Real Estate Lead Generation: Why AI Alone Won’t Find Better Deals

William Yu (00:00)
With AI, it it’s great at making what you do currently extremely efficient. But the problem becomes if you don’t give AI the correct instructions, it will kind of deviate and search up what makes the most sense online and what what the popular train of thought is. And the problem becomes now if AI is using what everybody else is saying, then typically everybody’s doing it. If everybody’s doing it, then typically there’s an oversaturation

of that thing being done and typically doesn’t work. So you’re always last mover instead of first mover.

Meghan Escobar (02:05)
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Real Estate Pros Podcast, hosted by Investor Fuel. I am your host today, Meghan Escobar, And I have the pleasure of sitting down with an incredible young gentleman, I should say. He is doing some really incredible stuff in the lead generation industry, dealing with

You know, providing high quality leads for a high level performance in the real estate industry. And of course, we’re gonna let him share his story himself. But I’m excited to have him on the show. I truly believe that the audience will walk away with some great insight and wisdom from the way that he has built his business. So thank you again, William, for being here. We have William Yu, founder of REI Transfer.

William Yu (02:44)
Thank you so much, Megan, for that intro. I’m super excited to be here. Well, let’s get into it.

Meghan Escobar (02:49)
Let’s get into it. Yes. So one thing that I think is important to start with is for those folks that are listening in that might not know who William Yu is or what REI Transfer is or what lead generation could possibly be, you know, give us a 30,000 foot view of what your focus is these days and what markets you’re operating in.

William Yu (03:09)
For sure. So my name is William Yu. I am an active investor in the Tampa Bay area. And throughout the time of me actively investing in real estate for myself, we created REI Transfer to be able to service individuals like myself to be able to generate off-market opportunities. Right. So primarily the individual that we serve is high-level real estate wholesalers, fix and flippers, or high volume investors to be able to generate them off-market opportunities. And the reason

What makes us a little bit different is that we see marketing in holistically in a way where we believe that there’s a need for every marketing channel, whether it’s Google Pay-Per-Click, whether it’s direct mail, whether it’s Facebook advertisement. We primarily focus on Facebook advertisement. And there’s specific reason. And I think that everything needs to be done in order to build a really good company to have a local presence. And we did this because a lot of the lead generation guys out there.

Not many are actual investors. And the problem becomes when you don’t know the business of real estate investment and the type of person that you want to attract, which is the homeowners that are typically in distress that need a solution to their issues. Then, you know, a lot of these guys treat a lead like a lead. So a lot of money will be wasted during that process of, you know, trying to place ads online and just getting leads. And it’s like, my God.

These people are just curious about the home’s value. They’re not a distress motivated lead that I can work with. And that’s just becomes a waste of time. It if you’re in the real estate side, you understand it’s very transactional, right? Typically, one homeowner, it’s one deal. They’re not going to really refer you to their family members once in a while. They can, but it’s not going to be a recurring income type of thing. So you me constantly in need to generate more opportunities of distress or motivated opportunities for your team to be able to leverage.

So for us, we know that hey, you need to talk to somebody that typically has equity. for the flippers, it needs to be a distress home. So it cannot be a home that was built into the 2022 that they just need to sell because they’re upside down because they’re in Florida. Right. So we know what our clients need and we’re able to get to individuals earlier in their journeys using Meta advertisement. And that’s the primary channel that we focus on.

Meghan Escobar (06:18)
I love that. And you know, one thing that really caught my attention is the way that you’ve inserted, you know, the importance of human in-person touch. And the reason why is because in today’s world, like, let’s face it, most of most companies like yours and and and what you’re providing, they’re powered by AI. You know, there’s a lot of AI computer systems, you know, taking on responsibilities. So

I I don’t think it’s an easy thing to do, especially in this climate. So talk to us a little bit about, you know, why that piece of your business is so potent to the success.

