Unlocking Success in Real Estate with Data-Driven Strategies with Scott Snofke
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This is Wake Up To Wealth, a podcast dedicated to helping you change the way you think about wealth. And now, here's your host, Brandon Brittingham.

Why do you think your data is just so good compared to what else is out there? Every market is so different. KPIs are just huge. So you guys actually think about what you put the mail in. We all make the journey from the mailbox. We go straight to the trash can. All right, what's up, everybody? We are back with another episode of Waking Up to Wealth, and we happen to be in Dallas today on the road.

And super excited to get one of my homies, Scott, here. Scott, thanks for coming. No problem. Thanks for having me. You know, it's not often that people tell their trade secrets of how they find things. And so usually people don't promote us that well. So I appreciate you having me on. Yeah. So one thing that we know and that I know is to be good at anything in business, you got to have good data and you got to have good KPIs.

And one of the reasons why I brought Scott on here today was we use Scott for our data in our real estate investing business and for our mailers and a lot of our outbound marketing that we do. And I've been doing this a long time and these guys just do some really, really cool things and have helped us become super successful.

So just, you know, kind of give me an overview of like, from your perspective, just data and KPIs, you know, as a whole of how you got to run your business. Well, we're the only ones in the industry that track everything we do, either through our CRMs or through, you know, our customer CRMs. But we want to know what the results are. And in finding the results, we know how well it worked or how well it didn't. So we know where to pivot and where to continue and double down.

So KPIs are just huge in knowing what pieces are coming out of the mailbox and how the people are responding to them. We're able to track that stuff. We're able to track, you know, whether whatever we put on it with a certain phone number to know exactly what an offer percentage should be on a check for somewhere in Jacksonville compared to, say, somewhere like where I'm at in St. Louis, Missouri. We fluctuate those numbers based off how they respond and we test continuously with it.

So I want to dive a little bit deeper on that. Like, you know, there's a lot of people that run businesses that don't really look at their KPIs. Like, just, I mean, just talk about that a little bit. So, I mean, this is a great example, and I talk about it quite a bit, is even with your numbers, like you and I ran a campaign last March, April, and May. We sent out 18,000 pieces, 6,000 a month. And what we were testing was

another data source that I'd heard that was doing really well in the area. So I'm like, hey, let's test this. And the KPIs told me that, yes, I got a better response rate off of it. And then also while I was tracking that, I found a couple other things. Since we sent this exact same check three times in a row, that third touch showed me that, okay, three times in a row is too much.

that either I need to refresh the data or I need to change that mail piece up because they recognized it or we were at the end of that data set. So then that led me into more testing to figure out, okay, I need to do this, this, and this, which has really led to knowing we're coming out of the mailbox with a different approach each time with a different thought process.

Yeah. So, um, so essentially no matter what you do in your business, you should be able to tie an ROI to the money you're spending. You should have a mechanism for tracking. It doesn't matter if it's direct mail, if it's paid, wherever you're spending money, you've got to tie back to a KPI and an ROI. Is that what I'm hearing you say? Yeah. I mean, it's true.

To put it really dumb it down, KPIs are the lights in the industry. If you walk into a stranger's house and the lights are off, you're gonna bump into things. If you turn the lights on and you know where everything's at, you can maneuver through your own market and through other markets and even start to test things outside of your market of where you're gonna go, what's your next market? How are you gonna grow and scale? If you don't have the numbers or the math to it, it's the science inside of the industry. - Yeah, that's a great analogy. I've never heard anybody say that.

Just made it up. Yeah. So from a data perspective, why do you like what is it that you guys have discovered something? And I know you can't give it all to us, but, you know, why do you think your data is just so good compared to what else is out there? Well, you know, just out of that conversation at KPIs of tracking what they're responding to, whether it's, you know, for example, owner occupied to absentees or, you

really niching down a list to fit that individual customer. So a lot of people will come in with a broad brush approach and say 300, you know, anything under 300K. Well, if you're looking for a fix and flip, you don't want those trap houses. You don't want because the market's not going to be there. So we're able to get in there through KPIs to know what we're looking for in the area so we can better suit that. So that's where our coaching comes in.

is we sit down and analyze your market, what you're looking for, and then find that best data set that custom fit to your needs.

