Websites

[Bruce Dalis]

I am investigating building my website. Has anyone used 'Lead Propeller'? It seems reasonable at $49 a month.

[Todd Heitner]

I have to disagree with some of the comments here that $49/month is a rip-off, etc.  That's like saying buying a car is a rip off because I can buy a scooter that gets me around for a fraction of the price.  It's all about value and what you're getting for the cost.  There are several important factors to take into account:

1)  What is your time worth?  If you're not a designer, even a do-it-yourself solution can take a lot of time and be a huge distraction.  Sure, they give you a template, but you have to come up with all the content - write all the copy, find photos that give the right feeling, etc.  Is this really the best use of your time, or should you be marketing and doing deals?

2) What will the end result look like?  I don't mean to offend anyone here, but I visited some of the websites of people giving advice and within 2 seconds thought, "This is a do-it-yourself website."  They always have a certain look to them, and to be frank, it's not a professional look.  Granted, not everyone will pick up on it, but many people will.  Do you want to give prospects the impression that you're either a cheapskate and don't want to pay for a website or that you're a beginner and can't afford a website?  Neither is going to help people trust you with the biggest investment of their life, their house.  A website should help people build confidence, not undermine it.

3) What is included?  If we were talking about just hosting, then yes, $49 would be a little high for hosting one site.  But if you're getting a professionally-designed site that's made specifically for real estate investors, if you're getting pre-written website copy (I'm not sure if they include this, but probably), if you're getting pre-built lead capture forms, if you're having someone manage the technical aspects of your site for you, if you're getting high quality, fast hosting (in other words, no cheap HostGator / GoDaddy hosting), and you have someone available to help you, then I think that's well worth the price.

Yes, you can spend less money to have a website set up.  But do you want a website or do you want a good website?  It's generally true that you get what you pay for.  That being said, I do feel that some of the options on the market are overpriced, like $200/month systems that promise leads, etc.  I think they just add on lots of bells and whistles that most people don't use.  Maybe they're worth it, I don't know.  But no website replaces the need for marketing if you want to build a successful business.

Find a system you're comfortable with that you can afford and go with it.  A website can be an important part of your business and is worth doing right.

By the way, I'm not affiliated with LP in any way.  In fact, they're my competition.  So I'm not defending them because I'm getting anything out of it.  I just saw several big factors being overlooked in this discussion.  The wrong mindset can really limit your success.  Doing things the cheapest way possible isn't always the best.