
Speaker 2:It's that hustle that you need when you're young anyway, and it's every experience you have is going to make you an amazing investor 20, 30 years from now. Not that anybody stays in real estate that long. I mean, I'm very young, so, but no joke, there's nothing that you could possibly do, no seller you could talk to, no strategy that you could try or couldn't, or the ones that you don't try are the ones that are going to hurt you. Go door knock. Yeah, go do the hard stuff. You know what I mean. Or you know, obviously texting if you can Make sure you hard stuff. You know what I mean. Or, um, you know, uh, obviously texting if you can, um, make sure you stay compliant. Cold calling right now is having a moment for sure, cause we track all kinds of different strategies through the pipeline.
Speaker 1:Good, moment or bad.
Speaker 2:A good moment, A very good moment, Um, but again, you know, what are you, what are you trying to accomplish on that call Makes all the difference in the world. Frankly, when you are searching for that person's pain, and not just so you can make the sale, but because you're genuinely interested I think your best bet is to just learn the stories, Because the more stories you hear, the similar stories you hear, you're already going to know Like I could, at this point, look at a deal and I could say, all right, this person, I could just look at their, you know the, the property and their circumstances three, three sentences of their circumstances and I can say it's probably going to be one of two things they're either this or they're this. And you know these are the two ways that you can solve that problem. It's just about like, are you on the phone to just get somebody to be like yep, I'm interested in an offer? Are you really interested in the person? I think the key to sales is how interested are you actually in that person?
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it, all right. Question number three.
Speaker 2:Yes, okay.
Speaker 1:So most investors they have a problem when they get started with shiny object syndrome. Yeah, okay. And then you come in and you're like, hey, I'm all about these analytics, I'm going to tell you what works and what doesn't work. Right, at what point in time should an investor actually hire a company like you that's going to pay attention to their analytics and the KPIs to their marketing.
Speaker 2:Okay. So the first thing I'll say is anybody can do what we do. That's the bottom line. You can do it right now.
Speaker 2:But you hear people stop at their own KPIs. What's your response rate on that? Well, it's a good question, but there's like five other questions you need to ask before you can even determine whether response is valuable. Because the truth of the matter is high response, low conversion, costs way more money than you think, even if it's just up here. So response rate, net lead rate from there and these are things you could calculate on a piece of paper. Like if there's something, like if a CRM is stopping you, I'm telling you right now I could track the data analytics, I track on that napkin, but you have to just do it so you know how much response are you getting. What's the net lead rate? Which means you know, like does somebody actually have a house to sell? How many appointments are you booking from that net lead rate? Are you booking contracts from that net lead rate? And then, what's your close and how much money are you making on that kind of deal? Because you could be doing a list.
Speaker 2:It doesn't impress me that you do a hundred 200 deals a year. If it's $4,000 a pop, I'd rather you see do. I'd rather see you do 10 deals at a hundred thousand dollars. Bob, everything that I just said could be done here. Do it for a week, you'll see. The data will tell you where to go. You don't need a company like mine who's going into institutions that have these big things, but you have to know what's working and what's not working, especially when it's working. I have a lot of problem with people who are successful at what they do and you're like okay, but if you don't know why and exactly what is successful or where your breaks are, then when it stops, you're going to blame everybody and you're like well, if you don't know why you're winning, then are you really winning or are you just getting lucky? That's kind of my take on it. I want to know something?
Speaker 1:Are you eating the wings?
Speaker 2:Yes, Like you're acting as if like nothing. You seem a little bit, I know.
Speaker 1:I mean, you meet the other people. You said you were good with spice. All right, here's my question. Question number four Okay, okay, what is the biggest win that you can think of in regards to data analytics, to the marketing, making a change in someone's business, either yours or one of your clients?
