Real Estate Investing Marketing

What is marketing? Marketing in real estate investing is just simply ways for motivated sellers to find you. Finding leads I believe is what real estate investing is all about. If you have no leads coming in then you have no deals and no money. This is why marketing is key to your success. We are not in the real estate investing business we are in the marketing business. You need to get the word out about what you do and let your whole town know that you buy houses. I am going to talk about what I think are some of the best ways to market for real estate investing.

Networking

Networking is a key to success in real estate investing. 99% of other investors out there hate to network. Networking like a mad man will give you an advantage over most of them. A real estate investor needs to be going to every networking event possible. REIA’s, Chamber events, BNI, mastermind groups and every event you can go to. You need to be giving your card out to everyone you meet. The more cards you give out the better chance of getting leads. You will most likely get I lead out of every 50 cards you pass out. Most people just through the cards away or stuff them in a dresser. But that 1 lead could net you $10,000 or more. A good thing about networking is that it gets the word out about what you do.

Classified Ads

Classified ads are a great place to advertise what you do. It is a must for every real estate investor to have an ad somewhere. Start off with a local paper like the thrifty nickel or one of the free papers. Its costs around $15 a week to have you ad in their but you get lots of great exposure. I know what you are thinking there are tons of other investors in the paper and in the classifieds. But I have called all of them that advertise and I will tell you that only two of them have ever answered their phone. The rest I am still waiting for them to return my call.

Your ad should just be something simple like I Buy Houses Cash, with your phone number. You should get a little creative and make your ad stand out from the others. Its real simple and remember to answer you phone.
Bandit Signs

Bandit signs are just simply signs that you put up around the community on telephone poles that say I buy Houses and a phone number. Most places hate them and you could get fined for putting them up. I had some up for a while and had great success with them, they work. If you do get a call from the code enforcement just comply with their wishes. Some people have told me to put them up on Friday nights and take them down Sunday nights. If the code enforcement harasses you I would recommend doing this.

Flyers

Flyers can be a great source of leads. What I do is make up flyers that just simple say Cash for you house. I list some things like have your been transferred? facing foreclosure?, behind on payments?, getting divorced?, etc. Then I put my phone number and web site.

I put these flyers out all over the place, at local businesses, and just find places that allow me to put them up. There are hundreds of businesses out there that have bulletin boards and allow you to put flyers up. Do this every week because that’s about as long as your flyer will last. Most get pulled down by others putting up flyers.

Mailers

Every big real estate investor does mailers. The most successful marketing in the world is direct marketing. Mailers are a pretty simple thing to do, that a lot of people do not do. It does take time to put together a mailer, print them out, stamp and lick all the envelopes but you will have leads coming in like crazy. So who should you send mailers too? People in foreclosure, landlords, vacant property owners (not the vacant house), people getting divorced, people late on payments, and really anyone that you think is motivated to sell.

The letters should just be one page saying that you would like to purchase the house they own, and that you can pay cash and close fast. Every real estate investor needs to be sending out some sort of mailer weekly.

Online Marketing

The internet is becoming the biggest place to find deals and for motivated sellers to find you. Statistics have shown that over 80% of home sellers and buyers start their search online. This means that if you do not have an online presence you are losing tons of business.

What should everyone have when doing online marketing? Every real estate investor should first off have a Seller and Buyer Squeeze page. These are pages or sites where sellers and buyers can give you’re their information. An investor should also have a word press blog. This helps to build your online presence; it’s a place where you can put articles and tips for sellers and buyers. Real estate investors also need to have ads all over the free online classified sites. This is just the basics for online marketing. I could write a book about it. Just learn as you go and read everything you can on online marketing. Also social media is a must. Get on all the social media sites.

All of these marketing venues are pretty inexpensive and should be done by everyone. There are several other ways to market your business but I would start here and work your way up. The key to all of this working is doing these consistently. To run a successful real estate business you have to be doing each one of these things weekly.