Author: migrate

  • 101 Real Estate Blog Post Topic Ideas to Spark Your Creativity

    101 Real Estate Blog Post Topic Ideas to Spark Your Creativity

    Are you having difficulty coming up with great real estate blog post ideas? Generating new blog post topics can be a discouraging task. We have compiled a list of 101 real estate blog ideas you can write about today.

    Key Takeaways

    • “Evergreen” content is a blog topic that stays relevant and fresh for a long time. This is ideal for a website so that your content continuously attracts leads.
    • There are 10+ types of blogs. Understanding them makes it easier to come up with new blog ideas and write content that readers find helpful.
    • QUALITY content is more important than quantity. Make sure your blog posts show your experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E.E.A.T.).

    Read on to understand why publishing blog posts on your website is important, how to do it correctly, and get real estate blog topic ideas to get you started!

    Table of Contents

    1. Why Blogging Matters (& How to Do it Right!)
    2. Types of Blogs
    3. Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for House Buyers
    4. Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for Rehabbers & Flippers
    5. Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for House Sellers
    6. Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for Tenant & Property Management
    7. Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for Rent-To-Own Property
    8. Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for Foreclosures
    9. Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for Real Estate Agents
    10. Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for Real Estate Investors
    11. Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for Local Market Trends & Analysis
    12. Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for Land Buying & Selling
    13. Evergreen Marketing For Real Estate Investors Is Misunderstoodโ€ฆ
    14. Hereโ€™s How To Provide Great Value Toย Your Ideal Prospects
    15. Hereโ€™s How To Read Peopleโ€™s Minds
    16. Writers Block? Get Started With Theseย Real Estate Blog Ideas
    17. How Consistently Should I Post Real Estate Blogs?
    18. More Tips To Create Great Real Estate Content
    19. How To Get Content Written For You
    20. The Carrot Content Marketing System
    21. Get Your First (or next) Blog Posts Up!
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    Why Blogging Matters (& How to Do it Right!)

    As a real estate investor, your job is to gather more motivated sellers and cash buyers so you can do more deals. The more often you do that, the more deals you can do; the more you can automate that process, the easier it becomes for you (and the more you can scale without working yourself to the bone).

    Marketing your real estate investing business online means competing with other investors for just a few positions on the search engine results pages!

    And, the higher you appear in search results, the more likely people are to click on YOUR search result and end up on YOUR site. But once theyโ€™re on your site, your job isnโ€™t over! You need to convince them to do business with you.

    Thatโ€™s where content marketing comes in.

    Evergreen content is search-optimized content that is continually relevant and stays โ€œfreshโ€ for your target audience over a long period.

    Evergreen content marketing (done the right way) helps you get in front of more of your prospects online and capture the attention of the people you want to do deals with. Once those people are on your site, marketing builds credibility and authority for you and your business.

    Done right, evergreen content is perhaps the most significant edge you can get as an investor regarding the web.

    Blogging remains one of the most potent ways to connect with your audience and drive them to action. The blog ideas you choose to spend your time & resources on are important.

    Research shows that companies who blog with quality content get 67% more leads than those who donโ€™t publish content.

    We’ve found that SEO inbound marketing close rates are 2 to 4 times higher on average than outbound selling effortsโ€”making the right real estate blog ideas an investment that pays off big time.

    Weโ€™ve seen our members creating quality content from blogging and other page resources for 10+ years. Weโ€™ve learned a thing or two about how to develop content ideas that already have proven demand online for our members.

    To make it even easier, we broke this list down into topics and investment focus areas so you can find blog ideas that perfectly fit your needs.

    Types of Blogs

    Before diving in, let’s explore some of the most commonly used templates for blog posts:

    • Listicle: A numbered list, like “Top 5 Things NOT to Do When Selling a House for Cash.”
    • Case Study: Telling a story about a real experience. This is a great way to highlight your customer’s experiences with you and the results they got.
    • How-To Guide: Just like it sounds, an expert guide that helps people answer a question and learn how to do something.
    • Solutions Overview: Offer a service or product? Use a blog to explain what it is and (more importantly) how it helps!
    • Checklist: People working through a process โ€” like selling a house they inherited, dealing with a home foreclosure, looking to sell for cash, buy land, etc. โ€” need to know what steps to take. You’re the expert, so make them an easy-to-follow checklist.
    • Comprehensive Guides: Google loves expert content that explores a topic in depth, and your potential customers are looking for information. Prove your expertise, put customers at ease, and make Google happy with long-form comprehensive guides that dive deep into a topic. (Bonus: You can link to relevant checklists from your guide!)
    • Definitions Explained: If you’re in a particular niche area or there’s a term or concept that our customers always seem confused by, use that as an opportunity to educate others by explaining it on your website.
    • Statistical Analysis: People hear phrases like buyers or sellers market or other stats in your area, but they may not understand what that means for them. Dive into the statistics to explain the impact it could have for your customers.
    • Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Short, sweet, clear copy that quickly answers common questions. Pro Tip: Be sure to use the same words your leads might use.
    • Comparison Breakdown: Shoppers are always comparing products and services, so break down how your company is different from your competition or how selling/buying options differ.

    Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for House Buyers

    • Top problems buyers face when looking to buy for cash flow.
    • Where buyers can find money to do more deals (savings, mortgage loans, lines of credit, private money, etc.).
    • A comparison of the various ways to buy a home (mortgage, rent-to-own).
    • A checklist of qualifications that someone needs if they want to get a mortgage.
    • How a buyerโ€™s agent can help you.
    • What are the pros and cons of different mortgage types? Ie…fixed, 15 year to 30 year?
    • What questions do I need to ask a seller before buying a home?
    • How to pencil in your home buying costs.
    • How to make an offer on a house.
    • # common mistakes homebuyers make.
    • # of things first-time homebuyers need to consider.

    Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for Rehabbers & Flippers

    • Top problems buyers face when looking for rehab properties.
    • Strategies to control costs on rehab properties.
    • How to negotiate with contractors and sub-contractors.
    • How to work with contractors and sub-contractors and get them to finish the work on time.
    • How to do due diligence when you canโ€™t tear down every wall.
    • Top # tips for rehabbing a house.
    • What will rehabbing a house cost you?
    • What first-time flippers can expect.
    • How to rehab and flip an ugly house.
    • Should you use a contractor to rehab a flip?

    Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for House Sellers

    • Top problems sellers face when selling their property through traditional methods (and why selling their home for cash to you is much better).
    • Top ways that sellers can improve their homeโ€™s curb appeal before selling it.
    • How much should a seller ask for their home?
    • How long does it take to sell a home in the various ways (i.e., compare traditional, FSBO, or selling to an investor).
    • A step-by-step checklist that a seller can use to prep their home for sale.
    • Sell your home faster with these crafty tips.
    • What is a deed when selling your home?
    • Should you sign a trust deed when selling your house?
    • Who is responsible for title insurance?
    • Is Craigslist worth listing my house on?
    • Seasonal advantages or disadvantages of selling your house.
    • Why start preparing your home for sale years before selling it.
    • What is keeping your home from selling?
    • This is why your house isnโ€™t selling.

    Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for Tenant & Property Management

    • Strategies to deal with tenant problems.
    • How to interview tenants and know when youโ€™ve found the right one.
    • How to deal with tenants that cause property damage?
    • How to keep a good tenant?
    • How to protect yourself from bad tenants?
    • Top # property management mistakes.
    • How to solve the biggest property management issues.
    • Property management issues when renting out a condo.

    Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for Rent-To-Own Property

    • Top problems rent-to-own tenants face, and how working with you can solve those problems.
    • Step-by-step through the rent-to-own process.
    • What does someone need to qualify for rent-to-own?
    • What is renting-to-own?
    • Is there a growing demand for rent-to-own homes?
    • When rent to own – who is responsible for paying homeowners insurance?
    • Can someone be eligible for a lease-to-own contract if they have filed bankruptcy?

    Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for Foreclosures

    • Top problems faced by people in foreclosure.
    • How does the foreclosure process work?
    • What are the ways to avoid foreclosure?
    • If homeowners file for bankruptcy, can they stay in their property and avoid foreclosure?
    • What should I know about buying a foreclosed home?
    • Insider tips to buy a foreclosed home.
    • Potential downfalls for purchasing a foreclosed property.
    • # tips for buying a foreclosure.
    • Top # of mistakes made when buying a foreclosure.

    Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for Real Estate Agents

    • How to find the best real estate agent in your area.
    • How the commission structure works.
    • # of advantages/disadvantages of hiring a real estate agent.
    • Share an interesting story about a real estate deal.
    • Share an interesting story about a house listing (distressed, high pricedโ€ฆ)
    • What are the pros and cons of holding an open house?
    • Why low commissions are bad for home sellers.
    • # tips to mitigate capital gains on real estate sales.
    • # Important things to know about appraisals and comps.
    • Find comps in your area to determine the potential appraised value.

    Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for Real Estate Investors

    • How to work with an investor โ€“ what to expect, how quickly they can help, who should be involved.
    • How investors can network with people to find private capital.
    • How to find a great property management company to work with.
    • How many cash-flowing properties do you need to retire early?
    • Ways to increase cash flow from your properties.
    • A step-by-step plan to build a portfolio of cash-flowing deals.
    • Share an interesting story about a real estate investing deal.
    • What to look for in potential homes to use as flips.
    • What to look for when buying an apartment complex?
    • What to look for when buying a condo?
    • What types of homes should I look for as a beginner investor?
    • What is the top # of things an investor should look for in an investment home?
    • # of real estate investment niches.
    • Different types of commercial real estate investments.
    • # Worst types of real estate investments.
    • How to attract investor-friendly real estate agents.
    • Overview of the Local Real Estate Market
    • Neighborhood Spotlight: Highlighting Local Communities
    • Market Predictions and Forecasting
    • Impact of Economic Factors on the Real Estate Market
    • Investing in Emerging Neighborhoods
    • Demographic Shifts: Understanding Population Trends and Their Influence
    • Infrastructure Development: Assessing the Impact on Property Values
    • Tourism and Hospitality: Analyzing the Effects on Vacation Home Markets

    Real Estate Blog Post Ideas for Land Buying & Selling

    • # Land buying problems to avoid.
    • # Reasons why you should be investing in land.
    • Things to consider before buying land.
    • How to sell lots and land.
    • How selling land is different than selling a home.
    • What do you need to do to get your land ready to sell?
    • Is the lending market for vacant lots and land difficult?
    • How to take good photographs of your land before selling it.

    Evergreen Marketing For Real Estate Investors Is Misunderstoodโ€ฆ

    Content marketing is powerful … when done right. Many inexperienced investors turned on a relentless content marketing โ€œmachineโ€ that churned out blog posts hour after hour or were thin pieces of content that lacked any real value or substance for the reader.

    They had heard the maxim that โ€œcontent is king,โ€ so they thought that creating more content would help them elevate to a higher level in search results.

    Unfortunately, many people chose to put content quantity over content quality.

    Google got wise to those quantity-over-quality efforts and made algorithm changes, adjusting the search results to show sites that only provided high-quality content. Suddenly, investors who had sunk thousands of dollars into creating low-quality blog posts (often through cheap services like Fiverr.com) found themselves in the Mariana Trench of search results…

    … and that’s NOT a good thing.

    These investors were short-sighted in another way:

    Aside from being punished by Google for poor quality, they also failed to realize that humans were reading their content!

    Earlier, I explained the TWO tasks that content marketing accomplished:

    1. To help them appear higher in search engines

    AND…

    2.  To help build credibility and authority to guide prospective buyers and sellers to do deals with you

    By choosing quantity over quality, investors might get a bump in search engine results (until Google changes its algorithm). Still, they werenโ€™t doing a great job of convincing buyers of anything.

    Evergreen marketing needs to add VALUE to its readers.

    Hereโ€™s How To Provide Great Value To Your Ideal Prospects

    You need to provide great content for the people youโ€™re trying to reach that attracts them and converts them into a lead… but how do you provide that content?

    How do you know what โ€œgoodโ€ content is? How do you package it for them so search engines see its value and attract the right audience?

    The good news is that you need to know one secret to provide great content for any audienceโ€ฆ it works for EVERY audience youโ€™re trying to reach.

    It doesnโ€™t matter what kind of investing you do (wholesaler, rehabber, landlord, etc.). It doesnโ€™t matter what audience youโ€™re trying to reach (motivated sellers, cash buyers, probate deals, foreclosures, rent-to-own folks, tenants, contractors, or anyone else); this content marketing strategy will be true for you.

    Hereโ€™s the secret…

    Every search engine search is a question that your audience wants to ask or a problem they have (even if they donโ€™t frame it as a question)

    Like…

    โ€œHow do I sell my Detroit home?โ€ โ€“ itโ€™s easy to see how thatโ€™s a question.

    โ€œI want to sell my house in New Jerseyโ€ โ€“ thatโ€™s a sentence, but thereโ€™s a question in there; theyโ€™re wondering something: โ€œHow?โ€ or โ€œWho?โ€ or โ€œWhatโ€™s the process?โ€

    โ€œReal estate investments in Memphisโ€ โ€“ thereโ€™s a hidden question there, too. โ€œWhat are they?โ€ or โ€œWhere in Memphis are they?โ€ or โ€œHow much do they cost?โ€ or โ€œWhatโ€™s the potential return?โ€

    What to do with a house I inherited in Michigan?” – This is where we get more narrow and focused on specific scenarios.

