Key Considerations for a Successful Social Media Campaign

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By Vista Capital Solutions

Social media advertising is an amazing way to get your marketing message in front of the people you want to see it. Its highly-targetable nature, combined with relatively low cost-per-impression make it an incredibly powerful tool for brands of all kinds and sizes. Before launching a campaign, however, it’s critical to form a smart strategy. Here are the main factors you need to consider before you put your money down.

Who is Your Audience?

Knowing who you’re targeting may seem like a social media marketing no-brainer, but far too many companies miss the opportunity to really pinpoint who they’re trying to reach. Social media allows you to serve ads to specific demos broken out by age, income, gender, and location. Drill down as deep as you can on these parameters.

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Where can You Find Them Online?

Having a social media marketing presence on every conceivable platform seems like a smart idea. In practice, it’s very difficult and expensive to maintain that level of engagement. Cross-reference your target audience with the one to three platforms they’re most likely to use and start there. You can always add more if you can manage it.

Is the Plan Consistent with Your Overall Marketing Strategy?

Brand consistency is crucial across all media platforms. Don’t trick yourself into thinking that social media marketing is any different. Use the same brand voice, marks, and style you would if you were producing a broadcast or print ad. Customize the dimensions and delivery to the platform; not the attitude and message.

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Are You Being Conversational and Engaging?

Engagement is key to successful social media presence, from organic posts to boosted or paid ads. Customers have grown to expect social media interaction with brands to feel like a one-on-one conversation with a customer service representative. That means you must plan your campaigns and posts in such a way that you can respond in a timely fashion to comments and complaints. You must also present your content in a conversational, engaging way.

Is Your Content High-Quality?

Speaking of content, don’t be misled into thinking that social media content can be lower-quality than your other forms of advertising. Are people used to seeing more amateurish content on social? Yes. Does that content convert sales? Usually not. Put your best foot forward and customize content presentation to each platform.

For best results, use these considerations as a checklist whenever you launch a new social campaign. If applied consistently, they should help you achieve great results!

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Friends Do Business with Friends

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Image from Pexels

By Dan Harkey

Business & Finance Consultant

cell 949-533-8315 email [email protected]

“Being and Time” written in 1927, best discussed the concept of authenticity, of being, and caring. Martin Heidegger, a German philosopher, is an excellent read. In Heidegger’s study, he referred to as “Dasein,” which means “Being-there.” One may interpret it as “being-ever-present.” Also, to be fixed, embedded, and immersed in the physical, literal, and tangible day-to-day world. Another good read about the development of Heidegger’s concept of authenticity is in the book, Eclipse of the Self by Michael E. Zimmerman.

In the late-1970s into the early-1980s, I developed a unique strategy and grew from a high school business teacher to one of the highest producing real estate agents between Newport Beach to San Clemente between 1978 and 1984, and later in the mid-2000s to produce up to $10-25 million per month in sales volume in the real property lending business. On a side note, I developed the business curriculum in the 1970’s for Saddleback School District in Orange County, CA. The classes included word processing/keyboarding, typing, business math, consumer education, economics, and accounting. This was pre-computer science days.

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Before 1980, I was an early adopter of cross-selling. I created a real estate brokerage, a public escrow company to close the sales, a mortgage company to originate residential and commercial real estate loans, and a general insurance agency to place the insurance policies on the purchased property. Additionally, the insurance agency placed investment property coverage, liability coverages, auto insurance, life & disability insurance. An adjunct company that I formed was a property management company to manage residential and commercial rental income property, including commercial leasing.

Effective salesmanship is a learned skill set but developing into an authentic and unique being is the treasure. Confucius and Dan say, find a man who enjoys his work, and you will find a person that will never work another day in his life.

If one’s objective in the sales business is to follow up with your few friends, the potential success will be minimal. An effective sales network starts with a few but grows into thousands and tens of thousands.

The 80/20 rule applies to the sales profession. 20% of the salespersons develop 80% of the sales. Conversely, 80% of the salespeople develop 20% of the sales and resulting profits. Successful salespersons are willing to do the heavy lifting and do tasks others refuse to do.

It will help if you start by defining your universe of possibilities. In other words, what is the maximum and broadest number of individuals or prospects that you may develop to sell your products, goods, or services? Is it 1 or 1000 or 10,000? Size matters! A salesperson’s understanding of this process may be limited by lack of experience, willingness to take the risk, or just plain lack of enthusiasm for engaging in a long- term systematic enterprise. A more straightforward explanation is that some people are just plain “lazy and irresponsible.”

Image from Pixabay

I have consulted with many eager salespersons. Yes, the size of one’s prospect lead base matters. But relationships matter more. The size of a prospect network may start with 10 or 20 but grow to 1000 or more. You may start with a smaller number but limit the number of lead potentials unless you sell multimillion-dollar products with a considerable profit margin. Two examples may be Caterpillar and airplanes. These items cost from mid five hundred to hundreds of millions of dollars.

You may want to formulate a strategy to communicate daily to develop new business leads that, hopefully, will become lasting friendships. Therein lies the process, how do you turn prospects into friendships. I do not want to suggest that you create superficial but develop friendships that are bonded by authentic caring and communication. Can you call a friend and have a general conversation and enjoy the time spent without the thought of getting something out of it?

Herein lies the struggle between the salesperson who will never or only marginally become successful and one that can develop into a master salesperson with life fulfillment in relationships with others.

Image from Pixabay

Yes, you locate a buyer; you do not create one. In other words, if you were taught that slick language, like handling the objections and then switching to assumptive close works, Fuller Brush Company and Encyclopedia Britannica may have a job for you. Also, using online tools like LinkedIn and Facebook may be effective or a complete waste of time. A new link with a new person is only the most minute beginning and introduction to developing a future relationship and eventual friendship.

