Marla Harmon - Combining 2 Loves: Technology and Real Estate
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE ON:
What options do you have when you have a strong love for technology and real estate? The possibilities are endless, yet for Marla Harmon, she took her passion and formed an amazing real estate investor CRM. This digital marketing wizard is the CEO and founder of REISoftware, an all-in-one CRM designed specifically for the real estate investor. She talks about how she took her high-level understanding of technology and built an engine that helps people capture leads, nurture leads, and close more deals. She's able to carve out an amazing niche and pursue her passions at the same time.
In this episode hosted by Mike Swenson, we discussed:
- Marla's background in real estate including being an agent and broker in two different states
- How Marla got to the point where she wanted to launch a technology for people in the real estate space
- The power of leveraging relationships
- What kind of buzzwords to put and strategies to use to capture prospect's attention
- Getting leads, following up, and closing deals
- Marla's forte in dealing with distressed and motivated single-family homes and doing owner finance ads
- The challenge for investors to build a relationship and earn the right to have them reach out to you when they are ready
- How to compete with large institutional companies that have an endless supply of money and how to differentiate yourself in a market like that
- How to utilize facebook ads and find leads organically
- Creating your own Facebook group to become the expert in your community and create a synergy
Timestamps:
0:00 - Intro to Marla's Career
1:32 - Marla's Background
3:38 - How Real Estate Meets Technology
8:16 - The Power of Partnership
9:26 - Capturing Buyer's Attention
12:56 - Finding Motivated Sellers
16:37 - Importance of Following Up on Leads
20:02 - Competing with Large Buyers
23:29 - How to Maximize Facebook Ads
29:10 - How to Find Marla
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlaharmon/
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Read the full transcript here:
Mike Swenson
Welcome to The Real freedom show where we inspire you to pursue your passion to gain time and financial freedom through opportunities in real estate. I'm your host, Mike Swenson. Let's get some real freedom together.
Mike Swenson
Hello, everybody, welcome to the real freedom show talking about building wealth and gaining time and financial freedom through opportunities in real estate. I am your host, Mike Swenson. And today we're going to talk about what happens when somebody has a passion for real estate and a passion for technology. And they merge together. And so it's been a winding journey. Today, we've got Marla Harmon here, she is the founder and CEO of REI software, which is a fantastic tool for real estate investors, agents, anybody in the real estate space kind of an all in one solution in terms of getting leads, handling your database, lead pages, SEO, Facebook groups, all sorts of stuff that she has seen the challenges and understood the challenges that investors have. And she's put technology in place to solve those problems and help agents and help investors succeed. And so we're going to talk about that in much more detail today. So Marla, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Marla Harmon
Awesome. Thank you for having me here. I appreciate it.
Mike Swenson
So why don't you just start by sharing a little bit about your background, and how real estate meats technology came together for you and kind of leading up to what you're doing today?
Marla Harmon
You bet. So, you know, basically, my background started in real estate, I was an agent, I was been an agent and broker in two different states. And I always would dabble in the website, and you know, trying to figure out how to set things up. And I loved it. And it just became a passion where I decided, Okay, do I love working with buyers and sellers more? Or do I enjoy the technology, the automation, the marketing. And so the answer to that was the marketing, the technology ran over the sales component and that side, and so I decided to go in that direction, long, long journey, I worked in government and you know, back and forth. But I ultimately ended up where I own my own. My own my own business to business as an agency, as well as the software side. So marketing agency and software company, and it just turned into where I'm able to help more people that way, then I'm able to with working with buyers and sellers.
Mike Swenson
And there's certainly a need out there. I know when I first got into real estate on the agents or the residential agents side, I was on on the admin side. And I remember being surprised at how clunky technology was for real estate. I was like, surely somebody's figured this out by now. And not really because you know, there's people people advertise and all in one solution or an end to end solution. And what I found is people are still kind of duct taping pieces together, or this piece really works well works great for this, but it doesn't work great for that. And so you've been able to be around and kind of see those challenges through and through and provide solutions that can really be much as an all in one solutions as they can be all the way from lead generation through the process. So how did you get to the point to where you wanted to launch a technology piece for people in the real estate space? How did that specifically come about?
