Archive

Archive for April, 2011

Find Buyers With Social Networking

April 29th, 2011 No comments

OK, so your daughter came back from her first semester at university and set up a Facebook account for you. But now that you have it what are you going to do with it? Well, as an investor, you could start by connecting with your family, friends and colleagues that also have profiles. And then you can use it to sell some real estate.

Social networking isn’t just for kids. There are more than 60 million active users on Facebook alone with the over 25 age group being the fastest growing demographic this year. Everyone and their mom is on there now, literally. Not bad for a site built by a college student less than five years ago. This online tool has expanded to include professionals, corporations and everything in between. Charging ahead in a typical trail blazing style, Investors are learning through trial and error how to make this social networking site work for them.

It’s well known that 80% of home buyers start their home search online. And why wouldn’t they? These days, 80% of everything most people do is started online. Facebook profiles can now be spidered and you can make your profile visible to the world if you wish. Please do. Allow yourself to be found. Invite new clients to look you up whenever you want them to get an idea of who you are. When you join a social networking site and present yourself as an ethical professional with a good reputation and knowledge of the industry, this will naturally build into sales over time. All you have to do is get out there and participate in the online culture.

The key to success here is simple. If you want social networking to work for you, keep it fun, keep it real and stop selling. The heavy-handed hard sell simply doesn’t work on the Internet. This is a medium where users can control the time spent on a site entirely independently of the site itself. It’s not like TV where you’ve got 30 seconds to slam them with whatever product or idea you may have. Social networking works on a far more subtle level. Your internet presence is not a brochure either. It’s a living testimonial that places you as a professional in a social context.

With the above in mind, just get started. Over time, your comfort level and expertise with the medium will increase. Some ideas to get you started:

* Engage your audience by starting a group for “fans” ie: your mom and childhood friends who want to see you succeed. Get people to join you in a real estate related game.
* Join existing groups that interest you
* If you join one of the big real estate groups, engage your collegues by opening a discussion. Start at least one fire on the message boards by asking an intelligent real estate question that people are compelled to answer.
* Don’t blow hot air, post notes that clearly show your expertise.
* Some Investors offer gift certificates and rebates for referrals that result in a closed sale, you may want to experiment with this
* Include links to your blog and website
* Check your profile settings and make sure your profile can be indexed by search engines
* Make sure to tell people you are an Investor

Now go about your business: say hi to your mom, post pictures of your trip to Spain, share funny stories, shine like the star you really are.

New Investors Make This Mistake ALL The Time

April 28th, 2011 No comments

I can tell you that the most common mistake that many beginning real estate investors make is that they pay too much for property. Fact is overpaying for property is often cited as the number one reason why so many newcomers fail to make it as profitable real estate investors. InvestorCompsOnline and KnowYourArv can prevent you from falling into this large category of real estate investors.

For many neophyte investors, paying too much for their first investment property usually proves to be a very costly and fatal mistake, and marks the beginning of the end of their foray into real estate. That’s why it’s imperative that you learn how to accurately estimate the current market value of potential investment properties! As far as I’m concerned, it’s the single most important aspect of the entire real estate investment business!

Investors know having an accurate estimate as to how much a property is worth in its current condition, is the best way to negotiate a below market purchase price that is based on the property’s condition, and not on how much it might have been worth after it had been cleaned up. This is what we teach our members.

Sadly, there’s no Kelly Blue Book equivalent for real estate investors to lookup used property prices in, this is where InvestorCompsOnline is necessary to learn for yourself how to estimate the current market value of potential investment properties.

The most common method used by property appraisers to estimate property values is the Comparison Sales Method. This method uses the same concept and data InvestorCompsOnline provides. This method bases a property’s value on the recent sale prices of properties that are within the same area and comparable in size, quality, amenities and features.

Our members can log onto the downloads section in the support desk and access our most widely downloaded teleclass “ICO Seven secrets” to get more detailed information on valuating property. This is truly “appraiser’s secrets for investors.”

All the best,
MJ

Making Your Time Count!