To be effective, a salesperson needs a good customer relations software package (CRM) to manage prospects, memorialize conversations, histories, families, events, interests, backgrounds, and essential aspects of developing a friendship. The effective salesperson needs an email marketing system like Salesforce or MailChimp.

The more you understand your friends more the relationship will grow. They will look forward to talking with you, and you will have mutual interests. And, of course, you will enjoy talking and sharing things that are interesting to you.

Now comes the strategy of calling 10 to 25 prospects per day to become friends over time. What can you do for them? How can you assist them in accomplishing their goals? Continue the exercise until you develop so much business that you can hire assistants. Delegate as much of your job tasks to others, then get back on purpose.

Image from Pixabay

If you make your outbound calls and receive an answerphone, leave a message, then follow up with an email with a purpose message. “Just calling to catch up,” or “Just called to check if I can do anything for you or your clients,” Or “just called to share an interesting article or news segment that I read.”

A difficult part of any conversation is developing the habit of listening rather than doing most of the talking. No, I am not that interesting, no matter who told us we were. It is easy to talk about me when having conversations with others. We can all become amused about ourselves and our life histories. It is imperative to stop talking and start listening.

Developing authentic friendships that will choose to work with you will be a natural transition from acquaintance to business prospect to genuine friendship. The process requires you to learn about your friend’s background, family, and what is important to them, not about you. What can you do to improve their lives, help their client, or help them put bread on the table?

Find a person who develops enough friendship relationships to do business, and you will both have a whole and enriched life. The journey is never complete!

Developing your unique ability will create a positive magnet around you so that people will be drawn to you through developed friendships, social networking, enhancing your satisfaction, professional career, and the same for those who meet you.

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My opinions, which comes from experience:

  • 20% of the people and friends in your life give you 80% of life’s satisfaction. Conversely, 20% of the negative, disrespectful, and unreliable people will result in 80% of the dissatisfaction. Tolerating people with negative attitudes, belligerent, rude, condescending, game playing, or jealousy does not fit into a satisfying life journey. Included in this group are superficial, sycophantic, and parasitic friendships. Eliminate all these people from your life, pronto?
  • Develop a management infrastructure and support system around you. These may be employees or independent contractors. Only with a whole support staff and operational techniques and strategies can you develop into high sales volumes and consistently deliver a quality outcome. If you allow weak staff members or weak systems, this will drag you down and make you marginally effective.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article.

Dan Harkey

Dan Harkey is a contributing author to Weekly Real Estate News and is a Business & Financial Consultant. He can be contacted at 949-533-8315 or [email protected].

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How to Become a Real Estate Investor

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Image from Pixabay

Special from Stratton Equities

While, technically, anyone can become a real estate investor these days, what does it really take to become a real success and what are the steps to get there?

Image from Pixabay

Before you get started, there are a few things to keep in mind that will help you determine what kind of real estate investment you want to be a part of. The first of which is figuring out what kind of real estate strategy you want to be a part of. The spectrum of which ranges between being an active investor and a passive investor.

An active investor will typically involve themselves in fix and flip strategies, wholesaling properties to investors, finding and managing a rental property themselves, or working as a licenced real estate agent in their area in order to build commissions for other future investments. An active investor is likely working non-stop, on multiple projects at once, and is always in need of funding.

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On the other hand, a passive investor can engage with real estate investing through buying shares of a property portfolio, partnering with other investors, or just generally investing in other real estate investments schemes.

The choice between being an active or passive investor is really up to the individual and how much they want to be part of the day-to-day operations and rewards of a property. Aside from some monetary constraints or a license to become a real estate agent, there are no barriers to entry to become a real estate investor as anyone can participate, they must first figure out what kind of investment strategy they wish to become a part of first.

Image from Pixabay

Once you have committed to and figured out an investment strategy, you can then move on to learning up about the properties itself. This next step will require a lot of research information as your end goal is to become a realistic competitive expert in the real estate market.

Some of the key subjects to know are what kinds of properties are there and which ones to focus on, and what is the property’s situation in terms of structural support, renovation, location, community, real estate laws and taxes.

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It is important to note that many properties are very different from each other. For example, what might the investment differences be between a multi-family rental property in rural New York compared to urban New York? Or how about a single-family property? Or a commercial property? Or the difference between the exact same property in the mountains compared to the beach? The point is you must be able to distinguish between all the different categories of real estate on top of all the different legal, geographical, and cultural factors that may arise in order to become an adequate expert in your field.

To start off, you might want to focus your skills and knowledge on a particular specialized segment of real estate investment to give yourself a potentially unique advantage.

Overall, unlike many other career paths, earning a degree is not required to become a real estate investor; but if you want to become successful at it, you will have to teach yourself and it will take a lot of time and patience.

Image from Pixabay

Once you have mastered the realm of real estate in relation to your investment strategy, you can move on to mastering the market itself. The market is not too difficult to observe itself as it simply is determined by the nature of buying and selling property. However, the difficulty arises in figuring out the right properties and the right prices.

As you probably understand, the market is not perfect. There are some properties that are overvalued and some that are undervalued. Hence the practice of real estate investment. However, understanding the market will require one to observe these properties for what they are actually worth and determine whether the process of fixing-and-flipping, or whatever investment strategy you are using, is actually worth it. And that itself is the challenge as you not only have to take into account the property itself, you also have to account for the market as a whole and where you think it is heading, which may not always be the case.

Image from Pixabay

After you have mastered the real estate market, you can move on to acquire financing, again, depending on your investment strategy of choice. Here is where your research can finally start to gain you ground in implementing your project.

As one begins to enter the industry, it will be more challenging to find other investors or people who will give you loans as you have not built the relationships yet or had the experience to prove your success. But you have done enough research to register a plan to showcase to investors to get them hooked on your idea.

It is important to know that most investment projects require a lot of capital on your end so you will want to get as much cash on hand as possible. That is where other investors and private money lenders can come in as they can give you enough money to fund your project so that you can live out your real estate investment dream.

