All Forum Posts by: Tim Herndon

@Ken Betza

Sure. No worries!

A squeeze page is a single web page with the sole purpose of capturing information for follow-up marketing; that means NO exit hyperlinks. Quality squeeze pages use success stories that the prospect would relate to when making a buying decision. They also use things like color psychology, catchy sales copy and keyword rich text placed with SEO (search engine optimization) in mind. Some advanced marketers even use audio and video on their squeeze page.

Internet marketers borrow copywriting techniques from offline direct response marketing. This includes the use of a headline, bullets, teaser copy, deadlines, testimonials, scarcity, and the like. Aggressive marketers will present visitors with multiple incentives in exchange for their contact information.

As a general rule, Internet marketers try to keep the content on their squeeze pages to a minimum. The goal of the page is to obtain the visitor's email address; additional information could distract the user or cause them to "click away" to a different website. Navigation and hyperlinks are almost always absent from typical squeeze pages. The absence of links is used to focus visitors' attention on one choice: register for the email list or leave the site. Savvy internet marketers have discovered that convincing a visitor to sign up for an email list provides an opportunity to present that visitor with multiple sales messages over time, develop a relationship, and even cross-sell other related products.

Squeeze pages are often used in conjunction with an email autoresponder to begin delivering information as soon as the visitor confirms their email address. The autoresponder may be utilized to send a series of follow-up emails or to provide an immediate download link to get information. Promising information upon completion of confirming their email address has proven to be an effective method of increasing opt-ins using squeeze pages.

New technology has also led to adding voice or video to squeeze pages in an effort to capture the visitor's attention.

@Account Closed

I read this entire thread and I can understand your frustration. I love Podio, but it does require a lot of third party tools to patch together things, as it is NOT a real estate CRM but a generic CRM that you can mold with third party tools.  Mandrill will not work becasue the emails you are sending are not transactional by nature. We use Mandrill but it's for forgot password, invoices, receipts, task reminders, notifications, etc...

We weren't able to find a solution for this either, so we had to develop our own software and integrated our gmail account for sending day to day emails but we are using Google Apps for business, so emails are coming from our own domain name.  We are looking into a solution for broadcast emails to lists like cash buyers, but you can always connect Mail Chimp or Aweber for that, We are just building our own solution from scratch. If you want to discuss just send me a PM and I'll try to help you!

Good luck!

@Justin Wragg

Sounds like you need to do some Guerilla Marketing! If you don't have the funds to advertise it will be more difficult but no immpossible. I have done it many times before! 

I would not try to do this in the entire state to start with. Focus on one area since you need to be lazer fucussed on a limited budget. I would get business cards and door hangers to start with. Then drive the neighborhoods the investors are buying in. You can look at the cash sales by zip code to determine the best areas. While you are driving you can put door hangers on houses that look like good candidates and also talk to people and pass out business cards. You can let people know you pay for referrals too.

Since you don't have deals you can work with other wholesalers who don't have a good cash buyers list and sell their peoperties and split the profits if the will agree to this. I don't personally do this becasue I have the biggest list in my city but I have seen a lot of people doing it. The key is to market the properties at the same price they are selling them at in case the buyers are on both lists. Otherwise if they want you to marke the prices up don't do it because it could make you look bad.

Additionally, you can subscribe to a FSBO service and call them as well as FRBO's and Expired listings. Or if you have a little money you can use Slybroadcast and the phone will be ringing off the hook!

Good luck!

@Dameon Pearson

If you are going to wholsale houses you will need to meet with contractors or subcontractors in the beginning to learn what the costs are going to be for each type of repair needed. The motivated seller isn't going to be able to tell you that. Additionally, the title company can give you estimated closing costs based on the purchase price amount.  If you are assigning the contract then you new cash buyer will be paying those closing fees. If you are doing a double closing then you will have to pay the fees on th A to B transaction but I make my buyer pay the fees on th B to C transaction. There should be no holding costs if you are wholesaling. But if you are going to Prehab or Rehab the property you will have holding costs. I hope this helps! Good luck!

