Archive for the ‘Real Estate Squeeze Pages’ Category

How To Sell Houses Fast On Autopilot

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

To be successful in real estate investing, you must sell your houses fast.   This is quite important in a slow market where houses can sit for months with no buyers, increasing your holding costs.

Having a means to accelerate this process is therefore important, and whenever possible, employing every tool at your disposal to sell your houses fast is a must.

In this article, we look at how to automate the process of getting potential buyers for your houses.

You must first remember that real estate is a face to face game.  A buyer must come to see the house before they buy it.

But the process of acquiring those buyers can be automated, and the end result is that you can sell your houses much faster.

I highly recommend and use squeeze pages.  A squeeze page requests your name and email in exchange for something you need.

In general do not ask for more than name and email; the more information you request, the less the response you will get from your squeeze page.

You end up creating a list of buyers who have money and buy in your local market.   These people are likely to buy your next deals without more advertising.

Let us look at some simple examples:

Squeeze Page Example 1:
When wholesaling my properties, I set up a squeeze page that asks for name and email to access a list of highly discounted properties.

In order for them to view those properties, they must provide their name and email, and they are instantly redirected to the page with property listings.

This is how I built my first buyers list.  I advertised my properties on the local newspapers and gave them a website address instead of a phone number.  The website address had a squeeze page.

I ended up with a list of about 200 very responsive buyers.

They ended up buying a few properties from me.

Squeeze Page Example 2:
This type of squeeze page must be built into your real estate investor website.

Properties listed on your website show a summary page with a list of properties with the estimated market value, sale price, equity, etc.
The information is just enough to build their interest.  They must click “More Details” to see more information.  A squeeze form in a lightbox then pops up requesting for name and email to access full details.

This is my favorite and consistently gives me more potential buyers than the first squeeze page.

Autoresponders
Automation is never complete without autoresponders.   An autoresponder sends previously written email messages at pre-timed intervals.

For instant once they sign up, an instant email is sent saying something like “Thank you for joining our buyers list. We will be sending you deals that meet your needs as soon as we get them.”

Over the next few days, they will be getting helpful messages automatically.   This helps build rapport and provide more information such as phone number, areas they buy from, types of properties, etc.

This information helps you in your marketing, so that potential buyers keep getting the exact type of properties they need.

Learn how you can automate your real estate investing business with a real estate investor website fully equipped with all the tools necessary for selling your houses fast, as well as buying houses. The end result is that you close more deals using less time, money and effort.

How To Identify A Good Deal For Real Estate Investing

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

The current real estate market continues to deteriorate and house prices continue to go down.  More and more people need to sell their houses or lose them to an already saturated market.

We are likely to continue seeing this trend for a while, which means house prices will continue going down.

So how do you identify a good deal that will hold its value until you sell?

Most home owners looking to sell their houses now understand that the value of their house is quite unstable.

They understand that their houses are losing value every day, and that they cannot rely on prices just 2 months old.

They also know that they can no longer sell their house at market value any more.

Too many houses are sitting in the market that you can almost certainly negotiate the price down on most properties even if the asking price is well below market value.

Motivated sellers know that you must also give a discount when you sell your properties, so they do understand the discount they give you will be passed on.

If you buy, fix and sell for instances, you can end up holding your houses for as long as 6 months.

How much value will the house lose in this time?

If you do not answer this question before you buy, you are likely to end up paying too much for your investment properties.

Even if you wholesale houses, you still need to answer this question.   How much will your buyer need to discount the property when they sell?   As a general rule, you can only wholesale houses if you leave enough money for the wholesale buyer to make money also.

Lots of investors have previously been quite comfortable buying houses at 70 cents on the dollar less repairs.  Some real estate investors still use these numbers.   In this market, 60% minus repairs is barely enough.

If you buy properties to hold as rentals, then these numbers can work perfectly.

If you fix properties to sell them on retail, then your numbers must cater for long holding costs and associated price drop.  Naturally you should cater for the discount you will give when you sell!

These days, a discount of as much as 15% to 20% is not uncommon.   Is that enough to make you a profit?