Just make sure your strategy is sound and well-presented when trying to acquire more funds. Over time, this process will get easier as you have a longer history, reputation, and credibility within the real estate investment world.

Image from Pixabay

Lastly, just before you go out and purchase your first property, you should read up on the local and state laws so that you are prepared for any legal situation that could stand in your way. No matter how experienced one is, there are always going to be challenges you did not foresee, but the better informed and knowledgeable one is about the property, investment strategy, and local customs and legalities, the better your chances are at overcoming the adversities present towards you.

Image from Pixabay

Okay! You should now know all that there is to get started as a real estate investor. That being said, these are summarized guidelines that merely point out the general steps it should take to get started and become a successful investor. There is a lot to learn and a lot to keep in mind when practicing real estate investing. Just know that more likely than not, it is probably not going to go the way you expect. It could be that managing a rental building is much more costly and demanding than you expect. But, don’t fear. The smarter the strategy, the better the plan, and the more aware you are of the real estate market, the better your chances of success are. Good luck!

If you’re looking for financing on your next real estate investment, Stratton Equities is the leader in Nationwide Direct Hard Money and NON-QM Lending in the real estate market. Reach out to a member of our team today by applying now at www.strattonequities.com

Financial Freedom: Embracing Passive Income Investing

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Image from Pixabay

By Dr. Chandra Mishra

Financial freedom is crucial at any age. The genre of intelligent millenniums knows how to create variable income sources to gain financial freedom as soon as possible.

Passive income is the top contender for financial freedom which means no more worries about your ongoing bill payments or making rent. Once your basic needs are met you are left with enough to fulfill your desires; paying off debts, going on a long vacation, or indulging in luxurious recreation facilities.

Today we are clearing the dubious air about financial freedom as people have a misconception about investment fundamentals.

If you think working tirelessly and continuously is making you rich and financially free, you are mistaken. As being rich need not necessarily mean your financial freedom. Also you are losing time which you can’t buy.

Financial freedom comes when you build yourself multiple sources or streams of passive income that can pay for your expenses and leave you to live your life on your terms with minimal need to indulge in strenuous work.

Ways of Creating Passive Income

You are generating passive income when money keeps flowing in irrespective of your active working status.

Image from Pixabay

It may sound strange, but it does make a lot of sense as passive income can be made in two primary manners:-

1) Your Investment Works On Your Behalf

You invest strategically in projects that create monthly income with a fixed or standard rate of return.

The option here could be investing in instruments like bank and government bonds, corporate bonds, rental property income, multifamily/apartment investing that can quickly help you get out of the rat race.

2) Your Business Working On Your Behalf

Under this method of generating passive income, you indulge in a passive business income-making strategy. As a smart business person, you create a business that has the potential to run without your active participation. You hire and create processes to run the business. Following this strategy will offer continuous cash flow, whether you are parting hardship to your business venture or not.

Both investment and business work in synchronization for passive income generation for an entrepreneur.

Multifamily investing for busy professionals is one noticeable option that can create a consistent income without too many risk factors involved.

For busy professionals who cannot spare time consistently to keep track of their diversified investment portfolio, their entire investment portfolio can be constituted around multifamily real estate investments. It is a great foundation with very low volatility and opportunity to capitalize on passive income.

Why Multifamily Real Estate Investment Is A Sound Decision For Passive Income?

Image from Pixabay

Multifamily real estate can act as a catalyst for your investment career. And, this is not without the reasons:-

1) Easier Availability of Finance

If you think the enormous size of multifamily properties will call for difficulty in arranging finances, don’t let their size befool you. Multifamily properties are more accessible to finance than single-family homes. The price of multifamily properties is not the deterrent in fetching easy financing options. These properties are more likely to be approved by financial institutions like banks for a loan because these are more likely to generate cash flow month after month. This guarantees timely loan repayment.

2) A More Fabulous Kick Start

Acquisition of multifamily real estate is a better investment with low volatility which could be your fantastic end-games strategy too. You will retire with multiple streams of income. If you want to start small, A small multifamily property acquired, you can live in one of the units and pay down the mortgage you receive from the tenants residing in other units. Besides rent, you will earn appreciation on your investment capital.

3) Light Years Ahead Of Stock Market Return

Multifamily syndication returns have significantly gone down in the last two years. Yet you can lay hands on a 12-13% average annual return which is significantly higher than stock market returns.

Additionally, you are not even paying taxes (decreased taxes are the most extraordinary relief anytime) which means you are light years ahead of stock market returns.

4) Enjoy Cost Segregation Benefits

Image from Pixabay

Under the cost segregation, multifamily real estate investors enjoy reduced current tax liabilities which imply upfront cash flow. Without cost segregation, multifamily rentals are depreciated straight line for 27.5 years.

However, with cost segregation, the depreciation on specific real estate rentals’ components is faster (like in five, seven, or 15 years). The faster depreciation means you can save/make more money with depreciation and cost segregation applicable in multifamily investment projects.

Additionally, the government taxes income from multifamily investment properties at a passive income rate. This means no employment taxes.

Conclusion

Hope our little effort will help you embrace passive income investing for attaining financial freedom the soonest. Time is to start today, you can easily partner with someone or invest passively completely. What steps will you take in the coming weeks to create passive income?

For more information, contact your financial/legal advisor or financial counseling firm before investing.

My Billionaire Mentor Died. But His Life and Business Lessons LIVE With Me Forever

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Image by Johana Peña from Pixabay

By Hector Padilla,

Broker, GRI, Accredited Investor

It’s no secret that a HUGE key to my success has been having time-proven and vetted mentors.

