All Forum Posts by: Thomas Fortune

SEO is a very tough thing to outsource. I'd be cautious with who you hire here...stay away from people who offer to "build links", use "blog networks" or "social bookmarking". That stuff can drive temporary results, but carries dangers with it in the long term. Spend a few hours reading through Google's Webmaster guidelines, and stick to recommendations there.

Your best bet is to build a great site using a developer who knows the basics of SEO, and then simply hire a writer to produce high quality content for your site (either in the form of static pages, or in a blog format). 

@Dev Horn - you've hit the nail on the head. I wouldn't expect FB to out-perform search advertising because it's "push" marketing instead of "pull" marketing.

But what happens when you've maxed out the potential of Google or Bing? The potential to leverage search marketing is limited to the volume of searches being done for the keywords you are targeting. Sometimes you simply can't spend more money to get more clicks in search....because there's a finite number of people searching for the keywords you are targeting.

So if you want to scale your budget up on the online marketing side, what's the next best bet outside of search? Is facebook an option (despite being less effective than search) that can still deliver a reasonable return?

Your $100 test is very interesting...and probably what I would have guessed. What makes me curious in, what might happen if an investor spent $1K instead of just $100???

If you are marketing to ONLY out of state w/equity, you'll likely find that the list size isn't huge. In my farm (which is reasonably large), my out of state list is only about 1,000 people. While that's enough to build a campaign around, when you think about scaling your marketing efforts up you'll have layer on additional criteria - in this case, the in-state absentee pool is typically substantially larger.

@Tim Leslie - That's what I assumed. While there are a ton of targeting parameters with FB, none seem to be particularly in line with how I'd typically target direct mail, etc.

@Account Closed - I wish it was that easy :)

I was thinking about testing some FB ads, using some "we buy houses for cash" type messaging. I'm curious if anyone else has tested this and seen any notable results?

@Bryan N. - I'm based in Virginia Beach and have been digging into this myself over the past few months. From what I've heard, good property managers are extremely hard to come by in our area. I've heard COUNTLESS stories exactly like the ones you shared with your test - most of the major players treat the PM work like it doesn't even matter - no returned calls, late to appts, etc.

I have't heard of the company that @Sean Ploskina mentioned - 8% is very reasonable, especially if they are doing a good job.

@Aaron Mazzrillo - not to side track this thread (because it's a good one), but i'm just wondering how you verbally deliver your "ridciulously low offers". In other words, do you brace the person ahead of time that your number is likely lower than they expect, or do you just throw it out as if it's a completely normal number?

Jared DeValk - you have 1/4 contracts close? 75% of your contracts DONT close? Seems like I must be misinterpreting here...a little help?

Justin Escajeda - I also love the obx and have looked into buying there a bit. I Also have family who own there, so I've got at least a bit of first hand insight. Unfortunately, it's tough to get a reasonable return with a vacation rental there. Maintenance costs are high due to harsh environment, as well as wear and tear on the property from vacationers (as opposed to long term tenant). Price to rent ratios are also less than ideal. It is possible to cash flow, but for the most part you are looking at a very high down payment. So from an investment standpoint you can do much better with your money elsewhere. My personal opinion is to grow your portfolio elsewhere, then once you are comfortably wealthy come back and buy your beach house!!

My yellow letters are starting to generate calls, and I'm working through the best way to work them. Some of these questions might be dumb, but I'm certain others have dealt with the same-

Do you keep a pen/paper handy to jot notes? This is easy in an office environment, but when you are at home, in the car, etc do you just keep a pen in your pocket?!

How do you ask the address in a way that doesn't make you look stupid? Obviously I mailed the letter....seems like the seller expects me to know the address already...

Which leads to this - how do you talk price on the phone without knowing anything about the specific property in advance? If I'm at my computer I can pop in the address quickly and get a feel for value....but without a computer how do you handle this? My list is based on Assessed value of 100-200k....but that's all I know prior to looking up the specific address in question.

If the caller seems to be a tire kicker, what questions do you ask to try and confirm?

Thanks!!