All Forum Posts by: Lucas Machado

@Pratik P. I'm a fairly heavy InvestorCarrot user.  I second everything @Guy Olds stated and couldn't say it better.  However, the issue I have with InvestorCarrot is they have very little flexibility to adjust the site to your needs.

Few examples: one of the social media avenues we use is Instagram.  They won't add an icon for Instagram (which I can't possibly imagine is difficult), and I asked one year ago.  Meanwhile, they have icons for social media services that haven't been used in years.  

As part of my business, I have an employee answering the phone essentially 24/7.  Since they are at the computer the majority of the time, I would like to use a WordPress plug-in for live chat on my site.  InvestorCarrot said they would not install a plug-in due to alleged "security issues."  Of course, this was a widely used plug-in by thousands of users.

The value of a WordPress site is that there is plug-ins for essentially every advanced feature you would need.  Yet, InvestorCarrot  is a WordPress base that won't allow you to install a plug-in.

It will take me quite a bit of work to change over my site off of InvestorCarrot, but it is definitely a goal of mine in the next year.

@Sultan Maawali  Many people get into "wholesaling" because in theory it is "free", and in theory that is true.  Even for wholesalers, they still must be down an earnest money deposit.  In actuality, successful wholesalers spend considerable sums on marketing, but I suppose there are exceptions.  If you're budget is limited, I strongly recommend obtaining your license.  Once you have your license, you can offer legitimate service to your clients in exchange for your commission.  This will let you build a client base, salary, and reputation for being an upstanding member of the real estate community.  Once you have your license, you can always branch out into other forms of real estate involvement, such as flipping houses or buy-and-hold.

As far as "what makes more money", whether you are an investor, agent, broker, wholesaler, you need to work very hard and you can be financially successful as all these things.  Your skill set and goals may lend itself more to one than the other, and I would look at that more than a dollar sign.

Raphael,

You can Google hard money lenders in your area, though that is more for fix-and-flips due to high interest rates and it sounds like you want to buy-and-hold. You can partner with a local real estate investor - you might find a partner at your nearby REIA or here on BiggerPockets. If the property was in better condition, you might obtain bank financing (but from the condition you describe, it doesn't sound like it would qualify). I don't have any information on the seller, but seller financing is a creative way to fund a deal if you don't have any other means to finance. Most of these methods, however, require a down payment.

In short, there is no simple way to get funding for a rehab without putting some of your own cash forward or being creative.  Your best bet, if this deal is a "steal", is to find an experienced rehabber/landlord and discuss working together.

@Alexander Timberlake Try out one of the well known real estate lead generation websites (there is a few key ones you can find on the web) for the trial period.  After using the website for a month, you should have an understanding of the features you need to have on your WordPress site lead generation site (or maybe you like the convenience of not having to build your own site).  Once you know the features you want, a decent website programmer should be able to create your site for a a few thousand dollars (price may vary depending if you are satisfied with a template or want the site created from scratch).  Most of the key features (unless you are planning to get really really creative) are available as WordPress plugins that a decent programmer can install.

@Meghan J. If you're looking to "narrow it down", rather than just knocking randomly, consider that most counties you can freely obtain probate, eviction, and tax delinquent records.  I'd probably take a look at the ones that have multiple signs of motivation.  Just a thought though, I've never done door knocking.

15 flip deals!

I very much second @Jeff Filali suggestion regarding "negative keywords."  I literally have negative keywords for every major city, county, and state outside of my farm area.  Occasionally, I still get wasted clicks: most recently I had a "sell my house in Australia" click - I hadn't thought to block other countries!  Of course, my company isn't national so "sell my house in New Jersey" is not helpful for me.

Google also let's you select the area by having the option: "People in, searching for, or who show interest in my targeted location."  That has worked relatively well for me.  I previously tried using keywords with cities and zipcode: but when you use so many keywords it can create a large (and somewhat random as far as I can tell) disparity in quality scores, and frankly spreads the data so thin it's hard to draw testing conclusions.  I focus on about 10 keywords that have 5-10 QS and work off that as more data comes in.

@Jonathan Brown Don't be discouraged - you can find a web developer to make more than an adequate Wordpress website for certainly no more than a couple thousand dollars.  These websites aren't complex, as far as websites go (it's essentially a blog, fill-in forms, and basic pages - this does not require a world class web designer).  You need a responsive site optimized for mobile (again, not world class web designing).  A couple thousand might be substantial or might not be for you: it is relatively cheap IMO because once the site is designed there is relatively minimum upkeep.

Alternatively, if you can't shell out several thousand dollars, you can use a dedicated real estate generation site for about $50/month (I won't cite products, but you can find several providers of this service).  This is the type of product I use from my website.

For what it's worth, besides using the professional service for $50 per month to maintain the site, I've created the entirety of the content on my site, based on my own learning and knowledge.  My site ranks #1 on "sell my house in Broward" one of my farm areas, and pages 2 -3 for "sell my house" in my other counties (Miami-Dade & Palm Beach County), so I have more work to do but I'm getting there.  Organically, I get about 5-10 leads per month.  Length of time is a key factor for Google ranking because it is a factor in terms of Google considering your site an authority.  I'm 11 months in - my competitors are at around 3-5 years - so I'm catching up.

In any case, nothing in the business is easy.  If you work hard on your site, build backlinks, engage in regular "social signals", keep your site up-to-date with fresh content, you will climb.

Although Google does change its algorithm overtime, the trend has been to make "technicalities" less relevant.  For example, it used to be keyword stuffing was important - Google has gotten smart to that and now will penalize you for excessive keyword use.  It used to be backlinking could be successful on any site, now Google will penalize you for "blackhat" tactics such as your website being linked on low quality websites.  Through networking effort, my site has been discussed on Trulia, Nasdaq, MSN, OpenHouse, Gobankingrates, and I'm always working on it.

I'm not a professional in terms of having some degree, but all this information is available to learn online.  I would encourage you to not wait before taking action - as it will take 12 or more months to catch up to competitors.

@Will Eagles  One point I would add, in addition to all the great advice already posted, is to make an assessment why the range is from $175-$210k.  While not unheard of, there may be a reason to help narrow the range.  Sometimes it's random, but look at each sale carefully as the range is fairly large (a 35k profit swing is monstrous in this price range).

@Jonathan Brown Have you considered ranking your website for upper page SERPs?  Even pages 2-3 on Google will yield periodic free leads (by "free" I mean not paying money), and climbing to page 1 you will receive steady off-market lead flow.  Individual content, such as blogs, can also rank for Google and be a lead source.  Most SEO ranking activity requires time, not money, so if you're looking to leverage time for more deals (without paying postage or pay-per-click) it's a good place to start.

Of course, you will have to secure a domain and design the site.  There are costs for that, but costs to get a site up and running pale in comparison to direct-mail and home purchases.