In 2007, I received an invitation to fly to Scottsdale, Arizona, to have breakfast with a billionaire. If you had this opportunity, would you hop on a jet to go meet a billionaire? Do you think that I capitalized on this “opportunity of a lifetime”? Yes or YES?
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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

If you answered YES, then you are 100% correct. Unfortunately, Bill the Billionaire* passed away in 2016 at the young age of 68. Very sad. In 1997, Bill was listed in Forbes Magazine as one of the 400 richest people in America. Inc. magazine estimated Bill’s net worth to be in the range of $2.4 to $3.5 billion. Let me share with you some of the lessons Bill the Billionaire taught me that I implemented into my real estate business. These solid strategies helped me purchase over $100,000,000 worth of real estate.

#1. A Daily To Do List = Millionaire Lesson.

A STOP doing list = Billionaire Lesson. Focus on Money Making Action.
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Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

STOP = The drama, TV, News Papers, Happy Hour, Social Media Addiction = Don’t be full of energy wasting activity.

2,500-year-old, time-proven wisdom = six days of skilled labor, and one day of rest.

#2. Finish your day on paper before you start.

Needs VS. Wants. What NEEDS to be done today? What do you WANT to do today, but can be pushed till tomorrow/next week? Who can you delegate your tasks too?

#3. You must do what is important, BUT not urgent:

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Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

The fundamentals of success are important = Reading, Audio, GYM, Meditate/Prayer, Prospect, Lead Follow up. It takes discipline & focus to do what is Important, but NOT urgent. The masses run around like a chicken little, doing what is urgent, but NOT important.

#4. You can NOT earn $1,000,000 a year doing a $12-hour task!

If you do NOT have an assistant, then you are an assistant. How can you delegate and empower?
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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

#5. Remain in control, BUT not in charge of Daily Minutia.

YES, control your business. But NOT the day-to-day operations. Focus on wealth creation. Focus on prospecting and networking with people of substance.

#6. The broke & Billionaires have 24 hours in a day.

How do Billionaires get more accomplished? They buy time by being a blessing. HOW? By recruiting a skilled team. Then, they delegate and outsource. YOU become a blessing by creating jobs and opportunities.

#7. Don’t be the FLY on the window.

Don’t bang your head on the widow, till your death, with WRONG repetitive activity. Land, re-anchor yourself to find a new proven path to wealth and time freedom
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Image by Ronald Carreño from Pixabay

#8. Leverage of Time and Expertise.

Recruit a skilled TEAM and a proven vetted Mentor/Coach/Chairman. A mentor/coach/chairman can show you how to create exponential growth, so you can earn more in the next 12 months than you have in the last 12 years.

#9. Goals VS. Values:

Goals change like the weather. Values are consistent like the climate. Paycheck Goals VS. Family Values

#10. Pocket Promises.

Goals VS. Promises. What is the difference? When you promise your mother, wife, daughter, family, friends, staff that you will accomplish “a promise you made them” you have a 90% chance of accomplishing it, as long as you have a written Plan of Action. If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.
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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Plan your work and WORK your plan. Remember, as human beings we tend to do more for others than for ourselves. Write down your TOP 5 Promises on an index card with a simple Plan of Action on HOW you will accomplish your Pocket Promises. Be sure to read your Pocket Promises three times per day. I once asked Bill: “Knowing what you know now, what business would you get into?” He replied, “Find a NEED that the masses have and provide a solution”. For me Real Estate is that NEED. People NEED a place to live, work and play = Real Estate. Plus, in what other Time-Proven Business can you buy an asset with NO money and terms? Creative real estate investing opens the doors to that Billionaire Lifestyle, that so many of us desire.
 

Learn about Hector Padilla, Broker/GRI

*For privacy reasons, Bill’s last name has been purposely omitted. Mr. Padilla owns and operates HP Capital Investments, Inc, a real estate acquisition and investment firm in Los Angeles. Be sure to follow Mr. Padilla on Instagram #MyChairmanHP

How This Powerhouse Woman Created an 8-figure Real Estate Business and How You Can, Too

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By Victoria Kennedy

I am no stranger to the determination it takes to grow a real estate business. As a teacher turned Realtor®, I knew from the very beginning that I had to forge my own path.

When I first obtained my license in 2001, I was brand new to the industry with no one to show me the ropes. It was a time of unpredictable growth in northern California’s market, but with a little hard work and a lot of passion, I learned the ins and outs of the industry. I have faced numerous challenges throughout my years as an agent, including recessions that affected not just me, but the entire nation. As many agents were exasperated with endless foreclosures and short sales, I decided to do something about it and obtained my Certified Distressed Property Expert in order to better serve my client’s needs as I continued to grow my business to the empire it is today, selling an average of 100 plus homes a year with a career total of more than 2,200.
It all goes to show that in this industry, you have to be willing to adapt, have an exceptional work ethic, a knack for marketing and a devotion to your clients. The educator still in me from the years I spent as a third-grade teacher drives my desire to teach others, and I have decided to combine my two passions to educate other realtors how they, too, can grow their real estate business to 8-figures.

Keep learning.

Even if you have been in the business for years, there is always something learn from other real estate agents, articles or even seminars. None of us should ever be too proud to continue broadening our minds as a way to better help the people who are entrusting us with one of the biggest decisions of their life: selling or buying their home.
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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I realize my background in education makes me a bit more passionate about learning than the typical Realtor®, but it is a tool that has served me well. I have been able to hone my marketing skills, learn more about the tools available to me, discovered the ins and outs of the real estate market and how to best connect with others.

Understand marketing.

Marketing is the key to success for any industry, but it is such an important component to real estate. It is the way we generate solid leads that turn to business. Of course, social media and online marketing has become the driving force behind much of today’s marketing. Did you know 99 percent of millennials begin their home search online? Think of the multitude of customers you are missing by not taking advantage of social media platforms.
Any Realtor® needs to have a concrete marketing plan in place. A Google My Business listing is a must. This is the sidebar that appears on the page when you Google a business or service. How are the thousands searching for agents in your area going to know you exist if they can’t see you on the biggest search engine available?
From Facebook to Instagram to LinkedIn, there are a number of platforms out there ready to help you expand your business. You just have to do your research to determine which fits your company the best, or if it is a combination of several. Facebook continues to be the most used by agents as its demographics tend to represent the target audience for many agents across the country.
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Image by Pixelkult from Pixabay

Instagram is on the rise as one of the best ways to reach potential clients as stunning home photos can capture a wide audience. LinkedIn might not be the best use of your time for finding potential home buyers or sellers, but it is a great way to connect with other agents.
Make sure to use local hashtags with your industry to help reach people in your area looking to purchase their next home.
Another part of marketing is to never underestimate the little things, such as staging and a professional photographer – particularly on platforms like Instagram where a visual representation is everything. Videographers and done photographers also make for great additions to your real estate team. Don’t forget to combine your social media marketing with a mixture of local resources, such as your community newspaper or area billboard companies.

Engage the audience.

While picturesque photos and informational posts are great tools, I have discovered videos are crucial to engaging the audience. Video posts are 12 times more likely to be shared than those without. When you share a video, people are connecting with you. They are getting to know your voice, your face, and what you stand for. You can establish yourself as a professional as you interact with the audience on a wide variety of real estate topics, from tips on purchasing a home to the latest trends in countertops to the hottest neighborhoods in the area.
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Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

The more videos you publish, the bigger your audience will become. When one of those viewers is ready to buy their home, they are going to want the professional they have come to know and trust to walk them through the process.

Build relationships.

Many agents are so focused on new clients, they underestimate the power of keeping existing ones. It costs a Realtor® a whopping seven times more to land a new client than it does to keep one who previously bought or sold a home with them. Do you know how you keep those customers and increase your profits from a possible 25 to 100 percent? By building relationships.
It does not matter if your customer is buying a $200,000 home or a $1 million dollar home. That couple searching for their starter home might have built an incredible life that affords them a luxury home in a few years. You just never know. By treating everyone with kindness and respect, you will be treated the same in return. Another way to develop relationships is through making connections in your community. This is another way social media comes in handy. Search for businesses, nonprofits and groups in the area. Make sure to follow them and engage in their posts by liking and commenting.
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Image by Werner Moser from Pixabay

Agents often overlook the importance of helping out the community. Doing so is a great way to portray the integrity you want to run your business with while creating trust. For example, education remains dear to my heart, so I enjoy being involved with programs and scholarships at the local schools. Find what your passion is and help out your community. Continuing to always expand upon your skills while creating a network in the community around you will always be a step in the right direction. However, if you find yourself ready to grow your digital footprint and become an authority in your industry, we host monthly Accelerator programs for FREE to help you take your business to new heights.
Krista Mashore has an exclusive coaching program that teaches professionals how to become the go-to authority in their communities. She has spoken on the Inman stage and has been featured in Yahoo Finance, Wall Street Journal, Authority Magazine among other publications and has been a guest at numerous podcasts including Conscious Millionaire. Click here (https://kristamashore.com/2DaysLive) to join the 2-day Live Coaching Event with Krista and transform your Real Estate Business. Learn more from Krista at her next event, HOW TO CLOSE 100+ HOMES A YEAR (kristamashore.com), March 23-24.

How To Scale Your Real Estate Investments In A Highly-Competitive Market

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Image by ar130405 from Pixabay

By Tim Houghten

Are you looking for more investments and ways to grow your real estate holdings? What are some of the ways that you can maintain and scale, despite the 2020 mayhem?

Brandon Cobb’s company The House Buyin’ Guys has been able to successfully sustain and even grow his real estate business by double-digits through the pandemic and chaos of 2020.

How has he done it?

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The House Buyin’ Guys

Brandon Cobb and his co-founder, Vagif Seidov, have been wholesaling houses to other investors, rehabbing properties, and creating win win solutions for his investors in the Middle Tennessee real estate market for years.

Prior to getting into real estate Brandon sold medical devices. After losing his job in medical device sales, he transitioned over to real estate. Brandon found his unique sales skills sharpened by the world of sales gave him a unique edge in the real estate industry. He built his company based around that sales approach, something the real-estate industry lagged.

Since then, he and his business partner have done over 100 deals in this space, During our exclusive interview, Brandon shared how business has been picking up through the pandemic.

He says that the local Nashville market has kept blowing up, with growing demand despite the pandemic. As of October 2020, they were still seeing new deals going under contract in one week, if not within one day.

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Brandon and his team challenged themselves to complete a $51,000 renovation in just 10 days while filming every day and posting the daily walkthroughs for all to see on his Facebook. After having huge success with that renovation, they challenged themselves to do two seven-day flips simultaneously.

The two seven-day $32,000 flips were a failure because they took nine days to actually complete, but to Brandon and his team they were a huge success because they learned a lot about how to better systemize their rehab processes and become more efficient. He and his team are always pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the real estate space.

So how can you compete and win deals in this highly-competitive market?

Tips for Winning In this Competitive Market

This has been an interesting year in real estate for investors and business owners. During crisis, many fold and lose, and few know how to use the opportunity to create new levels of wealth.

Right now, Brandon says it is an extremely-competitive real-estate market. Since the birth of the travel roadshow real estate guru’s coming to town and pumping out hundreds of new investors in a weekend, it’s become much tougher to find deals.

So, how do you still get the deals?

Here are some of Brandon’s top tips.

Do What Others Won’t

As with any business or career, standing out and blazing a trail for yourself, and becoming a valuable go-to resource for your clients, is all about doing what other people won’t.

You can put in the extra hard work and hours, be more responsive, and go the extra mile to make customers happy, but it starts with identifying what your customer’s want that competitors are not giving them.

Brandon says one of the big challenges his clients face are tenants. Many retiring landlords are willing to sell, but buyers want the property vacant. When there is a tenant, it can leave the property in limbo. Brandon’s competitors make offers based on the house being vacated most of the time, so his company started offering tenant relocation services with their offers.

In his recent feature in Forbes magazine, he says this alone can get you a $10,000 to $15,000 discount on the price of the property and win you the deal, if you’re willing and able to help the tenant find a place to live and cover moving expenses.

Review Your Past Deals

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When was the last time you went through your past deals and evaluated what went well, what didn’t, and what you could have done better? What about which deals really made the most money? Or what happened to those properties after you exited and sold them off?

You might be surprised at what you find. Brandon certainly was. They found they missed out on a deal that would have made $107,312.

Even more surprising was the fact that they came across deals like this twi to three times a year and were completely missing them! So, they adjusted their strategy when they came across these special opportunities, and after acquisition, and rehab costs are now able to sell them for almost double, with around $70,000 to $100,000 in gross profit.

Select Your Customers Carefully

How selective are you being with the customers you take on?

Brandon’s construction company, HBG Construction, offers rehab services to others outside his house flipping business. Savvy business owners and independent professionals learn that they can work much more efficiently, profitably, enjoyably, and with less risk and stress, if they are more selective in who they do business with.

At first, it may seem like a good idea to take on various jobs within your space and Brandon did just this. His company would service builders, home owners, rehabbers, basically anyone who needed work done on their house.. until it became a big headache..

Just trying to work with anybody and everybody can be a big trap. You might feel busier chasing the money, but that doesn’t mean you’ll really net more money.

Brandon suggests figuring out who your ideal customers are, and to fire everyone else. Brandon discovered that his construction company loved working with other rehabbers. Because Brandon is an investor himself, he was able to understand and pinpoint all the pain points rehabbers have when it comes to dealing with contractors.

Brandon’s construction company now works exclusively with other rehabbers on their flips, and that moment when he fired all his other customers changed everything. Now, his team deals with customers whose needs they understand and serve best.

Grow Your Referral Business

Referral business IS the best business. Referrals cost the least amount of money to generate, are the easiest to handle, and are the easiest to close! Brandon’s company started their own referral program using hand written thank you cards to all their customers. Occasionally, they followed up with a phone call to ask if they knew anyone that may want to sell their home.

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His company uses email drip campaigns to stay in touch and hands out handsome referral checks every time someone brings in a referral. They broadcast the experience of the person responsible for the referral receiving the check, which prompts others to refer business!

This method alone has allowed Brandon’s company to grow by double-digits with NO INCREASE IN SPENDING.

Leverage Other People’s Time and Money

In addition to leveraging other people’s money, smart real estate pros and CEOs learn to leverage other people’s time, expertise, and exposure.

There are many in your market who have built up their own network and are doing their own marketing. Work with them, instead of competing against them. He specifically points to real estate agents as an example of this. While many real estate investors feel they are at odds with REALTORS, you can actually help each other and negotiate win-win deals If you understand their needs.

Summary

We are in an interesting period where the real estate business and country is evolving and changing. Many will fail. For some, this year will set them on a completely new trajectory for success and wealth.

These tips can help you protect and grow your real estate investments, regardless of the mayhem happening out there.

If you are interested in learning more about how you can get added on Brandon’s list to receive off market wholesale properties in Middle TN, learn more about how you can receive passive income secured by real estate through Brandon’s company, you can contact Brandon at: [email protected].

For more tips, follow Brandon on his Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.cobb.3950

Women in Real Estate — Build the Lifestyle of Your Dreams with Real Estate Investing

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By Laura Alamery

In 1987, at the young age of 23, I had my first glimpse of a future as a real estate investor. It all started with my love of visiting open houses, which led me to obtain my real estate license to learn the industry. At the time, I lived in Hawaii where I found inspiration from the successful women real estate agents around me. After a move to the Midwest in the early 1990s, I quickly learned that the commissions and energy around real estate weren’t as inspiring. For me, this led to the transition from real estate agent to real estate investor. Over the next few years, I launched into real estate investing while managing a young family and career. After a divorce, I realized I needed to leave my corporate job and fully dedicate myself to establishing a reliable income and building long-term wealth through real estate investment.

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Along the way, I made mistakes, learned many valuable lessons and ultimately built a lasting and successful real estate investing business. Today, I use that knowledge and experience to help other women launch and grow their real estate investment businesses at Real Estate Investing Women, a resource for training, live events and networking in a community of likeminded women.

Lessons for New Real Estate Investors

Looking back at how I built my real estate investing business, I now have the wisdom to see the ways I would change my strategies to avoid mistakes and build wealth with fewer risks. One of the big lessons I like to share with new female investors is to trust your instincts. The ability to tap into our gut feelings to make decisions is a benefit that makes women a natural fit for real estate investing.
Another piece of advice is to use money from your real estate investments to buy more real estate, instead of putting all your personal money into investments. The challenge is finding the money to start out. The mistake I made was purchasing too many buy and hold properties too quickly. This led to unnecessary risk and eventual burnout. I now tell new investors to start with one buy and hold property and grow slowly.
However, unlike my path into real estate investing where I dabbled in fix and flip, moved on to buy and hold and then finally figured out how to work wholesale deals, I suggest new investors start with wholesale deals. Wholesale isn’t easy and requires work. Yet, wholesale real estate investing has lower risks than other investment strategies. real estate womenWith wholesale investing, you learn while making money. In fact, wholesale investment is a great way to delve into the details of real estate investing without taking possession of properties. Set aside the money you make money through wholesaling to build the financial foundation of your real estate investment business. Not only does wholesaling produce quick profits, it also establishes a portfolio that you can use to attract private money. Creative financing with private money gives more control over your real estate investing business. Private money safeguards against the volatility of the market.
As your business grows, you then have the money, knowledge and reputation to tackle larger-scale investments with bigger risks. Ultimately, this is how you build a viable business and path to long-term wealth and the lifestyle of your dreams.

