Social Media presence

[Luiny Tavares]

Hi Family,

I'm happy to announce that today I passed my New Jersey Realt estate Exam. Congrats to me, So now I hold New York and New Jersey licenses. I did it for the access to the MLS, it was more challenging than I previously thought, I am excited because now I can make my own offers, and go check out properties that I potentially want to buy.

My next step is getting lines of credit so that I can have a leg up when making my bids.  One very important aspect of investing in Real Estate that I have ignored is Networking.  when I first decided that I wanted to become an investor, about two months ago, I was on this site every day, but I have not kept it up.  I understand that my networking will be the single most important factor in my success in this business.

I am a very social person Empirically however, I have not, up to now been very involved in social media, I mean I am on Facebook I have a twitter handle G+, MySpace, even something called High5 Lol... That being said I never post much or even interact on these platforms, however, I do understand that if I am to have any semblance of success in this business, I must have a strong social media presence, So please give me any advice on how I can stay in constant touch with my social media platforms.

Thanks for Reading and responding. 

[Gerard J.]

Congrats on passing the RE exam! I too am considering getting my license, if only for having access to the MLS. I used to have my license in CA 10 years ago but never did anything with it.

I think networking is an integral part of your success in this business. BP is only one of the many ways you can network. But I think it also depends on your goals. For me I would like to invest out of state so it's important to me that I get to know people from many different places that I can share ideas and bounce ideas from. But if you are a very social person as you say, it might work out better for you if you start meeting people in person by joining your local real estate meetups first. 

For many that are somewhat socially introverted, social networking works best because they don't have to meet these people face to face first, which can sometimes feel very awkward. Social networking allows you to "break the ice", in a way, until one is comfortable meeting others in person. In order to develop a solid social media presence, it's a must that you post often and contribute to discussions (just like I'm doing now) :) But that takes time to cultivate. People will need to see your name and face more often in this site before you can build trust and rapport. By the way, when I refer to social media in the context of this discussion, I'm referring to the BP forums. 

I have FB, Instagram, Twitter, and such but I don't use them for real estate purposes - not yet. I think that's what this forum and the whole BP community is for. I would start cultivating relationships here first. And once you develop a rapport with the good folks here, then maybe expand that relationship with them beyond BP by linking with them through FB, Twitter and the likes.

Just my .02 cents!