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Last week, in my first post on the BiggerPockets Blog, I wrote about how I became the investors’ Realtor by being an investor myself, thinking like an investor, having marketing materials designed for investors, and being in the hottest spots for investor real estate purchases. This week I would like to expand on the idea of traveling to the investment hot spots. Being in the places where people actually want to buy, and are buying, will enhance your chances of becoming a leader in your field. Specializing in a niche within a niche will also help establish your reputation as a leader in your area of expertise.
As you recall from our last article, I was heavily involved in several real estate markets over the 2003 to 2006 period. Where ever the hottest market… I was there. I was in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Albuquerque, and North Carolina just to name a few. I stayed tuned-in to where investors were heading, as I was one of them, and invested in all of these markets myself. Since the summer of 2008 I have specialized once again in the Las Vegas valley, but this time it has been foreclosures and REO properties… not new construction homes. I knew it was time to gear myself back up for sales in the Las Vegas area as I watched the prices of single family homes and condos drop rapidly due to the glut of foreclosures flooding the market. These lower prices created homes that could be purchased and rented for very good cash flow… better than Vegas has seen in decades. I took the opportunity to begin educating myself about this niche in this market, develop my marketing materials, and get ready to welcome the investors that I knew would soon come running into the Las Vegas housing market once again.
Becoming An Expert
I cannot stress enough how important it is to identify a niche and establish yourself as an expert in that particular area.
Wholesaling houses is much easier when you have a list of active buyers lined up ready to purchase your deals. I personally spend just as much time looking for deals as I do looking for buyers. I am always on the hunt for new buyers, and as a result, I am usually able to unload my wholesale deals within hours of putting them under contract.
Okay. I have waited long enough. I have sat back and watched as all those so-called “experts” came up with all sorts of schemes to save banks, car companies, brokerage houses, their own asses, space ships (maybe not space ships…but, hell, why not?) and democracy. It is about time I stepped in with my own schemes (I mean plans) to fix what is wrong with the entire housing/real estate market. I know this is bold of me, but someone has to do the dirty work and I figure it might as well be me!
I believe that the most powerful internet marketing strategy for real estate investors ever created on the internet is social media marketing. That’s right. Social media is extremely powerful and one of the easiest marketing strategies you can incorporate into your real estate business.
Executive summaries are one of the most important aspects of commercial loan package submission, however, many new investors spend the least time and energy on this essential component. I recently had the opportunity to interview Lori McMahon of LJ Commercial Property Services. She creates and submits executive summaries as her profession and is considered to be an expert in the field. Below is a list of questions and answers exchanged by a new commercial real estate investor and Lori.
Last week I 
I took a test once where I had to score 100% to pass. This was to become a licensed EMT, and there was a good reason for the 100% standard. Since I was being measured on my knowledge of lifesaving emergency medical care, they wanted to be sure I knew every subject on the syllabus perfectly.
Joshua Dorkin
Which Cities are the Best to Invest in Real Estate?
by Ryan Moeller | August 7, 2009Should you follow everyone and invest in the hot appreciating markets the media and everyone talks about?
The media has a much different approach in that they look at hot markets speculatively as ones that will appreciate, our approach is much different. I previously wrote on the topic where to invest and identified many smaller cities, the Midwest and OH as areas that hit on all 4 of my criteria: Little chance of depreciation, lots of available deals, low competition, multiple exit strategies.
Here I will identify specific cities that have an oversupply of opportunity for savvy investors, using the PMI U.S. Market Risk Index that I talked about in that previous post.