William Yu (06:59)
For sure. So we always say, you know, a homeowner didn’t just decide to sell their house in distress today. No one just goes into foreclosure and don’t feel anything between the point of getting that notice or even month of bill is being fallen behind up until the point of searching up and need to sell my house fast. Right. So if the journey takes three to six months, then there’s no way that one channel could just solve their issue, right? The problem what we do right now is

With AI, it it’s great at making what you do currently extremely efficient. But the problem becomes if you don’t give AI the correct instructions, it will kind of deviate and search up what makes the most sense online and what what the popular train of thought is. And the problem becomes now if AI is using what everybody else is saying, then typically everybody’s doing it. If everybody’s doing it, then typically there’s an oversaturation

of that thing being done and typically doesn’t work. So you’re always last mover instead of first mover.

So the best operators that I know typically, especially in what we do, we know, okay, if a client has a six-month journey, how do we get to somebody very early in their journey, right? Instead of being the last person they search, how can we be the first person where you know they just miss their first few months of bills? And I was giving you the example, Megan, because there was a young lady, it was a mother, right?

She her the reason why she needs to sell her house is because her daughter came back from school one day and she asked, like, why does everybody have have a new backpack? But I don’t. Right. So those are the moments in somebody’s journey that if we can get in front of earlier using these AI algorithms and provide them with enough value that they feel like they’re being helped, then you’re just creating a raving fan of your business. Right. And that goes back to the emotional point of like how.

Our business, especially I feel like every everything nowadays, right? It’s become very transactional, whether it’s service providers like us offering lead generation or, you know, a wholesaler where investment company trying to get a contract from a homeowner to buy their home in distress is becoming I feel like a lot of people are being dehumanized, right? A homeowner isn’t a homeowner anymore. They’re a lead, right? Their experience as a contract, them getting, you know.

Yeah, we yeah, it’s just it’s kind of messed up if you really think about it in that sense. So we try to market in a way where how can we put the homeowners first, which is the customers that our clients are trying to serve, and in turn it’s a better conversation. Right. That’s all it is.

Meghan Escobar (09:28)
And that’s beautiful, right? I mean, relationships are really everything in in any business to honestly, n whether you’re a service provider or a you know, consumer for a product or whatever the case may be, I I a hundred percent agree with you. So it’s nice to know that there are still some people out there that, you know, understand the power of human connection and understanding all sides of the party here, you know.

William Yu (10:28)
I think all the winners do. Like, unfortunately, it’s like a skill gap issue, right? It’s unfortunately it’s a it’s a it’s a money issue. The people that don’t make money, I mean the the people that don’t need money today are the ones that can think about long-term brand. And what is a brand is a brand is like the emotion that you feel when somebody’s name is brought up. That’s really what it is. So if

Meghan Escobar (10:47)
Fair enough.

William Yu (10:50)
I can focus on a brand because I don’t need money today, then that means that I can build a brand. I don’t need to make money today. I can be patient to guide somebody in their journey. And even if I’m not a good fit for them, that’s fine. Because I’m not going to do business with you if it doesn’t make sense. But for the newer individuals, they get into this space because a lot of there’s a lot of coaches out there, there’s a lot of newer educators to teach people how to real estate invest. And if you want to real estate invest, the two gateways are either you become the licensed agent or you become a wholesaler. Right? Neither needs money.

At least w at least the agent you need like take some courses and stuff.

Meghan Escobar (11:21)
Yeah. Yeah.

William Yu (11:22)
Unfortunately, most people that are getting into space now, they never bought a home. They don’t even know what the home pro buying process is. they just typically pick up the phone and start dialing, right? Now unfortunately, the homeowners are the ones that end up getting the short end of the stick because while if you’re calling the right people, while these people are in distress, they might lose their home. So if you know nothing about how to underwrite a property, the repair costs and what legitimate numbers.

You could a lot of these guys, these young guys, especially, well, I would say young and older, that want to get into space that don’t really know what they’re doing, they’re getting misinformed. Exactly. They will get these contracts locked up, and every single day that you’re holding on to somebody’s home hostage with no intention to close because you’re not the actual buyer, well, they have holding costs to that property.

Meghan Escobar (11:56)
form.

William Yu (12:12)
They’re not only losing more equity on a daily basis, they’re paying taxes and insurance on the property this whole time, right? People don’t think about that. So, and then now at this point in the real estate space, from my field, the the land, the escape, the scope of the land, is just there’s a lot of mis just like there’s a lot of homeowner that’s like very, very skeptical, right? There’s like, is this a scam? Is it is this is like, do I should I be working with these people?

