This past week, one of my new clients asked me the following: “Peter, my entire business is focused on flipping houses, mostly to real estate investors. To tell you the truth, I don’t see how the internet is going to help my business?”
Here’s my answer to him and to anyone else:
The internet is a goldmine for such a business. Consider this . . . If you are a real estate wholesaler or flipper, then your main sources of end buyers are other investors including rehabbers.
Where could you find other investors and rehabers on the internet?
There are many sources for that, but today I would like to talk to you about one source, social media. In fact, BiggerPockets is one website where you can find thousands of other real estate investors who are looking for what you have to offer. Few other websites including Facebook and Twitter offer the same opportunities.
How do we find the investors who are interested in what I have to offer?
Let’s look at Twitter. When you go to Twitter.com and login to your account, you’ll see a search box on the right side of your screen, under your profile and the photos of your followers. That search box is missed by the majority of people, yet it is one of the most powerful features of twitter. Why?
Because it allows you to search for people and their conversations in REAL-TIME. That’s right! Whatever you input into that box, Twitter will go out and search their entire database to see who is talking about that phrase RIGHT NOW!
For instance, let’s say you input the search phrase: “fix house” or “real estate.” Twitter will return all of the current and live conversations that include those phrases.
How do You Monetize that Feature?
Now you know who is online and what they are talking about, you can follow those people talking about things that relate to your business and send them a message. Remember, once they receive the message, they are more likely to respond to you right away because they are in the ‘twitter mindset.’
Now, you start a conversation with them. Proceed with caution here. When you send them a message and when you start talking to them, do not and I repeat, do not market yourself and your business.
Think about this for a second — If you go to a party where you don’t know anyone, do you talk about your business right away? No! You introduce yourself, you ask them to tell you something about themselves and you make a connection with them.
The process is very similar on the internet. The difference here is that you can’t see them in person. So, look at their profile and at their tweets to see what they are interested in and what they tweet about. That’s how you start a conversation.
Before you know it, you are emailing each other, talking to each other on the phone and meeting for a lunch to discuss business. Remember, real estate is a relationship business so start forging relationships!
You can apply the same principles to other social websites on the internet – remember that the key is to engage! Twitter is just one social media website you can use for your business.
As always, I would appreciate any comments and questions below. Let me know and I’ll be happy to answer them for you.
To Your Success,
Peter Kolat
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Article Author: Peter KolatPeter has written 31 articles for us.
Visit Peter's Website: http://www.realestateids.com
Peter Kolat is a Real Estate Internet Marketing genius. He's been consulting for many real estate gurus in the real estate industry. His Free Internet Marketing Techniques helped many real estate investors & agents dominate their real estate markets on the internet. No wonder he's been called the "Polish Pulverizer."
Joshua Dorkin
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Peter is right on this matter This method of social networking definetly Works : Try it
Bigger pockets Yes we use this site on a regular bases as part of our social networking efforts : A1
I know someone who meets so many people and networks himself so well that he ends up having to send off more than half of his real estate leads to other agents in the office.
-Tyler
Very good tip on Twitter, I admit I’m one of the many that’s never used that search box. But your post started out commenting about BiggerPockets… any similar tips for that site?
Are you asking me about tips for twitter or Biggerpockets? I have some tips for both.
In regards to Twitter, use the tagging feature because it will help you build your following much faster.
In regards to BiggerPockets, interact in the forums here and help others. before you know, people will want to do business with you.
.-= Peter Kolat´s last blog ..Brand New Facebook Feature Will Help You Gain More Credibilty, Exposure, Business & Friends – All With Just One Symbol =-.
Hi Tyler Could your collegue send some of the leads this way Im sure many agents on BG could make use of them
Gary
are there any tools out there that will let you sift through the people you are currently following to look through their bio or location? I know I’ve started following people who look interesting, but then just forget who they are among the huge stream of updates.
.-= Eric Schwager´s last blog ..ForeclosureRadar.com releases the California Foreclosure Report =-.
Hi Eric,
Are you referring to any specific website that you are following people on?
Thanks,
Hi Peter, I mainly mean on Twitter. I’ll run across someone with an interesting profile and follow them. However, I follow lots of other people, too, and I quickly forget the person’s name.
There are various tools out there that will allow me to search, say, “wholesale houses” in the twitter stream or in twitter users’ bios. However, I don’t know of any that will help me do a search on my own friends/followers, do you?
.-= Eric Schwager´s last blog ..3 Secrets to Reading Housing data for the Real Estate Investor, Part 1: Understanding Seasonally-Adjusted Data =-.
Hey Eric, I’ve been able to sift and organize prospects with web crawling software (I’m using Mozenda). I’m pretty new to it but so far it’s pretty simple and I can keep track of people based on the specific criteria I input. Hope that helps; you could probably also contact them to see if you can organize the data per your preferences (not sure about searching your own friends or followers but I’d bet it’s possible).
Great post Peter!
I just began using the Social Media methods for buyers recently. I only used it to do B2B stuff before.
This is useful and interesting info as I do not use Twitter at all.
I will now though!
thank you for sharing.