All Forum Posts by: Jeremy Brandt

The very best person I've spoken with that has an amazing process (and story!) on how to do visioning is Ari Weinzweig, founder of the Zingermans group of companies ($50m+ in annual revenue).

His book " A Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to Building a Great Business" is a must read for anyone thinking about how to create a compelling vision of the future for their business (or life for that matter)

There are a number of ways you can tell Google (and others) how to index your web site.

#1 - robots.txt - this is a file that sits in the root directory of your website, It tells search engines what you want them to index. You can tell google to ignore certain pages if you don't want them in the index. Google "robots.txt" for details on how it works.

#2 - Webmaster Tools - Both Google and Microsoft have a free control panel that will give you details about how your site is being indexed, what search queries it is showing up for, what sites link to you, and report on any errors with your site. Google "webmaster tools" to claim your domain and view the reports.

#3 - Redirects - If you move pages around on your website, you'll want to setup a 301 redirect so that google and others know the page has moved, The method varies depending on your web server or host. Google "301 redirect" and the name of your hosting company or web server for instructions.

I hope that helps!

Scott Buckowski - Technology makes it MUCH easier to to run an investing business. Here are a few of the things a tech savvy person can bring to the table:

1. Marketing to distressed sellers (seo, sem, blogs, etc)

2. Lead management platform (ZoHo, 360leads, Salesforce, etc)

3. Automate the contract process (It takes us 1 click to write a contract out of our CRM software)

4. Tracking of marketing campaigns (cost/lead, cost/deal, ROAS, ROI, etc)

5. Automate calculating costs and tracking the rehab process

6. Every home seller you ever speak with who doesn't sell should be on an automated email follow-up campaign (infusionsoft or others). You never know when they'll be ready to make the decision.

Jon Holdman point #1 - Agreed email is easier for communication, but it's critical the first few communications are over the phone to build rapport & trust with the home sellers. We use automated calling technology so that every home seller contacting us via our website is called back within 5 seconds - this sets a very high bar for any competition they may have contacted as well.

Nearly everything in the real estate investing business can be a clearly defined process, and any clearly defined process can be mostly automated with technology tools.

We really get just about every type of mobile home in existence, it depends on the part of the country and what type is prevalent there.

Depending on the area, MLS inventory is getting tight on deals. The best success we've had with the MLS is automating our offer system.

1. Download the entire local MLS database (you will likely need to be licensed and sign an agreement to get a feed - partner with an agent if not lic.)

2. Identify "bargain" listings by calculating a price per sqft that is below average for each zip code, keywords in the description (motivated, distressed, etc) You'll need some tech experience yourself, or find a teenager.

3. Mail merge those results into automated heavily discounted offers emailed or faxed to the listing agent

In this manner you can make offers on a lot of properties very quickly, this has worked very well for us in the Dallas / Fort Worth area.

However - the MLS is where the competition is. By far the best source of distressed sellers is marketing directly to sellers BEFORE they are on the MLS. Direct mail, TV, billboards, post-its, Internet marketing (SEO, SEM, etc), and/or buying leads from companies that are experts in that type of marketing.

My #1 mantra in business marketing is... Go where the competition isn't if you want to be successful and efficient with your time/money.

In my experience, trying to buy short sales or at the courthouse can be a beating, especially in a competitive market.

As with just about any business, the key is to find a way to connect directly with distressed home sellers where you aren't competing with every other investor or first time home buyer out there.

There are a lot of ways to do this - post-it note canvasing, direct mail, TV advertising to zip codes ($25 - $50 per spot), targeted internet marketing, etc. You can do it yourself to start, then at some point it makes sense to pay someone to do it for you (an employee or another company).

They are nationwide and in Canada. Our primary business is marketing to distressed single family home sellers, the mobile homes are just the overflow.

Does anyone have good ideas for companies that purchase mobile homes (in a park or on land)?

We get 500+ people per month contacting us to sell their mobile home and are throwing them away right now.

Thanks for any suggestions!

RealtyTrac provides data on NODs, foreclosures, and REOs nationally.

It's convenient and inexpensive to subscribe.

You can generally get the same information for free (or cheap) from a local source in your area. The local sources are usually more up to date - try Googling "foreclosure list" and your city name.

However - since all this info is public, these home owners are heavily marketed to, and it's important to have a strong marketing strategy in place if you want to work with them.

Many home owners facing foreclosure get 20 to 50 post cards/letters and 3-10 "knocks on the door" from investors and others trying to sell them something.

There's no question that Google apps is the best bet for just about any small to medium business.

If you're running a business, you should never, ever, correspond using an email address @gmail.com, @hotmail.com, @aol.com, or @yahoo.com.

It looks completely unprofessional and people will assume you don't know what you are doing.

I talk to many small & medium businesses through my volunteer work at Entrepreneurs' Organization (www.eonetwork.org), and there are a lot of companies in the $1m to $10m in annual revenue range who use Google Apps extensively for email and document management.

You can get a Google apps account for free and have [email protected] - plus it integrates quite nice with Outlook via their sync tool - so you have the best of both worlds, and your email/contacts/calendar, etc are always in sync between your phone, PC, Laptop, iPad, and whatever else you use.

Salesforce.com also has direct integration with Google apps if you use that.

Google Apps (free): http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en-GB/group/index.html

Outlook Sync: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync