BiggerPockets Founder's Blog

We continue to get new press mentions here at BiggerPockets, and I wanted to share the latest with all of you:

I was interviewed early this morning for the KGO Morning News with anchors Ed Baxter and Jennifer Jones (ABC News Radio - San Francisco) regarding the increase in rental vacancies around the country (highest rate in 23 years).  We talked about how tenants now have more negotiating power with their landlords, various incentives being offered to attract those renters, and more.

If you haven't had the opportunity already, please do have a listen by clicking the link below.  The audio file is 1 hour long and you'll just need to fast forward to the 45 minute mark to catch my segment.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW HERE

Thanks for the continued support from our members, visitors, and of course, the press.

Josh

Earlier today we had a get together in Los Angeles for BiggerPockets members and had a great time chatting about real estate, politics, the economy - you name it!  Of course, we got to enjoy some great burgers at the In-N-Out Burger, and followed that up with a drink at El Torito (Sherman Oaks).

It was great finally getting to meet many of the fellas in real life (IRL), and I hope that you'll all use BiggerPockets to do your own real-life networking as well.

 Photo from left to right: Richard Landeros, Matty M., Will Barnard, Joshua Dorkin, Tim Wieneke, Eddie Ziv

I just got a request to close the account of a member here on BiggerPockets.  While this doesn't happen very often, when it does, there is always a common theme.  In EVERY case, the person was unsatisfied in some way with the results of their networking.  The same goes for today.  This person had three posts on the site, all of which were solicitations in a group, seeking buyers for property.  Otherwise, they were not active on the forums, blogs, or any other place on the site. qc8b4679yx

The reason they were unsatisfied is that they expected the site to magically produce for them connections without doing the work. The did nothing to build relationships, and did nothing to be seen and known by the community at large.

We can't do the work for you.  If you want to succeed at social networking for real estate, you MUST pay attention to the following information:

You Will Never Succeed in Social Networking if you Don't Build Relationships!

Almost nine out of ten people who are unhappy with the results of their efforts on our social network do nothing but solicit deals.  The other one out of ten simply create a profile and expect people to come flocking to them.

Social Networking Requires You to Be Active and Visible.  Here are some tips:

• You will not make friends by joining a social network and immediately solicit business. 
• You will not do deals by joining a social network and immediately solicit business.
• You MUST interact and give people the opportunity to get to know you before soliciting business!  There are many ways to do that here on BP - forums, blogs, bulletins, etc.
• People will NOT just seek you out unless you are visible.  To be visible, you MUST create a complete profile.  You MUST also become part of the VISIBLE conversation happening on the site. 
• The most important key to success is to focus on establishing relationships! For more, read "Are You Wasting Your Time with Social Networking for Real Estate?"

I've talked about all of this on many occassions.  I think people have the false impression that people will just flock to you once you create a profile somewhere online.  There is nothing farther from the truth.  Being successful on a social network requires time and effort.  Those people who are generally the most successful on any network are those people who are focused; those who are a part of the visible ether. 

So . . . if you want to fail at social networking, create a profile and disapear.  You'll have no one to blame for your failure but yourself.

We're going to try and put together a series of screencasts to help demonstrate how to use the various site features of BiggerPockets. Here's the first of many to come:

How to Use the BiggerPockets Help / Knowledgebase / FAQ

Instead of fumbling around the site, trying to figure something out, why not use the built in help feature?

Help Us By Writing a Testimonial for BiggerPockets!

To share a testimonial, simply go to the dashboard and click on the Write a Testimonial link on the left of the page. You'll see a box drop down where you can write about the site. You will be restricted to 180 characters, so please be concise.

Just let others know what you think about BP, how it has helped you or your business, or anything else you have to say that will let others know about your great experiences on the site. We'll then get notified of the message and can then approve it for inclusion. Once included, the testimonial will be added to the site with a link back to your profile, so people can see that there was an actual user behind the message.

I'm looking forward to hearing what you all think, and sharing it with the world.

If you haven't had the chance to check out the blog, it is regularly mentioned as one of the tops in real estate.  In addition, our articles are syndicated by such sources as Reuters, Google News, the Palm Beach Post, and many others.

Looking to Grow Even More!

There are a few things we're looking for to help get our blog to where we need to be, and we're asking all of our members for your help!

1 - When you read an article that you like, dislike, agree with, have questions about, etc. please leave your feedback in the comments.  Our contributors thrive on the feedback of their peers, and by engaging with them, you help them better understand their audience.

2 - When you read an article that you like/love, help us promote it by sharing it with your friends and others online.  There are a few great ways to do that.  Using Email, posting to social networks like Twitter, Facebook, etc, or sharing through social bookmarking sites like Digg, Reddit, Propeller, Tipd, etc.  All of our posts have a SHARE THIS link at the bottom, which will allow you to easily post to any of these services.

3 - New contributors.  Read below for more . . .

We're in need of contributors in the following areas:

1 - Lending and Mortgages – are you a traditional, commercial, or hard money lender? We're looking for folks in the lending business who can write about lending, rates, loans, etc.

2 - Real Estate News – we are looking for people who are enthusiastic about news involving real estate, housing, the economy, etc. If you love the news and want to write about what is happening, let us know.

3 - Real Estate Technology – we're looking for contributors who love real estate and technology.  If you're able to talk intelligably about tech tools, websites, etc., we want to talk to you.

 This is a great opportunity to get yourself seen by a vast audience, and to be part of something incredible - it is also a great way to build up your reputation.  If you want to join the team, contact us here.