Real Estate Agent · WA · Member since 2008 · 41 posts · 0 votes
Anyone successfully using the internet for getting business? I'm an agent working on getting more leads and want to utilize internet marketing. Any and all ideas are appreciated.
1) Build on Open source Technology - Joomla Wordpress and Drupal are all 3 great CMS systems. Pick your flavor.
2) Partner with a Technology company that knows how to get the most out of the CMS.
3) Make sure your properties are being served up from the page level and not a third party vendor. Plugins work great but you still cannot change the core of the idx.
I would not totally dismiss IM at all! It can be very lucrative!
I love IM for business. You don't have to do very extensive sites like Mark mentioned at all.
Here is a killer strategy!
Go to craigslist, Philippines, Manila - Post in the 'jobs' or 'gig' section and have a simple 'squeeze page' made (so you can capture name, phone, and email) and make a video of yourself that says you have access to properties before they come on the MLS, deals from banks, short sales, etc (or something else of high value to buyers/investors). At the end of the video, make sure to use a "call to action" and tell them to fill in the information and that you will call them in 5 minutes with more details.
Going rates for high-quality work in Manila are $2-$4/hour. They go to college in English and their work ethic is among the best!
Once the squeeze page is done, hire someone else from Manila and ask them to post everyday to Craigslist in you local market with an image ad that then sends the visitor to your squeeze pages. If done right, you will get leads for sure.
As this grows, you can experiment with facebook ads and google adwords.
Matt Horwitz
Awesome advice Matt. CL users may also want to make a different account name for their foreign investor farming. They can link and forward to their normal email from a new gmail or other free internet-based email. Be prepared to get a ton of junk solicitations using this method.
Matt I like the way you think my friend. Or you can go to Odesk and get a hell of a lot of workers to do anything internet related that you want. Just place the job and the site allows them to bid on your job so you dont have to go looking for them. Make sure you are detailed in exactly what you are looking to get done. I would recommend the Philippines also as they are pretty ok with the english language and hones people.
I actually do use the web in just about every deal I do. I get a lot of homes off of BP, craigslist and Facebook. I market all of my homes using craigslist. I also have a website that captures buyers info if they want my inventory list. Finally, I send out regular emails to my lists offering my inventory when it updates and looking for referrals.
In short, I do not do banner PPC campaigns at this time, but I use the heck out of the internet for my real estate business!
P.S. I should mention, when I started back in the 90s, I did not have internet, I had a cell phone that cost a fortune to use and a roll paper fax machine, and I still did over 100 deals per year!