Minnesota Real Estate Investors Association, Inc.

In Part 1: Presence and Finding Buyers we’ve covered what kind of role the internet has in developing a presence and finding buyers. One important distinction to make between finding buyers online and finding sellers and lenders online is that finding buyers on line is much easier because they don’t need as much convincing. Getting seller leads online is an interesting task that has a number of strengths and weaknesses, same goes for finding private lenders, but with the correct approach and understanding you spring a leak of leads in an otherwise concrete wall.

To dive into the heart of the matter we must acknowledge that in both cases you are wise to not start your model up online and hope for it to work. I recall a scenario painted by Than Merrill where he discussed the story of a motivated seller in denial that would wake up in the morning to see your ad in the paper that you buy houses. The mailman comes by and they receive your post card and before long they are off to work and at the first turn see your “We Buy Houses” sign. The scenario goes on to include everything from billboards and bus stop benches to flyers on a bulletin board. Most of these ad contacts are involved when the prospect is on the run, coursing through their day, however people in foreclosure are troubled by their situation and the more they’ve come across your web address in your traditional forms of advertising, the more likely they’ll be able to recall it when they sit down at the computer and make an effort to do something to remedy their situation...
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Compared to the significantly long history of land acquisition and real estate the time that the internet has existed measures up to a mere blip on the timeline. However, the significance of the internet and it’s utility is anything but a blip and it’s here to stay. So one may wonder “What does the internet do for those who live by real estate?” If you look at what goes into investing you’ll see that the internet plays an ever growing role in the way things are done and where you can take your business up a notch. In general real estate investors have 6 different concerns: Presence, Finding Buyers, Finding Sellers, Finding Private Investors, Networking, and Education.

In this section I will be covering how to utilize the internet to increase your presence and to find buyers to increase you buyer’s list. Fortunately these also prove as a good introduction to facilitate your understanding of the latter four concerns.

Building a presence; without a presence in this business you are simply without business and that is something that you want to overcome immediately. With the proliferation of internet users the internet has become a first stop for the population at large for information on services, products, and information. With this in mind we are looking at traffic, and not just any old traffic, but traffic that is looking for real estate. Whether its information, properties in their area, or someone that can help them with their short sale the numbers are out there. Thus, you want a presence where you can put your best foot forward 24/7, 365 where all the traffic is.
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Last night we covered an old Seller Financing Strategy that is making a comeback in a big way. Contract for Deeds / Seller Financing used to be very popular back in the 1980’s and 1990’s. They went away in the early 2000’s when it became easier and cheaper to get a loan to buy a house than it was to rent a place. So Seller Financing wasn’t necessary over the last several years. But that is changing.

With the credit requirements and down payments needed to buy in today’s market, Seller financing will become the most popular choice of buyers and real estate investors in the near future. Another industry that went by the wayside in the early 2000’s is the Note Buying industry. A lot of Note Buyers were buying Contract for Deeds and other Seller Financing instruments (Paper). I believe that this business will make a comeback as well over the next few years.

REP Premium Members can watch the replay of last night’s training call at: https://www.realestatepromo.com/MyAccount/WeeklyTraining/2009-11-30/Default.aspx

On tonight’s Training, we will be covering Contract for Deeds (Land Contracts & Agreement for Deeds). This was a very popular tool used during the 1980’s and 1990’s but fell out of favor in the 2000’s when it become so easy to get a mortgage, that no one needed to buy or sell using contract for deeds. This is no longer the case.

So join me tonight, you can even ask your question, live on the Webinar. Register at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/939331179

Last night we covered a very boring topic with the intent to make it exciting. AutoResponders are not the “Bling” of real estate investing, but there are where the money is.

What is an AutoResponder?

An AutoResponder is an email system that sends a number of emails at predetermined intervals. Basically, it is your follow-up system on Auto Pilot. You can create a series of emails one time for all your follow-up and then forget about it. Which I have done many of times, forgot about the autoresponder that is.

With our Premium Real Estate Websites, you can use an AutoResponder System like Aweber to create your automatic email follow-ups and incorporate the automatic subscription feature into your Real Estate Website and your website leads will automatically get followed up with, even if you don’t know that it is happening. All you do is add the subscription email address from Aweber to the appropriate locations in your Website Control Center at Real Estate Promo and the rest is automatic.

Premium members can watch the replay of last night’s training call at: https://www.realestatepromo.com/MyAccount/WeeklyTraining/2009-11-23/Default.aspx

We will be holding a Webinar tonight that will take a boring subject and make it cool again. Join Mike tonight as he shows you how to use AutoResponders affectively.

With a good AutoResponder system, you can create a series of emails that go out at pre-determined intervals. You can also use the broadcasting feature to send out a onetime email to everyone on your list. For example, you can send out a property lead to all your buyers.