@Ken Betza

Good question! It's not about the CRM that everyone is using but the lists that you are mailing too. If you filter the lists and try to find lists that everyone else isn't mailing too and you will be fine. The harder the list is to get or create there will be less investors to compete with.

These are all seperate issues you are asking about i.e direct mail service, CRM and websites.  I am not saying that you can't find all in one but the quality tends to go down with most all in one softwares. If you want the best websites then probably Investor Carrot, but first I would suggest a squeeze page, especially if you are sending people from a postcard to the Internet. Your concersions will be much higher than sending then to a brochure site.  You can send them to the site afterwards to find out more about your company. 

If you just want direct mail only then I would use GoBigPrinting because they have a lot of different pieces to choose from and their prices are good! I hope this helps. Let me jnow if you have any other questions. I am not affiliated with any of these companies!

@Mark Graziano

There are a lot of real estate specific softwares out there. All you have to do is Google "real estate investor crm" or "crm for real estate investors". Podio is a good CRM but it wasn't built specifically for real estate. It requires other 3rd party tools like Globiflow, call tracking, etc...

This can get expenside and also not very convenient to have all of these seperate tools and accounts.

@Alexander Forrester

I agree with @Jose Flores those are all good lists 100% Equity is a free and clear and you can negotiate terms deals with them like onwer financing. I might also add age 65+ with Equity.  I would also add the equity filter to absentee owner and out of state lists too.

If you are interested in creating terms deals you can do FSBO's, FRBO's and Expired Listings too.

Additionaly Jose is right about having a CRM to manage you leads and follow up! Podio is a decent free CRM. There are also paid CRMs that do a lot more...

@Dustin Bragg

If you are just starting out or looking for an inexpensive CRM to organize your leads, properties, buyers, marketing, etc., then Podio is a good option. If you want to do a lot of customiztion and/or integrations you want want to try a paid CRM that was designed specifically for real estate.

@Derrick Watkins

I created the first IFTTT Craigslist App for investors and give it away for free on my website. I have a couple of suggetions for you Derrick in regard to keywords. It's a way of thinking outside the box. 

Everyone uses these phrases "needs work, tlc, as-is, must sell, motivated seller", etc.. And like @Isabel Chaves said a lot of leads come in but in my opinion those leads are not very good and waste a lot of time contacting them back and they aren't really motivated! They just add those phrases becasue they know more people will look at the ad. 

So here are two of the things I use the app for instead.  I target other wholesalers and  estate sales. I use phrases for wholesalers like Handyman Special, Investor Special, Cash Only, Cash Buyer in the real estate by owner section. And for Estates phrases like Estate Sale, Moving Sale in the garage sale section.

You can also target landlords in the for rent by owner section to get absentee owners but i am just experimenting with that.

I hope this helps!

@Sabrina Shaw

I read your very first post in the thread and that's what I am responding too. My opinion for you is to just do it! If you find a property that you think is a good deal get it under contract immediately, becasue if it really is a good deal it wont last long on the market. Hopefully you are marketing directly to motivated sellers and not fishing on the MLS. Either way you will be fine becasue there is an inspection period built into the Purchase and Sale Agreement that allows you to cancel the transaction and get your EMD back. Having said that, there is zero risk to you! In my state if left blank the inspection period is 12 days, however I write a clause into the contract that says the days are business days! This gives about 15-16 days. I mainly wholesale but do rehabbing too. If I am wholesaling a deal, then I find a buyer before the 16 day inspection period is up. I sign my Purchase and Sale Agreement with them to purchase from me and the A-B transaction and get their EMD in Escrow and proceed or NOT. In your case you are concerned about it being a good deal or not and all I am saying is that you can have up to two weeks to do your due diligence and decide! Additonally, there are several softwares that will analyze the numbers on these deals for you. I hope this helps!