REI Marketing Tips

Last month I wrote a blog post about how Chase Home Finance had opened 51 “Home Ownership” centers across the country. These centers were to provide free foreclosure and loan modification counseling for anyone who was behind on a Chase mortgage.

I mentioned this and asked people to find creative ways on how they could use this information to grow their business. I actually went out to one of the Chase Home Ownership centers here in San Diego, but discovered that they don’t refer any business out. Even if the homeowner is denied a loan modification!

But I knew that these were high traffic areas with highly targeted prospects: people behind on their mortgages. I recorded a quick video to show you how we ended up targeting these homeowners:

After you watch the video below, please leave a comment. I installed a new plug-in on my blog, and it automatically gives anyone who lives a comment on my blog high ranking, one-way back link to their site just for a leaving a comment.

Now why would you want to do that, you ask? Well, one of the best ways to get your sites to rank higher in the search engines is to get lots of ONE WAY links coming to your site. That’s because Google sees each link as a “vote” in terms of relevance and popularity for your site.

Normally this is very time consuming, but I found a new Wordpress plugin called “Top Commentators”.

The Top Commentators plugin actually lists the top 10 commentators on EVERY PAGE of the bloggers blog WITH a one-way link back to the commentators website! Do you see how big this can be? If you are ranked as one of the top 10 commentators on a blog with 50 pages you’ll instantly get 50 one-way links pointing back to YOUR website! How cool is that? What if the blog had 100,000 webpages?

So here’s how this works…

You need to find blogs that are using the Top Commentator plugin (do a Google search) and you need to leave RELEVANT, USEFUL comments on those blogs.

So where do you start??? Here’s where you can help me, help you…

If you look on the right side bar you’ll see that I have the Top Commentators plugin installed. And because I have only a few comments at this time, YOU can easily become a Top Commentator listed on this blog with a one-way link back to your site! And yes, my blog will be is continually growing, which means more and more links and free traffic back to your website over time.

So there you have it…a free way to get quality traffic. All you need to do is post a USEFUL comment here on the blog. I figured that this post was the perfect start, because there’s a great video on here.

So happy investing, let me know how you enjoyed the video, and leave a comment and start getting MORE traffic back you to YOUR website!

Karen Hanover, commercial foreclosure & short sale genius got on camera with me to record this short 1 minute video for you.

Watch it now:

The site to visit is www.REIMarketingTips.com/cf
If you have EVER had an interest in commercial property, commercial foreclosures or commercial short sales then check out this FREE video that Karen made for you:

http://www.REIMarketingTips.com/cf

It shows you EXACTLY how to find boatloads of motivated sellers for commercial properties.

Last night’s webinar about Debt Settlement simply blew people away! This was a webinar that presents a huge business opportunity, and you can get started without having to pay a single penny!

Watch the webinar now, and then take action and get registered to start offering debt settlement. This is a huge revenue stream right under your nose that you might be missing out on.

Debt Settlement is a GREAT reason to reach out or contact a lead that you haven’t heard from in a while, or who was “on the fence”. Watch the replay now, no credit card required!

I often get feedback not only in my own investing business, but also from students around the country, who get frustrated because other people, (often times realtors with whom they’re trying to network with) tell them that flipping short sales “illegal”.

This actually happened to one of my door knockers very recently. He was calling a home that was listed for sale (evident by the sign out front). After speaking with the owners and getting the agents contact info, he called the agent to let him know that we would like to write an offer on the property (tomorrow).

The agent said that his father had recently been to a DRE seminar here in California, and apparently a CAR attorney had told his father to “steer clear of double escrows”. (Important note: this is 100% hearsay, but let’s assume for the purpose of this blog post that the information is correct).

The agent asked us if we could “send him something” in advance of our meeting. I figured that this might be happening to other people out there as well, so I have included some of the email that we used, so you can use it in your own marketing as well.

Please note that the information below is meant for an email (and NOT a flyer) simply because it contains links. Feel free to copy and paste and use as you see fit:

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Recently, Freddie Mac, FHA and Wells Fargo have all made major changes to their business models to allow for short sale properties to be flipped, legally and ethically. In fact, that’s what me and my company, www.SaveMeFromForeclosure.com do.

Now before you get worried about thinking that we’re doing something “illegal”, I want to point you to 3 specific bulletins from these three major financial institutions that have been issued in the last 6 months:

First, in October of 2009, Freddie Mac released a bulletin that you can download here: http://www.freddiemac.com/sell/guide/bulletins/pdf/bll0924.pdf. On the first page of this bulletin is link to Freddie Mac’s Best Practices for Loans Involving Possible Property Flips, which can be found here: http://www.freddiemac.com/sell/guide/bulletins/pdf/bll0924xA.pdf. Most interesting to note is that Freddie Mac says that

“A property involved in a flip may be resold on the same day or within days, weeks, or months of the purchase. In some cases, the seller of a property flip never holds title to the property, but instead sells or assigns their interest in a contract to purchase the property to a third party.”

Freddie Mac then goes on to say that:

“Property flips are not inherently illegal and not all transactions involving a rapid purchase and resale are improper. Legitimate property flips are acceptable transactions in connection with loans purchased by Freddie Mac.”

