Terrific Tweets of Angry Birds: Is Twitter Killing Real Estate Investing?
by Fortune Builders
Like it, love it, hate it or barely use it, Twitter can have a big
impact on your real estate investing business and not always for the
better…
More than just being an amazingly cost effective and fast marketing
tool for real estate investing Twitter is also crucial for managing your
reputation and customer service. Customer service? Yes, if you are in
real estate investing you are in a customer service business whether
you like it or not. It can work for you or against you, it’s your
choice.
Your Twitter feed can either be a magical solution for delivering
great customer service, building a great brand and doing more deals or
it can be a target for flocks of angry birds trying to knock you out of
business.
The problem with Twitter for real estate investors is that consumers
are now using it as one of their preferred methods of communication. If
they don’t get a call back or an email they are going to start blowing
up your Twitter page. This isn’t going to look good, especially if they
start ranting and scaring off your other buyers and sellers. So beef
up your ability to respond to enquiries and follow up quickly with
everyone.
No matter how great you are at real estate investing and follow up
there are always going to be issues or people who aren’t happy. There
will be some seller who feels cheated when they find out you are
flipping their house at closing for a fat $20,000 assignment fee or
there will be a buyer who’s AC breaks down the day after they buy or a
tenant who decides they don’t like the neighbors after signing a lease
and holding up your property for 2 weeks. Then there will be other
times you royally mess up.
These things happen, they will make it online and all you can do is
deal with it. You can curate, clean up and bury away but statistics
actually show that a certain amount of negative items on social profiles
actually increasing credibility – it looks real. Look at this as an
opportunity to wow, build a superior level of trust and win valuable new
real estate investing business.
Go out of your way to fix as many of these issues as you can. It may
cost you a little money but it is probably one of the best investments
you can make. People know that not everything goes perfectly when buying
or selling homes, what they want is someone who will be honest with
them and they can be confident will make things right when accidents
happen.
go to Fortune Builders
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Haven't Optimized Your Social Media Yet? Why Bother Posting?
by Fortune Builders
Have you optimized your social media profiles for the search engines yet? If not, is it really worth posting new updates and now you know why you aren’t getting the results you expected…
Social media optimization is just as essential for real estate investing companies as SEO for your website or blog or even getting out of bed in the morning. Actually it is probably far more important as a productive social media presence could keep on earning you money in your sleep!
Optimizing your social media for Google, Yahoo and Bing is crucial for a number of reasons. It will not only help you get found on the web by those searching homes or trying to sell their homes in your area but it will keep your brand in their face 24/7, especially with Google’s Social Search feature, help to funnel traffic to your real estate investing website and blog and perhaps most importantly make it super easy for prospects to contact you when they really need your services or have someone to refer.
The good news is that social media optimization is actually pretty easy once you know which fields matter to the search engines. For Facebook your page name, image file name, about section and even the beginning of each of your status updates are read by the search engines and make a difference. Plus note that for all of your real estate investing company’s social profiles your address is essential for improve local search visibility and mobile marketing.
For Twitter real estate investing firms should be utilizing names, images and bios to optimize for search engines and increase relevant followers. LinkedIn also offers important optimization capabilities and is probably picked up more than most other social networks. Don’t forget Google+ either. Your headline, employment and introduction are all searchable and should be optimized and include links to your other web assets.
go to Fortune Builders
by Fortune Builders
Have you optimized your social media profiles for the search engines yet? If not, is it really worth posting new updates and now you know why you aren’t getting the results you expected…
Social media optimization is just as essential for real estate investing companies as SEO for your website or blog or even getting out of bed in the morning. Actually it is probably far more important as a productive social media presence could keep on earning you money in your sleep!
Optimizing your social media for Google, Yahoo and Bing is crucial for a number of reasons. It will not only help you get found on the web by those searching homes or trying to sell their homes in your area but it will keep your brand in their face 24/7, especially with Google’s Social Search feature, help to funnel traffic to your real estate investing website and blog and perhaps most importantly make it super easy for prospects to contact you when they really need your services or have someone to refer.
