Top Real Estate Articles

Social Bookmarking Secrets - Breakthrough Results Using Web 2.0 To Explode Your Real Estate Marketing Profits

Aug 24, 2009 Real Estate Investments

It might have happened that you had e-mailed a friend, associate or a family member informing them about a particular website that you liked and thought it would interest them too. Well, this simple online process is called social bookmarking. This online activity of social bookmarking helps you to tag websites and save them directly to the web for future use. And since these bookmarks are found on the World Wide Web you can distribute them to your friends too.

Real estate professionals operating as realtors, mortgage brokers, agents and even investors can use social bookmarking to stabilize their online social marketing campaigns. If you are a real estate professional then even you can follow what techniques your fellow competitors are implementing to attract investors and customers.

Social Bookmarking is not just about saving websites of your choice, advertising them and sending them to friends and family. There is a lot more to it like, being aware of what other websites are liked by people in general and what makes them tag them and also searching through other bookmarked sites by simply typing the keywords using the search tool. This is a very convenient and effortless mechanism to follow and implement. This is one of the main reasons for its growing popularity.

Most of the social bookmarking sites allow you to surf through the popular and recently added topics that can range from blogging, properties of real estate, politics and news to sports, entertainment, shopping and movies. This broad range makes it even more popuar and preferred. Hence social bookmarking websites can be used as effective search engines.

Social news and social bookmarking websites are good options to promote your real estate blog. Chiclets, tiny bookmark icons of social networking, allows you as well as your users to submit your blog post without any difficulty to different social networking and social news sites like NewsVine, Reddit, Furl, and Digg. This is a big advantage.

You can use social news and social bookmarking to specifically target exactly what you want to find about. For this you will not require searching a search engine. Here you can simply type in something and then search for your topic and narrow down and advance your search to those topics that you are interested in such as real estate properties.

With social bookmarking you can always remain up-to-date and get access to information to varied subjects. This is because their sites always display the links that are popular and lists that get added recently. This is one significant advantage of social bookmarking.

Therefore, social bookmarking, which initially began as a method of sending bookmarks to friends and associates has developed into search engines that are social in character. You can avoid going through the tedious process of searching for something specific on search engines which generates innumerable results and might confuse you. If you simply visit a social bookmarking site, you can conveniently select the exact category that meets your requirement and matches your personal or professional interest.

Tags: Bank Foreclosure, bank owned, buy foreclosure, buy foreclosures, Foreclosed real estate, foreclosure investing, Foreclosure Services, foreclosure short sale, real estate investing, Real Estate Investments, real estate marketing, |shortsale marketing

WordPress Blog Secrets - A Quick 3 Step System By Real Estate Marketing

Aug 9, 2009 Real Estate Investments

WordPress is a modern article publishing platform or Content Management system (CMS) that has its center of attention on usability, web standards, and aesthetics. Real estate agents have stiff competition and a presence on the web can always benefit their business. WordPress lets the real estate proprietors write a blog or have a website. This is identified as the WordPress blog. Real estate proprietors can use the WordPress Blog to enhance their online presence with respect to their real estate business.

If you intend to use the WordPress blog as a real estate social marketing tool, then you will be relieved to know that WordPress is completely free as well as priceless. In other words, WordPress is something that you apply when you primarily want to function with your software of blogging rather than fight it.

The real estate themes on WordPress are customizable and user-friendly. The WordPress blog is thus an ideal solution for you if you are a web developer or a real estate agent. You can utilize it as a management system for content. However, before you actually purchase it, you must read the page on FAQ very carefully. Every purchaser of any theme receives a lifetime access and privilege to numerous updates for that particular theme absolutely free.

The WordPress blog can be very useful for developers who are normally very busy and require methods to attain desired results quickly. The themes found in WordPress recommend them a solution to manage their real estate content. You will be able to save much time and effort if you can afford to purchase the Multiple-Use Package that is popular these days.

2003 was when WordPress originally was put to use by limited users to enhance the typography of daily writing with a minimal code. Today, it is widely used on countless websites and by a large number of people daily. It has superceded all its competitors and has gained a lot of recognition for being one of the largest instruments for self-hosted blogging making the Wordpress blog even more popular.

