2025 Review, Marketing ROI & AI Lead Automation with Sharad Mehta
Date: (17 Feb, 2026)
Today we hosted our REsimpli Mastermind session with Sharad (Founder & CEO of REsimpli) who walked through how his 2025 went, shared his P&L, marketing performance, team structure, and upcoming AI updates. Below is a recap of the major topics discussed.
Topic: Business Overview & Team Structure
Challenge: Running a distributed real estate business across states and time zones while stepping back as an operator.
Advice:
Structure roles for leverage: Sharad runs the business at a high level.
Key team members are:
- Claudia — long-time project manager (based in California) who manages contractors and pays project expenses out of a Novo account.
- Jay — Philippines-based hire who started as a VA, evolved into marketing/business manager, lead manager and dispo; now being shifted to higher-leverage marketing work.
- Jasmine — in-person acquisition manager in Indiana (9–10 months) handling negotiations and appointments.
- Use separate bank accounts for operations vs project payouts (main company account + Novo project account). Link everything in REsimpli and give the bookkeeper scoped access.
Key Insight:
Hire locally for acquisition and keep strong remote roles for marketing/ops. Systems + accountability let you step back from day-to-day operations.
Topic: Financials Snapshot (2025)
Challenge: Tracking profitability when business mixes flips, wholesales and rental income.
Highlights:
- Gross revenue ~ $600,000 for 2025.
- Net profit after expenses ~ $30,000 (note: $50,000 salary included since S-Corp).
- Payroll ~ 28–29% of revenue.
- Line of credit used historically for flips; recently paid off. Currently have 6–8 flips active funded with personal capital.
- Rental portfolio: ~60 units (≈55 free & clear). Property management now in-house; total PM portfolio ~325–350 units (including other investors).
Key Insight:
When you separate operations, use high-level KPIs and let a trusted team manage execution — you don’t need to know every property address to run the business.
Topic: Marketing Channels & ROI Breakdown
Challenge: Investors often spend on high-cost inbound channels before they can reliably convert leads.
Key data from 2025:
- Total marketing spend ≈ $126k (≈21% of revenue).
- Direct mail: best performing channel at ~5.5x ROI.
- Cold calling: spent ~$28k and generated ~$24k (shortfall pending a few deals still closing).
- PPC/PPL: newer focus; still being optimized (moved back to Wholesaling PPC provider).
- MLS & wholesalers: significant source of revenue (buying from MLS and other wholesalers reduced paid marketing reliance).
Advice:
- Minimum acceptable ROI for paid marketing: 2.5x (target 3x+; >5x is excellent).
- Start with the channel you can execute consistently. Consistency > “perfect” list.
- Test paid inbound channels (PPC/PPL) with an expectation of committing at least 3–6 months — Sharad suggests 6 months and recommends $5k+/month if budget allows.
They’re numbers-oriented and make logical decisions once comfortable.
Key Insight:
Marketing only works when paired with repeatable sales/processes. Double down on channels that prove ROI and be consistent.
Topic: Direct Mail Strategy & List Selection
Challenge: Many investors overcomplicate list selection or stop mail after one shipment.
Advice:
- Sharad’s top single list if you could only pick one: absentee owners with equity and 5+ years ownership.
- Within absentee owners, target “accidental landlords” (own 1–4 properties). Owners with 5+ properties tend to be more sophisticated.
- Typical campaign cadence: mail every 6 weeks to the same list (Sharad mails every 6 weeks).
- Minimum test: 4 mailings over 6 months. Suggested sample size: 5k–7k mail pieces for an initial test depending on market.
- Cost guidance: postcards roughly $0.50–$0.60 each in many markets; plan budget accordingly (e.g., $3k–$4k/month for 6k–7k pieces).
- High value lists (if available): county-sourced pre-foreclosure, probate, tax lien filings — these are fresher than third-party list vendors.
Key Insight:
Consistency is the superpower. The best list is the one you mail to consistently.
Topic: Outbound vs Inbound (Cold Calling, PPC, PPL)
Challenge: Many teams burn marketing budget on inbound leads they can’t convert.
Advice:
- Outbound builds sales muscle and is cheaper per true opportunity; inbound demands stronger conversion systems.
- If you’re new to PPC/PPL, expect a ramp and commit at least 3–6 months (Sharad suggests 6 months and $5k/month as an example).
