Marketing Methods For Every Budget

Every REI vendor is trying to sell you their method (including us, obviously)... but depending on where you’re in your business stage, some don’t make any sense for you. So I want to lay out a plan…

A plan for every budget.

No matter if you have $0 dollars, or $5k + per month. This is for the newbie… the ones who ran out of cash… the ones who have money but not too sure where to put it.

Let’s get started:

$0 monthly budget

Ok, so you might be in a place where you LITERALLY can’t spend any money. It’s either you’re getting started or you’re seasoned but your cash flow cycle is a bit broken right now and you want to implement a…

‍Lead generation emergency cash system!

The bottom line is you need constant lead gen. You need to be producing at least 10+ leads per week (a “lead can also be an offer sent). So here’s a daily and weekly methodology for lead gen if you have no cash (I’m going to assume you at least have a phone, a car with gas, and some sort of skip tracing /data tool).

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Make 10+ offers per week -- Go on the MLS and search for houses that fit your buy box. And simple send them an offer. Easy. Will you get a deal from 10 offers? Probably not, you might need a lot more than that. But it gets you MOVING in what matters: talking to sellers.

NOTE: your deal goal has to be proportional to your efforts. I put bare minimum for some of these. But if you’re a business doing 2 deals per month already, then you need to triple that bare minimum or more. For example, I knew of investors in large metro areas making 50 offers per week.

Make 100+ calls per week -- No one likes cold calling but what can you do if you’re out of cash. Set a goal for 1000 cold calls. Get a list if you have a data provider. If you don’t have a data provider you’ll have to go on Zillow, FB marketplace etc and start calling. Go on your county website and skip trace foreclosures, and any other notices that might want to sell.
Call agents daily -- Again, with literally $0 you can’t do much. So start “networking” and calling agents letting them know what you do.
Visit estate sales, yard sales, etc weekly -- Start driving around, and look for events where someone might be selling. Talk to the owners, ask: “Why are you selling all this stuff?”. Let them know that you’re looking for a house to buy and ask: “Do you know anyone?”.
Drive for dollars daily -- My favorite. Just drive around, find any houses that are beat up, neglected, for sale, etc and skip trace them and call.
Door knock strategically -- yeah not really fun, but it’s one of the BEST ways to get in front of people and talk to them. If you’re going to an appointment, go door knock the neighborhood before or after and ask: “I’m looking for a house to buy, do you know any one selling?” Yes that might be weird for some, but guess what, you’ll never see these people again. You need max effort if you want to get deals using no money… You can also aim for 100 doors per week. I knew a guy that would knock 100 doors on Saturday. That’s all he had for time. And he would pick a neighborhood and also hit up the niche lists.
Follow up weekly -- With people you’ve talked to, don’t forget to FOLLOW UP. Everyone you talk to , put them in a spreadsheet. And work that list weekly. Send them something of interest -- like if it’s an agent, send them an interesting local article and say: “Hey John, I thought you might be interested in this!”

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START BUDGETING….

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I come across many new investors that say they have $0 to invest in their business. But honestly, that’s not always true for more people. If you’re doing this to get of your w-2, create wealth etc… it’s time to start investing in your business. And treat this venture like a real business.. Not a little “hobby”. You will get farther, sooner, when you take this seriously. So if you’re saying you literally have NO money (and maybe thats the real case for if you’re broke)... I’d challenge to look at what you’re spending and see if you can free up money via expenses. For example if you’re spending $5 on coffee daily, that’s over $100 per month. Boom! You’ve just found $100 to invest in your business. And there’s probably a lot more expenses you can go through to find extra money.

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$500 Monthly Budget

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This one isn’t wildly different from the $0 budget.

Because $500 still limits what you can do. A lot. So the mindset here is NOT “new strategy.”It’s more reach and better follow up.You’re still doing everything above. All of it.

But now you can layer on some leverage.

Use one off mailers -- You don’t have the budget for mass direct mail yet. But you do have the budget to mail people you’re already talking to. Go get a stack of 5x7 postcards or A7 envelopes and handwrite them yourself. This goes on top of the calling, driving for dollars, agent outreach, etc. Look at the $0 budget tasks and do the same thing… but now add mail to your outreach and follow up. Yes, you’re doing it at home. That’s fine. This is still the grind phase.
Add in print material like hangers -- While you’re going to appts, estate sales, looking at houses add on hangers or flyers or business cards. Leave them at the door. It’s another touch point.