Marla Harmon
So basically, I already had clients. And to your point, I was literally duct taping all of these different solutions together, you know, there was this solution and that solution, and let's put another solution to make them talk and you know, we're zapping this together and create, you know, all of this software. And so, you know, I would see where people were, you know, you're on your phone, you're in your email, your Gmail, your company email, you're bouncing back and forth trying to figure out like, where did I talk to that person last? And where did I send that message? And, you know, and so you've got all of these different platforms that you're managing and connecting and communicating in and it's so frustrating. And so I was I just decided I needed to pull all of it under one umbrella. So that you know an agent or an investor could talk to their leads in one location. If it when a lead comes in, it automatically sends a follow up a text message and email and nurtures them free or it will automatically move them through your pipeline stage from lead all the way to close. And to me that was an important thing instead of duct taping things together.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, and a big portion of that is in the Ad Management at the beginning because You know, as we're talking offline, Facebook ads can be really challenging for somebody who doesn't know what they're doing. And even somebody like me being administratively gifted and operationally gifted, it's tough, you know, there's so much that you have to set up. And if you get this button wrong or that thing wrong, and what it comes down to is, if I'm a real estate investor, I want to be able to stay in my lane of genius, I don't want to have to spend time trying to figure out how in the heck to do ads to get somebody in or how to get the pieces of technology to talk together, I want to be able to spend time finding deals, and funding deals. And so it really is something that can streamline business for a fantastic price to be able to tie it all together. So you get to spend more time doing what you love,
Marla Harmon
I get to play in my playground all day long. I love that. But that to your point, I'll give you a prime example. I had a client and investor reached out to me regarding an off market property just yesterday that he got under contract, and he's like, I've gotta move this fast, I need buyers for it. And so we got an ad together, got it out in about 10 hours, we're getting any calls his leads, his lead cost is about to $2.85. And we've already gotten him, you know, 910 leads in, you know, about 10 hours, that is, you know, like the power of being able to, you know, harness lead generation, and he didn't, you know, if he, if it had taken him, or if he had tried to do that, and get all of that together, it would have taken him forever. He needs to stay in his lane and sell real estate and make connections and talk to buyers and sellers and, and you know, and make deals happen. And when you get distracted from your mission, you're really losing money. And so it becomes much more effective to bring in someone who knows how to do that, bringing them into your team, and let them you know, let them help you with the moving pieces. So you can continue doing what you do best.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, well, and you know, one of the reasons why I started this podcast three years ago is I wanted to highlight ways that not everybody has the skin, same passions and abilities, but they might love real estate. And so part of these, you know, real freedom stories is to be able to share people that have passions and unique areas. And they're still finding ways to make money and help people in the real estate space. And so, you know, we've had virtual assistant companies, transaction coordination companies on as well, because they're supporting and enhancing people. And they're doing just like you said, doing what you love at the same time. And you guys can work together. And so I really believe that, you know, I use the phrase, you know, if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together, and you're somebody who certainly can enhance somebody's business and take them much further faster, because you can do something in 15 minutes that yeah, would take somebody else hours to do and do it way more effectively than how they could do it. Because yes, somebody wouldn't necessarily even know how to create a campaign, or even have a messaging that works well, to capture people. You've got to learn all that at the same time. And that's just not Yeah, the best use of their times. But it's you really honing in because you understand what's going to bring real estate investment leads in.
Marla Harmon
Thank you. Yeah, I would say that you nailed it. Because there's, you know, like the Power Partnership, because if when you connect your business in with other people who are experts at what they do, you like, you both win, right? And you really are able to leverage the power of the knowledge that I mean, I've been running ads for years. And that's not something that somebody can just jump into necessarily, unless you wanted to be super distracted from you know, the things that you normally wouldn't be doing. So that's that's the power of leveraging relationships.
Mike Swenson
Now, what have you learned in terms of what's going to capture a buyers attention? Or, you know, like, like, you mentioned the example of, you know, somebody had found a property and we're trying to find buyers, what do you test because you do a B testing, you're also working in markets all across the US. And so some things might work better in other areas? What's some of that knowledge that you've gained about the uniqueness of each market? And then also, as maybe your offerings have changed over time to figure out what's actually going to capture them to raise their hand and become a lead?
Marla Harmon
You know, that's a great question, because it does vary by market it and I would say it evolves, right, what got people's attention three years ago is not necessarily what's going to get their attention today. But, you know, in like, in this instance, I think it's, you know, like with any with any ad, you want to pull out the best features that you can put out to, you know, in that in that campaign and make sure that you're speaking to your your ideal target market, not every, like in this instance, not every property is geared for every body. So you want to make sure that you're calling out, you know, the people that you're trying to reach. And so I think in this instance, we, I think it's looking like we nailed it.
Mike Swenson
What is that message to somebody? So if I'm trying to capture the attention of a prospective buyer, what kind of buzzwords do you put out there? What like, what are the ways that you, you try to do that outside of like you mentioned, enhancing the features, and you know, what it is about those properties?