Motivated sellers understand this quite perfectly, and I find it easy to use it to negotiate my prices.   Of course, the discounted dollar figures they give you might look big.  Any good real estate investor knows that we work with percentages, not dollar figures.

Once I explain my numbers in percentages, they can easily see how it small my margin really is.  Once they realize you are not taking advantage of them, they will sell their house to you at a price that makes you a profit.

Have you seen a drop in profits in the current market because you see to be out-priced by the drop in house prices?  Get more in-depth articles in our real estate blog and find out how you can run your business from an interactive real estate investor website that automates most of your business so you make more while spending less time, money and effort.

How To Keep Responsive Real Estate Investing Leads Coming

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

In order to have a successful real estate investing business, it is necessary to have leads coming in to fuel your business. These leads convert into clients, motivated seller, buyers or private money lenders.

So how do you make sure you have a constant supply of leads for your business?

1)      Target your leads

This is the first thing to do. You must decide who you want to reach in your business. For example, if you are looking for wholesale deals, you are likely to target neighborhoods that are older, say with houses ten years old or more. The price range is likely to be medium range.

If you target owner financed properties, then you will probably target properties that have no mortgage. Similarly, if you target subject-to deals, you are likely to target newer properties that need few or no repairs.

Unless you narrow down your market, you are likely to waste a lot of time following the wrong leads,  and money marketing to the wrong people.

2)      Polish your marketing message

The message you send your leads must be powerful enough to convince them to sign up with you or call you.

No matter which marketing method you use, you must make sure the message has an instant appeal to the prospects and a call to action that makes them give you a call or sign up on your real estate investor website.

3)      Use multiple marketing systems

How do you reach your prospects? There is no single method that is all-ultimate when marketing to your prospects. The response to each method will vary from month to month.

You must therefore use all methods at your disposal – letters, post cards, online advertising  like Craigslist, bandit signs if they are allowed in your area, newspaper classifieds, TV, radio, etc.

This will keep the leads coming in from all directions; when one method may produce a lot of leads now, another one might do better tomorrow. Even though you might have a favorite method, it is a combination of your marketing methods that will keep the leads coming in all year round.

4)      Capture and manage your leads efficiently

So where does your call to action in your marketing message take your prospects? You must give them access to your real estate investor website and phone number.

The prospects that go to your real estate investor website are likely to be fully pre-educated for you and convert leads that are sitting on the fence to people that do business with you. If your website is well designed, once they sign up, you receive a fully pre-screened pre-negotiated deal that requires very little of your time to follow up or move on to the next one.

A good real estate investor website also has an inbuilt marketing system, that automatically follows up with people who have not converted into motivated sellers. This happens without any input from you and converts such leads into people that sell you their houses.

The ones that just pick up the phone are likely to have lots of questions that need answers to, because all they have come across if a short marketing message.

A good website for real estate investing is suggested at the end of this message.

5)      Analyze your marketing

Unless you know where the leads are coming from, you are likely to spend your money in the wrong marketing outlets, and waste a lot of time with marketing that yields poor or no results.

Analyze and measure your marketing and you will have leads coming in all year round with very little input from you.

Tenant landlord wars – the worst real estate investor nightmare

Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Many real estate investors get burned by tenants all the time. A lot of these unlucky landlords  are so fed up that that they are ready to do anything to get out of the tenant nightmare. And sometimes it just gets worse!

So what can you do as a real estate investor to be relatively safe with your tenants? This article explores a few options that can protect you.

Yesterday , a friend of mine, Willie,  called me to assist him return a flat screen TV back to Best Buy using my van. Now, Willie is a very composed guy who never raises his voice and always seems to know his way around. On our way to Best Buy, he got phone call that ticked my attention… Willie was raising his voice with every sentence; by the end of the conversation he was shouting and looked so mad that I had to ask him to break the conversation.

It turned out his tenant of 6 months breaks something in the house every month. Her rent is paid by section 8, so she only pays $86. Every month, she has to make sure that something is broken and has an excuse not to pay the $86 so she can fix it. Willie now lives in Texas, her tenant is in Indiana – which means he usually accepts these bills from her tenant!

