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Posted almost 11 years ago

How To Choose A Real Estate Investor Website

 One of the basic questions you have to answer when you get a real estate investing website is "How do I get my website configured to get the best results?"

 There are many business models in real estate investing - buying houses, buying notes, short sales, fixing and flipping, wholesaling.   And a lot more.  Or you can have a combination of several real estate business models.

 Your website must be easily adaptable to suit your business needs to achieve maximum profitability.  The following business models are popular in real estate investing:

Real estate investing business models

1)    Buying Houses
 This is the most popular business model.   Most real estate investors buy  houses.   Buying houses forms the basic foundation of most real estate investing businesses.

 You could be a cash buyer, or you could buy houses on retail or terms.

2)    Selling Houses
 Usually, people who buy  houses also sell them. Again, you could be selling houses on retail, or on terms such as lease options or rent to own.

3)    Wholesaling
 Most people call wholesaling "flipping houses".  In this case you  locate houses in need of repair. The value of these houses is usually greatly discounted.   You then sell it to another real estate investor who fixes it up and sells it or rents it.

 So just a little effort gets you some quick cash.  You can flip houses without ever having to own them.

Wholesaling is the fastest way to generate a healthy cash flow without spending a lot of your money.   A few hundred dollars is sometimes all you need to make a deal happen.

4)    Renting
 This one usually involves buying houses low and fixing them for tenants.

5)    Buying notes
Other investors specialize on buying and selling notes.  Essentially you become a lender and bypass the need to own property.


6)    Commercial real estate

This is a wide business model that can incorporate apartments, shopping centers, land and so on.

 A lot of real estate investors combine both residential and commercial real estate investing. Residential real estate involves residential houses, whereas commercial real estate does not include residential single family houses.

7)    Other business models
When you are investing in real estate, you sometimes find yourself having to be involved in other aspects of the business that are not really separate business models.

i)    Private money
When investing in real estate, sometimes you need to look for private money investors to finance your deals.

 For this reason you have to actively look for private money investors to finance these deals.

ii)    Short sales
 Most real estate investors find themselves negotiating with banks to accept less than what is owed for a property.  This short sale process usually becomes part of most people's business model.

iii)    Loan modification
 this has gained popularity in the recent years.  A lot of real estate investors also happen to be mortgage brokers, or even real estate agents who offer loan modification services on the side.

So what types of websites for real estate investing are there on the market?

First of all, when shopping for a real estate investor website, it is important to choose a website that is flexible enough to be adapted to suit your individual needs.   Such changes should not cost you any money.

 In other words, the website you choose must be able to accommodate your changing business needs and models.  So you will not have to buy another website if your business model changes in future.

Interactive real estate investor websites
 These websites come equipped with complete customization  capability and adaptability to suit any business needs.  Changing a business model can be done with one click of the mouse.

 The websites are also fully customizable to allow them to be fully adaptable to suit any business model.

Here are some of the business models supported by interactive real estate investor websites

1)    Websites for buying houses
This website comes completely equipped with everything you need to buy houses.  The website presents you to motivated sellers  as the most credible person to buy their house.

The end result is that you get leads that are fully pre-screened for you with deals already pre-negotiated for you by the website.

You will only need a few minutes to decide if this is a deal or not, and follow up or let it go as needed.   You can then make offers to motivated sellers directly from your virtual back office and have full control of the closing process directly from your website.

2)    Websites for selling houses
 This website is delivered packed with all  the features you need to sell houses.  You simply list your houses from the virtual back office and manage the whole process from there.

Potential house buyers can join your buyers lists as they view your properties.   One of the most valuable assets when selling houses is a buyers list. You can get a buyer just by sending an email brochure to your buyers list.

Of course, they also come integrated with social media so that people can recommend your properties to their friends through Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, etc.

 These websites are also adaptable for renting houses, lease to own, and so on.

3)    Websites for wholesaling houses
 This one comes equipped for the flipper who wholesales houses.
 Social media and buyers lists also come integrated on these websites.

4)    Websites for seeking private money
 This business model can be selected with a single click of the mouse.  This automatically changes to a website for attracting private money investors.

5)    Websites for buying notes
If you buy notes, you can convert your website to buying notes.   It comes fully equipped with this capability.

6)    Websites for investing in apartments
You can quickly adapt your website for investing in apartments with just a few clicks.

 Should your website have more than one business model?
My first real estate investing teacher had a website that was a one stop shop for everything she did - teaching, buying houses, selling houses, wholesaling, renting, offering hard money and seeking private money investors.

 She said it worked fine for her needs.

 The next guru then used to say we should never mix buying houses, selling houses or seeking private money. These business models must be separate.

 Personally I would never mix business models on one website.  This once cost me a deal worth over $10,000 because I had listed a wholesale deal on my website for buying houses.  I had given my seller a business card with my website.   I then listed her house as a wholesale deal on my website.

I located a buyer, we set up the closing date and my buyer wired the money to the title company.   The seller refused tog o to closing when she realized what I was making from her house.  If I had kept the business models separate, I could not have lost this deal.

 Must you have more than one website for your real estate business?
If you do need to have separate websites for each business model, then you must buy more than one website.

If your business needs can be accommodated by having a website that carries all your business models, then you can get away with just one website. Interactive real estate investor websites do not offer any limitations as to how you can adapt your website.  You can mix business models in one website as you choose, or dedicate each website for each business model.

 As long as your business models do not conflict, your website must be able to offer the flexibility to choose if to combine business models or not.

Interactive real estate investor websites offer a broad range of choices for different types of websites for real estate investing as well as customization capabilities. Learn how the websites at RealEstateInvestingWebsites.com can affect the success of your real estate investing business, and how to close more deals using less time, money and effort.



Comments (8)

  1. @Kevin Polite The end of this article does recommend RealEstateInvestingWebsites.com. Our approach to real estate investing websites if to attract leads and convert as many of those leads to closed deals using marketing and automation features built into the websites that make your work as a real estate investor easier.


  2. Suggestions on providers of real estate investor websites?


  3. Am greatly impressed, am learning every bit of ideas because am chasing my dreams in Real Estate in Uganda, East Africa


  4. Am greatly impressed, am learning every bit of ideas because am chasing my dreams in Real Estate in Uganda, East Africa


  5. Am greatly impressed, am learning every bit of ideas because am chasing my dreams in Real Estate in Uganda, East Africa


  6. Separating the sites is definitely a good idea. Great post.


  7. Thank you for sharing your experience about the necessity of having multiple sites.


  8. I just wanted to say I completely agree with what you're saying about separating the sites. A lot of investors don't think of this and scare people off by letting sellers see their exit strategies. You mentioned losing 10K on the one deal, but that's just one that you know of. There's no telling how many sellers were scared off before even contacting you. I provide websites for investors and I build them with that in mind. Everything is separated. You can see them at http://ProHouseHelp.com It does include lead capture pages for different types of leads (buyers, sellers, wholesale buyers, etc.) but nothing is linked together. I think it's especially important on your site for sellers not to include links to anything that shows your exit strategy. It's not a matter of trying to fool them, it's just that they're not going to understand how it works. Some are going to feel like if you're making something off the deal that they're getting ripped off, which is not the case. So it's better to just reveal the details they need to know at the right time and in the right way. Letting them see your wholesale listings is not the right way. Anyway, I just wanted to say great post, you had some really good points.