Larry Ledford Women’s Event “Wrap” Up

Former TREIA President Larry Williams was the only man allowed to attend the Women in Investment Real Estate class. (Larry Ledford requested this to be a ladies only event) A longtime student of Ledford's, Williams had been told several times he could attend any of the ladies events if he wore a wig and skirt. Here Williams is posing in a wrap for a skirt and a borrowed scarf. Thanks to both Larry's for being good sports.

On Saturday, January 20^th, women investors who were members or guests of the Triangle Real Estate Investors Association (TREIA), gathered to learn from successful real estate investor Larry Ledford, as he presented “Larry G. Ledford’s 101 Best Marketing and Sales Ideas for Real Estate Investors.”

Use Power Marketing to Drive Real Estate Returns

Serious real estate investors understand the power of marketing. Most participate in multiple networking groups and use direct mail and face-to-face contact to build a database of buyers, sellers, and lenders. But for real estate investor Larry Ledford, such steps are just the beginning. Ledford, who manages financial services and insurance, real estate investing and property management, and construction businesses, leverages not just two or three, but many different marketing strategies to accomplish his professional and financial objectives. He runs his real estate empire from Mocksville, North Carolina, but is a citizen of the world, teaching real estate in eight different countries and throughout the U.S. and investing in property in eighteen states. Ledford views his training sessions as an opportunity to help others, providing students with the education they need to launch or enhance their real estate careers and donating all training proceeds to his nonprofit, The Oar Foundation.

Dressed As a Woman: A Tale of Two Larrys
As the group was amassing, long-time investor and former TREIA president Larry Williams slunk into the women’s midst with a blanket wrapped around his middle and a scarf draped over his head. Current TREIA president Cynthia LaChapelle had issued a joking challenge at the monthly meeting, telling the group’s male investors that if they wore a wig and a skirt on Saturday they, too, could participate in the workshop. Williams’ attempt was enough to pass muster, and after a few laughs, he took his place among the TREIA women for the session.

A Slow Start
To encourage new investors, Ledford told them that his real estate investing career almost didn’t start. The reason? Ledford was afraid to pull the trigger. He took seminars for 10 years. When he returned home after a trip to discover that his exasperated wife had piled all of his courses and books on his home-office floor, Ledford was finally galvanized into action. He made 37 low ball offers before landing his first deal. Ledford was able to flip the property in two weeks, and netted $18,000. He was hooked.

“What started as a hobby is now a serious business,” he said. In the past 21 years, Ledford has completed nearly 1,500 real estate deals and owns commercial and residential properties, as well as mobile homes. Larry offers sellers a certified bank check for the entire amount of the offer and a seven-day close, which helps him differentiate himself from other investors who rely on bank financing. As a consequence, he said he closes more deals and gets great prices. He shared an example of buying an 184-unit apartment building in Charlotte, North Carolina, from a bank for $800,000 cash. The property was worth $4.2 million, but the bank was unsuccessful marketing it for $1.9 million. After teaming with two investors who each put up $500,000, Ledford and his partners refinanced the property at 3.75%, and increased occupancy. As a result, Ledford and his partners created a cash cow with no money into the deal.

Ledford says his faith, focus, and goal setting are the reasons he has been able to achieve so much success. First, Larry grounds himself in his Christian faith, openly communicating his values to others and seeking to live out his values by helping others and giving back through The Oar Foundation. While Ledford’s nonprofit work is done for altruistic reasons, it has helped him meet people who become clients of his different businesses, he said.

Ledford also extolled the power of focus, urging TREIA’s female members to develop goals and solid investment criteria, leverage real estate agents and other experts (Tip #66), and focus on just one or two areas until they mastered them (Tip #5). Ledford’s also believes in education, stating that he reads an industry or business book every seven to 10 days, spends two hours every Sunday evening studying, and reviews his personal library of 60,000 pages of notes on an ongoing basis.

Finally, Larry sets goals for each year during a week-long planning session each December (Tip #53). For each goal he sets, he develops three different strategies, each of which has three action items to achieve it. This mix of strategic and tactical helps him stay on track, Ledford says. If a strategy isn’t delivering desired results, he simply switches approaches.