Being used as a commercial platform by most users, Wordpress is actually a project with an open source. This also signifies that there are different people all over the world working on it and using the Wordpress blog. Always remember the more popular a website, the greater exposure you can expect to receive. You too can use it to develop and improve your real estate social marketing.

On WordPress.org you will be allowed to download as well as install a special software script known as WordPress. For this you will require a web host who can meet the minimal requirements and invest some time. WordPress is fully customizable and you can use it for anything and everything. You will find a free service at WordPress.com by which you can begin with the WordPress blog instantly.

Writing as well as publishing articles and blogs online has been made simpler by WordPress. WordPress is user-friendly and this has led to the escalating use of the WordPress blog. The best solution for you to market your real estate content and attract potential customers and investors is the implementation of the WordPress blog.

Tags: Bank Foreclosure, bank owned, foreclosure investing, how to buy foreclosures, real estate investing, Real Estate Investments, real estate marketing, short sale investing, |how to find foreclosures

Foreclosure Timeline All 50 States - A Basic Understanding

Jun 29, 2009 Real Estate Properties

The foreclosure process is unique in each of the 50 states. If you find yourself in a critical situation and you feel that you may not be able to make your payments - it is recommended that you take a look at the foreclosure laws in your state.

The differences in the foreclosure laws vary in a variety of ways such as lender notices, buyback periods, and even the scheduling and bank notices issued regarding the auctioning of the property. Because the foreclosure timeline is complicated the goal of this article is to give you a basic understanding.

Your first time missing a mortgage payment, your lender will contact you by phone in some cases they will even contact you by mail and a late charge will be added on. A late fee isn’t normally added until after the 15th day. Most lenders will work with you if you give them a call in advanced and let them know that you are going to be a little late.

Once you have missed two consecutive payments the mortgage company will begin the harassment tactics. By that I mean the phone calls - they will begin calling in an effort to find out why a payment hasn’t been made. Most of us make the mistake of avoiding the calls. The right thing to do is open the lines of communications with the lender.

During your communications with the lender you want to try to avoid having them put a 30 days late mark on your credit report. A late notice like this could KILL your credit score. This is something that you want to avoid if possible.

Ok maybe you didn’t find this article until it was to late. Your property is going up on the auction block tomorrow. Believe it or not your still in the game and you still have an outside chance of recovering your home (remember I said an outside chance). You can reclaim your property by paying the full outstanding mortgage balance and all costs incurred during the foreclosure process. This is the only way that you will stand a chance at getting your home back. Another thing that you will want to keep in mind is that the availability of this process is determined by whether the foreclosure is judicial or non-judicial and procedures can vary from state to state.

Tags: Bank Foreclosure, Bank Loans, Foreclosure, foreclosure aution, foreclosure timeline all 50 states, Mortgage Foreclosure, Mortgage Foreclosures, Real Estate, Real Estate Properties

Real Estate Postcard Marketing Tip: Write Positively in Your Real Estate Direct Mail

Jun 13, 2009 Real Estate Properties

Wording. Sometimes just a little bit of a change in the way you phrase your message can make a big difference in how people respond to it. To show you what I mean, go back to the title of this article, “When You Mail Your Next Postcard.” Notice that I didn’t say “If you mail a postcard.” I’m presuming that’s exactly what you’re going to do.

And that’s how you should approach the text and tone of your next message. Work from the assumption that your audience will do business with you. Of course, they’ll do business with you. Why should they go anywhere else?

So write your real estate postcard marketing message as if your prospect has already decided to use your services. Be positive!

Using in this write of diction needs to turn routine. It needs to be the way your script automatically, without vacillation. In a very proper module, it’s concerning from the standpoint that there is no else utile deciding for your reverend, but your business. Go membrane, use the motto “when you deal with us,” “not if you deal with us.”

Not only that, use persuasive logic that creates a natural conclusion that doing business with you is a sensible action. So, use phrases that lead your reader to where you want them to be. Words such as “undoubtedly,” “as you can clearly see,” “without a doubt,” as well as “it’s clear that . . .” give you a subtle edge in encouraging your audience that contracting with your firm is the proper action.

When you bush your sales book with this text, you’re creating a unbleached mindset with your customer that your pair is the exclusive formal quality for him. And when you pair this with a competent enjoin to process, you’ll shortly discover that the combination works similarly as gangbusters.