The good news is that social media optimization is actually pretty easy once you know which fields matter to the search engines. For Facebook your page name, image file name, about section and even the beginning of each of your status updates are read by the search engines and make a difference. Plus note that for all of your real estate investing company’s social profiles your address is essential for improve local search visibility and mobile marketing.
For Twitter real estate investing firms should be utilizing names, images and bios to optimize for search engines and increase relevant followers. LinkedIn also offers important optimization capabilities and is probably picked up more than most other social networks. Don’t forget Google+ either. Your headline, employment and introduction are all searchable and should be optimized and include links to your other web assets.
go to Fortune Builders
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Real Estate Investing in a Sellers Market: Can you handle it?
by Fortune Builders
A new seller’s market is beginning to sweep the country and if you aren’t prepared for it your real estate investing business may be about to come to a sudden halt along with your cash flow…
If you heard investors complaining as the housing market fell you are about to hear a lot more whining as the easy days of cherry picking only the properties with the hugest spreads from thousands becomes a thing of the past and getting great discounts becomes a mission. If the seller’s market hasn’t hit you yet buckle up because it is on its way.
Markets like Miami which have been the hottest for real estate investing recently posted record sales in 2011 which even out performed the peak of 2005. Things aren’t slowing down as sales and prices continue to pick up and agents throughout South Florida report it is definitely a seller’s market there already. The same can be said of Silicon Valley and other parts of the country.
For those newer to real estate investing and who didn’t experience investing in the boom years be prepared to work a lot harder. There will still be plenty of money to be made in the coming years but a seller’s market definitely has both its pros and cons. Yes, it will be easier to sell and there will be more buyers for the homes you are flipping but putting properties under contract will get a lot tougher very quickly. Many agents are already reporting it isn’t worth making offers that aren’t at least s high as the asking price while some banks aren’t accepting offers on their REOs if they are contingent on an inspection being done.
What do real estate investing pros need to be doing to strengthen themselves and prepare for a seller’s market? Tighten up your offer and bidding processes and systems, get coaching to improve your negotiation skills, build your brand for more negotiating power, be ready to move fast and develop relationships so that you get the first shot at deals as they become available. Finally, get the best lenders and mortgage brokers on your side as financing is going to make all the difference in who gets the max price for their homes and wins the most buyers in the frenzy that is brewing.
go to Fortune Builders
Real Estate Investing Pros Versus Squatters
by Fortune Builders
Stories of squatters taking over homes and trying to lay claim to them are making it into the news at a rapidly increasing rate. Some of these squatters have even gone as far as to set up websites encouraging others to follow suit and take over a large number of properties from Texas to Georgia. Clearly, this has serious consequences for those in the real estate investing business…
Under ‘adverse possession’ laws these squatters are wreaking havoc on real estate investing company’s plans, causing banks and lenders enormous amounts of frustration, angering neighbors who worked hard to pay for their homes and even victimizing homeowners who are away on extended trips.
Real estate investing pros can’t afford to ignore this growing problem. Acquiring properties which have ongoing title disputes and unwanted occupants can be expensive and crash your cash flow. This makes it absolutely essential to execute your closing day walk-throughs or face potential losses instead of profits from flipping houses. Even after you close your vacant investment properties are prime targets.
So what should real estate investing pros be doing to fight back? This is a great opportunity to collaborate with and build relationships with other investors by watching out for each others properties as well as differentiating your real estate investing company form the competition. Let buyers, especially end investors know exactly what you are doing to prevent this from happening on your homes to make the houses you are flipping more attractive.
Analyze what actions you can take to beef up your security measures and conduct random site inspections. This doesn’t have to cost a ton of money and if anything will save you big time. Keyless locks and outsourcing inspections can be very affordable and actually be combined with your current property management efforts to enhance them and shave overhead.
go to Fortune Builders
by Fortune Builders
Stories of squatters taking over homes and trying to lay claim to them are making it into the news at a rapidly increasing rate. Some of these squatters have even gone as far as to set up websites encouraging others to follow suit and take over a large number of properties from Texas to Georgia. Clearly, this has serious consequences for those in the real estate investing business…
Under ‘adverse possession’ laws these squatters are wreaking havoc on real estate investing company’s plans, causing banks and lenders enormous amounts of frustration, angering neighbors who worked hard to pay for their homes and even victimizing homeowners who are away on extended trips.
Real estate investing pros can’t afford to ignore this growing problem. Acquiring properties which have ongoing title disputes and unwanted occupants can be expensive and crash your cash flow. This makes it absolutely essential to execute your closing day walk-throughs or face potential losses instead of profits from flipping houses. Even after you close your vacant investment properties are prime targets.
So what should real estate investing pros be doing to fight back? This is a great opportunity to collaborate with and build relationships with other investors by watching out for each others properties as well as differentiating your real estate investing company form the competition. Let buyers, especially end investors know exactly what you are doing to prevent this from happening on your homes to make the houses you are flipping more attractive.
Analyze what actions you can take to beef up your security measures and conduct random site inspections. This doesn’t have to cost a ton of money and if anything will save you big time. Keyless locks and outsourcing inspections can be very affordable and actually be combined with your current property management efforts to enhance them and shave overhead.
go to Fortune Builders
Monday, February 20, 2012
How Optimism is Sabatoging Your Real Estate Investment Business
by Fortune Builders
Optimism is a good thing right? Isn’t an elite level of optimism essential for any real estate investing entrepreneur to succeed? Maybe, but it could also be silently setting you up for failure!
A high level of optimism is certainly crucial when starting out in real estate investing. You have big goals that need to be achieved and it is going to take a lot of positive attitude to get you to them, especially when facing the many challenges that will come your way.
Unfortunately, being too optimistic has been one of the greatest downfalls of many who have called themselves real estate investing pros. You should hope that everything goes according to plan, believe that you can make it, that you will sell your next property in record time and for top dollar but what about when things don’t pan out the way you expected? Will you fall apart?
There are real estate investing ‘gurus’ who will tell you that you don’t need to be reasonable or realistic about anything. “If only you believe it hard enough, you can make it happen”. While this is definitely true to a certain extent, especially in the grand picture of things, a hope and a dream won’t always get you though alone. You need to have the right plan, do your homework and take advantage of all the additional tools and real estate education you can get.
You need to be realistic about how much work rehabs take, the possibility that things can take longer to happen than you think, closing costs will be higher than expected and you will often net less than you hoped on your real estate investing deals. Other things will go wrong too. People will mess up and make mistakes which could potentially cost you thousands of dollars.
By hoping for the best and planning the worst or being a ‘pessimistic optimist’, you can take it all in your stride. Plan, where you can, commit to remaining calm under pressure and resolve to simply taking positive action to remedy the situation versus panicking.
If you can do this then you have every reason to be incredibly optimistic about your future in real estate investing.
go to Fortune Builders
by Fortune Builders
Optimism is a good thing right? Isn’t an elite level of optimism essential for any real estate investing entrepreneur to succeed? Maybe, but it could also be silently setting you up for failure!
A high level of optimism is certainly crucial when starting out in real estate investing. You have big goals that need to be achieved and it is going to take a lot of positive attitude to get you to them, especially when facing the many challenges that will come your way.
Unfortunately, being too optimistic has been one of the greatest downfalls of many who have called themselves real estate investing pros. You should hope that everything goes according to plan, believe that you can make it, that you will sell your next property in record time and for top dollar but what about when things don’t pan out the way you expected? Will you fall apart?