To make matters worse, she recently called section 8 to complain about the “deplorable condition” of the house – which had passed section 8 inspection just 6 months ago. As a result, section 8 stopped making any rent payments. Now he is stuck with a tenant who breaks down his house, who refuses to move out, and who will not even pay $86.

So what to do? Lots of landlords have similar horror stories to tell. How can we protect ourselves from this nightmare?

1)      Screen, screen, screen!

We are living in tough economic times, and chances of delinquency are now bigger than ever before.

Make sure the rent application is fully completed. Make sure they sign documents that allow you to pull their credit.

Call their place of work to verify employment even if you have a paystub.

Talk to every previous landlord and ask specific questions about their stay there. The questions must be specific, such as “Has she ever been late making her payments?” “Have you ever taken her to court?” “how well does she take care of the apartment?” etc.

These questions allow you to evaluate not only the credit worthiness of the tenant but also the kind of character you are dealing with.

2)      Do a background check

Do a criminal background check to make sure they don’t have a criminal record. I cannot emphasize the importance of this.

3)      Use a good lease contract

Make sure your contract is mandated by your local real estate commission, or that your attorney has approved it. A good contract will protect you on all fronts.

If you do find yourself with a bad tenant, a good contract will protect you in front of a judge. While nothing is bullet-proof, this will be an asset you may value in such bad cases.

4)      Inspect the property

Make sure you take your tenant through the house as they inspect the house. Take pictures of them inspecting the house, as well as any noted problems.

Make sure you sign the contract inside the property. They must initial every page on the contract.

5)      Good luck!

Hopefully this process has protected you and you will enjoy a good cash flow with your properties.

Simon Macharia is a real estate investor in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. Whether you are buying or selling houses on retail, wholesale or on terms, or even renting them, find out you can be more efficient by closing more deals using less effort, time and money through an automated real estate investing website.

How To Keep Your Real Estate Investing Mailing Lists Clean

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

Successful real estate investors run direct mail campaigns to keep the leads coming in..  I send out post cards and letters to potential motivated sellers in my business. Motivated sellers are people who need to sell their houses, probably because they are in trouble that can be relieved by selling their property.

 There are so many motivated sellers in today’s real estate market that you cannot handle all of them.  To save money and be more effective in your direct mail campaigns, you must therefore clean up your mailing lists.
 Here is how to get a good return on investment in your direct mail.

 People in trouble who own real estate form my mailing lists, such as people going through divorce, people with liens, bankruptcy, etc. Most likely these people are looking to get rid of their houses or they end up in foreclosure.

I also look for people who have inherited properties.    Sometimes they inherit the mortgage and if there is no mortgage, they need to cash out.   The beneficiaries usually cannot fix them up and find it hard to sell them in the open market.  These probate properties can be very profitable.

 Absentee owners also form part of my mailing lists. Usually these are land lords, and sometimes people who either divorced or work out of town.   Most land lords are looking to get out after having being burned by bad tenants.   Usually they own several properties which can all be good deals.

Expired listings from the MLS also form a big part of my target properties.  Of course these people have been looking to sell, but have not been successful.

This means I sometimes end up with 1500 to 2000 new leads every week. All this means I can have 1500 to 2000 new leads a week.   I must therefore clean them up and target them better.

1) Geographical area
 Since I live in a big metro area, I can only buy houses from a small area.  This means I only target certain zip codes.   No matter where you live, avoid war zones.

 I avoid houses more than 30 minutes drive away.

2) Price range
Since I wholesale most of my properties, I avoid the very low end properties and the very high end properties.   The middle range properties are better for me because there are more buyers.

3) Recording date
If a property was last recoded less than 10 years ago, it’s out of my mailing list.   Sometimes inherited properties can have exceptions.

 This is because they could have some equity.   If they have refinanced they may not have as much equity.

4) Return mail
I send 2 post cards and if sending direct mail to probate leads, I send several of them over a few months.   Some of these addresses are undeliverable and bounce back.   You must get rid of these  addresses in your next mail sequence to save money.

