Author: Charles Petty
Source: articlesbase.com

Before you even consider entering the real estate industry, you should know of its foundation. Real estate investing has no room for investors with very little knowledge of the different processes involved in the business. Many have failed and if you don’t want your fate to be the same as theirs, you should start learning all the things that you need to know. How can you survive the competitive market if you hardly know anything about real estate investing? There are lots of information sources online but look no further because some of the most important facts are already revealed in this article. The first is ‘Criteria’. This refers to the checklist that you will utilize in order to identify the real estate property that you plan to buy. You can purchase the property at the buyers market. Since the market offers a lot of opportunities to real estate investors, you should set a certain criteria. Establish the things that you’re looking for and you also need to take advantage of existing market conditions. What kind of properties are you planning to buy? Are you going to get single families or condos? Can you resell the property or perhaps have them rented? With so many opportunities to choose from, you might find it difficult to purchase the property that you want. You can focus in short sales or foreclosures; the choice is yours. These things will all present themselves in different situations. You can include them in the criteria you’ve set to determine the least risk and greatest opportunities. The second important foundation is the Terms. The subprime backlash wave made ‘Terms’ even extremely important. Interest rates have remained fairly low in the recent years and the overall prices are declining or stagnant. The buyers market is filled with different emotions and you should try to establish adequate parameters. By doing so, you can easily tell when you should walk away from a certain deal or when it’s the right time to make a go for it. Another important foundation is ‘Network’. The market is a very large one and if you’re alone, you may not be able to survive the extreme competition. Having a network of good relationships with fellow real estate investors is very important. If you have good relationships with other investors, they can help in providing you with opportunities. Your fellow investors should know about your predetermined criteria. You should also have your own real estate attorney just in case you encounter legal proceedings. If you know the foundations of real estate investing, you will know what properties to buy, how you will purchase them, and who can help you. Try to master these areas to ensure a solid place in the market and to enjoy continuing success. Criteria, terms, and network are the basic foundations of real estate investing. The many successful investors that utilized these areas are still enjoying continuous success. If you want to enjoy the same triumphs, you should study the foundations of real estate investing. Be prepared at all times because there are also risks involved. Having adequate knowledge about real estate investing can serve as your key to success. With knowledge comes power; educate yourself before you finally enter the industry. It is definitely a competitive one and very few newbies are able to overcome the many difficulties.

Charles and Kim Petty are the King and Queen of Virtual Real
Estate. For a FREE Special Report and Video from Charles and Kim
Petty and to set up a one on one strategy session on how you too
can make Six or Seven Figures A Year Buying and Selling
Properties all across the USA &abroad;in TODAY’s Real
Estate Market go to
http://www.VirtualRealEstateInvestingProfits.com or call
1-800-311-9228.

Author: Jason Leister
Source: download

As a real estate professional, you qualify as a prime prospect for most companies
offering real estate SEO (search engine optimization) services.
You want more sales and more listings and they want you to
believe that they can give that to you.
If you haven’t already gotten calls, emails or letters from a few real estate SEO
companies telling you that they can get your real estate website into the top ten of
this or that search engine… get ready, because they’re coming…
A lot of real estate professionals struggle with whether or not to make an
investment in a company to manage their SEO campaign.
Will it be worth your investment? Will you get burned?
There is no right decision, but there are smart ones and dumb ones.
Here are a few things to think about as you make your decision about real estate
SEO:
1. SEO is just one piece of the internet marketing puzzle. Hiring a
company to optimize your real estate website for the search engines is not
necessarily a bad thing, just understand that it is only one part of your internet
marketing plan. Focusing too much on SEO leaves a lot of money on the table.
Having good rankings makes it seem like your website will be a successful generator
or real estate leads. Not so.
In the past, search engine optimization WAS pretty much synonymous with internet
marketing. SEO WAS marketing on the internet – that was all you needed to do to
get noticed and get leads. Times are different now.
Understand that your marketing has to be right FIRST, before you even set foot onto
the internet and spend time and money bringing prospects to your real estate
website.
That means you need to identify your market, create a message suited perfectly for
them and deliver that message with the media that they are known to respond to.
That must be done before you even think about SEO.
——————
2. There are no SEO guarantees. Many SEO companies that are out there
cold-calling realtor lists often guarantee results or give the impression that there is
some guarantee of results.
There are no guarantees. Results-based guarantees from a Search Engine
Optimization company are a good sign for you to run the other way.
Don’t even waste your time talking to them.
——————
3. Listen to exactly what the company you are speaking with is offering.
Most SEO companies that call you will make bold promises about improving the
rankings of your website. Many of them are very good at what they do. Sounds
simple enough, right?
But what exactly is your goal – Good rankings or more real estate business? Don’t
get caught up in the myth that better rankings = more sales or more leads or
listings. Better rankings equals better rankings. That’s it.
In a nutshell, know that SEO is important and good search engine rankings are
important… but SEO is not a silver-bullet for your real estate business. It will not fix
your marketing and although a well optimized real estate website might bring a
flood of prospects to your door, what good is it if they never knock and ask to come
in?
——————
4. Marketing is marketing is marketing… Always has been, always will be.
The internet hasn’t changed anything about that. What the internet does do is give
you a very efficient delivery system to use for your marketing message.
Whether or not you seek outside help for your internet marketing campaign, the
important thing to remember is that you don’t abdicate responsibility for your own
marketing by “outsourcing” it. Outsourcing your own marketing, even on the
internet, is not a smart decision. After all, marketing is by far the most leveraged
activity you can possible engage in.
Marketing IS the business you are in.
You are the mastermind. You come up with the plan… THEN you hire someone to
do the implementation.
Jason Leister, the Real Estate Technology Guru ™, is owner of Computer Super
Guy, LLC, a Chicago-based technology firm that helps real estate professionals
profit with technology.
Visit the
Real Estate Technology Guru
to subscribe to our free monthly eZine, ProfIT, and receive a FREE copy of
our special report “The Truth About Real Estate Websites and Search Engine
Optimization.”