Three Keys to Success in Real Estate Investment

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While real estate investment offers many different strategies and paths to wealth, the keys to success come from your determination to make it. When I finally became serious about real estate investment as my career, I was newly divorced with three small children. I gave myself six months to build a business that allowed me to walk away from my corporate job.
Looking back, the three keys to my success were focus, consistency and time management. These areas were critical to get me out of my comfort zone and take real estate investing from a hobby to a true business.
women in real estateOften when I talk to women interested in real estate investing, the barrier they struggle with most is the confidence to take the first steps. Men historical dominate the real estate investing industry, which makes trusting your abilities as a female investor even more intimidating. However, with these keys to success and the support of other successful female investors you too can create a prosperous business. Focus – A serious approach to real estate investment requires focus. This means you create actual goals for your business. For me, my goal was to quit my corporate job within six months. This meant I needed to close at least one deal per month, which required willpower fueled by my excitement and inspiration. My eyes stayed on the prize. Consistency – You cannot build anything without consist dedication. To exceed my goal of closing one deal per month, I had to work daily toward that goal. Remember, I was a working, single mom, yet I put in time daily to find, connect and close deals. It was this consistent effort that led to achieving and surpassing my goal. Time Management – Life is busy. This is true of almost everyone I meet. The difference in the people who grow a sustainable business that produces wealth and those that don’t is good time management. During my six-month transition, I realized that a little sacrifice could change my life. Good time management means you don’t waste your time. Instead, you find those pockets of time to dedicate to your goal. For me, this meant working on weekends and evenings until I had the money to quit my corporate job.

Identify Your Dreams and Go After Them

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Over the course of my life, my dreams have changed. Yet, the basic dream has remained. I desired to have financial freedom and independence. I achieved that dream through focus, consistency and time management. I continue to use these tools today in my new ventures.
For me, my dreams included taking care of my family, a flexible schedule, world travel and helping others. One of my passions is helping other women identify and go after their dreams by building successful real estate investing businesses. You don’t have to let a lack of confidence stifle your dreams. Instead, tap into your natural instincts to create a path to your dreams.
women powerWomen benefit by helping other women. In real estate, I’ve never feared scarcity. There are more than enough deals for everyone. My dream now is to leave a legacy by empowering other women. My work at Real Estate Investing for Women is one way I work toward this goal. Through mentoring, community building, live events and online resources, like podcast, articles, eBooks and more, women have access to unprecedented knowledge and encouragement. As I look back over my more than 30-year career in real estate investing, I see a story of hard work and determination. I also see the gift of my dream lifestyle that real estate investment empowered. You too can find the lifestyle of your dreams through a focused, consistent and well-managed real estate investment business.

Laura and Elizabeth

To Learn More about Real Estate Investing for Women:

Laura Alamery and Liz Klingseisen are a mother and daughter team, who are real estate investors and mentors to other women. Their goal is to empower and help women, who want to learn about real estate investing through a supportive and experienced community of women investors. We offer training and live events nationwide. You can learn more at www.realestateinvestingwomen.com

Work Smart……Play Hard – Kathy Kennebrook’s Real Estate Investing Mantra

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Image by Fathromi Ramdlon from Pixabay

By Kathy Kennebrook, The Marketing Magic Lady

I got into the real estate investing business to have more free time for myself and my family and to have the financial freedom to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I wanted my life to be more worry free. I have spent a great deal of time accomplishing that goal and I want to share some of my insights with you as a real estate entrepreneur.
When you decide to become a Real Estate Investor, make sure you structure your business in such a way that it doesn’t become overwhelming, even more so than a full time job could be. It’s very easy to fall into that trap, especially if you work from home. You can also fall into the trap of trying to do everything yourself, and long-term, this just won’t work. Believe me when I tell you that most tasks in your business need to be delegated to others starting with your marketing, your bookkeeping and day to day management.
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Image by Joshua Miranda from Pixabay

In my particular case I like to work from home and most of the functions of our business are handled off sight and by Independent Contractors. One of the ways I solved the problem of getting overwhelmed with work was to determine what hours per day would be dedicated to my real estate investing business. At the end of the day the door to the office gets closed and the phones go to an answering service. Your family will appreciate you for this as well.
The other rule we abide by is that when the office door gets closed, conversations about our real estate business cease as well. You have to make a conscious effort to separate your business and your personal life, especially if you are working the business with your spouse or partner. Since real estate is an incredibly fun way to make a living, sometimes this is hard to do.
As you begin to attain success in your business and things become more automated for you, you will begin to have a lot more free time to do the things you enjoy doing. My husband and I like to kayak. We especially like white water kayaking and take several trips each year to enjoy the sport. I also enjoy traveling to places I have never seen before with my husband Jay. Our business at this point in time pretty much runs on auto-pilot. We have developed a dream team of key people we put in place who take care of the important tasks that make our business successful and run on auto-pilot even when we are away from the office.
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Image by Joshua Miranda from Pixabay

The marketing for our business is outsourced along with many of the other tasks associated with our business including getting our rehabs completed, property management, bookkeeping, closings, etc. Since a lot of the marketing we do for our business is targeted direct mail, this is all outsourced to a company who does all of that work for us. We provide them with the letters and the lists and they do everything else.
My husband and I still continue to work our business primarily from home and our key people are independent contractors who work from their homes or offices. Since Covid 19 happened, this has become even more important to the ongoing success of our business. Personally I still like making deals with sellers even before I get out of my pajamas in the morning. I also like having lots of time to spend with my cats and my grandchildren.
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Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Once your real estate investing business is running like a well oiled machine, take the time to pursue the things you love to do, after all, that’s why you got involved in the business in the first place, isn’t it? Make sure you spend time with your spouse and your family doing the things you love to do together. This is the best time to begin making good memories for your children if they are still young. Remember that you must continuously pay attention to the balance between your business life and your personal life. Otherwise, it can become easy to short change one or the other.
Putting good team players in place to take care of the details of your business will be important to building the ultimate financial freedom you are striving for so you have even more time for the things you love to do. So just remember to work smart….and play hard!!!

