Exploring Innovative Strategies in Today's Real Estate Market

[Bubba McCants]

Hello BiggerPockets Community,

The real estate landscape is continuously evolving, and staying ahead of the curve requires innovative thinking and strategies. I'm interested in discussing cutting-edge techniques that professionals are using to adapt to the current market trends.

Some areas of interest include:

• Technology Integration: How are you incorporating new technologies like AI, VR, or blockchain in your day-to-day operations?

• Green Housing: What strategies are you employing to cater to the increasing demand for energy-efficient and sustainable homes?

• Remote Real Estate Transactions: With the rise of remote work, what tools and processes have you implemented to facilitate transactions from afar?

• Creative Financing: What creative financing methods have you found success with in tight markets (e.g., seller financing, lease options, etc.)?

• Social Media and Online Marketing: Are there any innovative social media strategies or platforms that have been particularly effective for your lead generation or branding?

• Micro-Investing and Crowdfunding: How are these platforms changing the ways investors can participate in real estate deals?

• Market Adaptation: What unique strategies have you developed to adapt to your local market's conditions?

I believe sharing insights on these topics can help us all grow more sophisticated in our approaches. What innovative strategies have worked for you, and what lessons have you learned from them?

Looking forward to an enlightening discussion!

Best,

Donandbubba.com

[Don Konipol]

I think your post was too broad to get many responses.  But I appreciate the attempt to open discussion on some very interesting topics. So, in hopes that we can get some participation, I will share some of my experience in a few areas you mentioned

1. Remote transactions - more states have passed legislation allowing remote closing with remote notaries. Title companies have been reluctant to participate, however, we just closed a loan in Texas where the borrower signed remotely using a remote notarizatiion service and the title company accepted this and issue a title policy. 

2. Social media and online marketing - we signed up with our web developer for a service she began offering early last year where you pay a monthly fee for continuous SEO, including updates on social media, etc.  our deal flow has increased significantly, and our income is up almost 100%.  Since we are hard money lenders most of our loan requests come from commercial mortgage brokers.  I have 15,000 + mortgage broker contacts on LinkedIn, and 13,000 have agreed to receiving our monthly newsletter.  

3. Crowdfunding - our commercial loans are syndicated through a series LLC with each series being a single loan. We have about 100 investors who have invested with us, with about 25 - 30 actively looking for more investments. About half our investors were previous investors; the other half found us through our on line investment portal. We deal only with investors who can prove accredited status, minimum investment is $50,000. Our average investor has $400,000 invested with us.

[Bubba McCants]

Quote from @Don Konipol:

I think your post was too broad to get many responses.  But I appreciate the attempt to open discussion on some very interesting topics. So, in hopes that we can get some participation, I will share some of my experience in a few areas you mentioned

1. Remote transactions - more states have passed legislation allowing remote closing with remote notaries. Title companies have been reluctant to participate, however, we just closed a loan in Texas where the borrower signed remotely using a remote notarizatiion service and the title company accepted this and issue a title policy. 

2. Social media and online marketing - we signed up with our web developer for a service she began offering early last year where you pay a monthly fee for continuous SEO, including updates on social media, etc.  our deal flow has increased significantly, and our income is up almost 100%.  Since we are hard money lenders most of our loan requests come from commercial mortgage brokers.  I have 15,000 + mortgage broker contacts on LinkedIn, and 13,000 have agreed to receiving our monthly newsletter.  

3. Crowdfunding - our commercial loans are syndicated through a series LLC with each series being a single loan. We have about 100 investors who have invested with us, with about 25 - 30 actively looking for more investments. About half our investors were previous investors; the other half found us through our on line investment portal. We deal only with investors who can prove accredited status, minimum investment is $50,000. Our average investor has $400,000 invested with us.

 Don, I appreciate the feedback and the response you made.  I will keep that in mind for opening discussions on Bigger Pockets.  Also, I am intrigued in your commercial loan investment.  At the moment we are not ready to invest as we have several houses looking to get built and close out.  Maybe in the future we can connect so I can learn a little more.  Thank you!

[Bruce Woodruff]

Interesting topic. I have two thoughts - 

1) Green building is not really a big thing. People want it to be, it's very cool and hip, but really the masses just want nice clean, functional and affordable housing. It's just a buzz word, more than anything else.

2) A concept that has always interested me is the 'Lease-To-Own' concept. If that could be re-thought and made a prime buying strategy - that had benefits for the seller as well (tax break/credits, etc)....?