April 27th, 2011 No comments

Social marketing is getting more and more popular by the minute due to popular social networking websites.  Many investors use real estate comps to value a property and then use social networking sites to market it.  Among the famous networking websites are Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

Why is social online marketing important? It provides an easy and low-priced way of keeping traffic.  For example, I use my website, America’s Discount Home Deals to let other investors/buyers know what properties I have available for purchase.  Also, blogging is the most effective way of attracting and keeping important traffic. It does not require a huge marketing group as well as a large budget. All you have to do is to regularly update blogs with new, interesting and relevant posts. 

Social marketing permits people to develop relationships within customers, which is very crucial in the success of any business. Prior to the emergence of social marketing, most online businesses had no way of proving their qualifications to customers, no way to reach possible clients; as well as performing market researches.  Additionally, It also doesn’t depend on the quantity but on the quality of traffic. What’s the sense of having too much traffic but not having someone to buy or download anything? Social marketing gives the consumers the advantage of having the time to interact with a related society as well as collective wisdom.

Among other things, social internet marketing is preferred by search engines. Everyone uses search engines these days from what to cook tonight for dinner to purchasing their first home.  Getting “ranked” on these search engines is pivotal.  Try it yourself next time you are looking for a information on a house goggle or bing it and see how important social networking is.

Understanding Property Valuation

April 26th, 2011 No comments

Property valuation is not as straight forward as you may think.   Many investors think it is just a quick look at a set of real estate comps for a property.  A valuation is a complex issue where many factors have to be taken into account.

The three theoretical approaches to determining the value of a house are:

  1. The cost approach
  2. The comparable sales method
  3. Income approach


The cost approach

The cost approach calculates the value by adding the land value and the depreciated value of any improvements. It is considered reliable when used on newer structures, but tends to be less reliable for older properties.

The comparable sales method

The comparable sales method estimates the value of a house by comparing it to prices of similar property sold in similar locations within a recent period of time. This is useful when there is good evidence of previous sales and is the most prevalent method in the residential property market. It reflects actual market prices, but neglects whether the property investment will be profitable or not.

Income Approach

The income approach is when the present worth of the property is estimated on the grounds of projected future net income, thereby focussing on the profitability of a property investment. However, it neglects its worth in comparison to the overall market.

There is no perfect method of assessing the value of property and in the end it is supply and demand which determine the actual price of a house.  I hope you keep these in mind when you are valuating your next property.

What’s A Wholesale Bulk REO?

April 25th, 2011 No comments

Bulk REOs is the next level of REO purchasing for experienced wholesale buyers. It is essentially going from dabbling with small scale real estate comps information and REO packages to swimming with the sharks.  As intimidating as it may seem, wholesale bulk REOs is really an easy to follow process. Wholesale Bulk REO takes advantage of a small window of time where REO properties are available for quick purchase before they are moved over to traditional liquidation programs. With wholesale bulk REOs, timing and acting fast is everything. Once the deal is gone, it is gone.

Wholesale REO is available trough proprietary inventory access from the top 50 banks, hedge funds, insurance inventories, and mortgage companies. Knowing this, it would be wise to take your InvestorCompsOnline account and use it to analyze your deals in a fast, reliable and accurate way. 

With something as great as wholesale bulk REOs there are few requirements, representations, warranties and special instructions that must be followed.

To get a fast train to wholesale bulk REO, there are few requirements:

•1 Signed Mutual Non-Circumvention/Non-Disclosure Agreement

•2 Signed Buyer Profile Form

•3 Signed Custom Purchase Order Form

•4 Letter of Intent

•5 Letter of Credibility/Credit

Representations and Warranties for bulk wholesale REO include:

•Portfolio and Order Profile:

•Assets are sold as is

•Acquisitions division will try to match the asset pool with the Buyer’s Profile and Custom Order

•Exceptions are minimal

•Picking/ choosing not available

•Property pools are formed from a single or more asset providers.

•Purchase Contracts

•Variable on case basis

While wholesale bulk REOs does require some effort and qualification, the discounts and profits generated well justify the little work needed. Anyone who’s in real estate investing dreaming of making it big should definitely take time and effort to explore wholesale bulk REO!

Powered by WishList Member - Membership Software