So join Mike tonight, you can even ask him your question, live on the Webinar. Register at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/896272946

As reported on MarketWatch, foreclosures and/or delinquent mortgages reach 14.41% in the third quarter. Does that surprise you? It does a lot of other people, but not the people who are out in the trenches like me.

I have been telling people for months now that we haven’t even seen the worst of it yet. What we have seen so far is that responsible Americans have been struggling to hold on to their homes and other assets and retirement accounts. Most people have been able to do so for a while, but not anymore. We have reached the breaking point, and while Congress and the White House keep telling us that the recession is over, I don’t think the average person sees it that way or even feels it.

Most sellers that I talk to these days have all been telling me pretty much the same story. They have either lost their jobs or taken severe pay cuts over the last year. Many have attempted loan modifications, but most have not been successful. Most of these people bought or refinanced their houses during the peak of the market, and since then, their incomes have been severely cut or totally lost over the last year.

These are just a few of the reasons that I believe we will keep seeing record foreclosure levels for the near future. The more people struggle to keep their homes, the more likely they will run out of resources and will be forced to lose their properties.

I could go on for a long time about why I believe this situation is happening, but I would rather spend my time focusing on how to help home owners while at the same time take advantage of all the good investment deals that will be coming down the pike over the next year.

As mentioned in my latest piece: Using Auto Responders: Understanding the Long and Short Game of Real Estate Marketing auto responders provide the investor with a powerful reach that can help you outperform other investors who are jockeying for the same deals. Here we are going to go one step further and lay down a detailed approach that can provide you with another way to make money in real estate without having to invest any of your own money. What a deal!

Real estate investing isn’t just about property, but also about people… we’re in the people business. Being in the people business we see that networking, marketing, and bringing people together with the right people all have value… especially in real estate! The approach we are going to cover today involves bringing the right people together, creating a win-win-win situation that puts money in YOUR pocket.

Just as rehabbers need wholesalers, investors who have properties that need people are just as important. In this strategy we focus on marketing solely for buyers, tenant-buyers, and renters. In turn, we nurture the list and provide our list with options that are otherwise scattered throughout various marketing channels. Being in the real estate investing community we can all agree that joining a REIA provides you with a panacea of opportunity where you can network your way to becoming a supplier of buyers and renters.

Stepping back for a moment, you would probably like to know exactly how you are going to make money with this strategy…
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Many real estate investors believe that marketing to get leads is as far as they need to go, but where a majority of investors stop is where the power of the auto-responder brings opportunity. Of course many investors understand the value of following up with your leads, but 9 times out of 10 investors are not utilizing the power of the auto-responder. This post will hopefully convince you to make the right choice and take advantage of the most powerful follow up tool you aren’t using.

For those of you who don’t know, an auto-responder is an automated email that keeps contact with your list of leads over a period of time. We’ll illustrate exactly what this means with an example:

A motivated seller arrives at your site and is intrigued by your special report, but in order to get the special report they must submit their name and email. So they proceed to enter their name and email where you are then notified of the new seller lead and provided with the information. You take their information and submit it into an auto-responder where you have a scheduled an ice breaker email that follows up what you covered in the special report and elaborate on the solutions you are capable of providing. The next email you have scheduled is set to be sent to them 2 days after they downloaded the report encouraging them further to take action to remedy their situation. This schedule can laid out over any amount of time with any sort of frequency. So maybe 3 months down the line you are the only investor still in contact with the seller as they finally come to terms with their situation and realize they need help.

The prior example illustrates a sort of “long game” where your presence and persistence gets the worm. As many investors will give up after a handful of attempted contacts, your automated schedule of contacts keeps coming thanks to the auto-responder. With really no extra work required you will beat out the large pool of investors possibly jockeying for their business.

It is important to note that there is a difference between using auto-responders for a “long game” with sellers and using a broadcaster for buyers...
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As real estate investors we understand that we need to have a pipeline for our leads that is organized and direct. The same holds true for an investor’s website because after years of trial and error we have found that squeeze pages and a direct message constantly outperform websites that are loaded to the hilt with bells and whistles.

What we are going to be covering here is my tried and true method for setting up a website that makes for a fine, unobstructed pipeline for your leads. The more you understand the reasons behind the structure, the better you will be able to market and drive traffic that will convert into leads!

First thing we need to address is what you want to get out of your website, I think we can all agree that we want to display our properties for sale as well as to generate a list of buyers, and have seller leads coming in. We see that these are 3 essential pipelines for any investor, but why should we keep the bells and whistles out of the equation?

The answer is that they are distractions from your main goal and only work to obstruct your traffic from the main goal ::GETTING THEIR INFORMATION:: Many think that more is better, but when we want their contact information we really want to keep things simple and this is where the “squeeze page” comes in handy.

What is a “squeeze page” anyway?

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