Meghan Escobar (12:19)
Yeah.

William Yu (12:37)
And the guys that we work with, we actually leverage this position by saying, Hey, our cash offer won’t change when you work with us and but others will, right? Educating them on what scams look like and how to, you know, see this is a real buyer versus a fake one. And that’s been working really well with the the investors that we

Meghan Escobar (12:54)
I would imagine so, you know, as much as people hate that word scam, they love a good guarantee.

William Yu (13:00)
They do, they do. But unfortunately, most of these guys they don’t even have the money to put out a earnest money deposit that’s significant. And that’s one of the preferred things that we tell homeowners, right? It’s like, hey, a legitimate buyers, they typically can’t waive inspections after they see your house. A wholesaler cannot do

Meghan Escobar (13:13)
Yeah.

Yeah, definitely. Dropping gems. Get your pens and papers out, guys. So every operator I know, and we we talked a little bit about this in our our discovery conversation, if you will, but I think it’s really important to share here. There’s always a moment in time where things got real. And with you, you know, being an entrepreneur and an operator for five years and s growing into this industry, you know, over the last three, talk to us a little bit about, you know, that

That time where things got real for you as an entrepreneur.

William Yu (13:46)
That’s a great question. I think multiple times, I would say I made money very fast. I caught a really good tailwind of COVID, where everybody made money fast. Like there was just the printing of money, right? But then me just being out of school, making I don’t want to say exactly how much, but it was close to seven figures in one year. And this is me graduating college, going up from an immigrant family. I came to the States when I was seven.

I moved from China to New York at seven years old. No family backing, grow with a single mom, like over seven figures in one year cash. That’s a lot of money for for a kid like me. So I thought I was gonna keep going. So that was the first mistake I had to realize. sometimes you just catch a really good trend, but that trend, understand that’s not a talent. It’s just hey, you just met a really good opportunity and you were in the right time, right place. It doesn’t make you special.

I thought I was special. Exactly. I lost nearly all of it the next year. Yeah. But it was a slow burn because the the market didn’t just go up and go down. It like trickled down slowly. Right. So

Meghan Escobar (14:44)
You got humbled.

It’s like watch your money go away.

William Yu (15:40)
Yeah, it was just like you just kept at one point you stop investing, you start gambling, right? And then emotion takes over you and then you think that egotistically in a sense of, Hey, I did it one time, why can’t I do it again? And

I was glad during that time. The reason why I’m in real estate is full circle. I know like The Odyssey just came out. My wife and I just saw it. So, like that whole full Odyssey moment, like the full circle moment. I really love that. I invested in real estate. That’s the one decision that I actually did really well during that time that protected me from losing all my net net worth. Yeah. And that’s the reason why I’m backing real estate. And I think real estate is just a s very strong asset where a

Idiot like myself, I can’t just press sell, right? I have to go through a whole process and underwrite and then it takes the emotion away from things. That’s why I like real estate so much. but during that time I moved down to Florida because I already have properties down here, had manufacturing business, did merger and acquisition. So now it’s like trusting friends without having a agreement, right? These are just simple things that no no one has ever taught me. So I did a merger and acquisition without it with a buddy of mine without really looking at his business.

And lost that business completely due to just him spending all the money, which is what it is, hindsight. but then got into a gym, invested into kickboxing gym, then learned marketing sales, and the rest was history. Now I went back into real estate afterwards.

Meghan Escobar (16:59)
Thank you for sharing that and I apologize if I, you know, had to take you back to some painful moments there, but

William Yu (17:04)
No,

I think it’s super fun. I think that I love those moments because everybody was like, would you go back and change like anything that we’ve done? Probably not. I’m very happy with who I am right now and I never over leveraged to the point where I lost everything. So I think that was the bigger thing that I learned, right? Just never put yourself in the position where you can’t do it. Well give it another try.

Meghan Escobar (17:24)
Yeah, and I I think that’s really important to share because again, going back to the, you know, the highlight world that we live in, or you you know, we see the wins, you see the the trends that you you know you mentioned, and that’s not necessarily a long term skill. It’s just people highlighting where they made a quick win. And I I think, you know, the way that you described it and explained like it’s it’s what separates folks who are not here to just

dabble and create a transaction, but those who are here and grounded in the game for long term success.

