Prattville, AL · Member since 2015 · 30 posts · 9 votes
hey bp!
I am beginner investor, I just got a house under contract waiting to close on it. I have great ambition to acquire a large rental portfolio. I am very ambitious about the pursuit, always reading, driving for dollars, yellow letter campaigns. I am always trying to work at it but sometimes there are days I just don't know what to do but wait to close on my first house and prepare to rehab it. My question is what are some things that can be done daily to "build your busines" or things that one can turn into habits/ disciplines that are beneficial to new or old investors?
@Jonathan Brown Have you considered ranking your website for upper page SERPs? Even pages 2-3 on Google will yield periodic free leads (by "free" I mean not paying money), and climbing to page 1 you will receive steady off-market lead flow. Individual content, such as blogs, can also rank for Google and be a lead source. Most SEO ranking activity requires time, not money, so if you're looking to leverage time for more deals (without paying postage or pay-per-click) it's a good place to start.
Of course, you will have to secure a domain and design the site. There are costs for that, but costs to get a site up and running pale in comparison to direct-mail and home purchases.
@Jonathan Brown Have you considered ranking your website for upper page SERPs? Even pages 2-3 on Google will yield periodic free leads (by "free" I mean not paying money), and climbing to page 1 you will receive steady off-market lead flow. Individual content, such as blogs, can also rank for Google and be a lead source. Most SEO ranking activity requires time, not money, so if you're looking to leverage time for more deals (without paying postage or pay-per-click) it's a good place to start.
Of course, you will have to secure a domain and design the site. There are costs for that, but costs to get a site up and running pale in comparison to direct-mail and home purchases.
Website SEO coding to get and keep the search engine reporting you as number one (ie the first or top in the repsonse list) is non-trivial, takes a professional and the search engines are always changing how they rate websites.
@Jonathan Brown Don't be discouraged - you can find a web developer to make more than an adequate Wordpress website for certainly no more than a couple thousand dollars. These websites aren't complex, as far as websites go (it's essentially a blog, fill-in forms, and basic pages - this does not require a world class web designer). You need a responsive site optimized for mobile (again, not world class web designing). A couple thousand might be substantial or might not be for you: it is relatively cheap IMO because once the site is designed there is relatively minimum upkeep.
Alternatively, if you can't shell out several thousand dollars, you can use a dedicated real estate generation site for about $50/month (I won't cite products, but you can find several providers of this service). This is the type of product I use from my website.
For what it's worth, besides using the professional service for $50 per month to maintain the site, I've created the entirety of the content on my site, based on my own learning and knowledge. My site ranks #1 on "sell my house in Broward" one of my farm areas, and pages 2 -3 for "sell my house" in my other counties (Miami-Dade & Palm Beach County), so I have more work to do but I'm getting there. Organically, I get about 5-10 leads per month. Length of time is a key factor for Google ranking because it is a factor in terms of Google considering your site an authority. I'm 11 months in - my competitors are at around 3-5 years - so I'm catching up.
In any case, nothing in the business is easy. If you work hard on your site, build backlinks, engage in regular "social signals", keep your site up-to-date with fresh content, you will climb.
Although Google does change its algorithm overtime, the trend has been to make "technicalities" less relevant. For example, it used to be keyword stuffing was important - Google has gotten smart to that and now will penalize you for excessive keyword use. It used to be backlinking could be successful on any site, now Google will penalize you for "blackhat" tactics such as your website being linked on low quality websites. Through networking effort, my site has been discussed on Trulia, Nasdaq, MSN, OpenHouse, Gobankingrates, and I'm always working on it.
I'm not a professional in terms of having some degree, but all this information is available to learn online. I would encourage you to not wait before taking action - as it will take 12 or more months to catch up to competitors.
@Jonathan Brown I agree with the above suggestions. Don't go too deep too fast. Take it one step at a time. Look for a good deal to get started on and find the right financing. If you are looking to do a website, there are many free options available such as Wordpress or Wix. If you are looking for a custom website I am happy to give you a bid. Also make sure you do the SEO at the same time you are building the site. It is easier to do it as you go by integrating META tags, ALT tags and making it mobile friendly.