How Can Real Estate Investors Profit From The Internet?

The Internet is a powerful marketing tool, but just how can a real estate investor make the best use of Web pages?

We've spent some time experimenting with Web sites and we've found a couple of ways that they can be useful.

First.. we just don't believe you can effectively use Web sites to find motivated sellers. It least you can't find them consistently. How many motivated home sellers do a Google search for "fast home buyer"?

We have two Web sites. Web site #1 serves two purposes...

First it acts a brochure. It explains that we buy and sell property and cash flows of all kinds. It reveals the names of the principal players in our company. It gives our address, phone numbers and email addresses.

We place the URL for this Web site on all our promotional material... letter head, business cards, flyers, newspaper ads, etc. It does not produce home sellers, but it does help to establish our credibility with sellers we find through other means. They can check the Web site and learn we are real people with a real business.

The second task that Web site #1 performs is to present the homes we have for sale and for rent. We create a page for each with well written copy that contains the property's address.. and nice photos of the house, yard, nearby parks, shopping areas and schools.

When a potential buyer or seller contacts us we can refer them to those pages. This saves hours of time answering questions about location, price, number of bedrooms, etc.

What about Web site #2? We use this page to help recruit "bird dogs". We feel that an important part of every investor's marketing program should be an ongoing effort to find people who will search out motivated home sellers for us.

Where ever possible in our marketing material we include this line... "We will pay you CASH to find home sellers!" Then we will include the URL of our "bird dog" recruiting site. We do the same with inexpensive ads in penny-saver types of publications.

You will find an example of our bird dog Web page here: http://lease-option-sub2.com/reward.htm

We don't spend much time on these sites after they are up and running. The only pages that change on a regular basis our are homes for sale and rent pages. They take just a few minutes to add and delete.

Any work on Web pages that takes more than a few minutes is taking you away from more important marketing tasks. Keep it simple and keep moving toward profit producing projects.

About The Author: Mark Walters is a real estate investor and author with Web pages at: http://www.lease-option-sub2.com and http://www.CashFlowInstitute.com

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion deal with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure practices. New York, Nevada and Delaware joined California in holding out for better terms.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion settlement with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure procedures, but California, New York and other key states were still not among them.

California has until Monday to share in a multi-state deal with banks to obtain mortgage relief and reforms. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, who walked away from talks last year, says the door remains open.

With a Monday deadline at hand, California officials have resumed direct talks with the Obama administration about joining a multibillion-dollar, multi-state mortgage settlement with the nation's largest banks, a source said Sunday.

The talk show host pays $12 million for the 4,088-square-foot house with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The ocean-view home sits on 1.26 bluff-top acres with beach access.

In one of the more talked-about transactions in town, actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold their Malibu beach house to daytime host and comedian Ellen De Generes for $12 million.

The four-bedroom, five-bathroom house built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore lists for $2,875,000.

A decorative cast stone entrance opens to this restored Spanish Colonial Revival-style house in Pasadena's South Orange Grove area. Built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore, the house retains such original details as coffered wood ceilings and arched doorways.

They don't believe they can sell their property for what it's worth, so they're spending money on making their homes more comfortable.

Do you fit any of these descriptions?

A biennial research report by the National Assn. of Realtors indicates that a handful of real estate agents and brokers and their clients either don't know the law or don't care to follow it.

When it comes to lawsuits, real estate agents and brokers tangle mostly among themselves.

The president aims to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages.

 

The White House hopes to help millions of homeowners lower their monthly mortgage bill with a $5 billion to $10 billion plan to set up a streamlined refinancing program for people who are current on their payments.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 large U.S. cities fell 1.3% in November from October as foreclosures continue to drag down the housing market.

Three straight months of home-price declines in the biggest U.S. cities showed that foreclosures remain a significant drag on a housing market that is entering its fifth year of deterioration.

L.A. Clipper Chris Paul may be quick down the court, but he moves pretty fast when it comes to buying multimillion-dollar real estate too.