Does Your Real Estate Investing Website Suck? A Coiv-19 Audit
A bad real estate investing website sucks leads, deals, money and profits. A good website attracts leads and nurtures them to close deals with you - generating money and profits for you.
For the last 16+ years that we’ve been selling real estate investing websites, and 20 years we’ve been investing in real estate, I’ve seen lots of changes in internet and real estate trends.
But one thing never changes – a successful real estate investing business always has an effective real estate investing website. A competent real estate investor MUST have a good – no, GREAT – website.
In this ever-competitive market, your website must attract leads. Closing deals makes or breaks most real estate investing business models. A good website has to do most of the heavy lifting for you.
Plus, when it draws leads in your sleep, it helps you close more deals, making you more money.
We’ve already seen that you must choose your website carefully. Your website needs attract leads, capture those leads and nurture them down a path that leads to closing more deals.
The covid-19 pandemic has also brought about opportunities for real estate investors. If you are ready and equipped for it, you’ll come out of this better off.
Any serious real estate investor has a website – but more often than not, we’ve found that most websites just don’t measure up – they suck!
Got a website? This audit will help you decide if to keep it, or switch to a better performing website.
Looking for one? Then read on to learn how to choose the right one.
Does your website suck money, suck time, and ultimately suck profits and potential out of your business?
These 6 factors determine if your website sucks:
1: Does it have a dated look & feel?
People hate an outdated look and feel, and they click off even before they read anything - especially on mobile devices.
Is your website outdated?
QUIZ:
The look:
On a scale of 1-5 how happy are you with how your website looks?
The feel:
Does the website instantly convey a clear message and quick course of action? Or does it have a confusing clutter with various messages that confuse visitors? On a scale of 1-5 how happy are you with its feel?
A real estate investing website that whose look and feel is modern adds to your credibility and will convert visitors to hot leads you can do business with.
Verdict
ANSWER:
If you answered below 3, you are wasting time and money sending people to your website. Your website sucks leads, sucks deals and sucks profits from your business! Get a better website first!
2: Does it generate leads?
Why would you have a real estate investing website if it doesn’t attract leads for you? It must be “conversion optimized” to compel each visitor to take action – such as call you, or sign up.
A visitor that leaves your website without taking any action might never come back.
Does your real estate investing website generate leads?
QUIZ:
T or F:
- My website INVITES visitors to share their information and entices them with tangible benefits to do so.
- It also offers multiple calls to action and makes it super easy to contact me.
An effective website must capture leads for you, delivering them to you for follow-up that leads to more closed deals.
Verdict
ANSWER:
Lead capture is your basic fodder for a successful real estate investing business. Without leads, you have nothing. Just an empty website.
So, if you answered F to either question – your website sucks!
3: Automation
So, your website generates leads, then what?
Most people are not ready to do business with you when they see your business for the first time. They need 5-12 exposures to warm up enough to close a deal with you.
A good website AUTOMATICALLY follow-ups with leads by email so they can do business with you.
Does your website have in-built automation?
Successful investors spend most of their time closing deals, not chasing people. A good real estate investing website hunts for you and delivers leads, encourages social sharing, and also helps you manage those leads.
QUIZ:
Does your website: (Select all that apply)
A: Notify you by email or text every time you receive a lead?
B: Automatically nurture leads using follow-up email at carefully timed intervals to warm them up to do business with you?
C: Send you reminders if you need to make personal follow-ups?
Too many investors spend a lot of time struggling to find leads, only for them to slip through their fingers because they don’t follow-up effectively.
A real estate investing website that doesn’t suck includes built-in software that follows up with your leads and helps you track and manage your leads from the first contact to closing.
Verdict
ANSWER:
A, B & C are MUST HAVES. If your real estate investing website lacks any of these, you’re likely losing leads along the way, and losing business because you can’t follow up effectively. Get a better website.
4: The tech
Just as much as your real estate investing website have to look good, it also has to perform – and the technology behind it must run the show.