Finally, Wells Fargo, who issued more mortgage loans that any other company in 2009, has now allowed their borrowers to buy properties that are being flipped by others. You can see this internal document that Wells Fargo mortgage lending released at the beginning of 2010 here: http://www.macedesigns.com/clients/srec/WellsFargo.pdf

So why is this significant? Three MAJOR players in the United States housing industry are changing their policies and business practices to allow for short sale flips and for homeowners to get mortgages where the seller is “flipping” the property to the buyer.

I’m sure you’ll agree with me that if 3 big time banking giants like HUD, Freddie Mac and Wells Fargo are making these changes, they’re accepting the legitimacy of short sale flips and them as a viable way to help eliminate foreclosures and help rebuild and stabilize the housing market.

In fact, last fall, before 2 of the 3 major announcements were even released, Mr. Lem Marshall, Special Counsel to VAR (the Virginia Association of Realtors) posted an article in their Commonwealth Magazine, a publication that is “A journal for real estate professionals published by the Virginia Association of REALTORS®”

You can read the entire article here.  (The main article is on page 12 of the publication, which is page 14 of the PDF), or, if you prefer a quick 2 page PDF document extracted from the magazine covering this very specific topic, you can download it here. What’s important to note, however, is how Lem ends the article, and his analysis of short sale flips, with the following paragraph:

So who loses? Nobody. Even the tax collectors and insurance folks come out ahead, as they get payments from owners making productive use of the asset. We all gain when inefficiency, uncertainty, and waste are squeezed out of the system. And we help hasten the return of reasonable market valuations, something of great benefit to our communities at large.

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Hopefully that the information can help you in your business.  I would recommend writing the email in your own voice, or even taking the information above and making a 2 or 4 page flyer that you can use to market to agents with short sale listings.  I’m actually in the process of doing that myself, and it will be made available to our community of exclusive SaveMeFromForeclosure.com local representatives.

However feel free to copy and paste any of the information (and links) in this email and use it in your marketing.  I would love get your opinion on what we’ve included here, and how you’re using it in your business, if at all.

Also, if you have any success stories (or challenges) using this information please feel free to post them here in the comments section.  We love hearing success stories, but if you have any challenges using this hopefully as a community we can help you further.

Happy Investing!

I just realized earlier today that I am basically rebuilding my preforeclosure investing business from scratch, because I’ve moved from Vancouver, BC to Encinitas, CA. (For those of you unfamiliar with Southern California geography, Encinitas is about 25 miles north of San Diego, up the I5).

I arrived here on Tuesday, January 5th, and we met our new landlord at our rental place at 4pm. Needless to say, that day was pretty much shot just moving in our stuff into our new place. We actually didn’t have that much stuff to move in, as we are renting a furnished home until we figure out where we want to live exactly.

The rest of the week was spent getting settled. Getting things like a phone line, internet, and directv set up, buying groceries, learning the neighborhood, finding a new crossfit gym, etc.

One interesting thing that happened was that I was contacted by local investor who had seen a bunch of my videos on YouTube. He wants to “learn the business” from me, so it’s an opportunity for me to find someone to help me increase my lead flow quickly. I’m willing to teach him all that I know about marketing and finding deals, in exchange for him doing the actual work. I have no problem paying him (well) for bringing me deals.

Two important lessons here:

1. Don’t underestimate the power of video marketing. Do you know that YouTube is the 2nd biggest search engine in the world (after Google)? That’s right, YouTube gets more searches on a daily basis than either Yahoo or MSN. Amazing, isn’t it? If you need what I feel to be the best primer on YouTube and video marketing, check out YouTubeSecretWeapon. It’s where I learned pretty much all of my video marketing strategies.

2. Pay referrals well. I actually learned this from watching a video from my friend Preston Ely. In this video, he outlines his entire business model. One thing that he said that really resonated with me when I watched it (yes, I watch the videos that I email you about, before I tell you to watch them), is, (and I’m paraphrasing here), “don’t be a chump and offer weak referrals like $500 or $1,000, man up and pay 25% of the profit of each deal”. Now I haven’t met this new person yet (we have a meeting tomorrow for the first time, we’ve only spoken on the phone) but whenever I enter into a partnership, I have a standard speech that I pretty much give everyone: “Both sides need to be EXCITED and MOTIVATED about the partnership. If you ever get to the point where 1 side feels like they’re being screwed (like doing all of the work, or not getting enough of the profits), then the partnership will NEVER work.”

So that was the end of the week.  Nothing crazy, I was mostly focused on enjoying my new home, learning the neighborhood, and spending time with Dreama (my wife) and our children Stella (30 months old) and Sebastian (8 months old) by going for walks, taking them to the beach and the playground.  And of course, being the football junkie that I am, it was wildcard weekend.  Thanks to my DVR I can watch an NFL game much faster and don’t have to dedicate myself to setting aside 3.5 hours to watch a game.  (Side note, if you like to watch TV, and sports, like me, and you don’t have a DVR or a TIVO, you are literally wasting hours of your life each and every week.  Get one now.  Of course, if you don’t watch TV, you can ingnore this advice).

