Tag Archives: search

Is Your Real Estate Website Getting Results?

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Most people are getting this wrong when it comes to using the Internet in their real estate business. This goes for investors AND real estate agents alike.

The thing is… it’s not their fault. They don’t know any better.

Let me use a story to illustrate this point…

Last week, a friend of mine wanted to “run something by me” to see if it was a good fit for some stuff we’re doing with investors and agents. In a nutshell, it was a guarantee of a page 1 listing in Google in six months or less.

At first, that sure sounds like a big promise, but there’s more to the story and if you don’t know what to ask, then it could either be a total waste of time or money… OR both!

There are a few things that you want to know the answers to…

#1. Who CONTROLS the Website?

In other words, do you own the website and all of the information? Or are you simply getting a “landing page” on someone else’s site? SO, if you stop paying the monthly fee, is your site wiped off the map, or worse… handed over to someone else?

#2. What keywords/keyword phrases will I show up for on page 1 of Google?

It’s real easy for someone to promise you page 1 of Google, but you’ve got to know what you’re getting to page one of Google FOR!

I could promise you page one of Google for the keyword phrase: “3 ways to find buyers online”. But, is that REALLY going to accomplish your goal(s)? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on what you’re looking to do. If you’re marketing to find pre-foreclosure needs, probably not.

But the point is, page 1 of Google is not for anything and everything related to your website. It is for one specific keyword or keyword phrase.

See #1… If you CONTROL the website yourself, you can have dozens, even hundreds or thousands of “pages” come up on page one of Google for specific keywords.

And YOU want to CONTROL what keywords you’re coming up under on page 1 of Google and you may want to come up for SEVERAL keyword phrases.

#3. What is the PURPOSE of the website (or individual landing pages)?

You’ve got to take a few minutes and think about the types of people you want to attract to your website based on your business. Are you looking for:

  • Motivated sellers?
  • People facing foreclosure?
  • People looking for fixer uppers?
  • People looking for INFORMATION on real estate investing?
  • Credibility to support your marketing campaigns?
  • Etc.

Your website, or at the very least your pages, should be very different for each of these types of leads.

#4. Is your site designed for lead capture?

It’s amazing to me to see the number of real estate sites out there that are just plain junk. They do absolutely NOTHING to capture prospects and provide you the opportunity to follow up with them.

According to the National Association of Realtors® 2009 “Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers”, 90% of all homebuyers use the Internet as a source of information.

And of those, 77% drive by the property prior to ever contacting an owner or agent to see the interior. This means, that you’ve got to capture their contact information to follow up with them or risk losing the lead.

#5. Are you actively generating traffic to your website?

Unfortunately, too many people believe the old adage, “If you build it, they will come.” That is simply NOT the case when it comes to the Internet. You must advertise and market the site consistently. The marketing doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming, but you must do it. PERIOD.

Sure, if you set your site up properly from the ground up, you will have “some” traffic, but you simply won’t get enough to build a business.

It’s also essential to understand that your website is really your HUB. There are lots of other spokes, so to speak, that are a part of your online presence including social media, content marketing, classified advertising, and more.

So to recap…

It is CRITICAL to have an online presence if you want to be doing anything in real estate these days. PERIOD.

Over 90% of all homebuyers start their search online (and for motivated sellers, the numbers are also comparable).

When it comes to your website, you MUST:

  1. CONTROL your own website…
  2. Understand the basics of KEYWORDS and KEYWORD PHRASES and how to effectively use them in your web marketing strategy…
  3. DEFINE the purpose of your website (and/or individual pages on your site)…
  4. Ensure your site is optimized for LEAD CAPTURE…
  5. Actively GENERATE traffic to your website…

To use this article on your own website, include the following:

Looking to use the Internet CORRECTLY in your real estate business?

Visit http://realestatemoneymagnet.com to get my HANDWRITTEN Money Magnet Model and a Comprehensive video that explains each magnet! You’ll discover how to SUCCESSFULLY use social media for you real estate business. You’ll also learn the 2 real estate social media sites you MUST be using if you’re serious about leads!

Virtual Tours (Video)

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We’re not talking about the Virtual Tours Realtors® were using in the late 90s and early 2000s. What I’m referring to here is creating videos and posting them to sites like YouTube.com and Google Video, among others.

With the increasing popularity of these types of sites, it’s impossible to deny the power of video especially given research that shows between 84%-93% of all buyers start their search online! And of those, you increase your chances of buyers looking at YOUR property when you have a virtual tour, video or slide show.

FACT: Most Realtors® are CLUELESS about how to use video effectively.