Simon macharia invests in real estate in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex. His real estate investing business is fuelled by leads generated by direct mail and through his real estate website. Learn how a good real estate investor website can help you close more deals while spending less money, time and effort.

How To Use Private Money To Finance Reos And Short Sales

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

 Today, the real estate market is such that it is hard to get hard money.  Some hard money lenders have gone belly up, while the ones in business have tightened their underwriting procedures.

 Before you get funded, you have to make payments in points plus other fees in addition to high interest rates.  Of course this results to less profits. Of course a lot of them now even need credit rating to lend hard money.

This has stopped a lot of real estate investors from doing deals they once used to finance with hard money.   In this article we cover how you can finance your REOs and short sales.

 Banks always need to see proof of funds before they can allow the deal to go through.   A lot of real estate investors used to depend on hard money lenders for this.  Once you have lined up a reliable source of private money, this can be your proof of funds for your REOs.

If you wholesale properties the process will work the same as with other types of funding except you are using private money.  Contract assignment cannot work in this case.   You have to buy and sell the property on the same closing table in simultaneous closing.

The process goes something like this:

1) Identify the right property
In order to do a simultaneous closing, you must choose properties that will give you a sizable amount of profit.   This is because you must pay some closing costs both when buying and selling the property.  These costs should be absorbed by a big profit margin.

 A profit of $10,000 and above is good enough.

2) Identify your wholesale buyer
This is the person who will buy the property from you, usually a real estate investor.   These properties are usually sold at wholesale prices.

Make sure the buyer shows you proof of funds or the deal might not close!

 You will then sign a regular purchase sale agreement with them.

Of course, you sell the house more than you buy it.

3) Get your private money to the title company
 Have your private money investor wire the money to the title company.   This is the money you will use to close the first transaction.

Depending on what you have agreed with your private money investor, you will pay a small percentage between 1-2% for this transactional funding.

4) Your title company closes the two deals
 Once the deal is closed, you will walk home with the difference between your buying and selling price less closing costs and transactional funding.

 Since your fees are much less, you end up making more money.   This type of transaction works like this:

$100,000 – after repaired value
$50,000 – bank accepts your short sale offer
$75,000 – price you sell to your buyer
$25,000 your profit at closing
Costs:- $1000 private money fees plus any closing fees

As a cash buyer, it also means you can get your properties much cheaper than conventional buyers.

 You can use this method for both short sales and REOs. As long as the numbers make sense, your private money can buy you lots of deals this way.

In other words you use the private money as the source of funds to buy the property from the bank, then flip it on the same table to a cash buyer such as a real estate investor.

Simon Macharia invests in real estate and has done most real estate investing transactions. Learn how a good real estate website can attract private money investors for your business.

Is hard money a good source of funding in real estate investing?

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

One of the most popular sources of financing for real estate investing deals is hard money. Until recently, hard money used to be quite easy to get as long as your property met the lender’s underwriting requirements.

Recently most hard money lenders have tightened their lending requirements, but these loans are still much more easily available than regular loans.

Should you rely on hard money for your real estate investing deals?

What is hard money?

Hard money lenders usually lend money secured by real estate. Most hard money lenders just lend money based on the property, not the credit history of the borrower.

Even though recently a lot of hard money lenders are including some credit rating in their under-writing procedures, they still put less emphasis on credit of the borrower. However, most hard money lenders will require that the property has at least 40% equity or more to qualify.

Hard money can also be available within just a few days if necessary.

For this reason, the interest rates are higher than traditional mortgages. Most hard money loans charge at least 18% interest plus points.

The payments are usually interest only, meaning that the amount you owe remains the same. Hard money loans are usually lent for a short period of time, say 6 months.

If you are buying a property to fix and sell or rent out, it is unlikely that you will get a traditional loan to buy it. However,  a hard money loan would come in handy.

After you fix it up, you can then either sell it or rent it out, but your exit strategy must include paying off the hard money in a few months.

In the current market where it is getting harder and harder to sell a house, it might be a risky venture to hope you will sell the property in good time to pay off the hard money loan.