- Track channel KPIs weekly: leads → qualified → appointments → offers → contracts. Optimize continuously.
- Cold calling can be run in-house or via a third-party (Sharad used Easy Button REI and had mixed year-to-year results).
The key is educating investors clearly on the difference between the two.
Key Insight:
Use outbound to learn seller psychology and scale into inbound only after you can convert consistently.
Topic: Shifting Business Model — Wholesaling vs Fix & Flip
Challenge: Fix-and-flip is cash intensive and ties up capital.
Advice:
- Sharad shifted more toward wholesaling through end of 2024 to reduce cash tie-up. Wholesaling shortens cash cycle, enabling more throughput.
- Keep a hybrid approach: MLS buys, wholesales and flips can coexist to smooth cash needs and exploit different opportunities.
Key Insight:
If your goal is consistent deal flow and less cash drag, wholesaling scales faster than heavy rehabs.
Topic: Team Workflow & Ops Cadence
Challenge: Losing visibility into deals if you’re too hands-off.
Advice:
- Operate with weekly KPI reviews: leads by channel, qualified leads, offers, contracts, and deal disposition.
- Use clear bank accounts and operations processes so project manager (Claudia) can run projects and bookkeeper reconciles.
- Move repetitive lead management/follow-up to automation (AI) so humans focus on higher-leverage tasks (buyer relationships, marketing strategy, negotiations).
Key Insight:
Weekly data, clear roles, and a small number of dedicated hands-on local hires (acquisitions + PM) enable a founder to run the company at a strategic level.
Topic: AI in Lead Management & Calling (REsimpli AI update)
Challenge: Manual lead management and follow-up consume headcount and time.
Advice / What’s coming:
- REsimpli is releasing a significant Gen 2 AI update (coming in a few weeks) that:
- Handles outbound and inbound calls/SMS as part of a drip and conversational agent suite.
- Keeps memory of every conversation (so callbacks pick up context).
- Can book appointments on your calendar, negotiate basic objections, and make offers within parameters you set.
- Can take over much of the lead manager/follow-up role (Jay’s work will be reallocated to higher-leverage marketing tasks).
- Sharad recommends AI for process and scaling, not as a replacement for relationship-led selling on complex/high-value leads. Flag hot leads for human follow-up.
Key Insight:
Properly configured AI can replace a high percentage of lead handling and follow-up tasks and free human staff to focus on conversions and marketing optimization.
Tools & Tactics Mentioned
- Direct mail vendors / mail-house: Postcard Mania, Ballpark/Postcard vendors (handwritten or novelty postcards).
- Cold calling: Easy Button REI and other third-party call centers.
- PPC management: Wholesaling PPC (provider Sharad uses).
- Pay-per-lead vendors: LeadZolo, LeadSolo, Motivated Sellers, PropertyLeads, iSpeedToLead.
- Bank & ops: Novo Bank (project account), Mercury; separate operations and project accounts.
- Internal systems: REsimpli for lead tracking, tagging, KPI dashboards and bookkeeping integration with bookkeeper.
- AI agents (incoming Gen 2 update) for calls, SMS, offers, booking.
- KPI rules: track channel-level ROI, conversion funnel, and weekly reporting cadence.
Best Advice from the Session
The investors who consistently win:
- Run marketing like a business: test, measure weekly, double down on channels with proven ROI.
- Be consistent over creative: mail the same list regularly; cadence beats one-off campaigns.
- Build operations and roles that let you step back: local acquisition + strong PM + marketing manager = scalable machine.
- Use AI for follow-up and repetitive communications, but keep humans for complex negotiating and higher-touch relationships.
- If you can only pick one list: absentee owners with equity and 5+ years of ownership (focus on accidental landlords owning ≤4 properties).
- Minimum paid marketing ROI target: 2.5x (3x+ preferred), and don’t judge inbound channels without a multi-month test.
Recording & Next Steps
- A recording will be posted and emailed; session materials will be available on the REsimpli resources link Sharad referenced.
- Expect a follow-up call when the AI Gen 2 update goes live (about 2 weeks from this call) to demo the new capabilities.
If you want a predictable, scalable acquisitions and lead-management machine: track the metrics weekly, commit to consistent marketing (direct mail + tested inbound), and use AI to take over repetitive lead work so your team focuses on conversion and scaling.
