Real Estate Investing Via Web 2.0

Post bubble recessionary real estate investing in a networked world pretty much nails this discussion, grab your web surf board and enjoy the ride.

In this article, I show you what is working in real estate today and how to use the web and automation to create stimulus you can immediately use to ride the crest of real estate investing opportunities today. You’ll be shown how to find, fund and market hot properties while generating large buyer and seller lists using the internet to do some of the critical heavy lifting for you.

There are a variety of reasons why the following types of property are hot, just know that single family homes (SFH), condo’s & town homes, apartment houses (Multi-Units), mobile homes & parks and vacation homes in many markets are on sale now. A few methods of finding and controlling these assets are: wholesaling, rehab & retail, buy, hold & rent, lease w/options to buy, assumption of existing mortgages, taking subject to existing mortgages and working the probates, auctions, foreclosure’s and short sales. (Buying bankruptcy, foreclosure, probate, tax lien, eviction and divorce lists works well too)

Granted it takes education, knowledge, research, follow through, strategy, funding sources and various alternatives to control these assets but these are all easy pieces of the puzzle when a guy like me is willing to help. Researching, locating, analyzing, negotiating, buying, selling or holding techniques can all be taught and their not that difficult to understand, it’s just a matter of getting good information and actually using it to do the deals.

Everyone knows that getting a mortgage is funding method number one for most but what about using 2nd & 3rd position notes, rehab loans, lines of credit, government stimulus programs, grants, private money, fellow investors, partners and owner/seller financing or maybe just using options to control without using any money for starters, this can all be taught so fear not weary credit crunched investor, I’m here to help!

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, it’s nice to have funding alternatives in place but you still need to find the deals and most often you had better find them at no more than 65% of value or .65 cents on the dollar if you hope to be successful in selling them to the next buyer for more.

These days you have a serious and very versatile tool at your disposal and that is the internet, the net allows you to market globally, capture and track leads 24/7, drive virtual traffic through your online front door, pre-qualify leads, post property, reports, whitepapers, articles, video’s and so much more. Getting a website up and running is easier than ever and creating an opt in box for the name and e mail capture of your visitors is a snap too, just know that these aren’t obstacles to your progress, it can all be outsourced very inexpensively, again using the web to do it.

Once you have a simple website with squeeze page (lead capture) set up then you can direct all your lead generating activities for buyers and sellers to it by putting your web address (URL) on your bandit signs, classified ads, flyers & newspaper inserts, direct mail letters, business cards, answering machines, for sale signs and so forth. I actually have a friend who will give you 10 websites a month for $27! Websites are easy. Get one or many!

Now that you have that virtual real estate property in place (your website) you should sign up at a few of the better known and highly trafficked social websites like: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn along with a few real estate networking forums, these allow you to spread the word regarding what you do. Backpage, Craiglist, Kijiji, and other free classifieds posting sites let you tell people what you have; there are thousands of places on the web to post your message once you have a place to bring them back too.

Extra credit: Always carry a small pocket video recorder with you to capture, property, people, places and events, the Sony DSC-T700 is perfect for creating short videos to post on your website, Youtube, Facebook and property listing sites, people do business with people they know, like and trust, let them see you on film to help build those relationships over the web.

The internet allows you to set up systems and outsource just about everything that needs to be done allowing you to focus on the core money making aspects of finding great deals and selling those deals to others for a little bit more than you paid, even dead leads are worth $450-$500 each when you know where to sell them.

I briefly mentioned the reasons for having a website above now let’s get into the nuts & bolts of technology to lighten your load while your leads explode. First off I’ll ask you to take some type of action once you’ve finished reading, doing it now will create momentum and stop procrastination and fear dead in it’s tracks.

Let’s look at what a well planned out website can do for today’s busy real estate investor.

First off technology is great at automating routine tasks and initial follow up, web forms can automate distribution, marketing, contact management and customer service for starters, allowing you to use your website to explain, tell and sell 24/7.

By setting up informative articles banks, email auto-responders, frequently asked questions banks (FAQ’s) you can answer a lot of routine questions on autopilot. Now you have more free time to network with other investors, market deals, mentor new team members while you personally maintain contact with your bird-dogs and other support people.

When considering a website you should begin by asking yourself some questions:

• What is the purpose or desired outcome that I want from my website?
• What will visitors be looking for when they arrive?
• What type of pages will you want to have on your site?
• What will be some of the major features of your site?

Are you trying to attract buyers, sellers, distressed owners, other investors, trainees, bird-dogs? Consider the following as a basic outline from which to begin thinking about:

• Home page
• About us page
• Contact us page
• Available properties page(s)
• Articles page
• Newsletter & product sales pages etc…

Features may be:

• Seller information forms
• An online forum or bulletin board
• A live chat room and member area

This next tip will save you a lot of time, trial and error: Go look at other existing websites that are currently ranking high for the specific search terms of what you want your website to do! This is competitive analysis and it will show you the best of what is currently working now! Save those URL’s so you can show your future webmaster examples of how you want YOUR website to look like and do.

Here are few ideas on what you may consider outsourcing to other specialists who can assist you in the tech sector:

• Website development and updating
• Contact management and auto-responders
• Social book-marking, adding friends and videos
• SEO using articles, blogs and videos
• Database management, adding products and information
• Building landing pages and squeeze pages
• Graphic design and copywriting

It’s best to start with outsourcing the things that you do not know how to do, then begin outsourcing things that you do not like to do. If you want quality people you can trust at very good rates touch base with me and I’ll put you in touch with the people I use.

Hopefully you’ve picked up a few nuggets from the “Be A Real Estate Heavy Weight” series, feel free to Google that phrase to get all the in-depth answers you could ever want regarding what we’ve briefly discussed here today. Take action and you’ll succeed.

About The Author

Please visit www.bearealestateheavyweight.com for further information and resources from your buddy Dan.