All Forum Posts by: James M.

Really, Facebook and MySpace are only similar in that they are both social networks. Business are salivating over Facebook a lot more than MySpace though because of the demographics Facebook was able to acquire. Before Facebook really went public (as in, making it open to everyone), they only allowed people in colleges and universities to join. Obviously the 18 - 24 year old demographic is prime for marketing to, which is probably why so many large-scale businesses wanted to buy them out... and why Facebook is already valued in the billions and going up very quickly.

The great thing about Facebook compared to MySpace though is their advertising medium, which is actually free to use right now. I haven't tried it out yet, but I hope to get around to it very soon.

Of course, now you have the whole social networking war taking place. With Google allying with MySpace (Project "OpenSocial") to beat out Facebook (which Microsoft has joined up with), we'll see where this all goes...

Talk about a find Minna! I actually just posted something about ten minutes ago about some people dropping the prices of their houses down by 50%. It sounds ridiculous, but I actually saw it in the news about a month ago. Because of the whole buying freeze, it looks like more and more people are getting desperate to sell, which will mean dramatic price drops. Although I have to admit, I planned on seeing some good price drops, but nothing near to 50% ! :lol:

Interesting idea indeed. What I will be curious to see is how accurate Zaio's figures will be. If it's anything like Zillow though, chances are I will stay away from it due to the amount of value issues in the different locations.

Scott labeled a lot of nice gems when it comes to AdWords. I can't stress enough on how you really need to take some time and learn about the AdWords environment before you just throw your money at it. If you don't do it right and follow the points like Scott stated, you could lose a lot of money very quickly without any results. I'm sure if you search for 'Google Adwords' in a search engine, you will get a ton of information regarding how to best utilize AdWords to your advantage.

Yeah, I have also heard of this. You should be safe to put your signs up on the weekends. Worse comes to worse, they'll just take them down.

Wheatie is right on the money when it comes to 'right of way'. I have normally heard the phrase when it comes to land set aside for use as a highway corridor, but it sounds like it is the exact same thing according the what you posted about the law Urban.

I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but it truly does all come down to experimenting and recording your results. Another thing to consider is to not just think of offline advertising, online ads can also provide a good lead source as well. I noticed someone mentioned craigslist, which is also a good source.

If you're willing to put in the time, Google may be a good ad source for you as well. You can also think about using banner ads and getting them placed on websites that you think will drive quality leads...

I guess what I am trying to say is there are a ton of options you can pursue with advertising. Just test them out and see what happens. If they provide quality leads, you'll know to stick with it (as well as use it in the future) and if they're bad, then move on to another test / source.

Fortunately with it currently being a buyer's market and all, more people will probably be interested in buying a house versus tossing their money in the trash with renting (I'm talking from an owner's perspective, not an investor's). Especially because of the drastic measures some real estate agents are going through to sell a house. I think it was about three or four weeks ago I saw something on the news where some real estate agents were actually slashing house prices up to 50%!

Talk about the possibility of a good investment. At the same time though, if agents are cutting house prices by 50%, you can't help but wonder why they are doing that in the first place :wink: .

I usually have my own agent for deals. Granted they get a cut, but at the same time it gives me the safety that I am dealing with someone who knows everything necessary in the area I plan on buying real estate. They can break everything down for me so that I have to do little to no research on my own.

If you do plan on going with an agent though, make sure you look around. With the large amount of real estate agents nowadays, some people will work harder than others as well as take less commission. Especially with the current state of real estate marketing, I recommend you interview a variety of different agents in your area to see who best suites your needs for the money.

Thanks a lot for the welcome guys! A little more about myself huh... well, I have been in real estate for quite some time now and as you all know, there are always new things to be learned. I have primarily been working with single-family homes (and some multi-family's as well) and was thinking about stepping up to fiddling with commercial properties (though I am not sure yet). I will probably be moving out of Texas fairly soon and heading more northwest so I can get a change in environment. Also, the market looks in very good shape over there in comparison to the rest of the country, so I might as well see what I can do :wink: .

Thanks again for the greetings and I really hope I can be of some help to others here. Hopefully I'll pick up a few gems along the way myself :lol: .

I would recommend doing a little more (I know that's probably the last thing you want to hear) research. There are a couple of websites I stumbled into that may help you determine what kinds of properties to invest in. Granted, they are more geared towards specific areas, but it will give you a good mindset in what to generally look for. I'd post the links directly in here, but because I am still new, it is against the rules to do so. Just do the following:

- Go to Google and search for "best type of property to invest in" (no quotes)
- Click on 2 links in the search results: the first one starts with apartment-penang (ranked 1 when I checked) and the second one has propertyinvesting as the domain name (ranked 5 when I checked).

Both these sites have some interesting information as to the pluses and minuses of buying different forms of real estate and may be of interest to you.