Also use phrases in your real estate direct mail that affirms that they are making an intelligent decision in choosing you. For example, dot your content with words such as “clearly”, “without the slightest doubt”, “when you list the property with us” and etc.

If you question me on this, just expend the direct-mail material you make prevarication around your concern. Occupy out a highlighter. Now read at minimal publicity, sooner two or trinity. Whenever you come crosswise specified module as “when” “without an incertitude” or any another phrase that “assumes” the outcome the marketing desires, highlight it.

This method is sometimes referred to as ’subliminal marketing.’ Check out your leading competitor’s real estate direct marketing materials and underscore the words that are working to shape the readers’ mind into already having agreed to the investor’s proposal.

So when creating your real estate direct marketing materials, try to reframe your content positively. Get your prospects thought processes ready to act on the call to action written in your real estate direct mail!

Tags: Bank Foreclosure, bank owned, buy foreclosure, buy foreclosures, Foreclosure Services, foreclosure short sale, foreclosure short sales, Real Estate Properties

Real Estate Direct Marketing Tip: ?All You Got? Approach to Direct Marketing

May 19, 2009 Real Estate Properties

Writing can be exhausting. No, it?s not the same physically exhausting work that roofing or waitressing can be. But, to produce effective copy, you absolutely must write enthusiastically. And that means you have to give of yourself. Your postcard campaign deserves ? demands in fact ? that you write from a position of pure enthusiasm.

To ensure that your copy is effective, you might even say you have to approach your writing with a certain degree of passion. If you?re sitting snickering at this seemingly silly idea, don?t. If you can?t generate a certain amount of excitement about your service ? in this case your real estate investing service ? how could you possibly expect any other person to be excited?

We also need to take into account our recent economic experiences and how it shapes the perception of our customers. People are more skeptical about real estate direct mails, and perceive real estate investors as sharks. Moreover, their need to keep their homes at the moment, rank higher than the benefits you have outlined for them.

One way to overcome your customers? hesitation is to highlight the benefits they will get from availing of your services. Winning them over is much quicker if you are enthusiastic about your product.

When you create a passion for your product ? as a real estate investor this would be the idea of selling a house and starting over ? you?ll undoubtedly touch something within your reader?s spirit. When you reach this point with your words, then your customer will be inextricably drawn to action. Guaranteed!

Remember, though, I said at the beginning that copywriting can be exhausting. In fact, this is a great way to test your writing. If you?re not even a little bit tired when you?re through creating your copy, then maybe you haven?t generated enough enthusiasm.

If you racked your brain and still cannot come up with anything, it?s advisable to sleep it over. Set it aside and sleep. You?ll probably have a newer perspective in the next day. Is it better than what you wrote yesterday?

Don?t get stressed if you find it lacking. Use your time instead to edit it or improve your real estate direct mail copy. Set it aside again for at least 24 hours then review again. Most of the engaging real estate direct marketing materials you have read have been the result of numerous hours of rewriting.

That doesn?t mean you need to totally give up. Failure, as you know, is not an option. No you salvage what you can, tweak the copy where you need to and keep on writing. Then again, you set it aside overnight and come back to it.

And finally, real estate marketing strategies that you feel confident, excited, or passionate about will greatly help you produce effective real estate direct mails. Because, if you don?t believe in what you are selling, or you can?t get excited about the benefits you offer, then writing effective real estate direct mails will be impossible.

Tags: Bank Foreclosure, bank owned, buy foreclosures, Foreclosure Services, foreclosure short sale, foreclosure short sales, Real Estate Properties

Real Estate Investor Insider Secret #6: Consumer Decisions are Made From Our Emotions

May 19, 2009 Real Estate Properties

Don’t mistake credible copywriting with a dry copywriting. Real estate marketing materials should satisfy both our human need to make rational decisions and our human nature to make emotional decisions.

Sure, people may say they research the products they intend to buy. And, sure, consumers may say they search for the best prices. And they may even say that they create charts with the advantages and disadvantages of specific products. And in many cases they really do perform all these acts.

However, don?t let this mislead you into thinking that logical reasoning alone can persuade people to accept your offer. Do not send your target market a real estate direct mail that only lists the practical benefits why they should sell their home and not the emotional benefits.