Every month you keep your property under a hard money loan costs you money in high interest payments and this could eat up all your profits.

A hard money loan would not be ideal for subject to deals where you take over payments.

Once you have determined that a hard money loan will work for you, the next step is to find a reliable hard money lender who finances projects like yours. A relationship with a good hard money lender would serve your real estate investing business well.

Hard money lenders need to know your that your exit strategy is viable. A hard money lender’s worst nightmare is an inventory of property sitting in their balance sheets tying up their cash.

They need to know that they will get their investment in a few months at the very least. When presenting your deal, it is a good idea to give them your experience, your resources such as rehab crew, similar deals you have done in the past if applicable, and even prospective buyers if you have them.

This will cement the deal and make them more comfortable to lend you money.

Ultimately, your need to use hard money must be determined by the property and an exit strategy that can be realized in as little as 3 months.

No matter what type of deals you have, selling your houses fast is important to the success of your real estate investing business. Find out how an interactive real estate investor website that also builds your buyers list can help you sell your houses fast even in a depressed real estate market.

How to attract Private money lenders for real estate investing

Sunday, April 17th, 2011

In the current real estate market, it is becoming more and more difficult to get financing for real estate investing deals.

For this reason, attracting private money is has become more important than ever before. This article gives you a few pointers you can use to attract private money to finance your real estate investing deals.

Depending on getting a mortgage for your real estate investing deals has become a tight game. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will not lend for real estate investing deals.

Even hard money has become tough to get. If you do get a hard money loan, you could end up paying as much as 25% in interest and points.

It is therefore more important than ever before to attract private money lenders or investors. In some cases, only one private money investor is enough for your deals, sometimes you need more than one.

So how do you attract private money investors?

1)    Get a good real estate investing website

The first private money investor I had found me on the internet through my private money real estate investor website.

A good real estate investor website tells your story for you and convinces potential private money investors that their money is safe when invested in your deals.

Before they even get to talk to you, they already know most of the details they need to lend you money. They know how you work, and what remains is presenting your deals as you get them.

And when you present yourself to them in person or hand out business cards, your website becomes the most important presentation kit to potential private money lenders.

A good real estate investing website is recommended at the foot of this article.

2)    Group presentations

Depending on your comfort level, you can do group presentations to several potential private money lenders. This can get you several private money investors at once and can be a very powerful way of attracting private money.

3)    One on one presentations

Chances are that you must meet all your private money lenders. A one on one meeting is easy to organize and manage. I’d recommend you meet in a restaurant for a meal or breakfast where you present your program’s details and benefits.

This keeps the presentation less formal and intimidating as compared to a group of people.

4)    Word of mouth

If you are doing many deals and find that you need more private money lenders, your existing private money lenders probably know friends they can recommend to you.

Whenever someone accepts to become a private money lender, you ask them how much money they have to invest in your deals. You can therefore tell if you will need to look for more private money lenders, or if only one will be enough for you.

Do not hesitate to ask if they have friends they can recommend who would like to invest their money in real estate.

5)    Existing private money lenders

As long as your existing private money lenders are getting a good return on their investment, chances are they will be more than happy to invest in more of your real estate investing deals.

Do not hesitate to present more real estate investing deals as they become available; you might not need to look for more private money investors.

Successful real estate investing must be driven by a ready supply of private cash available from private money lenders. Targeting these lenders requires that you convince them that their money is safely invested in your deals. Learn how you can attract investing cash through a private money website.

How To Evaluate Real Estate Investment Deals

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

 Evaluating your deals before you buy them is crucial to the success of any real estate investing business.

 It is therefore important to learn how to evaluate your deals no matter what your business model is.

 The article teaches you tips of evaluating your deals so you make offers that make you money.

 Obviously your business model dictates how you evaluate your deals.

So in this article we will look at some general scenarios which should be a rough guide as to how you make your offers.

 Let us take each business model at a time:

1) Wholesale real estate investing
The general rules for buying a property you are going to flip to other real estate investors is 65 cents on the dollar minus repair costs minus your profit.

