All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Hey all. I'm curious to get everyone's take on whether or not paid social media (SoMe) ads are an effective way to sell real estate? I'm fully aware this is a super difficult question to answer as there are a lot of factors to consider here: What type of real estate (e.g. luxury, foreign)? What type of seller (realtor, wholesaler, FSBO)? What specific SoMe platform (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc)? All of these questions and more can drastically impact the target audience and therefore one's success rate (and therefore opinion) with using paid SoMe ads for selling real estate.

Having said all that, *IN GENERAL* do you believe paid SoMe ads work or not, and why? Feel free to touch upon your own experiences or what you've heard from others. I'm sure many of us will be coming from many different areas of real estate as well as geographic regions so it'll be interesting to hear everyone's opinions.

Also, if you're a believer in using paid SoMe ads, what's been the reason for your success? Too many times I've heard from people who say "If done right, SoMe ads can be very effective." Ok. But what does that mean? What does "if done right" look like?

Looking forward to getting this conversation going!

@David Lee Hall, III my investment strategy is mainly buy-and-hold and my anticipated hold period is long-term. I also tend to take a fairly conservative approach to my investing strategy. There need to be strong indicators of long-term success before I throw money into anything. As long as those indicators are there and I hold onto the asset for more than 20–25+ years, I truly believe with 99% certainty that the property value will be greater in 25 years than it will be today (above and beyond inflation). Sure there will be some places that will fall by the wayside due to some unforeseen historical event/shift (e.g. failing domestic industries and the resulting widespread lack of jobs in specific areas—think of all those old automotive factory towns and coal towns that are now completely dilapidated and neglected). I don't think Pittsburgh's going to be one of those places, though. It's been one of the least volatile markets in the US for quite some time now (it performed "great" relative to most other US markets in 2008). Yes, the city continues to experience a net negative migration of its population over the past several decades, but there are still some glimmers of hope for a turnaround. Healthcare's huge here and it's difficult to see that changing anytime soon since it's a very human-capital-intensive industry. Meanwhile, we continue to make progress in building our reputation as an emerging tech city (CMU being the driving force behind this, which—on another topic altogether—they need to do a better job at keeping more and more talent here). So yes I guess I'm perma-bull on Pittsburgh given these reasons and long time horizon.

@David Lee Hall, III thanks for adding to the discussion. Really appreciate your 360 "Why?" vs. "Why not?" perspective on the neighborhoods you selected. And I really love that you went way outside the box and selected Moundsville, WV as one of your choices. I had to laugh. But to be honest it's not an insane opinion like you say. Your rationale makes perfect sense. New cracker plant. Low taxes. Seems right to me. I'm just a little skeptical about anything in WV ever generating significant returns at least relative to other nearby opportunities (no offense to WV folks!). I've definitely heard Marshall-Shadeland and Millvale thrown around a lot in this conversation and all the points you make are spot on.

@Samuel Vogt I like Beechview! Dormont's been a big success for a lot of investors and that success will only continue to spillover into Beechview. Uptown is a hard sell. Maybe a long time from now (like decades), but I don't see it being in the running for the next 4-7 years.

@Steven Ko, I really appreciate your response. I'm big on East Liberty, too. I still think there's a lot of growth potential here (I live in East Liberty) for all the reasons you listed. That being said, I wonder if the current developed state and future developments are already being priced into the neighborhood property values, thus hurting any solid ROI for new investors (at least relative to opportunities in other neighborhood that have much larger growth potential because they're not quite as developed yet).

@Corey Depuy I really appreciate your input here, as well. And I especially love the curveball you threw in there (I love this kind of thinking!). Like Moundsville, WV, those areas make perfect sense. It just goes to show you how much real estate is dictated by nearby job availability and opportunity (and yes, damn you Amazon). The new plants will result in new jobs and increased demand for housing in those areas. Being that those areas are slightly underdeveloped, property values could see significant changes as new commercial and residential plans pop-up.

I'm going to go against the rules here and put all my eggs into one basket (neighborhood), and it was already mentioned here by Steven: Garfield. I think it's the safest bet. Why? It's still vastly underdeveloped relative to the two booming neighborhoods of Lawrenceville and East Liberty that it's sandwiched between. The massive success of those two neighborhoods is already starting to spill over into the area, which can already be seen with the massive amount of renovations happening on seemingly every block (like you mentioned Steve). It just makes sense from a 4-7 year timeline. Places like Marshall-Shadeland are interesting, but I think the growth of Garfield will be much greater and faster in the next 4-7 years relative to this area given what it has going on around it in Lawrenceville and East Liberty. Not saying these other areas won't experience growth (I guess I'm also a big perma-bull, Steven), I just think Garfield will have quicker and higher returns.

I know this goes against my "observation" only criticism from the original post, but to be honest I'm still very new to the field of real estate and I'm looking to use these kinds of posts in order to start discussions so I can learn from local area experts and/or newcomers like yourselves (and vice versa you learn from myself and one another). I think a lot of good areas were discussed in this post (especially the wild card areas where you really had to dig deep and pull out something non-obvious) so I really appreciate everyone's response!

"Oh, THAT neighborhood? It's definitely going to be the next Lawrenceville."

I hear this said ALL. THE. TIME. And yet somehow it always seems to be a different neighborhood. Sure there's some overlap in answers. But there's never one consistent answer provided amongst local real estate investors in Pittsburgh. And of course that makes sense since no one can truly predict "the next Lawrenceville" with 100% certainty, but still, why can't all the true local investors come to a general consensus on this topic? Surely there's enough empirical data out there to be able to narrow it down to one solid area that beats out the rest? No?

So here's my question and challenge for all of you. In your opinion, what are your predictions for THE top investment area in Pittsburgh based on overall return over the next 4–7 years? No, strike that, what are your top THREE area picks? That'll help you from having to narrow it down to just one. But here's the challenge, try to support your picks using actual facts and data (NOTE: if you must rely on observation then that's fine, but only as a last resort... observation meaning "I've seen a bunch of XYZ happening, etc, etc, etc"). 

Looking forward to reading everyone's answers and getting this interesting topic going! 

Very much looking forward to this, @Josh Caldwell! Thanks for posting.

@Account Closed you should 100% check this out.

Hey Matthew. My business partner @Account Closed and I would be happy to hear more about your investing goals here in the local Pittsburgh area. We're a local wholesaling and investment outfit called Penn Home Solutions.

What are your specific goals and objectives as an investor? Looking for buy-and-hold properties or more so fix-and-flips? Any information you could provide would be great.

I'll message you privately.