And then with technology now, we can really quickly go through and figure out what's the problem with that homeowner. We can not only go and look at, you know, what their credit situations are, if they've ever sold a house under wholesale, how they trade their cars and, you know, that's a wholesale deal there. So we can start to really know who we're targeting and then we can weed out the ones that aren't going to respond to us that simply just, you know, they always sell at market value and those aren't our ideal clients. So we'll

the internet and the technology the ai in it will really help you filter and sort out i equate it to a cup of coffee you have your coffee grounds you have your coffee and you have your cream at the top we all know we want that cream there's good deals in the coffee there's no good deals in the coffee grounds at the bottom so at that point you know we're able to utilize your money better to find those deals through ai and through learned algorithms

So, uh, you know, we're a huge believer here on the show that real estate is a path to wealth and you got to find deals. Number one, you got to find good deals and you got to try to find deals that no one else is going after at the same time. So one of the things that Scott's company has helped me do, which is REI print mail is, uh, you know, for stuff we're going to hold or we're going to flip or in a wholesale, um, he's helped us find kind of the diamonds in the rough. And what I would tell you, whether you use Scott's company or who

whoever you use, I'd obviously suggest you use them because of my experience with them. But you've got to find data in the market. You got to find the pockets in the market that are going to work, that you can do fix and flips in, that you can do wholesales in. Or, you know, location is everything. The stuff that you're going to buy and hold, man, knowledge is power when it comes to the real estate game and data is the key. That's like the recipe to the sauce. If you don't figure these things out, you're going to have a freaking problem.

Right. And oftentimes what I coach on is when, when people funnel their data down is, you know, we talk about, you know, the price point, the, the style of house, you talk about all of these variations that, you know, the length of time that they've owned the property, things like that. Well, all that does is funnel down to what I call competition is everybody has the same metrics that they funnel to, but that those outliers, the ones that are just outside of that is what we're trying to find. We're able to use, uh,

our AI data to go in there and find those pockets, get into those owner-occupieds that is a vast amount of people. Well, we don't want to spend a ton of money on them because the response rate's low. So let's go find the ones that are good. And that's what the new technologies are really helping us with.

So go deeper a little bit on that. What data sets are you seeing really work right now? I mean, I'm a big proponent on one of my favorite things to do is, of course, the absentee vacant list. I don't want to go after the big portfolio owners. I have something specific to set aside for them to target them. But I want to go after the

possibly the uneducated or the inherited portfolio owner that has bought a few properties. They've inherited a few properties. They're not in an LLC and you might own five or six. And then all of a sudden there's a roof issue, a bad tenant or something. They get a bad taste in their mouth and they want to dispo.

And the reason why I like that absentee list is just simply there's nobody there to stop the sale. It's an extra property. So they trade them a little bit more like trading cards. Somebody tears this one up, they'll sell that one at a wholesale. They'll go buy this one over here that's in a better area. So the movement inside of the list is really good.

Owner-occupied, to be honest with you, it definitely has my eyebrow up this next year with interest rates dropping to say around a six. I think that's gonna be the new three. So all of these families that have been holding tight inside of their house, especially, and this is probably gonna be really good in the PPC market,

of the you know, the Millennials or you know, there's their families are growing. They're going to need a bigger house. They've been sitting tight for the last 18 months waiting for that lower interest rate. All of a sudden it's coming down. Somebody's going to pull the trigger. Yeah, and then you know the same thing with you know, as the interest rate drops buyers pick up. So a lot of what we target is, you know, the 55 plus because what is it 65% of homes are owned by people 55 years of age.