Speaker 2:Nope, biggest win. Sorry, I'm going to double answer you because it's insight. Okay, it's like knowing why something is happening. Don't tell yourself a story that's because you're a badass or you know whatever.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Maybe you are, you know, but you'll know if you track it. Oh my gosh, I go on these appointments and once I get belly to belly with people, ain't nobody beating me, right? Well then, stop trying to screen. Belly to belly out. You know what I mean. Like oh, it's wasting my time, or you know, whatever, what I think.
Speaker 2:By tracking data analytics, the most powerful thing is you learn about yourself. There is no magic lead list because I can give you a probate list. I give that person a probate list. You're going to crush it. They're not, and that person's going to be like your list sucks. I'm like, really, because that's not even my list. I mean, I didn't make the list up. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:So when you're tracking, you're tracking to find where are the holes in my bucket or where am I a unicorn? Like I freaking crush a right bearer and then go get that, because then it doesn't matter if people give you low value leads. If you can get that person into the house, like if you know that's your sweet spot, then get everybody into a house that you can't. You know, stop being like well, it's not going to be a waste of my time. Oh, so you're saying you're not a very good salesperson. I don't know. I mean I don't know. You know, by the time somebody lets you come out to the house, right, they have some level of motivation, and now it's on you and nobody else. So you know, figure it out All right.
Speaker 1:Last question you ready, yep? One piece of advice to your followers. Okay, that could change their life. Just one thing that you would say to them you have to eat the wing first. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Even though you have made it, though, it's not even the other Uh-huh. Well, okay, okay, I will say this I think you have to know where you're going Like, know what you're wanting to accomplish. It comes down to vision.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because when I lost everything and I mean complete obliteration, went from having more money in the bank than I knew what to spend or how to spend, and I know what it's like to grow up eating spaghetti, noodles and tomato paste every single meal and hot wings Well, this is why, I mean, I was hungry. It's been a long time. So I do think, though, what took us down was a deal that we did that we didn't have to do, we had that, and it wasn't even like greed, it was just like, oh, I mean, here's the opportunity. The deal that took us down and I mean personal bankruptcy, business bankruptcy, three-year bankruptcy, complete devastation had less than nothing and owed people money on top of it, and it was because we didn't know we were going.
Speaker 2:I think that it's really important, as you go through all of the experiences that you're going through, to realize the power of exposure. I am so grateful that I know what it feels like to have more money than you know how to spend, because it doesn't have power over me anymore, and I'm so glad I know what it feels like to have nothing, because that doesn't scare me anymore either. The more you just pepper in those experiences and you, it'll help you know where you're going, like where do you want to stop? Why are you doing this Really? Because if you're just doing it, because it's a transactional kind of thing and it's a really well-paying thing, that's good. Just know that then. And then you're not putting all of these other weird wants and needs on top of it. Just go.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, if I'm going to sell something I needs, on top of it Just go no, I mean, if I'm going to sell something, I might as well sell houses, because there's a lot of margin in there and I'm down for that.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. But then, like it doesn't, you don't attach all these other meanings to it, because you have the vision of where you're going and when that thing comes. That could take you down, and it can, because I thought we were untouchable. Everything we touched turned to gold until it didn't, and that one little thing wiped out hundreds of rentals, all kinds of stuff, and and, frankly, it wipes you out too, cause you go holy crap, I'm not as good as I thought I was, and then you got to deal with all that. So it's better to just be like okay, here's where I want to go, and then I'm going to stop here and then maybe reassess. You can reassess your vision all the time, but where are you going? Not just like I'm just going to get out of this moment. Well, there might be a lot better things you could do then, because it's not like real estate is. You know, there's amazing things about it. There's really risky things about it too, like you've got to go into it knowing you crushed it.
Speaker 1:You crush it All right guys. That's episode three of Real Estate Hot Takes Christina Krause and come on Like how many people Is there? Going to be like a winner at the end.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you won Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you won.
Speaker 2:Because I was seriously. I was like all right, I'm just going to go in and pretend like I'm not dying.
Speaker 1:You didn't even have to. That's really what I'm doing right now.