All Forum Posts by: Alex Z.

Can I add to your list? I like https://quantmaps.com/ if you want to overlay some data. 

I've done it in the past (2018-2019). I was able to generate leads but they weren't motivated. A lot of tire kickers and people looking for retail offers. I switched to Google Ads and haven't looked back. Much more expensive but higher quality leads. 

Facebook/Apple made a pretty big change recently. I haven't taken the time to figure out how to make Facebook ads work again. 

I do know that bringing your own list of potential leads into Facebook is going to yield better results. 

There are a couple companies that specialize in FB ads for wholesalers. You might reach out to them and see if they have thoughts around your budget/expectation. 

Create a goal, build a plan that maps to the goal. Market your services and follow up with leads. Build relationships with everyone you can contact regarding investment properties. Have a plan for how you'll close the transaction (how you'll wholesale it) Have fun. Be persistent. 

Full disclosure I work for Carrot.

There are some good points discussed in this thread but I would challenge a few of them. From my experience working with Wix can be quite a pain. Their SEO features aren't the best and their load time on mobile can be really slow. I have contracted (outside of REI) to work on Wix sites and always had a tough time getting anywhere with their SEO or support.

Also, if you go with Wix you need to build out content on all those pages, posts, etc. For some that may be a non-issue but writing good SEO content can take a little practice. Carrot gives you starter content out of the box that you can tweak to fit your brand. 

I know that Carrot sites are all over the place. In my market, there are 3-4 (and I know some of the investors personally). But it doesn't stop my site from getting leads. I run PPC traffic to them so the lead clicks to the site and might not even see other options. Plus at the end of the day, I don't worry about it too much because I know Carrot tests designs and I am more comfortable running traffic to a site I know performs vs one that just looks different. I would rather use the same tools, technology, strategy as investors I have seen be successful then worry if my site looks like someone ranking at the bottom of page 1. 

Just my $0.02. Any site you make can technically work if you have a good marketing plan and execute. 

@Alex P. Awesome. I sent you a direct message and would love to connect. 

@Patrick Hall Thank you for the response. I wanted to see if I understand what you were saying about Ridgefield's impact on Longview. Is your thinking that because Ridgefield is booming with new builds renters aren't going to want to go up to Longview but would rather live in Ridgefield?

I live in the general area and have been watching Zillow closely for the past couple of months. I have seen a couple houses flipped in the area and I was curious if anyone on BP is behind it?

I am just getting into real estate but work for a company that helps real estate investors generate leads online. I have generated a few motivated sellers leads myself but really need to focus if I am going to make this work. 

I am looking to meet up with local investors who are buying in the Kelso, Longview, Kalama area and grab some coffee and talk about your experiences in these markets. I would be happy to share some data our software has collected so it's a two-way convo. 

Send me a note on here if you are interested in meeting up. 

I second what @Aaron H. says about his first point. The lack of branding, credibility or trust is going to hurt your conversion rate. 

A few other things to consider

1) Most of your Facebook traffic will undoubtedly come from mobile. The way your page breaks down the form is on the bottom which means they have to scroll. It seems like a minor detail but testing shows that people expect/want their form to be the first thing see to interact with it. 

2) If you have a list of contacts from listsource I would use that in a custom audience on Facebook. That type of data tends to be better for your ROI than Facebook's default demographic/interest-based data.

Whoops, edited to add - I work at Carrot

Jake that is totally a legit question. I could talk for a long time on this subject but will try and be concise. 

When a visitor lands on your website our testing has shown there are a couple critical things that need to happen. 

• The website must load fast
• The website must build credibility in their eyes or answer a question they have
• The website must be easy to opt-in on (number of form fields, size of the form fields, compelling call to action, etc)
• The website must be easy to opt-in on mobile
• The website must get the right amount of information from them to qualify the lead

So Carrot handles most of that out of the box. More than likely you will need to bring the traffic to the table. If you create a page in a smaller market, it might be as simple as Google crawling your page and ranking you in the top 3 for a keyword. 

But for most investors in bigger markets, they are going to actively drive traffic from places like Facebook, Google PPC, Craigslist, YouTube, etc to their website so they can convert visitors into leads. 

So HOW Carrot generates leads is by performance. Taking 100 visitors to a non-performing site might generate 1-2 leads. Bringing 100 visitors to a site that is dialed in and converts well might bring in 6-7 leads. So same traffic, but different result.

Full Disclosure: I work at Carrot

I get the unique ability to see behind the scenes at Carrot. When you say "they claim to help with lead generation" this is true. Carrot members are able to generate seller, buyer, tenant, and a bunch of other leads through Carrot. 

But you do have to do some work to get people to your website. This could be SEO, PPC, Craigslist, etc. 

What Carrot really offers is a website that ranks well, gives you all the tools, resources, and capabilities to customize a site and drive traffic to it. 

Some of my favorite features at Carrot are the campaign tracking links (for Facebook and PPC ads), the keyword tracking (to see where I am in the SERPS) and the weekly coaching calls to get help with strategy. 

As for the $50/mo. I think it's all relative and the famous saying of "as compared to what". I know that a web developer would charge $2k+ to develop a personal website. 

I actually just ran into a HUGE issue with a private blog I manage (not a Carrot website) where it was infected with Malware and my hosting provider gave me 3 warnings and shut down my account. I spent the better part of last weekend trying to save my account before ultimately bundling up my WordPress install and moving hosting providers because I couldn't figure out how the malware was being placed on my server. Carrot handles all that type of security and backups so you don't have to. That $50 a month gets you the infrastructure AND the amazing support we offer + plus a website that has proven itself to convert well. 

Sorry if this comes off as a sales pitch (I just love Carrot). 

To sum up my thoughts in a quick sentence. Carrot is great, but you must come with an online marketing strategy and either put in the work or pay someone to do it. But the benefits from online lead generation can have a 100x ROI.

Happy to answer any questions you may have. 

I would suggest you do further research (as I have no experience with any of these companies) but here are a few companies that my research has uncovered.

1. Norada Real Estate

2. https://www.jasonhartman.com/properties/

3) Roofstock.com