There are real estate investing ‘gurus’ who will tell you that you don’t need to be reasonable or realistic about anything. “If only you believe it hard enough, you can make it happen”. While this is definitely true to a certain extent, especially in the grand picture of things, a hope and a dream won’t always get you though alone. You need to have the right plan, do your homework and take advantage of all the additional tools and real estate education you can get.
You need to be realistic about how much work rehabs take, the possibility that things can take longer to happen than you think, closing costs will be higher than expected and you will often net less than you hoped on your real estate investing deals. Other things will go wrong too. People will mess up and make mistakes which could potentially cost you thousands of dollars.
By hoping for the best and planning the worst or being a ‘pessimistic optimist’, you can take it all in your stride. Plan, where you can, commit to remaining calm under pressure and resolve to simply taking positive action to remedy the situation versus panicking.
If you can do this then you have every reason to be incredibly optimistic about your future in real estate investing.
go to Fortune Builders
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Your Biggest Weakness is Costing Your Real Estate Business Big Time!
by Fortune Builders
Unfortunately, most investors fail to recognize one of their biggest weaknesses which costs them many deals, many dollars and many points on their reputations each month. No, it’s not social media, pulling comps or rehabbing…
You can be great at sourcing great bargains on properties, negotiating sweet deals, assessing repairs and marketing your properties like a real estate investing pro but if you are failing to win on the follow up and closing the deal when showing homes your model is broken and you are bleeding away tons of potential profit and business everyday. Whether you are flipping houses, building a rental portfolio or both there are 3 holes in your real estate investing business you need to fix.
1. Follow Up
You can have the slickest marketing in the country, be number one on Google, have a million website visitors a month and 100 incoming call and emails a day on your properties but if you don’t keep on top of follow up you are killing your real estate investing business. Hire a small army of virtual assistants to answer phone or return emails if you have to but not replying on time is not an option. Perhaps you don’t need the extra business today but every burned prospects is worth a thousand referrals and before you know it people are going to start avoiding your listings like the plague.
2. Showing Properties
Who is showing your properties? It certainly shouldn’t be you. You need to be focusing on growing your real estate investing business, not doing low level busy work. If you are great at flipping properties you should have your properties pre-sold, sight unseen. If not, this leaves two options. The first is to bring in a strong closer to meet prospects at the property not just a body, you can’t afford that. The second is to save the cash and put keyless locks on your properties to make them look cooler and enable instant showings. Making sure that you close on every opportunity could mean flipping at least one more deal a month. Multiple that profit by 12 and there’s that brand new Benz or beach vacation you have been dreaming of.
3. Rental Application Fees
May be they work for you but seriously work the numbers before you collect another one. They are a huge turn off, especially when coupled with long approval times and worst of all it is often the best tenants who don’t apply because they don’t feel they should have to wait or jump through the hoops. Ask yourself what is more valuable for your real estate investing business, $50 for an application fee or $400 in cash flow from renting the property today?
go to Fortune Builders
by Fortune Builders
Unfortunately, most investors fail to recognize one of their biggest weaknesses which costs them many deals, many dollars and many points on their reputations each month. No, it’s not social media, pulling comps or rehabbing…
You can be great at sourcing great bargains on properties, negotiating sweet deals, assessing repairs and marketing your properties like a real estate investing pro but if you are failing to win on the follow up and closing the deal when showing homes your model is broken and you are bleeding away tons of potential profit and business everyday. Whether you are flipping houses, building a rental portfolio or both there are 3 holes in your real estate investing business you need to fix.
1. Follow Up
You can have the slickest marketing in the country, be number one on Google, have a million website visitors a month and 100 incoming call and emails a day on your properties but if you don’t keep on top of follow up you are killing your real estate investing business. Hire a small army of virtual assistants to answer phone or return emails if you have to but not replying on time is not an option. Perhaps you don’t need the extra business today but every burned prospects is worth a thousand referrals and before you know it people are going to start avoiding your listings like the plague.