And their last trusted resource was direct mail or through the mailbox or newspaper. So something physically in their hands.

And in us targeting them is they're going to retire. They're getting towards the end of life cycle. So they're going into retirement, assisted living, moving in with family. That's where direct mail actually outperforms everybody out there. And in targeting them with the lower interest rates, they're able to also make that move now. Before, if they made it, it was a lateral move. And even it being a lateral move, they were paying more per month and they couldn't really afford to do so with the inflated prices of the economy.

I'm guessing, but you could tell me if I'm wrong. One of the things you guys do is you send out a mail piece that looks like a legitimate official check. That's essentially give somebody an offer on their house.

unless I'm way off on this, I would assume that's one of your best performing mail pieces. - It's, I mean, by far, it's the one that gets open and investigated. What we focus on the most is, it's almost, you know, I look at it seasonally for mail. I mean, what's going on right now? We're all filing our taxes. People are getting a tax check back. So of course we're gonna mimic tax checks. January, February, you know, was a lot of things that looked like a W-2.

Going into March, April, May, you have graduation season, you have birthdays, you have wedding season, all of that. So invitation style envelopes, same with Christmas and New Year. - So you guys actually think about what you put the mail in. - Right, yeah, because ultimately, we all make the journey from the mailbox

We go straight to the trash can. Yeah. And I pass three trash cans before I get read. And I'm in the mail industry and I still will sort through if it's got a gutter on it, a window or anything like that, it's straight to the trash on a postcard. Postcards don't get read. If you're going to be on a postcard, it better be a medium one and you better have an offer on it.

Right. You know, because you want to be the first thing that they engage with on the kitchen counter or wherever they're reading their mail at. You want to be the first thing that they pick up and engage with. And we all know that that's checks. If we can come in as money and I'll tell you what not to do is send it looking like a bill. Yeah. Because anybody because we're targeting people in financial distress. Right.

The need to sell bill, they're going to be pissed. Well, it's not that they're pissed. They avoid it. How do they how do people get into financial situations? Right. Is they avoid the problems. They put them off. They procrastinate. So a bill is a natural procrastination piece. So they take it and they just go.

We'll get to that later. Yeah. And they will not engage with it. What we're trying to do is create curiosity coming out of the mailbox enough to get read before we're thrown away or to be read at the kitchen counter and then engaged with from there.

Got it. That makes sense. A lot of great information. And you've I mean, you've given actual tactical stuff. You know, what is what is a piece of advice you would give to someone from a data standpoint that, you know, maybe is a new investor or a seasoned investor or whatever of like really dialing this process in and getting a handle on it?

Well, you know, it depends on what we're looking for. For the most part, that's where it stops. The foundation of all of this is the disposition side. No, there's no money made till somebody pays for it. Yeah. So if we can get in to figure out who's buying, if we can find who our buyers are, what they're buying, and then we go shop for them.

You know, we door dash the property. Find the buyer first. Yeah. Know what they want. And if so, you're not going to go and be able to disposition, you know, fix and holds or buy and hold properties to a fix and flip or they don't want those because typically those are in markets that are that are capped out or slow growing, you know, good section eight markets. Now, if the guy's a buy and hold person, then that's where you're going to go target is to figure out who's buying your properties.

and what they're buying. And a lot of times you can get in and like, you can jump on a call with me. We can look at the actual data in your area and see where the cash buyers are happening or where's the area that has the most absentee vacants because that's a high end rental area. So we know we can start to manipulate that data set to target what you're specifically looking for so we can be more efficient in what we do.

I think you made a really good point there where this is where I think a lot of people fall short is you got to make a data driven decision, not a, I think it's this, or this is what a couple of comps are saying or whatever the case is. Or a friend told me. Yeah. Or to your point, you can actually go look at the data and

and say this is where buyers are this is where cash buyers are this is the concentration it's actually making you made a good point find the buyer first but also find the buyer based on the data driven decision not some just i'm picking it out of the air right and that's you know where a lot of people fail is they they come in and they think that the contract to get you know i have

Many clients that come in and be like, I got a contract. I got a contract. And that doesn't mean anything to me. I want to know a closing. Yeah. You know, how many closings did we get out of it? Because that's when we get paid. We got to get them to the table. 20 contracts and you only get 10 to the table, then you have a closing issue. And we need to figure that out.