William Yu (18:00)
No, for sure. I think just especially with the world of social media, everybody can just portray anything they want. I’m the first to tell you half the stuff that you see online is all fake. the people that are really successful, they don’t even have social. Like all my buddies that are doing multi-eight, nine figures, none of them have a social media. They’re they have somebody managing their social media.

Meghan Escobar (18:18)
I was just gonna

say they have one it’s not them though.

William Yu (18:21)
There is not them. No one’s dumb. You’re talking into DMs. Is that point a second?

Meghan Escobar (18:26)
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And talk to us a little bit about what the next big goal for you is. Like where are you scaling next?

William Yu (18:36)
I think for me, the next goal is scaling to my family. we’ve built a business where we’re very happy that it’s gonna grow organically. as long as we don’t over leverage ourselves, our the company is gonna keep growing year over year. And that’s the main goal right now is just focus on family, focus on building something really cool. I think buying back time, that’s the biggest next leverage. If anybody follows Dan Martell, like that’s like that book really

I really resonates to like where I am right now in my business or my career is how can I employ the best individuals into my company where I can evolve the service of just me trying to hustle my way through to the point of building the right systems where I can not only provide opportunities for those around me that have talent, but also give my clients a next level of service that I myself cannot do.

Meghan Escobar (19:21)
I think that’s beautiful. And just being aware of like knowing that your focus, where your focus is going. This is, you know, where I’ve grown. Now it’s family, building the business on the back end. That’s absolutely beautiful. And you know, I think a lot of our listeners, well, not I take that back. I don’t think a lot of our listeners, they’re either very early on in their journey, very green, like just getting their feet wet, not knowing, you know, where to land in the real estate industry.

And then we have folks who are very well established and just really looking to level up. Yeah. And I think that they would benefit from hearing this because something that you actually said a few minutes ago, you know, you know, some high level earners that are having their social media is managed at the end of the day, you know, we often hear that our success is established by the people we surround ourselves with. For sure.

So when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, for you, William, what’s made the biggest difference?

William Yu (20:21)
Providing value. Like a lot of people think that you’re just gonna like everybody, especially younger guys, they want a mentor, right? But the thing is that you have to give, but n the give doesn’t always have to be monetary. It could be emotional too. Like one of the things that I’ve realized as I got to the point of where I don’t I don’t need more money than I make right now. I’m very blessed to be in the position.

I’ve realized that the the amount of people that I can interact with that genuinely brings me joy is becoming less and less. So I rather help out an individual that is not trying to pay me to help them out, but genuinely offer more of how do I say emotional equity in a sense of like a good just good energy. This guy could be super funny, outgoing, right? They have the, you know.

It maybe it’s a kind spirit, maybe it’s just a very articulate young man that just getting to business, that just hustling his way through, right? I would rather help out that person than somebody that’s like, dude, let me just pay you. Well, I don’t need money.

Meghan Escobar (21:25)
That’s not the motivator for you.

William Yu (21:27)
That’s

not my d not down to motivator. And a lot of the highest level guys I work with, they all care about a value than you making them more and more money. They don’t more money. They just need good time. Right. That’s a bigger thing for a lot of young guys, especially in business, that they don’t just understand. but don’t get me wrong, like paying for education is important too. You can buy yourself into your first initial crew of people. I think for example, Investor Fuel.

Meghan Escobar (21:52)
some people are not blessed with the opportunity to have very high motivated individuals around them. And sometimes you have to pay into these things. And I completely agree with that. But at one point, once you hit, I would say, your first five, six figure month, six figure month is kind of where you stop getting like you start disassociating yourself from like a lot of like mentorships, in my opinion, is gonna be very hard for people to.

give you that next level of clarity as typically individual, in my opinion.

Meghan Escobar (22:24)
Yeah, there’s levels.

William Yu (22:25)
Yeah, there is levels. but I think that, you know, if you’re under that six figure per month range in earning, I think you shouldn’t you shouldn’t you need to just get yourself into the right rooms first.