FACT: Effective virtual tours do not require any fancy equipment or video editing skills

Virtual tours can be as simple as creating a slide show with some music and narration or as complex as you’d like to make them. Keep in mind, you’re trying to sell prospects on not only the house, but the neighborhood, community, city, and lifestyle. If you’ve got a particular personality that you like to infuse, you may also be selling that in the video. Just remember, your goal is to separate your house from the competition and grab the prospect!

This is why it’s so important to know who your target buyer is. You see, it may not be the house itself that’s the dealmaker. It may be the local schools, the community or proximity to nightlife. Whatever these features are, include them your virtual tour. When possible, it’s best to create an actual video and infuse the personality of someone “just like them”. And keep in mind, a touch of humor is always a welcome element!

Here are a few of the main advantages of using video to market your deals.

  1. Target Market Specific. You can create a video that pinpoints your target buyer and cater to the things that are most important to that person. If it’s lake living, include a clip of the family taking the boat out for the day. If it’s a first time home buyer, focus on the pride that they’ll have when they finally own their own home and stop renting.
  2. 24×7 Open House. One of the best uses for a virtual tour is to simply walk through the property as you would guide a potential buyer through the home. Keep in mind, however, that they cannot experience all of the senses, so add in a few touches that make them laugh or remember you (For example, you could pull back the shower curtain to reveal rubber duckies. Then cut to a screen with a message from the duck!).
  3. Inexpensive. With video posting sites, you can get your videos out for the world to view for free! To create a full video, you can purchase a “Flip” video camera for under $150. With that, all you do is plug it into your computer and click a couple of buttons, and your video is up on YouTube! It’s that simple.


We could go on and on about video for real estate because we are only just beginning to scratch the surface of what’s going to be possible and how video plays into real estate marketing, both for buyers and sellers. We actually cover this in more detail in our Selling Deals System along with 57 other ways to find buyers.

By the way, if you haven’t grabbed your copy of our Selling Deals System: 57+ Ways to Find Buyers In the Current Market, we cover over 50 different ways to find buyers…

To use this article on your own website, include the following:

Need to Find Real Estate Buyers to Sell Your Houses? Claim Your FREE Whitepaper Entitled “10 Ways to Find Real Estate Buyers In the Current Market” at http://www.realestatetrainingacademy.com/SellingDealsSpecial.php. Inside, You’ll Discover Simple Strategies That Work In Today’s Market to Sell Your House Fast – and How to Find Ready, Willing, and Able Cash Buyers, Investor Buyers, and End Buyers For Every Deal.

3 Ways to Find Buyers Online

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One of the big areas of questions we get surrounds the topic of finding buyers.

Today, I want to talk about 3 ways to find buyers using the Internet (and this goes for any kind of deal you have: fixer upper, rental, pretty home, land, etc.).

#1: Facebook Ads

With over 500M users worldwide… and with Facebook occupying so much of the users’ conversation around personal events, marketing actual properties on Facebook is a no brainer. You can target prospects by location, age, interests, and more! Plus, you can easily set up a Facebook “page” for your deal and post open houses, photos, and other things about the property. Facebook also allows you to post an image in your ads.

#2: Google Local

I’m not usually a big proponent of pay per click advertising to “build a buyers list” simply because when people are searching on Google, they’re typically searching for something SPECIFIC. Well, when you are advertising a specific property, you meet those criteria. The key here is your copywriting! You need to be able to attract the person to your ad, and away from giants like Realtor.com and other similar sites that offer hundreds or thousands of properties.

#3. Craigslist

I’ve long since been a proponent of Craigslist. We’ve sold pretty houses AND fixer uppers, rented long term rentals and vacation rentals, and even sold land on Craigslist. The ads that tend to work best for actual properties are “plain” text ads as opposed to “pretty text”, or flyer types of ads. It’s not uncommon to get between 8 and 15 contacts from a single ad!

The key with any online advertising it to know what your buyers are looking for and convey that in your advertising message, whether it’s 4 lines on Google or 40 lines with 4 photos on Craigslist!

By the way, if you haven’t grabbed your copy of our Selling Deals System: 57+ Ways to Find Buyers In the Current Market, we cover over 50 different ways to find buyers…

To use this article on your own website, include the following:

Need to Find Real Estate Buyers to Sell Your Houses? Claim Your FREE Whitepaper Entitled “10 Ways to Find Real Estate Buyers In the Current Market” at http://www.realestatetrainingacademy.com/SellingDealsSpecial.php. Inside, You’ll Discover Simple Strategies That Work In Today’s Market to Sell Your House Fast – and How to Find Ready, Willing, and Able Cash Buyers, Investor Buyers, and End Buyers For Every Deal.

