As an investor, have you ever been faced with a lawsuit or gotten a letter from the Insurance Commissioner or the Attorney General or the ethics or fraud divisions?
Well if not, it’s because you haven’t done enough marketing and/or you haven’t been in the business long enough.
There’s an old saying that’s rather fitting here:
“If you haven’t pissed someone off by 12 o’clock, you’re not marketing hard enough.”
Sorry if all of that sounds negative, but pay attention to what I’m saying today…
See, (stupid) people have come at me with accusations that were totally unsubstantiated.
There are people in this world who are bent on complaining and causing mayhem whenever and wherever they can.
But! They are not to be feared… you just need to be prepared. That’s why I’m sharing how to handle these types of challenges. Admittedly, some can be pretty intimidating…
You can’t “fix” them, but you also can’t let them stop you.
So, I’ve gotten some letters from the AG’s office that says their office got a complaint about one of my marketing postcards. And in their defense, they have to investigate all the complaints that come in—in our situation, they’re usually just looking for a response.
So, here’s my typical reply:
AG Office, we’re sorry. We won’t send them any more postcards. We’re a property development company, and we send postcards or letters to people who have owned their property for a while, with the intent to make an offer to buy their house. We get their name and address from public records of people who are absentee owners, where the residence is different from the tax address. We mail thousands of these postcards, and we’re sorry for any distress or confusion the postcard has caused. We’ll immediately take them off our mailing list and won’t mail to them again.
So, all we do is:
- apologize
- say what our business is
- explain how we go the list
That’s about it.
Usually, the AG office’s bark is bigger than its bite…
After all, we’re not fraudsters. What we do as investors is perfectly legal when you:
- Market the contract not the house.
and
- Have intent and means to actually close the deal.
And we’re actually in good company… even companies like Dominos Pizza get complaints about the marketing they mail out. For real.
Sadly, you can’t fix stupid. :-/
Look, I’ve been in the business long enough I’ve faced my fair share of these letters and complaints.
But I’m still here… still in the business… and still making money.
You can too.
