Couple of Questions about marketing technology

[Russell Norgren]

I have experience with buying, selling, and renting properties but I am looking at starting to use some of the ideas that I have been reading about here on BP. This will take me into an area that I am not familiar with so I would like to ask a few questions to get some ideas / suggestions / recommendations from people who have experience with these things.

First, I am looking at marketing to find more deals than I have been finding. I am going to be using mailers (post cards initially) to target people who may be interested in selling. I know this is old and many have done this profitably. Where I am stuck is trying to decide where to get a phone number / system from. I have a google voice account that I use for my regular job and I give out my personal cell phone number to friends and family to keep things separated.

I need to keep my expenses as low as possible and have thought about getting a magicjack so they issue me a new number. Then set up a second GV account that calls the magicjack which would be forwarded to my new GV number. This keeps expenses down ($69.99 up front with the first year free and $29.99 per year after the first year) and gives me a basic way to "route" calls to my cell or voice mail. Answering every time I receive a call is not an option because of work. I looked at some of the virtual stuff but it is $20 per month and only has a limited amount of minutes. The virtual PBX products also seem to have a lot of services that I would not need and it does not make sense to me to pay for things I don't need.

I have not been able to figure out a way to create a second GV phone number without having a second number for it to link to. When I try using my current cell number, which is already linked to a GV account, it tells me that I can only have one GV number for my cell number. Even when I have tried starting a separate account with a different email and all. Is there anything else that you can suggest that may work for me or does it sound like the idea I have is realistic?

Second, I looked at starting a web site to attract buyers, sellers, and possibly investors also. I would put the website info on all mailers, the voice mail, ads, cards, etc. but I keep finding that the expenses are much more than I thought they would be. Several of the BP pros have offered to assist but the expense just does not seem like it is worth it right now. It seems like it may be something that I want to do later when I see that these new avenues are actually bringing me deals.

I have thought about doing a Facebook page or a Blogger page through Google as an inexpensive option to a web page. This would allow me to get my information out there and attract leads but keep my expenses low/free. Would there be any down sides to doing this instead of a web page? Meaning, would it be better to just pay to have a website done because it will be much more effective than the FB or Blogger option?

Last, I thought about trying to "advertise" ("Are you interested in investing with me?") on business cards and my personal FB page etc. I am a little worried about doing that though because of the new SAFE act that deals with mortgages. When I was reading (more skimming than reading) the information about the laws in Alabama it appeared that advertising for loans may have consequences. I also noticed that it seems like ANYONE who executed a mortgage loan on a SFR has to have a license to make that mortgage loan. The main reason for the website, FB page, or Blogger page would be to attract "private" money. If this is the case then it would seem that "private" money would not even be an option anyway which would make some of these things a moot point anyway.

I know the last topic is probably better suited for a different forum but it seemed to fit in with this post because it is all related. I am sorry if it should be in a different topic.

I am really at a sticking point with the phone number / system so I definitely need advice for this one. I am waiting to print any cards, post cards, etc. until I decide what my phone number is going to be so that I can buy in bulk to save money rather than just buying a few with a temporary phone number.

Thank you for your time and advice.