Author: Ashley Lichty
Source: articledashboard.com

As a former employee of a nation real estate service, I’ve spoken with hundreds of real estate agents regarding their methods of following up with their real estate leads and marketing of themselves and their services in general. I was shocked at the amount of agents I spoke with who did not have a personal website and even worse, didn’t see the point of having one! Don’t they realize how many real estate leads they’re missing out on by NOT having a website? Oh, and for the record, having a contact page on RE/MAX’s site doesn’t count. When I say personal website, I’m talking about a fully loaded, information packed site – the kind that can generate it’s own real estate leads, has all your listing information, as well as valuable resources and information for any visitors to the site.

Why should every agent have a website? Well the number one reason is always real estate leads – a website is yet another avenue from which to gather real estate leads. You can put up a contact form, a comments page and even offer a free home value estimate and have people fill out contact information to get one – all three of those will result in real estate leads. The second reason you need a website is because over 75% of people looking to buy or sell a home are going online to do their research first – and as an agent, you want to be sure they’re finding YOU as opposed to the competition. If they look at 5 different agents’ websites, you definitely want to make sure you’ve got the best looking site in the biz. To be honest, any agent worth their salt won’t need any other reason to start a site other than the fact that websites = REAL ESTATE LEADS!

As GetMyHomesValue co-founder Dave Conklin says, “It used to be just having a website made you credible. It’s not like that anymore, now you have to take it to the next level.”

So what is the next level? You’ve already got a website with tons of useful information, tons of contact pages – it even lists all the homes for sale in your area, not just your own listings! What more can you do to get people to visit your site again and again, and turn a good portion of those visitors into real estate leads? According to Conklin, blogs are a smart addition to any agent’s site.

“If you’re a real estate professional and don’t have a blog, start one NOW,” says Conklin. “It’s all about your first virtual impression and building on that by engaging in dialogue with your real estate leads and prospects.”

Conklin goes on to compare the success of blogs on the Internet with reality TV. According to him, reality TV is so huge because people like to look at the inner workings of other people’s lives. A blog enables you to show that you’re an expert in your field by answering questions people have have, interacting with them and by building a more personal relationship with prospects by sharing your opinions, thoughts and experiences on all kinds of things, not just real estate. “It helps for people to look at you as being ‘real’ and not just a face on a business card.”

And that is the heart of the matter, when it comes to turning real estate leads into clients. Most people don’t want a stuffy, cold agent who acts “professional” all the time – they want a personable agent, someone who is as human as them and who has shared similar experiences and so can relate to them. Real estate leads are EVERYWHERE for agents – it’s just a matter of having the right tools to ensure the real estate leads are coming your way, rather than someone else’s.

“It seems that most agents either have a blog and don’t take it seriously by updating it regularly or they don’t bother with blogs at all. That’s a huge mistake,” warns Conklin. “The internet is getting more personal. Smart agents will recognize this and maintain a blog.”

Although some people may still look down their noses at blogs, they are fast becoming a force to be reckoned with on the Internet (just look up the term blogosphere). As a real estate agent, having a website AND a blog is one of the best things you can do to produce your own real estate leads. Combine that with subscribing to one or more lead generation service, and your pipeline of real estate leads will never be empty.