In other words when you flip a property to another real estate investor, you must make sure there is enough profit in it for them, or they will not be interested in buying it.

Secondly, you must take your profit into consideration.   The money you make after you sell it must be taken into consideration before you buy it.  Otherwise there will be nothing for you or cannot even flip it if nobody is interested in buying it.

 I prefer to go below 65% of after repaired value in a poor market.  The lower you can get it the better.

2) Buy fix and sell
 This works like wholesale real estate investing, without thinking about flipping profit.

 Since you sell properties at a discount when the market is poor, I still recommend you use the formula for wholesale real estate investing.

3) Subject to’s and lease to own real estate investing
 You can afford to buy properties at a higher price when taking over payments.

 Some people will argue you can still make money with not equity; however, my best advice is to stay out of it.

 When you take over payments, the perfect scenario is when you make money when you acquire the property, get a positive cash flow each month and cash out with a big pay day.

 Cashing out means your lease to own buyer refinances and owns the property.

  The price when your lease to own buyer refinances must therefore be acceptable by lenders.

 In a downward real estate market, you must therefore buy houses with equity.   If the market goes down, this equity will shield you.

 More so, these properties should not require repairs and should have at least 25% equity.

4) Rentals
The general rule of thumb for rentals is that your buying price divided by your yearly rent is less than 10. The less the better.  Of course this is assuming there are no repairs needed.

Successful real estate investing dictates that you buy houses at the lowest possible price, spending less time, money and effort. Learn how a good real estate investing website can automate your business and make you a more efficient and successful real estate investor.

Real Estate Investing Marketing Messages That Get Results

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

Assuming your real estate investing letters get opened, what drives the motivated seller to call you instead of all the other people?

 It is the message in the mail piece that makes all the difference.   It is the driving force behind billions of dollars in revenue generated by effective copy.

 The marketing message must be strong enough to get them call you or visit your website.

 This article concentrates on how to write effective copy for your marketing.
 Motivated sellers get bombarded with tens of letters and post cards, especially when they face foreclosure.   They cannot read all the letters!

They are also in distress, and these letters add to the agony of their experience.

 Suddenly everyone promises to change the world for them.   How can you make them believe you instead of your competition?

 This means that your message must grab their attention, appeal to their emotional needs and have a strong call to action they must act upon. And of course, one that sticks out better than all the others.

Let us look at each in turn.

1) Grab attention
 Your mail piece will be trashed if it does not grab their attention within 20 seconds.   Instant attention is therefore a must.

 They can only read the rest once you have their attention. It should be bold, direct and address a need the motivated seller holds dear emotionally promise to resolve a need the motivated seller holds emotionally.

 In other words, you must convince them that you will deliver relief, which is what a motivated seller needs.

 At the same time you must not be aggressive. Motivated sellers are going through tough times and it is important that you are sympathetic to their situation.

This applies whether you use letters or postcards in your real estate investing business.

2) Appeal to their emotional needs
 It is necessary to be sensitive to their emotional needs even though you must catch their attention.

 Your message must not only promise to buy their house, but also to relieve emotional stress caused by their financial situation.

By providing a solution and appealing to their emotional needs, you will come out stronger and more real than your competitors.

Most of the letters and post cards they receive are aggressive from real estate investors who look like they are swooping on an opportunity to grab their house off their feet.  If your mail piece appeals to them emotionally and sympathetically, you will be the one they call.

3) Have a strong call to action
 A strong call to action is a must whether you market on a website, letters or postcards.   A call to action forces them to take action – call you or visit your website.

 Successful marketing should entice them to visit your real estate investing website.   The website should pre-sell you, tell your story and convince them you are the best buyer for their house.

 Of course the website needs to have a strong call to action which forces them to submit their information online – sending you pre-screened and pre-negotiated deals.

A good real estate investing website is recommended at the end of this article.

Successful real estate investing must be driven by closing more deals spending less time, money and effort. Automating tasks and running real estate investing business is streamlined by having a real estate investor website that cuts down your work load while making you a more efficient deal maker.