Marla Harmon
Yeah. So I would just say that you want to make sure that you've got an image that is going to make, you know, capture the attention, you want to also use call outs on who you are targeting. Right? If you are, you know, targeting investors, you're you have to gotta make sure that it's evident, if you're targeting buyers, you got to make sure that's evident. I love emojis. They, they do really well in ADS. And, you know, I, you know, it's it just varies it really like this strategy varies depending on the type of ad that you're running, what you know, and who you're targeting. And then also the area. If you are, you know, if you're if you're targeting a specific location, then you know, it could be that you need to, you need to call out that location really well. I love if there's, you know, if it's a specific property, I love talking about the best feature, you know, a selling feature, if there is one, that can be really helpful, too. But if you're looking for motivated sellers, it's a completely different scenario, which that's actually my one of my areas of expertise.
Mike Swenson
Everybody loves those motivated seller leads, right? If I didn't have to weed through 97 people that didn't respond to me to get the 3% that did, we'd all just be making money hand over fist, right?
Marla Harmon
Well, here's the thing, you know, the market shifting right now. And so I mean, I'm seeing there's, there's a whole lot more motivated sellers than there used to be. And so the, you know, the lead generation is amazing in that on that, and, you know, on that segment of the business.
Mike Swenson
So in terms of finding motivated sellers, what are different tactics that you've used? Or what are some different kind of tests that you've run over time, just to give people that perspective, because it's amazing to hear you because you understand real estate at a level that, and I think that's a struggle that I've had using Pay Per Click people in the past that market themselves as working with real estate investors or real estate agents, but they don't actually understand it. And you can, you can see, right through that, you have the unique ability of you've been in real estate, you understand the mind of somebody in real estate, in a different way. And so I'm just curious to hear on the net seller front, what are ways that you're capturing people's attention?
Marla Harmon
Yeah, so I'll kind of on that point, though, I have, like a little bit of about kind of that background on that specific topic, I've had the benefit of seeing inside over 1000 different, you know, ad accounts. And so seeing how, you know, all across the country, how different things perform, and how, you know, what works, what doesn't work, and in, you know, different strategies, and also different follow ups, right, I think that's a huge component in this whole puzzle, because you can get leads, but how you follow up and your ability to close, that's huge. And so, I will say, like, you know, like, what works and what doesn't, of course, is regional, and, but I also think, again, it's about it, there's a big component on call out there's a big component on image. And then the messaging, right, that messaging is always is, is always important. I've tested countless messaging. And we've really dialled in some messaging that just works for different markets and for the different types of ads that we're getting, whether it be distressed or whether it be you know, just traditional motivated sellers or you know, in some other you know.
Mike Swenson
Specific niches as well as in terms of niches you're covering, single family multifamily, distressed, what other kind of properties do you typically cover?
Marla Harmon
Yeah, so I would say my My forte is definitely you know, single family distress motivated. We we do a lot of doing a lot of owner finance as well so that like getting, you know, like pre qualifying for owner finance type ads different Things like that. And then targeting rent, you know, whether it be rent to own lease to own. You name it. So that's really the spreading the the gamut of really, pretty much anything that an investor needs.
Mike Swenson
Well, and what I really wanted to highlight there, too, is, there's so much stuff that you know, that average investor wouldn't have a clue how to get started with that. And that's really where you succeed, because yeah, you've covered all states, all types, all messaging, and can really help somebody you know, it's kind of like that phrase, where, you know, they say, you know, you charge somebody $1,000 for a job, and they're light, and it takes you five minutes. And they're like, Well, how come that took, you know, how am I How am I paying $1,000? Because, you know, this only took five minutes, and they're like, well, it was $5 for the the hammer that I use, but it was the 10 years to know where to hit the hammer is what you're paying. And that being said, yeah, you can do something at a level just far exceeding what the average person can do and what I would what I would encourage an investor, or somebody looking to grow their lead generation business with is how much time do you want to spend wasting trying to figure it out on your own, versus just moving with somebody like you that can help them get further faster? And, and yeah, the next the next place I wanted to go is talking about that follow up? Because you're right, it's one thing to get the lead in the door, it's it's the next thing to be able to provide value all the way through the process to be able to get to where you can have somebody under under contract and close. So what are the tools that you're helping people with? Kind of through through the funnel, they're after they get the lead in?
