All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Greene

@Chris Toedter - immediately call his broker. This is why real estate agents have a bad name. There are no side deals. There are occasions when a listing agent gives out such a small buyer side (1%) that we ask the buyer to pay 2% on top of that, but that is a separate agreement and they pay our brokerage and we get our split. You can not go outside the brokerage as an agent and there certainly are no premiums to an agent.

@Thomas Poloncarz Jr - Zillow pre-foreclosure "leads" you should think of as pre-pre-foreclosures because they are only accurate about 50% of the time and only continue to be updated about 25% of the time. When a lis pendens is filed, even way early, Zillow marks it as a pre-foreclosure. Some of these get worked out and never reach foreclosure. Some of these are sold and stay on Zillow even after they have been renovated and sold. Zillow doesn't care.

There are many, many sources better than pre-foreclosure lists. You can build your own lists using something like ListSource, but if you are new to it you should first be driving for dollars and looking for homes that are unkempt and then doing the research on those particular homes.

@Lissette Deleon - way too many people try to build a social platform too early by using stock images and quotes and phrases. It doesn't matter how many followers you have on Instagram, it matters how many are actually paying attention to you. I advocate a slow and steady approach to scaling up your social, based on real-life results. New agents often just post great photos of living rooms or they buy followers, but that will never help your business. Facebook is much more effective for reaching who you want than Instagram right now. Instagram for real estate is a better name recognition, brand building when you are new.

Make a Facebook business page and slowly build ads off that, but you have to gain experience in the field before you fill up your social profiles because you will only build trust and get people to like you and want to work with you if your social posts are based on what you are actually doing and learning along the way.

@Derrick E. - I consider a Facebook campaign successful at .04 cents per engagement or less. Anything else isn't performing well. I spend a lot of money on Facebook and you will be most successful by putting a big spend and seeing what it does in the first 4 hours and then cut it or push it. I spend about $500/month or more just on Facebook ads, targeting buyer, sellers, investors, agents to recruit. Some are cold geographical lists for listings and some are targeted.

Targeted lists on Facebook are my whole sphere of influence is constantly updated and soft marketed to all the time ($1-$5/day) for testimonial ads and reminders. I also do the same with lists of agents I might recruit. We also do more targeted ads to back up our blogs, like if we are targeting first-time buyers we look deep for renters using the tools Facebook has available.

@Keivan Darius - I wrote a quick blog on BP about just this -  https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/10015/64777-5-tips-to-find-an-investor-friendly-agent .  PM me with any questions at all. Most agents think it's too much work or are too lazy, but if you follow my tips, you will find someone who can help for sure.

I generate about 100 leads per listing in 2 days using targeted Facebook ads. You have to be very specific with your content and graphics and everything has to lead to a lead capture page or there is no point.

This is our second sponsored real estate investor meetup.

We are a real estate team at Prominent Properties Sotheby's International Realty in Short Hills, but this is not a pitch event. This is a networking event for real estate investors, real estate service providers and anyone else who may be interested. We have partnered with United Mortgage and Foundation Title on this event.

We are looking to connect real estate investors in the area, provide resources and develop relationships to have better discussions about how tough it is to invest in Essex and Union County right now. We are providing appetizers for you between 6-9 p.m. We look forward to seeing you at the event!

@Sarah Brown - one thing to look out for the is the buyer premium. For many of the online auction sites, the buyer pays a 5% premium on top of the winning bid price. It is common for some to be on the MLS and some to be off, but you should continue to work with your agent on these properties. All MLS properties will usually be viewable, but not all auction properties (not on the MLS) will be - some are sold occupied and some have do not disturb occupants marked on them. There is no benefit to placing a bid prior to an online auction beginning because, just like eBay, they will run it to the end to see how high it can go.

@Tyler C. - PM me and I will send you a couple options.

@Jason Koehl - Realtors bringing potential tenants usually have them fill out a rental application. The renter's agent isn't going to check all the information as they will rely on the landlord or the landlord's agent to do the tenant verification. What was the credit score? You aren't going to get money back. As @Ariel Smith said, when a landlord accepts a tenant and signs the lease, they have made a choice to accept everything in the application and it is inferred that due diligence was done.