Tag Archives: foreclosure

Is Your Real Estate Website Getting Results?

Most people are getting this wrong when it comes to using the Internet in their real estate business. This goes for investors AND real estate agents alike.

The thing is… it’s not their fault. They don’t know any better.

Let me use a story to illustrate this point…

Last week, a friend of mine wanted to “run something by me” to see if it was a good fit for some stuff we’re doing with investors and agents. In a nutshell, it was a guarantee of a page 1 listing in Google in six months or less.

At first, that sure sounds like a big promise, but there’s more to the story and if you don’t know what to ask, then it could either be a total waste of time or money… OR both!

There are a few things that you want to know the answers to…

#1. Who CONTROLS the Website?

In other words, do you own the website and all of the information? Or are you simply getting a “landing page” on someone else’s site? SO, if you stop paying the monthly fee, is your site wiped off the map, or worse… handed over to someone else?

#2. What keywords/keyword phrases will I show up for on page 1 of Google?

It’s real easy for someone to promise you page 1 of Google, but you’ve got to know what you’re getting to page one of Google FOR!

I could promise you page one of Google for the keyword phrase: “3 ways to find buyers online”. But, is that REALLY going to accomplish your goal(s)? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on what you’re looking to do. If you’re marketing to find pre-foreclosure needs, probably not.

But the point is, page 1 of Google is not for anything and everything related to your website. It is for one specific keyword or keyword phrase.

See #1… If you CONTROL the website yourself, you can have dozens, even hundreds or thousands of “pages” come up on page one of Google for specific keywords.

And YOU want to CONTROL what keywords you’re coming up under on page 1 of Google and you may want to come up for SEVERAL keyword phrases.

#3. What is the PURPOSE of the website (or individual landing pages)?

You’ve got to take a few minutes and think about the types of people you want to attract to your website based on your business. Are you looking for:

  • Motivated sellers?
  • People facing foreclosure?
  • People looking for fixer uppers?
  • People looking for INFORMATION on real estate investing?
  • Credibility to support your marketing campaigns?
  • Etc.

Your website, or at the very least your pages, should be very different for each of these types of leads.

#4. Is your site designed for lead capture?

It’s amazing to me to see the number of real estate sites out there that are just plain junk. They do absolutely NOTHING to capture prospects and provide you the opportunity to follow up with them.

According to the National Association of Realtors® 2009 “Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers”, 90% of all homebuyers use the Internet as a source of information.

And of those, 77% drive by the property prior to ever contacting an owner or agent to see the interior. This means, that you’ve got to capture their contact information to follow up with them or risk losing the lead.

#5. Are you actively generating traffic to your website?

Unfortunately, too many people believe the old adage, “If you build it, they will come.” That is simply NOT the case when it comes to the Internet. You must advertise and market the site consistently. The marketing doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming, but you must do it. PERIOD.

Sure, if you set your site up properly from the ground up, you will have “some” traffic, but you simply won’t get enough to build a business.

It’s also essential to understand that your website is really your HUB. There are lots of other spokes, so to speak, that are a part of your online presence including social media, content marketing, classified advertising, and more.

So to recap…

It is CRITICAL to have an online presence if you want to be doing anything in real estate these days. PERIOD.

Over 90% of all homebuyers start their search online (and for motivated sellers, the numbers are also comparable).

When it comes to your website, you MUST:

  1. CONTROL your own website…
  2. Understand the basics of KEYWORDS and KEYWORD PHRASES and how to effectively use them in your web marketing strategy…
  3. DEFINE the purpose of your website (and/or individual pages on your site)…
  4. Ensure your site is optimized for LEAD CAPTURE
  5. Actively GENERATE traffic to your website…

To use this article on your own website, include the following:

Looking to use the Internet CORRECTLY in your real estate business?

Visit http://realestatemoneymagnet.com to get my HANDWRITTEN Money Magnet Model and a Comprehensive video that explains each magnet! You’ll discover how to SUCCESSFULLY use social media for you real estate business. You’ll also learn the 2 real estate social media sites you MUST be using if you’re serious about leads!

The Other Side of Short Sales and Foreclosures

As investors, when we hear the words short sale or foreclosure we may naturally start to salivate; and rightfully so. If you know the ins and outs; they are a great opportunity to make large amounts of money.

What we don’t always think about is the other side. The person who is having to short sale their property or being foreclosed on.

And it doesn’t matter if it’s an investment property, primary residence, second home, you name it; it’s not a fun place to be and most of the time, they are less educated on the process and potential ramifications. And that makes it a pretty dangerous and scary position to be in.