Meghan Escobar (22:35)
Absolutely. And like you said, like you gotta give. You gotta be willing to give to receive. And you know, well and and that includes being willing to invest in yourself. And that’s, you know, giving to somebody else, but you’re also in the in return receiving the education, the the skill set, the the knowledge, right? All of those things. You have to foundation. Right. You have to have a solid foundation. I really love what you said though. Like

Focus on like what brings you joy. it’s interesting because that I I do a morning meditation with the community that I’m a part of and what came up was joy. And so I I love the synchronicities. They’ve been happening since the minute we connected. So yeah, ask yourselves, you know, who or what brings you joy in your life and focus on that. And I think that’s probably why a lot of people fall short is they don’t really know.

William Yu (23:27)
I think that’s the biggest thing is having clarity in your life. understanding what your core values are and how which direction you want to take your life. And a lot of people, especially young men that I meet, I’m probably probably young women too, the young ladies, it’s just I know I look really young, but I’m actually older than I look. I think I look like I’m like 22. I get I do still by the way.

Meghan Escobar (23:50)
That’s okay, I get the same thing.

William Yu (23:52)
But it’s the main thing is just understanding what your core values are. And I think this book by Dean Graziosi, he spoke about something is like the the seven layers deep or ten layers deep or whatever it was. It was just constantly like if you want to understand your true core self, ask yourself why you’re doing something, right? And then ask seven follow-up or ten follow-up questions until that point. Right. It’s like why.

Like, why are you in business? I’m in business to make money. Why do you want to be make why do you want to make money? Well, I want to take care of my family. Why do you want to take care of my family? Well, now I can get really deep, right? Well, because I came to the States when I seven and I grew up with a single mother that had to hustle her way through life to provide me and she never made me feel broke. Right? How did that impact you? Right? Boom. Now you’re getting from I need to make money to it gets real freaking scary.

Meghan Escobar (24:48)
Yeah. You got it.

William Yu (24:49)
You

have to be comfortable with gaining to that point with yourself.

Meghan Escobar (24:51)
A hundred percent. And that’s something I think that is very scary for a lot of people.

William Yu (24:54)
Yeah, because sometimes your whole facade that you create to protect yourselves from the outside world is built on just bullshit.

Meghan Escobar (25:02)
Yeah, and you gotta break that down, man.

William Yu (25:05)
You have

to break that down and then I promise you you’re the happiest freaking version of yourself.

Meghan Escobar (25:08)
Yeah.

Right. And it’s gonna get a little uncomfortable, but yeah, yeah. You if you’re not where you’re at, make a change. It’s pretty much as simple as that. And I know it’s easier said than done, but no one’s coming to save you. So you gotta do it yourself. So before we wrap, William, if somebody gains value from this and they’re like, Man, this guy’s dropping gems. I would love to connect with him, learn from him, you know, that that person.

William Yu (25:23)
For sure.

Meghan Escobar (25:35)
How do they reach you? Is it socials? Is it website phone number?

William Yu (25:38)
Yeah. So if you’re a real estate investor or wholesaler that is looking to improve your marketing, just go directly apply on our website, reitransfer.com. Right. There’s going to be a video on the top of the page. If you resonate with the message, just apply there. But if you want to directly connect with me, I do have somebody managing my DMs. But if you say, Hey, I came from Investor Fuel, I just want to connect you with you because you want to talk business, or if there’s anything that I can help you with, maybe mentally, where in your journey.

to become the better version of yourself, just say just mention Investor Fuel and I know okay, this is something that I would personally reply to.

Meghan Escobar (26:12)
Beautiful. Thank you for that. I I think that our audience would really, really appreciate that. And we’ll go ahead and drop some links to the website and to the to your socials, you know, on the on the blog that’s going to be listed below. So thank you again for being here. I really appreciated and had so much fun with this conversation. Your perspective, I think, was key and you know, definitely going to be providing our audience with some

With some wisdom and knowledge here. So

William Yu (26:42)
No, definitely. I mean, it was amazing. Thank you so much for having Megan. And then yeah, I I hope everybody enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed being here.

Meghan Escobar (26:48)
Same, same. And those of you that are tuning in, if you did get any value from this, please be sure to hit like and subscribe. We’ve got more conversations coming in with operators just like William Yu here. So we will see you on the next episode.