Episode 17
17 - Real Estate Lessons from Former Teacher with Paul Punnoose
Episode Summary
In this episode, Quentin talks with Paul Punnoose, a former teacher takes us through some lessons that he learned along his journey into wholesaling to share some of his offline and online marketing strategies for finding off market deals.
Paul worked as a teacher 13 years, and he has been a full-time real estate investor for the past year. He has done a variety of strategies, from buy and holds, flipping, to now wholesaling. Talking about his strategies to get off market deals, Paul uses online marketing such as Google Pay Per Click ads, Facebook advertisements, and Kijiji ads. He says that each strategy has produced different types of results, and has different pros and cons. Furthermore, the cost for online lead generation is much higher than his cost per lead offline.
Paul uses the inbound marketing, where people will call him, as he wants people to contact him versus him contacting people. He adds that “I know that when I pick up the phone, that person is interested in selling their property.” Talking about his lead versus offers versus actual sales statistics, he says that sometimes those numbers are difficult to track, but he keeps an eye on the key performance indicators. Paul adds that generally people like to hear cost per lead cost per deal metrics. He focuses more on his overall cost per deal.
Paul says that he thinks about what his cost per deal is, and then work backwards. It also varies from quarter to quarter, ranging between $3000 to $6000. Quentin adds that people get surprised by the cost of marketing that goes into finding a deal. Talking about his unique ability, Paul describes it as the ability to connect with people, and he prefers partnering up with people that are really good at marketing and advertising. He further adds “my ability is to connect with the seller and figure out, you know, what they're looking for, and why they're looking for it, and help them solve whatever issue they're going through.”
Listening, hearing what the sellers want, offering solutions to their problems, but also connecting with them has helped Paul secure off-market deals. Quentin adds that it's not always about getting the highest price. Sometimes, there are other things that people value. Paul says that when people have a lot of equity in their property, they don't mind giving some of that up for a convenience. Talking about the deals that got away, he says that newer investors should keep in mind that out of the deals that they put out, only 10 percent will find success. If you go in with that mentality, while it will still hurt, they will be able to handle the whole process a little bit better.
He says that in such cases, the best thing to do is to learn from what happened, so you can make adjustments for the next deal. In this industry, you need to really listen to the seller, listen to their problems, provide solutions, but allow the seller to really think about which solution is important to them and take it from there. In conclusion, Quentin says that sometimes, even when you get to the point where you have a signed offer, doesn't necessarily mean until the deal has closed. Paul says that the deal is not closed until the profits hit your bank account.
Topics Discussed
- Introduction [00:00]
- What Strategies Does He Use to Find Off Market Properties? [02:06]
- Why Does He Prefer Online Marketing Despite the Higher Costs? [03:48]
- Does He Track The ‘Lead Versus Offers Versus Actual Sales’ Statistics? [05:33]
- His Unique Ability to Find Off Market Deals [08:00]
- How His Ability to Connect with People Helped Him Secure a Deal [09:21]
- The Deals That Got Away and What He Could Have Done Differently [12:38]
- Deals that Didn't Close Even After Signing Contracts [16:36]
- How to Get in Touch with Paul Punnoose? [20:06]
Resources Mentioned
IG: Paul.punnoose
Important Links
