October 17, 2023

Adam Devine: Failing Forward, Failing Faster, and Investing in Marketing First | Motivated Leads

Adam Devine was always destined to become a real estate investor, and he’s now the co-founder of PurchRock, a direct-to-seller acquisition company that operates across the country.

We learned about how he found his way into the REI space – an unconventional yet inspiring story – and how his team at Purch Rock is now leveraging Motivated Leads to boost conversions.

How a failed college hockey career led Adam to his dream career

Real estate investing wasn’t always Adam’s game plan.

“I went to college to play hockey. I went to prep school then played two years of junior hockey. Four weeks before school, I got a crazy concussion. I was going off to play Division three hockey up in Massachusetts at Framingham State, but I was told I'd never play hockey again, which I didn't. I never played competitive hockey,” Adam recalls. 

He ended up finishing up school at Southern New Hampshire University to get his degree – a venture Adam claims was a total waste of time. “Waste of time, waste of money” Adam says. “I could have jumped into [the real estate] industry at 21, but I'd spent the next three years finishing up my degree.”

After college, Adam knew he wasn’t interested in the corporate world. “I never wanted to go work for a large publicly traded company or work for somebody else. Fun fact: I've been fired from every job, including the one where I was a sales manager at Reva Global.”

In fact, Adam’s current business partner is somebody who had fired him from Reva. “It's how I ended up in this particular role. I wouldn't have it any other way,” Adam says. “Love working for myself. Love having a team of rock stars here in our office that want to make money and grow.”

Building and founding PurchRock

While running sales at Reva Global, Adam was also working on wholesale and fix/flip deals. “It was never treated as a business,” Adam says. “We were doing one to two deals a month, easy. Simple stuff. It wasn't something that was actually being operated as an actual business. But back in 2019, we realized that there was a real business model here.”

Adam and his business partner took a step back to really evaluate what they could do and determine what could be scaled. “That's exactly what we did. We stepped back, we built out this business, and here we are today, four years later,” he says.

Now, he loves giving back and teaching new sales folks in the PurchRock office how to be great. They’ve cultivated a culture that makes people want to stay and helps them increase their intelligence in the industry and make a lot of money.

The PurchRock business model: KISS

“We're a big believer of the KISS model:Keep it simple, stupid. Don't overcomplicate things,” Adam says. “If something works, don't break it. It's not broken. Don't fix it. If something's working in the office, we figure out how to continue to grow that particular system, process, or procedure, and streamline it.”

Being simple and process-oriented has helped their business scale to more deals a month netting more money.

Adam’s philosophies for real estate investing

Adam has learned a lot in his real estate career, and he shares some of his philosophies for business – and life:

  • Act immediately
  • Fail forward
  • Fail faster
  • Spend more money on marketing
  • Invest in lead channels
  • Invest in your data
  • Invest in providers that are driving a result for your business

“I definitely would have spent far more dollars in marketing [earlier on]. Don't be afraid to spend. That’s the biggest thing I see today in inexperienced and newer companies: The reason they fail is they don't get the success quick enough since they're not investing enough money into leads. If you have access to a lead provider, such as someone like Motivated Leads and Bryan and Chad, go and spend the extra money, take advantage of your opportunity today, and capitalize on your market. Your later self will thank you,” Adam says.

PurchRock and Motivated Leads

As mentioned earlier, Adam’s a huge fan of pay-per-lead channels, Motivated Leads being one of them. He met our founders, Bryan Driscoll and Chad Keller, at Collective Genius, and the rest is history.

“Motivated Leads has been great,” Adam shares. “We talked about working together when they mentioned they provide leads, and we gave them a shot. The success was great. Bryan's team is a world-class organization, from customer service to sales to delivering on their product.”

This was PurchRock’s first experience with a pay-per-lead service, previously using cold calls, text messages, and direct mail. “We decided it would be good to invest in another marketing channel, which has definitely been fruitful for us.”

Adam loves not only the quality of the leads but the volume of leads, and the conversion rate has been really strong.

“When we get on the phone with a seller, we know they're looking to sell,” Adam says. “There's the motivation point and there's the time frame they're looking to sell, so we're able to get the information we need from these individuals to make a solid decision on whether this is a property our company can purchase.”

For PurchRock, Motivated Leads has been a game-changer that allows them to close better leads more frequently and net more profit as a result.

See the difference a motivated lead can make in your business

Why do clients love Motivated Leads? Because they’re just that — leads that are motivated to sell and ready to work with the right partners. See why Adam and his team at PurchRock have made Motivated Leads a crucial addition to their marketing stack.