6 Tips to Improve Your Local Real Estate Investment Company’s Branding One of my favorite ways to find leads and motivated sellers is for other folks to find the deals for me. If you would like to position yourself as the “#1 ________ Investor in the area” or the “Authority in __________ field” then please read the following article below.Branding (as I see it) is that automatic association–the identification–of you, your company, and/or your product by your target audience. … [Read more...]
6 Tips to Improve Your Local Real Estate Investment Company’s Branding
October 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
There Are No Short Cuts In The Real Estate Investing Industry
October 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
As a real estate entrepreneur, this is a story that I feel needs to be shared. It hits very close to home and includes some of my early missteps in building our brand. Ultimately, it is about sharing with the rest of the real estate world that in business, as in life, there are no short cuts. If we allow ourselves to get seduced by the lure of short cuts and the peddlers of promises like “I can help you” for a fee, well, I‘ll share the information and let you see how that ends.What … [Read more...]
Seller Marketing: The Direct Mail Fail
September 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Seller Marketing: The Direct Mail Fail Back in April, I wrote a post about using direct mail and door knocking to acquire more distressed properties (at the time I was buying exclusively at the auction and off the MLS). In it, I promised to keep BiggerPockets readers updated on my progress with these campaigns. Well, so far, it’s not going well. While I’ve scored a few small victories with the door knocking (more on that at the end of the post) the direct mail campaign has been a complete … [Read more...]
It’s Time to Crank Up the Old Marketing Machine
August 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
It’s Time to Crank Up the Old Marketing Machine For the past few years deals have been plentiful for real estate investors; so plentiful in fact many of them felt that they no longer really had to do any marketing. Foreclosures and bank owned properties were everywhere. A lot of real estate investors have had their pick of great deals. All they had to do in many cases was to cherry pick bank owned properties right off the MLS.As the supply of foreclosures and REOs begin to decline, these … [Read more...]
How to Think Like a Buyer When Getting Your Property Ready to Sell
July 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How to Think Like a Buyer When Getting Your Property Ready to SellThe house is finally done after a whole lot of “blood, sweat and tears”, and now it’s time to get your wholesale flip “retail buyer ready”. Real estate investors all have the same question at this point; how can I make my house stand out from the other homes for sale in the neighborhood? The answer is quite simple. Your home has to make a better first impression than your competition. Your potential buyer has to want to … [Read more...]
How to Get the Greatest Marketing Return on Investment Available
July 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How to Get the Greatest Marketing Return on Investment AvailableIn real estate, it’s ALL about the numbers. After repair value (ARV), renovation budget, purchase price, days on market, cost of money, Realtor commission, and the list goes on. You get the point.Besides your “deal analyzer” numbers, you also have your “marketing” numbers. Particularly, what kind of return are you getting by spending money on the various forms of marketing?Although I have no statistical data to back up … [Read more...]
Home Staging – Why You Can & Must Do It
June 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Home Staging – Why You Can & Must Do ItWhen selling a home retail on the open market, everyone wants the same thing…. TOP DOLLAR!If you want top dollar for your home whether you are a homeowner or an investor, you must stage the property. If your budget is tight and you are not able to hire a professional, I have good news… You don’t need to be left-brained, an interior designer, an architect, Martha Stewart, or Susie-homemaker. Let’s keep it simple, ok?Our family has staged … [Read more...]
Real Estate Marketing: The Walking-Talking Billboard
June 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Real Estate Marketing: The Walking-Talking BillboardCredibility. This was probably my single biggest fear when I first was getting started.How am I going to find good deals?How am I going to get good contractor pricing?How am I going to impact people with my face-to-face networking?Let’s be realistic, the majority of people starting out in real estate investing don’t exactly have the budget for renting out billboard space along busy highways. This was the boat I was in, so I figured a way I … [Read more...]
