This year is starting off as an expensive one already. The Payroll tax reduced my JOB’s paycheck (and my wife’s) by more the $100 per check; – $5000! Wells Fargo informed us that they didn’t charge us enough money last year to pay our property taxes through the mortgage escrow, so they tacked on an addition $150 per month to pay back the shortage; – $1800! Oh and our Property Taxes went up this year; -$1000!
If you are keeping track that is almost $7000 I’m already out this year and I’m getting nothing extra for it. That, coincidentally, is about the same amount I spent on marketing last year. I said that because it just shines extra light on my family’s budget and how we can cut back our spending and that 7 Grand I spent on marketing is glowing like a cell phone screen in a dark movie theater! Not a good start to the year money wise.
So now that January is coming to an end, what does February have in store for me? How about a nice postage increase!?! 1 cent doesn’t sound like much, but it’s an extra $50 that I have to spend this year that I didn’t plan on. Good times to be had by all…meh!
In Other News…
Because the postcards response rate has been so dismal, I’m going to be putting an early stop to that campaign and save the $150+ per month I spend on postage for those mailings. The postcards are a sunk cost, and I’m just gonna have the remainder sent to me to be used in some other way. The money saved here will go towards probate leads.
Another avenue my partner and I are pursuing is Lease Options. To build the list is free and the marketing is free as well since we will be sending emails to agents regarding listed properties. My first order of business this week was to look through the MLS for expired listings, vacant properties and another active that has been listed for more then 180 days. I’ll let you know how the marketing goes for properties like this.
Tomorrow or on Monday, I will be posting a teaser video demo of SI Lead Manager – Beta 6. I have no background in video editing so it takes me a bit longer to do. lol
Have a great day everyone!