To start out this week I had a a meeting with my realtor.  This was a meeting that got me REALLY excited.  I “met” Brian online (via Craigslist) when I was shopping around for REOs and Short Sales in San Diego back in August, right after Dreama and I got a contract to sell our home.  Brian showed us a bunch of places back in September, including one short sale that we really like, but were outbid on it (someone submitted a higher offer than ours, literally the day before we wrote our offer).

Nonetheless, we kept in touch with Brian, and had our first meeting yesterday.  I was absolutely thrilled when Brian told me that right after we met, he started working with another investor doing “back to back” closings with short sales.  Brian was a realtor who completely “got it”.  I didn’t have to educate him on anything, but rather go an understanding of exactly how his process worked, vs what I had been used to doing in WA (for example, when was he listing the property?  Right away, or after the BPO was completed- if I have just confused you, don’t worry, more on that later).

Brian told me that his biggest challenge is finding more homeowners facing foreclosure, can you believe it!  My specialty.  We’re still working on the fine points of our arrangement, but suffice it to say that I’m working on lead generation and Brian is going to be going out, meeting with the homeowners, getting paperworked signed, listing the properties, meeting with BPO agents, and doing all of the rest of the work!

Yesterday afternoon I added a SaveMeFromForeclosure.com listing in Google local.  If you haven’ seen my free training yet on Google local, head over there right now.  It’s a fast, free and an easy way to quickly get listed on page 1 of Google!  My listing won’t appear yet, because I’ll have to verify it by mail rather than phone, but that task is now done.

Last night, I had a coaching call for our “Foreclosure Masters” coaching club.  (If you want to attend the next one for free, you can sign up here).  Anyway, the topic of “how did you find an investor friendly realtor” come up.  I must admit, it was pretty good luck that Brian really “gets” what we’re doing with back-to-back closings.  So the person asked me where to start looking.  If you’re looking for an investor friendly realtor, I would suggest starting out at your local REIA meeting.  Any agents who are there are going to either be investors themselves, or at least “investor friendly”.

So that’s what I’ve been up to since I have arrived.  I’ve got a lot more stuff planned for this week, and I’ll be sharing and blogging that information as the week progresses, so please check back here often.  As usual, if you have quesitons or comments, please leave them below!

I sincerely hope that everyone who reads my blog and my emails has a wonderful holiday season.

No matter what holiday you celebrate, whether it’s Christmas, Kwanza, Hannukah or anything else, I truly hope that you and your friends and family have a wonderful holiday.

What has become annual holiday tradition is a present from me to you. This year, it’s a training video and a PDF that I recently did titled “5 Ways To Get A Deal Without Spending A Penny”.

Many times I’m asked how someone can get started investing if they have no marketing budget. Well this PDF and video should get you on your way.

This training is exactly the type of stuff that comes to you in print and on a DVD in my Foreclosure Master’s Coaching club. It’s only $49.95 a month, but you can get a free trial in it by visiting this page, or clicking on the banner at the top of this page.

That’s all for now. Dreama, Stella, Sebastian and I are making the move, and we’ll be leaving Vancouver on December 31st and arriving in San Diego January 5th. To keep us with us, our move, and life and business in general, you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, and you can also follow Dreama on Twitter and friend her on Facebook.

Here’s the links to the PDF and video again.

Happy Holidays!

I hope that everyone today, no matter where you live, has a great Thanksgiving. One thing that I’m very thankful for is that when I got started in real estate investing, Dreama was working a full time job while I was “figuring out” how to creatively invest in real estate.

It wasn’t always easy, but we (thanks to her) built a successful business that enabled her to quit her job.

I know that many of your aren’t fortunate enough to have that kind of support, so recently I did a training on how you can get started investing in real estate if your marketing budget is $0. If you don’t have a lot of money to spend on marketing your real estate investing business, you need to watch this video.

First, download the PDF that’s the profit map that accompanies this.

Then print out the PDF, and take notes on it while you watch the video.

Happy Thanksgiving!

By the way, if you enjoyed this video, this is exactly what you get delivered to your home, each and every month, as part of my Foreclosure Masters Coaching Club. In addition, you get a live coaching call each and every month. You can take a test drive of this for only $7.95 and get a DVD and a CD shipped directly to your door. Sign up now.

I was alerted today about this great free tool that gives you insight into the rental prices in your local area. The name of the site is Padmapper.com and it’s free.

The site analyzes a wide arrray of online sites like Craigslist, Apartments.com plus others.

You just enter your criteria, and it sends you back your search results.

As a real estate investor, here is what you can use the site for:

- Finding out how much rent you can charge for your rental properties
- Finding new landlords to add them to your buyers list and see if they want to pay you cash for your wholesale properties
- Understanding market rents in areas, so you can determine if you can sell your properties as “Rent To Own” or “Owner Finance” deals and have them cash flow

If you find any other uses for the site that I might have omitted, please leave a comment and let me know.

Head over to http://www.padmapper.com and check it out!