Marla Harmon
So great question. We're talking back, you're blinking back to where we were talking about the software and the CRM to follow up on leads, I think it's equally important, if not more, so the nurturing of the leads as you get them following up with them consistently I have had because we are in the you know, when the CRM is set up, and we integrate everything with, with the, the ads and, and all of that, it, it's designed to nurture them for a year with a proven email sequences and text sequences. And, of course, they're editable if somebody wants to edit and put their own spin on things, but at the end of the day, it's about follow up. It's it can be, it's equally important to just follow up, even if the messaging doesn't the just follow up. I've had people eight to 10 months later say that they've gotten deals solely because they were getting emails, you know, the seller wasn't ready at that moment. They knew in their mind that it was coming, they had a life situation that was coming, they knew that they weren't quite ready, whether it be they were in denial, they had to get certain things in place. But eventually, you know, like I said, eight or 10 months later, they reach out. And because you were top of mine, you were following up with them, the system was really the one following up with them. Because I would say 100% of those investors were not making phone calls at eight or 10 months, but the system was following up. And that's where it becomes so valuable.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, and to your point, I know, you know, having been in real estate for a while to see that you want their business now, but they don't necessarily they're not ready to give you their business. Now, they might just be reaching out because yeah, I'm curious to learn more, maybe see what I could get for a cash offer on my home. Or I could see maybe having to sell this property down the road. So I'm just inquiring, where sometimes I think when we see a lead come in, we're thinking sale, and it's not sale right away, you're building the relationship and earning the right to have them reach out to you and you be the one they reach out to when they're ready on their timeline. And that's a challenge for investors.
Marla Harmon
Yeah, and, and that's, that's a really good point. And I will say that I'm kind of starting to see a shift in the market where more and more of the motivated seller leads are coming in a little bit hotter. Right. They're, they're ready to they're ready for somebody to talk to they're actually really engaging in that process. So it's, it's, it's, I'm liking the market shift right now. It's a whole lot better than it was, you know, internet for for investors, it's a whole lot better than it was, you know, a year year and a half ago when the market was so hot. It's it's it's good. We're enjoying it right now.
Mike Swenson
Now, what would you say to you know, somebody wanting to get started with investing? And you know, there's maybe large institutional companies out there that are large cash buyers, or, you know, they have the billboards, the radio ads and all that. And I'm just thinking, I'm just one person, I'm just getting started. It's me and a buddy or, you know, whatever that might be, how do we compete with those large companies that just have, it seems like an endless supply of money. How do you differ Rent shoot yourself in a market like that.
Marla Harmon
So I love this question. You know this about me, Mike, but we haven't talked about it. So I have coached hundreds and hundreds of investors with marketing and technology. And that is sometimes a common question. among investors, they want to know, like, how can I compete with all of these people? And I would say, how does a lawyer compete? How does the doctor compete, you are a unique person, and you can resonate with the guy across the street, download that or across the country, it doesn't matter. Everyone is unique, and how you communicate is going to, if you're going to resonate with people, there's plenty of sellers and buyers all across the country, and you will resonate, you just got to get out there and go through the process. Keep going. It's you know, it doesn't like I said, it doesn't matter. Doctors have competition, lawyers have competition, but they still have business. And investors can do the same thing.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, and I think in a lot of ways, too. Yeah. People want to work with people they know, like, and trust. And, and yes, those large companies have the money, but at the same time, you're a real human sitting with them face to face, and being able to share, hey, that I'm the team right here. It's me. It's not, I'm just, you know, the the lead person working and following up with leads, but you can share your story. And I think that people would connect more with somebody versus, you know, somebody else out there. It's the same thought that I have. When I started my real estate podcast, I remember having a conversation with somebody, and I was like, Hey, how do I? Why would somebody listen to this podcast over XYZ, who's, you know, huge investor with 1000s and 1000s of units? And like, Well, Mike, because you can relate to the average person more than they can, because so many people have a hard time being able to wrap their heads around buying hundreds of houses, and in a year, they're just looking to buy five or something like that. So they want to connect with that person, not the person, that's the large institution.
Marla Harmon
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. And you're gonna get on a call with them, they're gonna say, Oh, wow, this guy is, you know, an average guy, he loves football, I love football, we can banter around a little bit, and in you are going to make a connection with them. And, you know, that is one of the things that I coach, you know, my investors on is how to set up their investor business. And, you know, a lot of times it is with the, you know, the smaller brand, if you're, if you're a small brand, own it, Marla buys properties, you know, or Marla buys houses, or whatever that looks like and, and then that way they know, it's just you and there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah. So there's, there's pros and cons, to, to leaning into that Marla buys properties or being like a, you know, just a him ah, Property Buyers, right. And so there are, there's pros and cons. And I talk to buyers all the time about what those pros and cons are and how to position yourself if you are just getting started.
