Creating a real estate brand - is it necessary?

Question

I am an investor that buys/rents/flips/residential/commercial. I have done 50+ rehabs and hold 30+ rentals so I am at the point where my near future goals are raising more private capital and investing in apartments/commercial.

I am finally moving my home office (due to 2 young children) into a new commercial office building I am purchasing and leasing out the other space.

Aside from putting my name on the sign, is it worth the time and effort to build a real estate brand? Everything from creating a website, instagram/social media posts, youtube videos ect...

I am certainty not the look at me type on social media. I think its cool when successful wealthy guys go under the radar. The only reason I am considering it is because I have a lot of information and knowledge to create content BUT WOULD IT BENEFIT ME other then feeding an ego? Would it help me find investors or potentially earn income if videos and posts get enough followers?

Is having your name and business as "out there" as possible good? Anyone with experience or not please pitch in.

Alexander Felice · Answer

Social credibility is highly valuable and still in it's infancy. My online brand has brought me more deals than anything else, and I don't do any marketing, just having a presence brings the right people to me. For me, investing in my own brand has had the second highest return on investment second only to books. Direct real estate returns would be somewhere in 4th or 5th I think you're crazy not to pursue it, although obviously you can do fine without it, social value is all upside and zero downside.

Russell Brazil · Answer

I second @Alexander Felice sentiment here. There was a time when I felt having a brand was sort of insignificant, but a few years back I changed my mindset on that, and with that brand building I tripled my income. And it isnt like I put particularly much effort into building my brand. I just post what Im doing, both professionally and personally on social media.

Russell Brazil · Answer

So Im active on social media. I post on BP. I post on Instagram. I post on FB. I post in FB groups. I run FB andnInsta ads. The more people see my content out on the internet, the more it drives my brand, then the more likely I am to gain business from that. As I do more business, more people want to do business with me. Part of my branding is also helping to build other people's business by helping to promote them....which they end up reciprocating. Then because part of my brand is helping others...they also reciprocate with good lending rates, bringing me deals, sending me referrals. The branding goes hand in hand with networking in that sense.

Alexander Felice · Answer

Pretty much all I do is write my blog. The skills needed to create a valuable online presence are varied so my method is not the best by any means but it works for me. I write authentically and transparently and people relate to it: that's my entire strategy. In the last year countless people have reached out to me asking for help to duplicate my process, and I've made good partners through it. In June a good friend that I originally met through my website brought me my first multifamily and we closed on it together. It's brought me other opportunities as well like writing for BP, going to conferences, and my small-time local meetup that I run has exploded in the last year all thanks to my online presence. Again, I don't do any marketing, but when people find my online content they know I'm the realest deal that has ever existed and they just can't resist being part of it ;) ;) ;) There are many different approaches to digital content production but not participating in social exposure of any kind is a mistake....unless you thing this internet fad is going to go away or slow down?

Russell Brazil · Answer

Sure things like company names, websites, logos are part of the branding concept.....but they dont encapsulate all that branding is. Your brand is more than a logo...it is a reputation. For me, my brand isnt a company, I am my brand. My reputation in the market place. I often think about this too in terms of my friend @Ned Carey. Ask someone in Baltimore if they know Crab Properties, his company. No one knows that. Ask them if they know Ned, and everyone knows Ned and his reputation, and what he does. He is his brand, while the company in his case, much like mine, doesnt mean squat.Now you have your surname in your company name. There is certainly pluses and minuses to that. If you create a personal brand for yourself, then that may carry over to your company name. However a real distinct disadvantage to that is, if you ever sell your company, someone may look at the name and then think you are that brand, and may not pay as much for the company as if it had some random name.The other thing that you can always do as well, is have a partial company name that is easy to convert across multiple sectors. Im just making something up here, and will use part of Alex's website name as an example....his website is Broke is a Choice. If he wanted to add flipping to his company, he could have a division Choice Homebuilders....if he wanted to add a wholesaling it could be Choice Homebuyers, or if he wanted to do syndication it could be Choice Capital. So something to that affect would allow you to have consistent branding, while also tailoring it to different projects.

Alexander Felice · Answer

NICE! episode 301 is the best one yet episode 192 is the worst one yet bwahaha

Nicole Heasley Beitenman · Answer

@Alexander Felice @Russell Brazil Thank you both so much for the feedback. If @Joshua Dorkin or @Brandon Turner are listening, this would be a great podcast topic if it hasn't been done already. I'm only on episode 251, so I'm a little behind.

Ivan Barratt · Answer

Today; perhaps even more than in the past, brand/reputation is mission critical to your success.

Jay Chang · Answer

Not only is it important to have a strong presence on social media, it's also important to have meetups to attract real estate investors. All the successful real estate investors, such as Rod Khleif, Joe Fairless, and Adam A. Adams, use podcasts, meetups, books, blogs, and instagram/facebook.Good luck!

Nicole Heasley Beitenman · Answer

@Alexander Felice I can't believe you hate your brand name! It's so compelling. I hope I'm half as far as you are in two years. @Russell Brazil Putting our surname in our company name was both a strategic and personal decision. I invest in my hometown, where my family has lived for several generations and is well-known. It's also a way to pass my surname down to my future children after I marry; however, as it's barely gotten off the ground, I haven't thought about selling it, so thank you for bringing that up! I definitely don't want to use my company name as my personal brand name. If I were going to create a community similar to Alex's or Paula Pant's, I don't want my name to be a part of it. But I haven't considered the relationship between my company brand and my personal brand and how those two things will coexist. You've given me much more to think about!