Expand outreach, not tools -- Do NOT blow this money on shiny software. The only tools worth paying for right now are data and skip tracing. That’s it. If you have money left over, a basic dialer might make sense so you can make more calls in less time. The $500 isn’t there to “build systems.” It’s there to help you talk to more sellers.

More touches per lead -- The biggest upgrade at this level is multi touch follow up. Call. Text. Email. Then mail. Then call/email again. Most investors stop after one or two attempts. You’re using this budget to stay in front of people longer while everyone else disappears.

The goal here is simple:

More conversations at a deeper level.

You’re not trying to be fancy yet. You’re just trying to increase surface area.

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$2,000 Monthly Budget

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Now you’re still doing everything above. None of that goes away. But this is where you can finally add a bit of scaled lead gen on top of your manual work.

This is where PPL starts to make sense.

Pay per lead might run you $300+ per lead depending on your market. So if you allocate around $1,500 toward PPL, you’re looking at roughly 5 leads. These are higher intent leads. That doesn’t mean you’ll automatically get a deal from those 5. You probably won’t. Realistically, you want closer to 10+ leads for consistency. But this gets you started and gives you exposure to a more predictable source of leads.

So keep doing the calling. Keep driving for dollars. Keep following up.

But now you’re stacking PPL on top of it.

Still, work your leads harder and faster than everyone else. You still have the advantage of time. You can respond quickly*. You can be more personal. Leads convert better when they feel like they’re talking to a real person. Someone local. Someone who actually listens.

Big operations lose deals here because they’re slow and impersonal.

Use the $2k to increase opportunities.

Not to replace effort.

*What if you work fulltime? I get this is an obstacle for many. You have two choices and you should probably do both: Partner up with someone who has more time. And work on your business before and after work, and on weekends. It sucks… but if you have little money, you need to find ways to make it work.

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$3,500 Monthly Budget

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This is where you can start making an actual choice.

At this level, you can either add consistent mail or you can add more PPL. Mail gets tricky here because every market has a different cost per deal. In some competitive markets, you’re looking at $5k or more per deal. That means if you only have $1,500 per month allocated to mail, you might be mailing for several months before seeing a result. That’s not bad. You just need to understand it going in.

So you have two real options:

Start using mail consistently. Pick a list. Mail it every month. Don’t stop after one drop. This only works if you commit to it and let it play out over time.

Or add on more PPL. Increase volume. Get more inbound leads. Shorten the feedback loop and focus on speed and conversion.

Either path can work. The mistake is spreading the budget too thin trying to test everything at once.

You should still be cold calling. Still following up. Still working your existing leads. Making offers, etc. None of that goes away. You’re just starting to lean more on paid lead generation instead of pure effort.

At $3,500, you’re not replacing the grind yet you’re just supporting.

This is where discipline matters more than creativity.

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BUDGETING YOUR DEAL

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Once you land a deal you need to allocate money appropriately. Everyone is going to be different depending on how much income they actually need.

I highly suggest living way below your means still.

If you don’t need a lot of the income right now allocated with this structure:

1. 15% to taxes

2. 10% to charity

3. 40% to operating expense (this means tools you’re already spending on)

4. 25% to marketing (have a “line budget” to start saving on scaled marketing)

5. 10% to owner

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$5,000 Monthly Budget

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At this point, this is where lead generation actually starts to scale.

You can begin replacing a lot of the grind with paid, consistent marketing. You’re no longer door knocking or cold calling everything yourself. Instead:

Keep doing what worked -- Look back at what has produced real conversations and put more money behind those things.
See if you can scale the “grind” that actually worked -- out of your actions you did, which produced the most good conversations? Can you scale it? Can you add a cold caller? Can you have a VA do it? Go through the last few months and identify what worked. For example, if FSBO outreach has been working, keep doing it, but look for ways to expand it. Sometimes that’s more data or more outreach or having someone take your place.
Have two paid channels operating fully -- I still suggest PPL but at a “fuller” level, that means aiming for $2,000+ a month for PPL. Then choose a second channel at a “fuller” level. Mail is a good second channel but you have to keep in mind the higher costs for competitive, metro areas. Going with a cold calling center is another. This is where its ok to “test”, but don’t stop a test too soon. Most people “try it out”, they don’t give it enough time and then stop their lead gen. That’s not a smart move. Pick something, stick with it, put a “quit number” like 3 months or more.
Start thinking long term branding -- Now that you have lead gen somewhat scaled, start thinking about adding long term lead gen and branding. That means start building up SEO and a good online presence. Focus on getting reviews.
Keep networking -- this is true if you’re buying locally. You still want that local presence. Networking works, it's just long term.