That being said, here are some words of advice that might make the situation a little better as well as make your long term future a little clearer and a whole lot less unsure.

  1. You Must Educate Yourself
    There are a lot of moving pieces in a short sale or foreclosure and you have to get educated on processes. You need to take your head out of whatever you are doing and understand what exactly is coming down the pipe. Once you start, you’ll be kicking yourself for not doing this a lot earlier. Take control of your out of control situation.
  2. You Must Get Professional Advice!
    This goes hand-in-hand with educating yourself; but you must make sure it’s the right information! Find a professional attorney, accounts, whomever you many need and get answers to your questions. Also, make sure it is someone who is actively doing business in these ? elds, not someone who is resting on old laurels or never really had the experience in the ? rst place. You’ll realize that getting some of your biggest “fears/questions” answered; it may not really be as bad as you think.
  3. Only You Have Your Best Interest in Mind
    I know, that sounds negative but unfortunately it’s true. Even though you many have lawyers, Realtors, title companies all working on your behalf, stay involved. Take the 15 minutes or so every other day to do your own follow up and make sure everything you are being told is getting done, is actually getting done. You are the one who has to live with the consequences, not them. It will certainly be worth it!

Should I Sell or Rent My House?

Investors all over the country are asking themselves this very thing. Whether you’re in a “reasonably” stable market or one that is still seeing a significant decline in values, the choice of do I sell or do I hold is not as easy to answer as it was say just a few years ago.

Some investors who are still enjoying large amounts of equity in their properties and wondering if it’s time to sell while others are wondering if it’s a good time to make a couple of thousand dollars while they can. There’s no telling where this market is going to go and a few thousand is better than nothing.

When deciding on whether to sell or hold on to one of your investment properties, it will depend on several factors. First and foremost, it ultimately comes down to your financial situation. Plain and simple. But, since there are a lot of factors that make up someone’s financial situation or financial portfolio; it makes it a little more difficult to give clear cut advice. So, not so plain and simple.

But ultimately, what makes this decision so hard? Because now is the time that millionaires are made in real estate. Sure, they can be made in any market, especially in a highly unusual appreciating market like we where in a few years back, but now is the time smart investors build true wealth.

This is where and when people build their retirements. And if you looked over time, you’d find that many more millionaires are made this way than with the quick hit markets. So, regardless of your situation, if you have a property that is cash flowing; even just a few dollars a month and you can afford too, we recommend holding on to it if you can.

The kicker here is that you can this build wealth much more easily and safely now than in other markets as well. Even in the markets that are still seeing declines, they are not as severe as they were a year ago. The market is leveling off making it a lot easier to know the true value of your property and makes it a lot easier to find properties with equity and cash flow value. So, not only would we hold on to our current cashing flowing properties, we’d suggest buying more! Now is truly the time to buy.

For example, property values are significantly lower across the board making it much more likely that you will not only cash flow, in even the most difficult cash flowing markets; but you are able to substantially cash flow.

We’re talking about real income that not only makes a difference in your life now, but will allow you to hold onto the property for years to come so you can take advantage of the appreciation. Which will happen. Regardless of what you hear, the facts are that markets may go up and down but over time real estate gains value. There is no disputing that.

And if you are able to cash flow, you don’t have to worry about the small remaining dips we’ll see in the future. They property is paying for itself. Enjoy the cash and grow your wealth.

Now, there are a few factors that we will need to look at as the “exception” to this rule. First, if you are in a market that is still seeing substantial drops in values and/or a tidal wave of foreclosures and short sales, you may need to look at the bigger picture. In many of these markets rents are going down as well as home values. So, if this applies to you and you are seeing only a small amount of cash flow or even a small amount of negative cash flow, if you can sell for a small profit, sell for the profit.

Take what you can now and don’t look back. I would however take that small profit and investing it into another market that is more stable and which allows you to comfortably cash flow and enjoy your investment. Those have become easier and easier to find.

Next, we also have to look at the many people who are stuck with properties that are so upside down in their value that they are not cash flowing now and are not going to cash flow anytime soon. I would guess that about 20% plus of the markets out there are in this situation. Some investors I’ve met are stuck with properties that are costing them several thousands of dollars a month even with a tenant!

This, of course, would be an entirely different situation as well. The answer here is to meet with your CPA and lawyer and follow their advice on how to get out the best and least damaging way possible. Make sure that both have experience in the real estate field and are well schooled in what you should do and how you should go about doing it. At the end of the day, credit can be rebuilt and probably much faster than the financial damage being done. There’s only so long you can go on spending thousands of dollars a month with no end in sight.