Raising Private Capital: How I Raised $50,000 Over Dinner
June 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Raising Private Capital: How I Raised $50,000 Over DinnerSeveral weeks ago at a family get-together, I ate the best homemade meal I’ve had in years (my mother-in-law cooks a mean lasagna). As I gorged on a second serving, a relative at the table asked, “So… it looks like you guys just bought another rental, huh?” Seeing as I was struggling with a mouthful of lasagna, my wife stepped in and answered for us.She shared a few details on the ins-and-outs of our rental business and … [Read more...]
An Overview of Real Estate in China – Scratching the Surface
June 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
An Overview of Real Estate in China – Scratching the SurfaceIt’s a common view that Japan is considered to be Asia’s most “alien” environment, as far as cultural norms, cuisine and business/work etiquette goes – (don’t worry, we’ll get there soon ) – while China, at least on the surface, seems far more familiar to the foreign investor. US nationals, in particular, feel comfortable around the Chinese, if only due to the vast amount of Chinese migrants present in the USA (as … [Read more...]
3 Ways to Invest in a Self-Directed IRA in Real Estate
May 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
3 Ways to Invest in a Self-Directed IRA in Real EstateWith the continued volatility surrounding the stock market, more and more investors are converting their retirement accounts into self-directed IRAs. We speak to investors almost every day who want to invest in real estate in some form or fashion and want to use retirement funds (that probably aren’t earning enough to keep up with inflation) to do this. Most investors intuitively know that the opportunities to invest in real estate right … [Read more...]
Increase Your Rehabbing Profits by Watching TV, Really!
May 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Increase Your Rehabbing Profits by Watching TV, Really!You are probably reading this blog to find out just how ridiculous it’s going to be. If you are a rehabber, real estate agent, home stager, or involved in marketing real estate in any way, you might want to read on!When my family began real estate investing, we were completely dependent upon a Realtor that we hired to find us good deals. Do you know what that meant?MINISCULE PROFITS!We found out very quickly that finding a house to fix … [Read more...]
Setting Up Your Database for Your Real Estate Investing Business
May 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Setting Up Your Database for Your Real Estate Investing BusinessIf you’ve been following my past few articles on direct mail campaigns and the use of databases to help manage thee campaigns, you’re probably asking how exactly to set up such a database. Once you have decided on a database for your real estate business, the next thing you need to do is set it up. I gave this a considerable amount of thought before I dove into this process. Your database needs to be easy to use; in the end, … [Read more...]
How Using A Database In Your Real Estate Business Makes You Money
May 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
How Using A Database In Your Real Estate Business Makes You MoneyWe have been talking about direct mail campaigns in the last couple of articles. Today I am writing the first part of a two part article. We will be going over setting up your database so that it is user friendly.There are different systems that you can use as far as databases go, but the one that was recommended to me and the one is use is ACT by Sage. I have been using this particular database for quite a while now.It is not … [Read more...]
Systems for Managing Contacts and Direct Mail Campaigns for Investors
April 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Systems for Managing Contacts and Direct Mail Campaigns for InvestorsIn the past couple of articles I’ve shared here, I have talked about marketing to absentee owners and about setting up successful direct mail campaigns. There is one more important piece of this puzzle that we haven’t really gone into.How do I manage all of this information?In order to be successful over time you have to have a way to manage via systems. First of all, no matter where you get your list of targeted people to … [Read more...]
Creating Successful Direct Mail Campaigns for Real Estate Investing
April 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Creating Successful Direct Mail Campaigns for Real Estate Investing I have said many times before, that direct mail is my number one source of leads. But there are some basics concepts that you need to follow in order for it to work for you. Direct Mail Basics One of the biggest mistakes that I see real estate investors make is to send out just a few mailings and then throw in the towel. These are called “campaigns” for a reason. It’s very important to understand that your response rates … [Read more...]
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Realtor Ads as a Gauge of Your Local Real Estate Market
Realtor Ads as a Gauge of Your Local Real Estate Market Investors are constantly bombarded with statistics. Housing starts are up in the United States, housing starts are down in a particular city. Resale inventory is high, retail inventory is low, short-sales are up, short-sales are down. Don’t get me started on the “shadow inventory” that’s been poised to flood the market for years now. It’s very easy to get caught up in all these statistics. Unfortunately the numbers can be … [Read more...]