Mike Swenson
Now, the other thing that I wanted to chat about too, is utilising Facebook, there's a huge opportunity out there where people are probably under utilising Facebook, talk about ways that you help people maximise Facebook to help them grow their business.
Marla Harmon
Oh, wow. So there is like face sign of ads? Because we already talked about the ads, right? Yeah, well, I also teach how to find ads organically in other people's Facebook groups to grow your own Facebook group, a combination of creating a Facebook group, and then using paid targeting or paid ads to grow that group. And then also how to organically grow that group. And then creating the tools to welcome new members into Facebook groups and transfer that those people into follow up campaigns and be able to, you know, to text message with them or to be able to email them and cultivate those relationships. Teach people how to be able to go and find deals in in other Facebook groups, and and just online networking in general.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, I think that was a game changer for me just in how I thought about leads coming in is instead of me having to go to other people's Facebook groups and try to hunt through and somebody would post a property and you'd have 15 people respond and you're like, Ah, I'm just one out of 15 people. What if you created your own group, and now you're in control of the messaging, not in a bad way, but now people can come to you you're positioning yourself as an authority in the space and I actually consult with residential real estate teams as well and I talk about the value of that creating your own fate. Split group for your, your database, because it's a way where you can stay in touch with them in a different way. And they're coming to you into your group versus feeling like you have to hunt in other people's groups to try to find buyers and deals and all of that.
Marla Harmon
Absolutely. And I think there's, there's a time and a place to leverage all of those activities, right? I there, you know, to your point, your, if you are using somebody else's Facebook group to find deals, you can do it. But it does make more much more sense to create your own pond, so you can go fishing in your own pond, you know, then then in by becoming the expert in your community, in your Facebook group, then people will bring their deals to you as well. And so it you know, you kind of end up creating this synergy where you put in, you know, a lot of work upfront, but over the long term, you're creating something that is a whole lot easier to stay focused in on in the long run.
Mike Swenson
Right, because the reality and I learned this from kind of thinking about how Zillow has operated over the last 10 years, they're in control of the lead they sell leads to agents and other people, and they can decide to change how they do that. And they have changed. And so you have people that are further down the food chain, being upset at how Zillow is deciding to change their how they handle it. Well, it's their business, they can do whatever they want with it. And so do I want to be somebody that has my results dictated by how other people run their business? Or do I want to create my own pond, like you said, where I can, I can decide to do something because yeah, if you're getting leads, and let's just say another person's Facebook group, they could decide to shut down the Facebook group, like, Ah, this is too much for me, I want to shut it down, well, then all those people, all those relationships, you've got to figure out what to do with it. But if you create your own group, now you're in control of it, and you get to decide what you want to do with it. And if you want to sell leads in the future to somebody else, you could if you wanted to, because it's your group, and you can decide to do it how you want to.
Marla Harmon
Absolutely, and I think you know, one of the things that I talk about that's so important is if you're going to have a group, make sure that that the as people are coming into that group, that you have automations and software in place to extract the you know who they are, their email, their phone number, and you've got software to pull all of that out so that you can add them to your list because having them in a Facebook group is not, it's great. But if you post in a Facebook group, sometimes you might get 50% If you're lucky of the people that actually will see the posts that you made in the group until the group grows. When the group grows, then it becomes you know, Facebook starts serving it out more and more and more. But in the beginning, you want every single one of those people or always you want every single one of those people to get into your CRM and make sure that you've got your you know their email their text message so you can follow up with them on a regular basis.
Mike Swenson
Real estate agents are you tired of letting the busyness of life get in your way from achieving your real estate investing goals, I'm super excited to announce we've created the real freedom investor agent tribe, it's a place for you to come get educated and network with others so that you can make sure that you're hitting your real estate investment goals. So find out more on our website real freedom.com Click on the store link we've got a membership we've got a mastermind group and some private coaching as well check it out, I've priced at super low, the goal is to get you in not have price be a determining factor to keep you from your goals. So come check it out, schedule a call with me and we're happy to see where your real estate journey is gonna take you thank you so much for being a part of the conversation today. There's just so much value there and people can really grow their business much more quickly by partnering with somebody like you that knows what the heck they're doing. So if people want to learn more and find out more about Rei software and and how you can help real estate folks, how can they do that?
Marla Harmon
So you know, they can go to rei software.com If you you can also find me at Marla harmon.com. So that way you can learn more about not only my about the software, but you can also find out about marketing if you need marketing book a call with me. You need you want to schedule a call so
Mike Swenson
Awesome. Well thank you so much, Marla for coming on and sharing and best of luck to you in the future as you continue to grow your businesses.
Marla Harmon
Thank you same to you. Thank you for having me.