Hence, influencing your target market will require you to write a real estate direct mail that creates an emotional affinity with your prospects. So what are these possible benefits that can appeal emotionally to your prospect? You can read more articles on motivation but what I can give you right now are financial security, freedom from worry and fear, increased self-esteem, social status, and etc.

Never assume that emotional marketing only applies to consumer purchases. Especially today, emotions in the real estate market are high. Your real estate direct marketing communication with your customers should aim to reduce their fears and increase their optimism about the benefits you offer.

If you?re reading this, thinking that this ?rule? doesn?t apply to the real estate market, you?re only fooling yourself. Emotions play a powerful role in every single decision we make ? even those that aren?t really consumer related.

One recent example of the successful application of rational and emotional marketing is the 2008 Presidential Elections. Whether you are an Obama supporter or not, Obama?s emotional charisma and poise overcame rational arguments against his lack of experience.

This election also revealed the nation?s growing preference for positive emotional appeals, as against negative emotional appeals. Hence, do not minimize the importance and credibility of emotional marketing.

Emotions not only push people to buy status symbol consumer products, or vote for a presidential candidate. People?s emotions also shape their decisions about reading your real estate direct marketing materials and to responding to your message to sell their homes to you.

So do not forget to use emotional persuasion in your real estate postcard marketing campaigns to increase your response rate!

Tags: Bank Foreclosure, bank owned, buy foreclosures, Foreclosure Services, foreclosure short sale, foreclosure short sales, Real Estate Properties

Real Estate Postcard Marketing Tip: Even Postcard Messages Need Strong Headlines

May 19, 2009 Real Estate Properties

It?s true! And you know it! It’s a cardinal rule of direct marketing and as a real estate investor you need to keep it uppermost in your mind if you want to succeed. And while you may think this is only true for longer direct mailings in other industries, it?s even more important with a postcard mailing.

There is not a lot of room in a postcard to write down several of your persuasive arguments. But an attention grabbing and informative headline can get this job done while using less space and requiring less time from your customer.

The most surefire way of creating a strong headline is to follow the WIIFM ? What’s In It For Me principle. Remember, benefits first before features.

Your real estate marketing headlines should also inform people of the benefits of selling their homes to you. So evaluate your strengths, your competitive strategies, and check your customer testimonials to learn what they are most thankful for about your service.

To write the most powerful, muscle-bound headline you can, you need to sit down and have a brainstorming session with yourself. Think of every possible benefit a customer could gain from selling his house to you. Don’t worry about the number of benefits. Don’t limit your thinking or your writing. In fact, the more benefits you can put on paper the better!

You will also notice that some of your most promising headlines are related. Merge these headlines into one strong headline. You may still end up with a few distinct headlines. Test these different headlines if they can effectively meet the direct marketing standard: What’s in it for the customer? Remove the ones that may be creative but don’t pass this test.

You?ll discover that once you start this exercise, you?ll have variations around a certain theme. Some ideas will automatically drop out because others will seem to much more effective. That’s exactly what’s supposed to happen. As you cross out the ideas you consider the weaker ones, you?ll be left with only the strong ones.

In addition, you can achieve more success in your real estate postcard marketing if you pay more attention to your customers, and learn what benefits are most valuable to them. These benefits have the strongest emotional connection to your prospective customers. And when these benefits are merged into a headline, you produce a highly potent means of persuasion.

I know. It seems that you?re taking quite a bit of time just creating your headline. That’s exactly the way it should be though. Your headline is just that important. And it’s a fact that you should never forget.

In fact, you can even spin your own headline from the tips I’ve mentioned. Once you come up with the best and convincing headline, you?re on your way to achieving real estate success.

Tags: Bank Foreclosure, bank owned, buy foreclosures, Foreclosure Services, foreclosure short sale, foreclosure short sales, Real Estate Properties

Real Estate Investor Insider Secret #1: One Simple Way to Make Your Postcard Campaign Come Alive

May 18, 2009 Real Estate Properties

Okay. So you know that the most effective direct mail campaign involves an address that at least appears to be handwritten and a live stamp - as opposed to preprinted labels. But did you realize that the message on the back would be monumentally more effective if you could somewhere make it look more personal - with handwriting - as well?