The decision to hold or sell your investment properties depends on several factors including your financial situation, you particular market’s stability, and the cumulative positive/negative cash flow of your current properties

At the end of the day, if you have a positive cash flow than hold it and enjoy the ride up. It may be a few years away but it will go up. But, if you are struggling to make ends meet and need the cash to pay your other bills or if you have a severe negative cash flow situation, them consult your financial/legal team and find out what you need to do and unload the property. For some, it may be the only solution.

Real Estate Investing Mistake – Lack of Focus

Real Estate Investing Mistake #1: “Focusing on the Next Shiny Object”

There’s so much information everywhere you turn that it’s extraordinarily easy to get distracted. One “guru” is telling you that – hands-down – foreclosures are the most profitable strategy. Then, another “expert” is saying that foreclosures are frustrating, overworked, and unprofitable and claiming that the best way to make money now is investing in “paper”.

So, what’s a new investor supposed to do?

Who’s right and who should you listen to?

The answer may surprise you!

The truth is… just about any market is profitable at any given time. It’s just a matter of finding a system that works and following it… Continue reading

Foreclosure Investing: Persistence Pays Off

We’re currently working on a short sale for a property on which the owner hasn’t made a payment since February of 2008. (Yes, the banks CAN take that long to foreclose!).

There had been a few offers along the way, but they were either refused by the lender or the Realtor® she was using didn’t know what to do in order to get the deal closed. In addition, the lender is AHMSI, who is difficult to say the least.

Offers came and went because the bank simply didn’t respond. When we finally got involved, we moved right up the chain of command, contacted the Attorney General for the State of Florida and a few other agencies. Amazingly enough, we got a reply within a few days. Continue reading

Why Absentee Owner Marketing?

There are 5 reasons NOW is the time to really look at absentee owners as your primary method of finding sellers – with equity.

But before we get into the reasons why absentee owners are a great market right now, it’s important for us to define absentee owners in the manner in which WE discuss it for purposes of this article and in our Absentee Owner Marketing training.

For our purposes, when we refer to “absentee owners”, we’ll be referring to owners of real property whose mailing address is 50 miles or farther away from the subject property.

Let’s look at the top 5 reasons absentee owner marketing is ripe for the picking RIGHT NOW. Continue reading

Getting Started In Real Estate Investing

Real estate investing is really simple if you simply follow the basics. The problem is that we have the tendency to complicate things more than they really need to be AND that we over-think things too much. We get “too much” specialized knowledge that it begins to cripple us from ever getting started in real estate investing.

When I started out in the business, I made a commitment that I had to implement at least one thing from any home study course I purchased, event I attended, or book that I read before I could buy something else.

You see, we all tend to keep looking for the “magic pill” to riches in real estate and no such thing exists. You need to actually take action and apply the specialized knowledge that you are getting — not simply go from strategy to strategy, never actually implementing anything.

In addition, when you take this piece meal approach to getting started in real estate investing, you often get contradictory information, which makes you start to question if a strategy will work. Continue reading

Getting Started in Real Estate

Real estate investing is really simple if you simply follow the basics. The problem is that we have the tendency to complicate things more than they really need to be AND that we over-think things too much. We get “too much” specialized knowledge that it begins to cripple us.

When I started out in the business, I made a commitment that I had to implement at least one thing from any home study course I purchased, event I attended, or book that I read before I could buy something else. You see, we tend to keep looking for the “magic pill” to riches in real estate and no such thing exists. You need to actually take action and apply the specialized knowledge that you are getting — not simply go from strategy to strategy, never actually implementing anything. Continue reading

Classified Ads for Real Estate

Let’s get right to the point here!

Classified ads work IF YOU DO THEM CORRECTLY!

There are hundreds of classified ads in any of your publications on a daily basis. Most of them look identical to one another and don’t do anythingto grab the attention of your prospects.

Your only goal in marketing is to get apotentially motivated seller (or buyer) to contact you. Nothing else! (Despite what some say).

Just as in any training that I do on marketing, I will tell you Continue reading

Short Sale Attorney

More and more investors and real estate agents are using attorneys and negotiators to get their deals done.

It’s the perfect answer to the “I don’t want to deal with banks and short sales” issue. OR IS IT?

If you are a homeowner trying to get a short sale approved on your home, whether you’re a homeowner or an investor, you might want to think twice about the hands-off negotiations. There are far too many people that over promise and under deliver. Continue reading