For more information on automating your real estate investing business and locating all the sellers and deals you could possibly need, be sure and visit Kathy Kennebrook’s website at www.marketingmagiclady.com While you are there be sure and sign up for our FREE monthly newsletter.

3 Pieces of Advice to Overcome Limiting Beliefs in Business

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Image by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pixabay

By Victoria Kennedy

Business is like yin-yang, says Rohan Attravanam, the CEO of Phodun Real Estate. The secret to more closings is to stop focusing on closings. You tend to be emotional but have to be rational and pragmatic business owner in order to succeed. Which beliefs influence success or failure in business?

Running a business is not a full-time job, it’s a lifestyle. Business owners face loads of challenges and obstacles that test not only their professional skills but also their character.
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Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Being nimble and flexible is essential for a business to stay on top of the game, and ahead of the competition. However, constantly shifting from one idea to another and changing strategies can be counterproductive. This means entrepreneurs have to also be persistent with their initial ideas and stay in a single lane longer than they might like.
Combining these two opposites might seem like an impossible task, but it isn’t. That fine line between the two is where all the successful businessmen and moguls are. Flexible, but never straying from their core principles and ideas. A fine example of how to harmonize these two is the story of Rohan Attravanam, CEO of Phodun Real Estate.

Rohan’s Story

As an young entrepreneur, Rohan started his journey by getting a high-quality education. He enrolled in one of the most prestigious universities in India – BITS Pilani, and has an MBA degree from one of the best marketing colleges in the US – Kelley School of Business, Indiana University.
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Image by Kranich17 from Pixabay

Packed with knowledge, he dived into the world of business, working with A-listers like Samsung, Whirlpool, and Walmart. Rohan acquired 13 years of experience in marketing, with the last five in real estate. In January 2020, he left behind a plum job in the Bay Area, CA and started Phodun Real Estate from scratch – a company that provides quality leads to realtors, helping them find prospective homebuyers that fit their customer profile. So, here are the three pieces of advice Rohan Attravanam can give to all business owners based on his experience as a successful business owner:

Quality Leads are found, when searched in quantity

We all want better leads and better prospects. We frantically try various marketing tactics and try to optimize one over the other. But the reality is no matter which channel or medium you choose, you need to focus on generating a lot of leads.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The first step in achieving a flow of quality leads is to achieve a flow of quantity of leads. You need to generate a lot of leads and vet each of the leads against constraints as defined by your definition of quality. The more leads you have, the better the chances are that you’ll find a good quality lead. In any random 100 leads – you tend to find about 10 quality leads. When you go searching only for quality leads, they are hard to come by.
Its basic economics – Quality leads are not easy to come by and so they are expensive. Everyone knows it’s a numbers game, but rarely do we step back to evaluate what numbers are needed to get to our objectives.

You start closing more when you stop focusing on closings

We as a society are hyper result oriented, goal oriented and it’s good to strive for those results. What’s lost in translation is the process that is needed to achieve those results and urge to take shortcuts to get there.
You’ve heard this a thousand times – “It’s all about the journey and not the destination”. Think about how you want your career to pan out. You can easily retire on the beach – watching sunsets with your family, but the journey to get there need not be obsessed over closings. Instead obsess over process.
When you obsess over the process, you are controlling the inputs – which you can. When you obsess over closings, you try to control the output – which is rarely in your hands. Obsess over client experience, understanding their problems, and earning their trust. The issues your clients face can all be documented and addressed the same way over and over again.
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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

This helps you gain control over your process and the confidence rubs off to your clients – who’ll enjoy working with you and you’ll have more closings eventually!

People who get most approval care about it the least

Think about all the people in your life that you consider successful, wealthy and see in a place you potentially want to be one day. They have your approval. The thing is – They are not seeking your approval. They are grateful for it, but they don’t care for it.
When you start needing money, fame, approval for your life to be meaningful, you are blinded by what’s possible. The minute you stop needing them and instead start providing approval to people around you is when you will see that your self esteem starts to build up. Building other’s confidence, caring about their insecurities and giving them strength gives you a new way of living life that brings you abundance and joy.
Helping others live the lives of their dreams is THE FASTEST WAY to get rich, achieve fame and receive the highest approval.
Rohan Attravanam is the CEO of Phodun Real Estate, an agency that is helping realtors by giving them more and better leads with their new, special program”10-15 Live Transfers Guaranteed”. Click here to learn more: https://phodundigital.com/
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Victoria Kennedy [email protected] atmanrealestate.com

Nominated as a 2020 Brand Ambassador for Inman, Victoria Kennedy is a well-respected authority in Real Estate marketing and branding. She is the CEO of Atman Real Estate, a marketing & branding agency that is committed to helping top producing Real Estate professionals become the #1 Agents in their area. She is a highly in demand speaker on all things digital marketing, and has helped many clients boost their visibility and revenue. Because of her expertise in real estate, she has been a trusted speaker and contributor to such organizations as the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, Inman News, and Yahoo Finance. In addition to running a successful marketing agency, she also has given talks, workshops, and has worked as a trusted consultant for Realties, Title Companies, Investors, and top producing agents. She has been featured in over 175 publications and podcasts both nationally and internationally. In addition to her marketing expertise, Victoria is a #1 selling classical-crossover singer and has sung with the likes of Andrea Bocelli, as well as toured all over Europe with her music. She is excited to share with you the power of her Closing Maximization Method and how it can exponentially grow your business. Find out more here: atmanrealestate.com