QUIZ:
Check all that apply
A: My website is SEO optimized and shows up in search engines
B: My website is responsive and works well on both computer and mobile devices
C: I don’t know, but I get lots of leads
D: None of the above
An effective website will show up on the search engines without any input from you. With a little nudge, it will rank well in your local market and organic search results.
It will also be optimized for mobile devices – most of your leads will come through mobile devices.
Websites that are well optimized for mobile devices also rank better. If you can’t show up in the search engines, you won’t be closing a lot of deals.
Verdict
ANSWER:
A & B are the best answers. C can work too, but you need to know where your leads are coming from.
If you chose D, your website really sucks – it sucks leads, deals and your money! Get another one.
4: Videos
It’s proven that video gets more attention than other content. If you employ video in your marketing, you’ll get more conversions than if you don’t.
This means you’ll get more leads if you employ video.
MORE LEADS = MORE CLOSED DEALS
Is your site equipped with marketing videos?
QUIZ:
T or F
- I can load video to encourage visitors share their contact information
- My website has an option to enable a video speaking model on my website
Verdict
ANSWER:
If you answered F to 1 or 2, your website sucks leads from you. You don’t have to hire someone to create videos for you - Get a better performing website.
5: Sharing content
A website that allows you to share information seamlessly makes you job much easier. It exposes you to more eyeballs – hence more buyers and sellers.
Buying and selling real estate is a numbers game – your website must enable this.
Can you easily share content on your website?
QUIZ:
Y or N:
A: I upload properties easily to my website for sale, wholesale or rent. The website allows me to add descriptions, virtual tours, pictures and documents as I need.
B: I easily share my properties on social media with one click. Website visitors can share with their friends.
C: I easily email my properties to by my buyers list with a few clicks. All my property details are pre-loaded by default so I just have to click send to send it out.
A real estate investing website that doesn’t suck talks to other websites. It makes it a snap to market properties for sale. When you it can do this, you can spend more time closing deals and making money.
Verdict
ANSWER:
If you didn’t answer Y to all the questions, your website sucks time and effort from you. It also sucks money from you because you potentially lose deals to a poor performing website.
6: Ease of use
Nobody needs to have a degree to manage a website. Getting a real estate investing website should not enroll you into a technical project where you spend time working on your website.
Instead, your website is supposed work for you - to make it easier to manage your real estate investing business, and help you close more deals using less time, money and effort.
QUIZ:
Y or N:
A: My website supports any real estate investing business models – such as buying houses, selling, wholesaling or renting houses.
B: I control my website from a simple virtual back office.
C: It has pre-loaded content. I can add or edit content as I want. I have full control of forms to collect any information I need.
D: My website is easy to set up or change. I can make most changes in under 10 minutes.
E: If I need to change my design, I can do so in a few clicks.
F: My website captures and automatically follows up with visitors.
A website that doesn’t suck is easy to set up, offers a wide variety of responsive templates and content. It should also offer pre-loaded ready-made marketing messages and efficient customer support.
Verdict
ANSWER:
If you answered N to any of the questions, your website sucks time and effort from you. You probably spend a lot of time managing your website and your business. Your website is supposed to make your work easier and more productive.
Does your real estate investing website Suck?
So how did your website do? Does it pass all the check-marks for a good website?
Bottom line – your website needs to work for you and help you close more deals using less time, money and effort.
If your real estate investing website doesn’t target and reach a certain kind of audience, you’re committing suicide for your business.
If it doesn’t grab your visitor’s info for follow-up, and you just have people browsing without taking any action on your website, you’re losing deals and it’s sucking money from your business.
Interactive real estate investing websites have all the qualities above plus a lot more. They’re built from the ground up by real estate investors for real estate investors with one basic goal – DELIVER MORE CLOSED DEALS.
[DISCLOSURE - We've developed and market Interactive real estate investing websites]
About the author
Simon Macharia invests in real estate in Dallas Texas. He also runs Interactive Real Estate Investor Websites, built to attract leads, engage and nurture them by in-built automated email so they become ready to close deals with you.
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