2. Showing Properties
Who is showing your properties? It certainly shouldn’t be you. You need to be focusing on growing your real estate investing business, not doing low level busy work. If you are great at flipping properties you should have your properties pre-sold, sight unseen. If not, this leaves two options. The first is to bring in a strong closer to meet prospects at the property not just a body, you can’t afford that. The second is to save the cash and put keyless locks on your properties to make them look cooler and enable instant showings. Making sure that you close on every opportunity could mean flipping at least one more deal a month. Multiple that profit by 12 and there’s that brand new Benz or beach vacation you have been dreaming of.
3. Rental Application Fees
May be they work for you but seriously work the numbers before you collect another one. They are a huge turn off, especially when coupled with long approval times and worst of all it is often the best tenants who don’t apply because they don’t feel they should have to wait or jump through the hoops. Ask yourself what is more valuable for your real estate investing business, $50 for an application fee or $400 in cash flow from renting the property today?
go to Fortune Builders
Real Estate Investing Companies: Are you Neglecting your most Valuable Asset?
by Fortune Builders
When it comes to real estate investing most investors and business owners would automatically say that their capital is their most valuable asset but that isn’t likely what entrepreneur Richard Branson would tell you.
In repeated interviews Richard Branson has credited the incredible success of his many brands to his employees. For him they make all the difference and they should be one of your most valuable assets too. If not, it is likely that you either haven’t been doing your best at hiring for your real estate investing company or you haven’t truly empowered them to do their best work.
Hiring right is essential no matter whether it is for a $1 an hour VA, a top gun phone pro, a pretty face to show your properties or a writer to weave magic into your content. However, the first critical mistake that most owners of real estate investing companies make is not just putting the wrong people in the wrong places but completely overlooking the need to get new hires on board with the company mission and vision. Only if they understand what it is you are trying to achieve on a larger scale and commit to it can they really help you achieve it.
This is more valuable to you than you think and for your team members. For most being a part of building something great is worth a lot more than a few extra dollars in their paycheck, meaning that they are more likely to remain loyal, put in the overtime and keep on working for less than longer.
Next you need to truly empower your staff to be their best and to make your real estate investing company the best. Hire great people, ensure they are on the right page and enable them to make the small decisions, based on their expertise which will take more of the load off of you, create a better customer experience and reap more results. This could be coming up with topics for your blog, making an expectation for a tenant, finding a new way to organize your data or trying out a new tweak on your marketing.
They will feel valued, they will do a better job, your brand will benefit and your profits from real estate investing will rise.
go to Fortune Builders
by Fortune Builders
When it comes to real estate investing most investors and business owners would automatically say that their capital is their most valuable asset but that isn’t likely what entrepreneur Richard Branson would tell you.
In repeated interviews Richard Branson has credited the incredible success of his many brands to his employees. For him they make all the difference and they should be one of your most valuable assets too. If not, it is likely that you either haven’t been doing your best at hiring for your real estate investing company or you haven’t truly empowered them to do their best work.
Hiring right is essential no matter whether it is for a $1 an hour VA, a top gun phone pro, a pretty face to show your properties or a writer to weave magic into your content. However, the first critical mistake that most owners of real estate investing companies make is not just putting the wrong people in the wrong places but completely overlooking the need to get new hires on board with the company mission and vision. Only if they understand what it is you are trying to achieve on a larger scale and commit to it can they really help you achieve it.
This is more valuable to you than you think and for your team members. For most being a part of building something great is worth a lot more than a few extra dollars in their paycheck, meaning that they are more likely to remain loyal, put in the overtime and keep on working for less than longer.
Next you need to truly empower your staff to be their best and to make your real estate investing company the best. Hire great people, ensure they are on the right page and enable them to make the small decisions, based on their expertise which will take more of the load off of you, create a better customer experience and reap more results. This could be coming up with topics for your blog, making an expectation for a tenant, finding a new way to organize your data or trying out a new tweak on your marketing.
They will feel valued, they will do a better job, your brand will benefit and your profits from real estate investing will rise.
go to Fortune Builders
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