And that's, you know, a lot of people associate us by our name, REI Print Mail. And they just think that we print mail. Pretty self-explanatory. That's what we started as. But as we've grown inside of the industry and tracking everything, we've added the things that our clients need as tools.

And you know, people will come in and be like, oh, so and so can do it for this or so and so can do it for that. Well, we're not a printing company. Yeah, we are a data analyzed, knowledge driven print company. Yeah. So we're sending things out the door with knowledge and power behind them because ultimately we want and why we're free

is we wanna be able to give you the knowledge to make better decisions in your industry because we want to be partners for a very, very long time. - Yep, and I would co-sign that you guys are legit 'cause I've used a lot of companies. I've never had the response

To your point, response is one thing. I've never had the tie to actual deals and closings at the rate that I've had it with you guys. Not even close. Well, and this is a thought that just came in because of the clients and the friends that we share is...

Every market is so different. True. And it's oftentimes when we give advice, we give advice from our market. And it's the same with data is certain data companies started in certain areas. Certain data companies will beat other data companies because they analyze this specific data. Well, that data repeats itself in other areas that other ones don't. Yeah. And so we get advice from people. We have to stop and think, OK, what's their market? How does their market look at our market? Right.

Because, you know, if you're in any major city in Florida, highly competitive cost per deal is a lot more than, say, my market in St. Louis, Missouri, where we're at roughly at $2,200 a deal, $2,000 a deal. Yeah, that makes sense. So I ask everybody this on the show, and it can be whatever version it is to you. We call the show Waking Up to Wealth. What does Waking Up to Wealth mean to you? It's a great question.

I hadn't really thought about this before. I mean, I just, I say it all the time. Hey, I'm awake. I'm alive. I'm above ground. So I mean, waking up to wealth to me is, I guess would be equated with happiness because with wealth gives you freedom. With freedom,

You can do what you want as far as I love to teach my kids. I love to engage with my kids. I have three kids and we work every day on different things. I love asking them engaging questions. So it just gives me more time to do that.

And because I want to leave them a lot better than I was. I had at one point in time, I had all my family members living at my house and I was in my early 20s. Yeah. So I want them to have something to start with so they have a better foot forward. Understood.

So if someone is listening to this or they're watching this and they're interested in what you do, which I would highly advise if you're a real estate investor, but you guys do trades and stuff. It's not just investing, right? We do on the other side in Graphics Connections Group and that we do...

Also, anything mail, anything that's printed, we'll put your name on a kayak. I mean, if it's in the printing industry, Graphics Connections Group is our mothership. We have, I think we're at 32 companies and we're 30 years deep since Jeff Charlton started that. Yeah. Yeah, 30 years ago.

so so someone wants to reach out to you for your services what's the easiest way for them to get to you um reiprepmail.com pretty simple sign up for a coach you know ask for scott ask any one of us you know we work really good as a team you know even our junior coaches that are just starting out you know they're knocking on the door so you know if you're on a zoom with us you'll see us get interrupted constantly because other people are asking questions because we work we all work in house none of us are remote so

all of our knowledge is power. Every other week we're sitting down to go over our, you know, we call it a what's working meeting. Let's bring three things at work and one that doesn't. And so we can start to share that knowledge inside of the office.

brother i greatly appreciate this is a this is long overdue i should have had you on before but it was the first time me and you were in the same spot at the same time i greatly appreciate you coming on here to spend some time with us today i always thank thankful for the invite you know it's always fun because it's you get into these conversations or in front of you i learned something you learn something and we all grow together right absolutely brother thank you thank you

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