Do you convey knowledge and interest about them? In real estate marketing you need to check whether your real estate direct mail looks like it came from someone who is personally interested in them. Prospects’ contact information printed on sticker labels scream you were just one of the many names who were on the list. Hence, having this information written by hand is important in real estate direct marketing.

In fact, most customers get turned off with too professional-looking postcards. In order to gain their attention, you must stand out. Other real estate investors are probably doing the same thing so you should exert extra effort to make your customer say, “Wow, I’m glad I got this postcard!”

What makes yours different is you are building their trust. You are reaching out to them in a more personal level.

To personalize postcards, smart real investors nowadays attach live post stamps and handwrite addresses to their customers. What if I tell you that there is a simple but foolproof way of gaining advantage over your competitors?

Your customers would be delighted to get a “handwritten” postcard from you. But in this case, you do not have to actually write it - yes, you read it right!

In fact, right here, right now, while you’re reading this article you can create a message that will totally knock the socks off your customers and have them ringing your phone faster than you can say “I want to buy your house!”

Get a coupon bond, letter-sized (8.5″ x 11″). Fold it horizontally or vertically - it doesn’t matter actually - then fold it in the opposite direction. You should be able to make four mini-squares from the coupon bond. These mini-squares will serve as your postcards.

Handwrite your own personal message on each postcard space. The length does not matter as long as you are able to communicate your message. A simple “Are you interested in buying this house? Call me” would do. Or, you can tailor the message according to a particular holiday to let your customers that you remembered them on that particular holiday.

Next thing to do is to go to your nearest duplicating company and have the postcards photocopied. Sign, seal and deliver and you’re done! It is really that easy. Sit back and relax as you get higher response rates than you ever did before!

Tags: Bank Foreclosure, bank owned, buy foreclosures, Foreclosure Services, foreclosure short sale, foreclosure short sales, Real Estate Properties

Real Estate Postcard Marketing Tip: Get Talking to Get Writing

May 18, 2009 Real Estate Properties

Most real estate investors have weaknesses in writing real estate direct mails. Hours can pass by swiftly without being able to fill half-a-page. And when it comes to postcard writing, selecting what to write can get confusing.

And for beginners in real estate investing, the responsibility of writing real estate direct marketing materials and learning all the marketing techniques in copywriting can be overwhelming. So if things get complicated for you, just remember that marketing is all about talking to your customers about the benefits of your service.

If you?re having trouble getting the words on paper ? and even the best of copywriters do sometimes ? then try this trick. It works best if you have a tape recorder. But if you don?t use your computer.

Go to a quite place where you can relax ? probably your bedroom or living room. Record your thoughts as if you were talking to a friend or an acquaintance. But if you do not have a recorder, type your words on your computer as you speak them.

Since you are not filtering your thoughts and words, the post might appear disorganized to you. Do not worry because you?ll edit this later on. As you go over through them, it?s time for you to edit your post so it will make more sense to you and to your customers. It should appear as if the post is talking to someone, and that someone is your customer.

Trust me on this one. It?ll work. The fundamental reason why direct-mail is so very powerful at selling is its unique ability to touch potentially hundreds of thousands of people at one time, yet be a very personal message for the individual who is reading it in the privacy of his own home.

So don?t waste time staring blankly at your computer screen and give this method a try. One of the reasons why it also works is because writing the way you would naturally speak to your customer let?s you develop real estate marketing materials that feels more sincere and personal to your prospective customers. This may mean having some fragmented sentences in your copy.

Formal sentences are a big NO NO because you would appear fake and insincere. Write it as if you are talking to your friends in the real world. Your friends would probably laugh at you if you use formal sentences all the time.

Before you even think about doing this exercise, though, it?s vital that you not worry about anything. It could be that you?ll end up with enough complete copy for two versions of a postcard mailing. That?s great! You can either test these variations, or have your next mailing practically completed right now.

Once you get the hang of ?talking? to your customers, you?ll have an easier time launching a successful postcard marketing campaign.

Tags: Bank Foreclosure, bank owned, buy foreclosures, Foreclosure Services, foreclosure short sale, foreclosure short sales, Real Estate Properties