Flip Hacking Live 2022 Recap

Last week, our marketing manager, Drew Wood, and I attended Bill Allen's Flip Hacking Live Event in Orlando alongside a thousand wholesalers and investors from across the US.

Our goal: to expand our network and learn from some of the top wholesalers and investors in the space, including notables such as Jerry Norton, Pace Morby, Tyler Jensen, Andy McFarland & others.

I've been to many marketing conferences in the past nine years. However, this was my first real estate conference! I'm already looking forward to next year's event in San Diego.

There were several takeaways from the event. Below are my top 6.

Takeaway #1: The Importance of Follow Up

Several speakers stressed the importance of follow-up.

Over the last five years of working in the REI space, I’ve heard this statement more times than I can remember:,

"I tried this marketing channel for 30, 60, 90 days, and it didn't work."

Since investors are marketing for motivated sellers, they expect every lead to be motivated, wanting to sell their house ASAP. While a percentage of your leads need to sell within a few weeks, the majority of your leads will not. Some may take a month. Others may take six months. If you don't have a follow-up system, you are 100% leaving money on the table.

During Philip Blake Porter's talk, he pointed out that 40% of his deals come from follow-ups greater than 90 days. If you're not following up beyond the 90-day mark, you might as well light 40% of your marketing dollars on fire. General sales stats show that 80% of sales happen between the fifth and twelfth follow-up.

Because of this, we provide investors a wealth of tools and resources with our CRM, Spark Follow-Up. We pre-built long-term automation sequences in the platform that utilize email and text messages. We assign them a separate automation sequence for any lead that is qualified but doesn't sell their house right away.

Automation should not replace manually following up. However, it acts as a safety net to prevent leads from falling through the cracks.

Investor Andy McFarland said, "Who do motivated sellers sell to? The ones who are in front of them."

Investor Jerry Norton said, "Front of mind is what wins."

The moral of the story: follow up and stay in front of your leads!

Takeaway #2: What Number Should You Expect When Marketing?

Adam Whitney, owner of Blackjack Real Estate in Florida, delivered a compelling presentation about marketing and what numbers to expect in various marketing channels. Based on 690 deals under contract, the average leads-to-contract ratio was 13. SEO and Google ads had the lowest lead-to-contract ratio, and cold calling had the highest.

Whitney explained that the further from that 13 to 1 ratio that you get, the more likely it is that you have a sales problem. The two biggest factors at play here are speed to lead and follow-up. Whitney said that he requires his team to call all leads within 60 seconds.

I always explain to the investors that work with us the importance of calling all leads within 5 minutes.

We even track this on the back end for our investors, so when they come to us frustrated they aren't getting the results they want, we can dive into their numbers to see if they are hitting the necessary metrics. If you're waiting more than 5 minutes to connect with inbound leads, you will not connect with as many leads resulting in fewer deals under contract.

Takeaway #3: Add Creative Exit Strategies to Monetize More Leads

A few investors discussed creative acquisition strategies such as sub-to and seller financing. However, the speaker most publicly known for this event was Pace Morby. According to Morby, as the real estate market shifts, more tools in your market toolbelt is vital. If you do not convert enough of your leads into contracts, you will not utilize enough creative acquisition strategies.

I won't spend time in this post talking about sub-to and seller financing because you can go to Pace Morby's YouTube channel to learn more, I highly recommend viewing the videos!

Pace shared a powerful insight:

This guiding principle drive’s Mobrby’s ability to offer more on the house than most cash buyers and ultimately close a higher percentage of his leads. If you're constantly running into sellers asking too much for your traditional cash offer to work, consider using one of Morby’s creative finance strategies.

Takeaway #4: Know the Score

According to Investor Mike Simmons, 82% of businesses that fail did so because they did NOT know their numbers. As business owners, tracking our numbers isn't the most fun and exciting thing we do. However, it's extremely important, especially as you scale. You're shooting in the dark if you don't know your numbers.

• How many leads do you have to get an appointment?
• How many offers do you need to get a contract?
• How many leads do you need to get a contract?

These are just some important KPIs (key performance indicators) you should track as a real estate wholesaler or investor. Track your KPIs for each channel as you expand and have multiple marketing channels running.

Review these numbers every quarter and year to determine which marketing channels are the most effective and profitable for your business. In marketing,

Important: Do not let emotions drive your decision-making but let the data do the talking.

Keep in mind that the more data you collect, the more accurate your KPIs are. Testing a marketing channel for 30-60 days is not nearly enough time to allow the numbers to play out. If you're hopping around from marketing channel to marketing channel every 30 to 60 days to find the "magic channel," you'll never get anywhere.

Investor Adam Whitney mentioned that he always tests a marketing channel for a minimum of 6 months before making any decisions (this is someone who has put 690+ deals under contract). Stop making emotional decisions and let the data play out. Marketing is a NUMBERS GAME.

Takeaway #5: The Four Toxic Words

If you don't know who Nick Santonastasso is, look him up on YouTube and go over some of his highly inspirational content.

Santonastasso shared the four most toxic words any real investor can utter:

If you know me, you may know one of my BIGGEST pet peeves is the "know-it-all" mentality. When I sense this from someone, I find the quickest route to exit the conversation. I have no interest in even entertaining these types of people. The moment you think you know everything is when your brain shuts down its ability to accept any new information.

Next time you find yourself getting ready to say, "I already know this," stop yourself. Instead, open your mind to the possibility that you may not. Staying in a constant state of learning is the easiest way to grow as a person. If you can look back at yourself this time last year and not feel like you've grown much, you may be suffering from the "I already know this" disease.

Takeaway #6: Great Leaders Ask Great Questions

Santonastasso also shared another compelling insight.

"Great leaders ask great questions to lead you to the right answer."

Making assumptions is one of the worst things you can do when leading someone. Besides that, telling someone what to do isn't always well received either. Instead, focus on what questions you can ask others that will ultimately allow them to reach the right answer. When people arrive at the answer through their reasoning, they are much more likely to believe in that answer and follow through accordingly.