I saw this on the back of a Chevy Blazer at  (of all places)….WAL-MART.

Just the fact that i saw it there in and of itself is a bit funny and ironic,  given some of the scary pictures going around the internet captured at that little Arkansas based discount chain.

That being said, I thought that perhaps a few “stupid” quotes would be good for a friday!

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”
-Anonymous

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”
-Albert Einstein

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.”
-Bertrand Russell

“Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.”
-Confucius

“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.”
-Bertrand Russell

“Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders.”
-Sloan Wilson

“A stupid child is ruin to a father, and a wife’s quarreling is a continual dripping of rain.”
Proverbs 19:13

AND MY PERSONAL FAVORITE…………………

“Stupid is as stupid does.”
-Forrest Gump

Everybody have a safe and fun July Fourth….AND DON’T GET TOO STUPID!

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This can be done by a variety of means, including bright colors and flashing lights, or can use Physiological triggers.  Ever notice that a McDonald’s quarter pounder does not look NEARLY as good in person as it does on the commercials, with the steam rising from the bun and some smiling beautiful woman taking a sexy bite from it?

So, this guy used a VERY simple message, but definitely got my attention.

He used two REALLY great triggers: SEX and anything CONTROVERSIAL.

On a minor note, he used a “play on words” as well.

I hope this fella makes a million bucks on this advertising cause he deserves it from the creativity alone!

Until next time,

Al

P.S. For those of you who read this in Arkansas, This sign is in front of an auto shop between Otter Creek and Bryant on Hwy 5 heading south if you wan to see it in person!

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 This is a sign that I had installed in a bus stop at the intersection of two of the main collector roads on the south side of town. The south side is where many of the good “working class” rehab type homes can be found, and I figured out from some of my snipe signs that a more permanent sign might be a good idea here. Besides, the city was really hassling me about the snipe signs.

It was approximately 4 feet wide by 6 feet tall, so you know visibility was not an issue. Or was it? I learned a bunch with this sign. First off there is WAY too much information on it. Remember when I mentioned “business card syndrome”? There is NO WAY drivers are going to read the whole thing. BIG lesson in the rule of K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple stupid!) Second, the choice of colors SUCKED! Lesson here, never listen to an advertising guy who  makes less money than you do and drives a beat up car that smokes and smells like it is on fire. Although the colors look pretty hip when you see it on a white sheet of paper, it looked like a sprawling mess when compared to the background around it. Third, yep you guessed it…location. Did I mention in was INSIDE the bus stop? It was only visible in its entirety when there was nobody sitting there, which is pretty much the middle of the night.

Now, this is not to say that bus stop ads are not good.  I know one investor here in town that uses them for the largest part of his advertising.  But he is smart. He only puts them on the OUTSIDE of the stops, and he uses SIMPLE color schemes like the snipe signs. Oh, and by the way, he waited to do the bus stop ads until after I did them, figured out what I screwed up and fixed it.  He also took the liberty of breaking my balls about it over lunch one day. What are friends for eh?

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I found this picture of a “wrapped” trailer (below) online and thought it was another great example of passive advertising in action. It’s a little busyfor my tastes, i tend to go a bit more simple, but I would assume the trailer is parked at a home just as much as it is being pulled down the road. It is like a moving billboard.

Never contacted the guy who owns it because there was no way to know what area code to call first so I hope he takes it as a complement that I used his picture and considers it free advertising rather than suing me for copyright infringement!

See, passive advertising can be just about as creative as you want to make it; it’s limited only to your imagination.

The main thing to remember is to keep it simple, straightfoward, andalways remember to convey what’s in it for THEM.

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There are drawbacks to passive advertising though.  Passive by its very nature will not generate as many good hot leads as will active advertising.  Sure, the phone will ring, but more often than not it will be people who are just curious as to what you are doing, or people who really don’t need to sell but definitely want to waste your time telling you why you should buy their home at retail, or even worse, other investors who are wanting to pump you for information.

Snipe Signs

 These are also called yard signs, bandit signs or roadside signs. Snipe signs are cheap if you buy them in quantity and extremely effective if used   correctly.