    Every Google search is a question and/or a problem.

    And, when you know that, you can create content on your website and in your YouTube videos that answer those questions.

    Answering questions (even the questions that searchers donโ€™t realize theyโ€™re asking) will help you get in front of the right audience, and it will help you build credibility and trust through the valuable answers you provide.

    Then,… game over. You become a valued expert in your area… versus being seen as a fly-by-night operator like most competitors.

    Hereโ€™s How To Read Peopleโ€™s Minds

    This leads investors to a big question: โ€œHow do I know what people are searching for so I can answer their questions and get them to my website?โ€

    There are many online tools, but the easiest way is to open up Google.com, start typing, and let Google do the rest!

    Google sees what youโ€™re typing and makes some assumptions based on similar, popular searches, and it presents those assumptions to you as auto-complete options.

    Here are three examples.

    I started typing, and Google offered different ways to complete my search.

    See These Suggested Searches That Google Gave Me…

    columbusohiohomesforsale REI Post Ideas
    Blog Post Ideas For Real Estate Investors ATL
    memphisrealetateinvesting REI Blog Ideas

    While not all of these are relevant to my audience, I know that some of them are โ€“ they are questions that my audience wants to know!

    Write those down into an extensive list and build one or more blog posts around them.

    Writers Block? Get Started With These Real Estate Blog Ideas

    To help you further, hereโ€™s a list of 101 blog post ideas for real estate you can use to get you going. These blog post ideas are based on research that we quickly performed… and many of these are already built into our Content Marketing System that helps you do content marketing more efficiently (in our Content Tools).

    (Be sure to personalize these with your city and state to increase your chances of ranking well in your local area).

    As an example… “How does the foreclosure process work?”

    Localize yours for your area like… “How does the foreclosure process work in Florida?”.

    I found all of these just by doing what I showed you above… finding what my prospects are already typing into Google… and seeing what Google suggests.

    How Consistently Should I Post Real Estate Blogs?

    How often you blog ultimately depends on what you aim to accomplish with your blog.

    Many bloggers say more content is better, while others say less often. But remember, before you begin blogging, don’t forget it’s quality over quantity.

    You shouldnโ€™t publish content just for the sake of having more posts. You should align your frequency to your content goals and resources.

    If you’re starting, aim for one blog post per week. You may increase it to twice a week as you get into a cadence.

    If writing becomes a challenge, you can use a video post tool like the one we offer at Carrot. Record a video blog and transcribe it into written content optimized for keywords.

    More Tips To Create Great Real Estate Content

    • Write valuable copy. Thatโ€™s the most important step. Spend the time to create value for your audience.
    • Remember to answer the question that searchers consider when searching for your page.
    • Even if a topic doesnโ€™t seem like it is relevant to you (such as a blog post like โ€œTop ways to improve the curb appeal of your house before you sell itโ€), you can always pivot to talk about the benefits of selling the house to you rather than listing it instead.
    • Optimize your content for SEO by including search term keywords throughout the copy, including the title and any headers you use.
    • Real estate investing is a local business! Make sure your copy is fine-tuned for your town/city and state.
    • Include a clear and compelling call to action in every post.
    • Keep your posts โ€œevergreenโ€ whenever possible to always be relevant to your audience, even years from now.

    How To Get Content Written For You

    Youโ€™ve got many great ideas to get you started, but chances are, you probably want to focus on the deals and NOT on the actual writing. Of course, you can write some if you wish to, but there arenโ€™t many investors Iโ€™ve met who want to do that.

    Outsourcing can be a powerful way to get your content written for you… if you find good writers who understand your prospect well and know how to optimize a blog post SEO.

    We’ve used these sites in the past to find decent writers:

    • UpWork.com (formerly Elance.com and Odesk.com)
    • Guru.com
    • TextBroker.com

    You can hire content writers on these sites to create content for you. Remember that you get what you pay for. Not all these writers can write well in English, nor will they be familiar with real estate investing. You need to do your due diligence.

    Working with topic experts (people who know our business and industry well) can be expensive, but the quality and results are 10x better. You get what you pay for.

    Or, Hereโ€™s An Even Easier Way – The Carrot Content Marketing System

    Of course, you can hire someone, but did you know that the Carrot platform already has powerful content built into it?

    For Content Tools members, with our Automated Content Library, you get regular “content packs” of blog posts that are high quality (excellent for search engines!) and informative (great for humans!), plus theyโ€™ve been optimized with some of the most powerful search engine optimization strategies on the planet… then localized for your market.