Real Estate Market Trends

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I know we always hear that “THIS” is the best real estate market in HISTORY to invest in! (We heard in 2000, we heard it in 2003, in 2007, and even now in 2011). Yet, the real estate cycle has looked somewhat like a heart monitor in the emergency room!

So, what’s the real answer?

IS IT a good time to invest, and SHOULD you get started now in, arguably, the worst economy since the Great Depression?

The answer is YES!

And I’m not going off of any media reports or exhaustive expert research. I’m going off of what real people are thinking and doing.

For example, I’ve had 3 friends contact me from all across the country (Nevada, Texas, Virginia, and Florida) asking for some advice about investing now.

These are people that are SUCCESSFUL business owners and savvy with finances. They’re NOT real estate investors, but they ARE looking at the opportunities that are out there.

THIS is the time to get in… (Before the media jumps on the bandwagon. Before the experts reveal the market’s taking off. It’s when the “real people” are starting to get in the game). And you can too!

Why do I share this with you?

Because when my personal friends call me and ask for advice, I share with them the same fundamental process and system. It’s this exact system…

I’m not giving them a strategy to make $11 Million dollars in the next 7 days… I’m not giving them advice on how to “beat the system”.

It comes down to the fundamentals… But too many investors have lost sight of them which is why they’re losing their shirts or have never gotten off the ground in the first place. Well, you don’t have to!

If you’re FINALLY ready to make real estate work, THIS is the complete roadmap… It’s the same information I paid $3997 for in 2003. And it’s the same stuff that’s worked for decades all across the country.

By the way, people have asked me what training I took when I started?

Here’s the truth. I took a Robert Allen class offered by a training company. I went on to IMPLEMENT, and then to teach that same training alongside my own instructors. And here’s your chance to get your hands on the SAME information. SO, it all comes down to this:

The RIGHT System + Focused Action!

Getting Started In Real Estate Investing

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Real estate investing is really simple if you simply follow the basics. The problem is that we have the tendency to complicate things more than they really need to be AND that we over-think things too much. We get “too much” specialized knowledge that it begins to cripple us from ever getting started in real estate investing.

When I started out in the business, I made a commitment that I had to implement at least one thing from any home study course I purchased, event I attended, or book that I read before I could buy something else.

You see, we all tend to keep looking for the “magic pill” to riches in real estate and no such thing exists. You need to actually take action and apply the specialized knowledge that you are getting — not simply go from strategy to strategy, never actually implementing anything.

In addition, when you take this piece meal approach to getting started in real estate investing, you often get contradictory information, which makes you start to question if a strategy will work. Continue reading →

Getting Started in Real Estate

Leave a reply

Real estate investing is really simple if you simply follow the basics. The problem is that we have the tendency to complicate things more than they really need to be AND that we over-think things too much. We get “too much” specialized knowledge that it begins to cripple us.

When I started out in the business, I made a commitment that I had to implement at least one thing from any home study course I purchased, event I attended, or book that I read before I could buy something else. You see, we tend to keep looking for the “magic pill” to riches in real estate and no such thing exists. You need to actually take action and apply the specialized knowledge that you are getting — not simply go from strategy to strategy, never actually implementing anything. Continue reading →

Firefox for Real Estate

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You’re probably already familiar with browsers like Internet Explorer or Netscape… or even the built in browser in AOL if you use AOL.

But, you may have never even heard of “FireFox”. It’s a great organizational tool for your business in that it’s a browser that uses a tab system (similar to the new Internet Explorer interface).

Save different tab sets for different purposes. For instance, if you regularly research a handful of websites for new properties for sale, you might have one tab set entitled “Finding Properties”. Then, let’s suppose you follow several educational blogs (like Continue reading →

’Talking Head’ Real Estate Videos

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Real estate videos are getting easier and easier to produce… and cheaper and cheaper to create. Most people are familiar with the virtual tour type of real estate video where you can see a 360 tour of the property.

However, the virtual tours of the 90s and early 2000s are getting outdated fast, not to mention, they distort the property.

In this article, we’re going to talk about a different kind of real estate video: The Talking Head. (For more information on property videos, see the article entitled “Real Estate Video to Find Buyers”). Continue reading →

Real Estate Video to Find Buyers

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Real estate video is becoming more and more popular whether you’re talking about property videos or talking head videos to establish trust and credibility.

Now, we’re not talking about the Virtual Tours Realtors® were using in the late 90s and early 2000s. What I’m referring to here is creating real estate videos and posting them to sites like YouTube.com and Vimeo, among others.

With the increasing popularity of these types of sites, it’s impossible to deny the power of video, especially given research that shows between 84%-93% of all buyers start their search online! And of those, you increase your chances of buyers looking at YOUR property when you have a virtual tour, video or slide show. Continue reading →