I recommend that you buy the standard 24 x 18 inch signs.  I have seen investors use the 12 x 9 inch signs and they are simply invisible to a driver whizzing past them at 40 mph.  You have about 3 to 5 seconds to impress your message on drivers. That being said, you need to be careful about how much information and how busy you make your signs.  Too much information and people cannot digest it all as they drive by. Note that the two most important pieces of

information on the sign in the example above are the phone number and the message, “WE BUY HOUSES”. We want them to know what we do and we want them to have a number to call.  That’s it. It is that simple. Do not get “business card syndrome” with bandit sign messages. Keep the snipe sign blunt and to the point. There is no need to add extraneous information. All it does is clutter the sign and make it more difficult for the customer to retain important information like the company’s phone number. Statistically, consumers will write the number down whereas they tend to try and memorize website addresses. Make sure the phone number is the most prominent aspect of the sign.

I use only two colors for my signs and I know some investors who use three colors with good results but beware…full color signs are actually LESS effective. I would like to be able to give you some great reason for this, but I am not a psychology major, I just know what works and what doesn’t.  If you want my opinion, I think they are too busy and folks get lost in the “picture”.

Where color is concerned, you should get a few color schemes made up. I use blue/white like the example on the previous page as well as red/white and black/yellow. Again, I have been told that statistically, a blue and white color scheme achieves the most results. While other bright colors will get noticed, research has shown that a blue and white color scheme will draw far more attention than other color combinations. I have found this to be true in my market. This should not be an excuse for you to be a cheapskate and only buy one color scheme. One scheme alone will not work nearly as effectively as using three.  The reason is a phenomenon I call “sign blindness”. I know from talking to folks that people become “blind” to my signs after a few weeks of seeing them at a particular corner. So, when the city takes one down, or it gets knocked down or stolen, then I replace it with a different color scheme. Suddenly there is something “new” to see on the road, and the same folks who missed my sign before will now see it.

 Prices for signs vary. The best deals I have found are online, not local.  The local Little Rock sign makers wanted like $10 per sign and I think the last time I bought signs I paid about $2.00 each including the shipping.

There are some gurus out there teaching that you should use a “hand written” sign, because it does not look like a “big time professional home buying conglomerate”. Well, that’s true it looks like a third grader did it instead. Ask yourself something, would you call a guy who says he will pay any price in any area for a house and can’t afford to have a decent sign made? There is a local wholesaler who uses this method exclusively and he has whined to me more than once that he does not make enough money and only has 5 or 6 “real” investors on his buyers list.

Course then again, Try it! Who the heck am I anyways; your market may be completely different.  Sure, I have actually made money doing this, and sure I don’t have to get up and go to work every morning like most of you, but then again you never know.  The real estate game, like every other market is forever changing.

Basically there are two ways to put these signs out. You can nail them to a telephone pole or you can get the wire sticks and place them in lawns. I cannot recommend one way or the other, they both work equally well; however, if you put the signs on poles and trees high enough, they will not be taken down as often, and you will not have to replace them as often as a result.

 Here are a few other things you should know about snipe signs.  In most cities they are illegal so whatever you do, DO NOT put a number that can be traced easily back to you on the sign.  If you are doing all of this the way I teach it, then you will be sending these potential sellers to Patlive or some other voicemail where the account will be held in the name of some company and you will never be calling the city back, but beware…first off, I am NOT telling you to do something illegal, second there are plenty of ways around this. For example, you can check the boundaries for your city and put the signs on the edges; although many cities have regulations regarding these signs, few counties do. You can also get permission to put them in certain areas, like a neighbors’ yard, or a business you frequent often. You can put the signs in front of the houses you are rehabbing or those that you have under contract but are not quite ready to sell. What to find an owner of a vacant house and having a problem doing it? Put one of your signs on his house. I all but guarantee he will be calling you soon! How do you think I know that?

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A HELOC, or Home Equity Line of Credit, is the right to borrow money from a lender up to a certain amount of money. The “line” is a credit line guaranteed by your house, meaning that if you can’t live up to the terms of the line, then the lender has a right to foreclose on your house. Typically HELOCs (pronounced HEE-lock) have floating interest rates that can change periodically.

Who should get one: Someone who might need extra cash for home improvements, or is looking at borrowing money to buy a different house; i.e investors.
   
Who shouldn’t: Do not use a HELOC to splurge for things like vacations or to finance other consumer debts, like credit card . HELOCs are guaranteed by your house, which means the stakes are very high. Think about it guys…Your credit cards are UN secured, whereas the HELOC will be SECURED by your home.

The good news is, Home equity lines can be used by the borrower to pay for anything. You literally get a checkbook for the HELOC and you can write checks to your heart’s content until you’ve maxed out the line’s limit. Although HELOCs were originally designed for homeowners to pay for home improvements and other house-related projects, nowadays borrowers use home equity lines for almost anything. Most HELOCs also have online Internet access so you can pay bills online using your HELOC just like you would with a regular online checking account.

HELOCs and home equity loans can also be used as second mortgages at the time of purchase. Frequently they are the second purchase mortgage for 10, 15, or 20 percent of the purchase price when buying a home. Home buyers can avoid buying mortgage insurance (PMI) if they take out two loans instead of one, with no single loan exceeding 80 percent of the purchase price. HELOCs can fill this gap, wherein the first mortgage is frequently 80 percent of the purchase price and the HELOC is the second mortgage.

Like a credit card balance, you can pay down a HELOC at any time, without penalties.

There is bad news about HELC’s too. Home equity lines are serious stuff, since they’re secured by your house. If you can’t meet the payment obligations such as your minimum monthly balance, your homeownership is in jeopardy.  Make sure you do your homework and fully understand all the consequences as well as the benfits.  What may be a quick fix for debt relief or vacation plans could end up costing you your best investment.

The other thing is, like all mortgages, they are getting harder and harder to come by.  I even know several investors who have had their limits reduced repeatedly for no other reason than the bank just “re-evaluated” thier credit line.

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Anybody else see the irony here???

I guess I just have a sick sense of humor.

‘Course, the “No Outlet” sign would not have been any better

This is near the corner of 39th and Division in North Little Rock, Arkansas

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Landlords have a right to show the place, and it is usually outlined in the lease. Your landlord should have given you just one notice of what days the unit was going to be showed. Also, notice to entry is not the same for all states. some have no statute regarding entry. others differ in the time required prior to entry. see below.

• Alabama  – No statute
• Alaska  – 24 hours
• Arizona  – Two days
• Arkansas  – No statute
• California  – 24 hours
• Colorado  – No statute
• Connecticut  – Reasonable notice
• Delaware – Two days
• District of Columbia – No statute
• Florida – 12 hours
• Georgia – No statute
• Hawaii – Two days
• Idaho – No statute
• Illinois – No statute
• Indiana – No statute
• Iowa – 24 hours
• Kansas – Reasonable notice
• Kentucky – Two days
• Louisiana – No statute
• Maine – 24 hours
• Maryland – No statute
• Massachusetts – No notice requirements in statute
• Michigan – No statute
• Minnesota – Reasonable notice
• Mississippi – No statute
• Missouri – No statute
• Montana – 24 hours
• Nebraska – One day
• Nevada – 24 hours
• New Hampshire – Notice which is adequate under the circumstances
• New Jersey – No statute
• New Mexico – 24 hours
• New York – No statute
• North Carolina – No statute
• North Dakota – Reasonable notice
• Ohio – 24 hours
• Oklahoma – One day
• Oregon – 24 hours
• Pennsylvania – No statute
• Rhode Island – Two days
• South Carolina – 24 hours
• South Dakota – No statute
• Tennessee – No notice requirements in statute
• Texas – No statute
• Utah – No notice requirements in statute
• Vermont – 48 hours
• Virginia – 24 hours
• Washington – Two days
• West Virginia – No statute
• Wisconsin – Reasonable notice
• Wyoming – No statute

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Ok so is it me or does this seem to be written strangely?

This is either the “Grace and Love” Child Development Center or

The Development Center owned by two gals from the 60’s called “Grace” and “Love Child”

YOU be the judge…..lol

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