All Forum Posts by: Robert Laird

Hey John!

Welcome to BP! It is a great site to connect with others and learn more about real estate investing. I wish you the best in the future!

Rob

Max,

Well I have had some experience with SalesForce property base. This CRM is customizable, however some aspects of it also makes me want to remove my eyeballs with a fork. When it comes to CRM's though it is pretty popular and straight forward. Hope this helps a little!

Rob

Hey Luiz!

One way that can help handle a lot of incoming calls is by hiring an answering service also known as a virtual receptionist. There are tons of different companies out there who will remotely take calls for you and then send you the notes, or forward the calls for you. A lot of these services range in price, but most of the pay structures are by a monthly fee or per call basis. Another option you might want to try is just finding someone locally through a high school or craigslist. Young adults are always looking for ways to gain income. You can train them easily by writing up a phone script. Just some ideas, hope this helps!

Rob

Francis,

Well our real estate investing business did not require any business credit in order to start. We get almost all of our funding exclusively from Private Lenders. However, this is because all we do is fix and flips. Like Curt said, if you want to do buy and holds you will need bank approval for financing. Hope this helps!

Rob

Hey Jade,

The Real Estate Investing company I work for decided to go with an answering service just a couple of weeks ago and I had to do a ton of research to figure out what we want. We decided to get an answering service/virtual receptionist when we started getting several calls a day. We didn't need the answering service because we were getting too many calls, we got it because we were afraid people would be calling us when we were out of the office and we would lose the lead. We decided to go with AnswerFirst because they charge on a per call basis. Since we did not know how many calls we would be getting after hours we wanted to get a service with a pay per call set up and not a large monthly bill. Each service varies on their price structure. Most of them are a monthly charge though. I attached a link below to an article that compares different answering services for 2015. I hope this helps!

http://sidebysidereviews.com/answering-service-rev...

Rob

Mark,

I have personally never been in this situation. However, from my experience if I was in that position I would take option 1. As you mention in option 2 taking advances on credit cards makes things more pressured financially. Also credit debt is a lot scarier than being in debt with a family member (I guess it depends on the family member). If you do have good support I would definitely go with option 1 because I am sure they would give you a fair deal and might even be interested in helping you fix up the property. Anyways, thats what I would do if I was in that position. Hope this helped!

Rob

Franseta,

Also check out the your MLS page for new listings! Its a good way to start to get a feel for what kinds of investing you want to do.

Rob

Hey Franseta!

Welcome to bigger pockets! I must say, being new to real estate you already chose the best place to start. Bigger pockets! There is so much information and good people on this website to talk to the education is endless. I personally would check out the podcasts at first and listen to ones you are interested in. Then maybe read a few articles and try to connect with people that are in your area. Another good way to get information and connect with people when your new is by attending local Real Estate meetings. Most metropolitan areas have a real estate meeting of some sort once a month. Some of them are even advertised on the forums here. Being a newbie you came to the right place! Good luck on your future endeavors! 

Rob

For the past couple of months we have consistently been sending out:

1. Weekly mailers

2. Roughly 1,000-2,000 pieces

3. Postcards almost exclusively, however some yellow letters

Its great to see all the different strategies!

Hey Gabe!

I know we use a lot of mailers to find sellers, however to find buyers that requires a different strategy. I have found that networking on bigger pockets can help, I have read lots of stories of people closing deals through connections they made on here. Another strategy you might want to try is using a variety of listing sites, like Redfin.com or FSBO.com. Lastly, you might want to find a data provider that can give you information on individuals who own more than one property with high equity. These are your consistent buyers. Then just start calling them. Hope this helps!

Rob