The Secrets of Investing Success
So what are some of the marketing secrets behind Ledford’s success? In this article, we share 13 of Ledford’s best tips. For the other 88, you can download his forthcoming ebook, which is slated to be published in March 2012 on his website.

1. Develop relationships with hairdressers who serve an older clientele (Tip #10). “Hairdressers know everyone in the community,” says Ledford, adding that he has six stylists who have referred more than 10 million dollars in business to him over the years. He rewards these valued partners by sending them on all-expense-paid vacations to a beach condo he owns.
2. Target market desired populations – teachers, medical professionals, firefighters – for your home rentals and sales by buying lists from state licensing boards (Tip #1). Ledford says he has discovered that $125,000 to $175,000 is the best selling price point for many of these groups, and he uses direct mail and face-to-face meetings with key influencers to access these potential buyers.
3. Quit trying to close every deal in the first meeting (Tip #8). Ledford says he doesn’t try to transact business until after his third face-to-face encounter, which gives him time to get to know a buyer and develop a trust-based relationship.
4. Be the real estate expert in your trade association (Tip #20). Investors who have other jobs or businesses can position themselves as real estate gurus to their professional groups. Ledford says he is the go-to guy on real estate in the financial services, insurance, and military construction industries in the Southeastern United States.
5. Position yourself as a human resource for your client and prospect (Tip #23). Ledford does more than sell and rent real estate: He also helps clients find jobs, marriage counselors, and money for medical needs. As a result, he has lost just four clients in 26 years of doing business. “If you help people solve their problems, they will be your clients for life,” he says.
6. Attend real estate auctions (Tip #27). Ledford goes to an auction every month or two, not necessarily to purchase property, but to meet other investors, buyers, and contractors. “I watch people and see who is bidding. It’s easy to tell who has money. If they buy the house, I will have a relationship with them before they leave the auction,” says Ledford.
7. Mine topics of interest (Tip #42). When Ledford meets with a prospect, he tries to learn everything he can about that person and his or her interests. He will then follow up with a magazine article and a personal note. Ledford followed this approach with a new client who was interested in deep sea fishing, and has developed a business relationship that continues to this day.
8. Target market apartment renters (Tip #70). Post office clerks can help you identify the four-digit mailing codes for every apartment building in your area, enabling you to develop a direct mail campaign for renters who may be ready to move on to buy or lease from you.
9. Form other LLCs with private investors (Tip #75). Ledford doesn’t borrow from banks: He is the bank. Partnering with other private investors helps him create rich cash hoards to buy properties outright at low prices and then flip them quickly for a profit. And these individuals aren’t always multimillionaires: They might be busy professionals who want to invest in property, but don’t have the time to do so. Ledford says that an LLC he formed with five emergency room nurses who contributed $25,000 each, has grown so much over seven years that he has been able to disburse $400,000 and money to buy BMW sports cars to each participant.
10. Conduct marketing information seminars with other service providers (Tip #94). Ledford teams up with professionals such as real estate attorneys, accountants, and contractors to host informational dinners, where each person presents for 30 minutes. The partners split the cost of the dinner and facility, marketing materials, and postage costs for mailing 5,000 targets. “We typically get 50 people to attend each session and conduct business with forty of them,” says Ledford.

Resources
Interested in learning more about Larry Ledford or his power marketing techniques?

Purchase one of Larry’s ebooks on www.larryledford.com. Titles and publication dates are noted below:

• 101 Best Marketing and Sales Ideas for Real Estate Investors (March 2012)
• How to Build a Million-Dollar Home-based Business (April 2012)
• Networking for Success (March 2012)
• How to Build a Six-Figured, Tax-Favored Retirement in 10 Years with Real Estate (June 2012)

Reach out to Larry at one of his organizations:

• Professional website: www.larryledford.com
• Missions Realty: www.missionsrealty.net
• The Oar Foundation: www.theoarfoundation.org

By Holly Larson