    What’s the catch? We’ve done 80-90% of the work for you, but it’s up to you to update the content with your voice. We are saving you dozens of hours per month and hundreds of dollars vs. hiring out the writing and optimization… plus you can always edit these posts to put your spin on them before they publish.

    Best of all worlds.

    So, if youโ€™re looking for some very powerful content marketing without much effort to write it (or manage writers), then be sure to check out our Content Pro level.

    So, Let’s Get Your First (or next) Blog Posts Up!

    If you’re not going to dive in and corner your market as an expert leveraging great content… your top competition will.

    So the choice is yours.

    Evergreen content marketing is how real estate investors (wholesalers, house flippers, etc.) can now get an edge online.

    The ones who understand how to do it well are setting themselves up for long-term success as Google shifts more and more toward preferring rich and fresh content on your website.

    In this blog post, you read about the strategies you need to implement to create great content, you got 100+ compelling real estate blog post ideas to get you started, and you even read some fast-track ideas to help you get going even sooner so you can focus on doing more deals now.

    So dive in and get your first blog post up today!

    Don’t over-complicate it. Just get something up to start, then improve from there.

    I suggest scheduling one post weekly and publishing it live Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Why? Our data shows overwhelmingly that most of the leads coming through our platform come in midweek… with Sunday being the worst day. So post that content when your best prospects are likely to see it.

    Enjoy!

  • The Ultimate Guide to Google Ads for Real Estate Investors

    The Ultimate Guide to Google Ads for Real Estate Investors

    Google Ads, when implemented strategically, is one of the most effective lead generation engines for real estate investors, consistently delivering high-quality motivated seller leads that convert to deals at impressive rates of 1 in 10 to 1 in 15.

    Key Takeaways

    • Target motivated sellers through precise keyword research, focusing on intent-based phrases like “sell my house fast” and using appropriate match types (broad, phrase, or exact) to reach the right audience.
    • Create compelling ad copy with strong headlines, descriptive text, and clear calls to action, while leveraging ad extensions for maximum visibility and improved click-through rates.
    • Implement conversion tracking to measure key metrics like cost-per-lead, conversion rate, and ultimately deal conversion rate, allowing for data-driven optimization of campaigns.

    By setting realistic expectations, allocating a proper testing budget, and continuously refining your strategy based on performance data, you can transform Google Ads into a predictable source of high-quality motivated seller leads that generate substantial ROI for your real estate investing business.

    Google Ads for Real Estate Investors: Steps for Successful Campaigns

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    Uncertain about PPC advertising? Fear of wasted spend or limited time are common concerns. But here’s the truth: Google Ads, when implemented strategically, is a proven lead generation engine. In fact, it’s consistently ranked among the top methods for our Carrot members, translating into high closing rates (1 in 10 to 1 in 15 leads).

    This guide empowers you to take control and build a Google Ads campaign that can significantly impact your business, just like it did for Carrot member Brian Rockwell…

    adwords for real estate investors success story

    and countless others…


    Real Estate Investor PPC Keywords

    Are you curious what the most profitable Motivated Seller keywords?

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    What is Google Ads?

    Google Ads is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users. It can place ads both in the results of search engines like Google Search and on non-search websites, mobile apps, and videos.

    Google Ads for real estate investors can be a powerful way to reach your target audience, but it takes some knowledge and preparation. Check out this list for everything you need before getting started!

    • Keywords: These are the words or phrases that people type into Google Search, which trigger your ad to appear. When setting up an ad campaign, youโ€™ll pick a list of keywords that you think people might search for when they want what you offer (and donโ€™t worry: we can help).
    • Bid: This is the maximum amount youโ€™re willing to pay when someone clicks on your ad. (Since, with Google Ads, you donโ€™t pay to show up โ€” only when someone clicks on your ad to visit your site or call you.)
    • Quality Score: This metric tells you how relevant your keywords are to your ad and your landing page (i.e., the webpage where people will be taken when they click your ad). A good Quality Score can lower your bid costs and improve your ad rank in the search results.
    • Ad Rank: Ad Rank is a metric that helps determine where your ad will show up, relative to other ads, when it’s triggered to appear on Google. Your rank is determined using your bid, quality score, and other factors.
    • CPC (cost-per-click): The actual amount you pay when someone clicks on your ad. (You donโ€™t necessarily pay your entire bid price for every click โ€” that sets up a range of possible costs-per-click you might pay.)

    In this section, we’ll dive into the foundational elements of Google Ads specifically for real estate investors. We’ll explore the benefits of using this platform to attract motivated sellers and high-quality leads, guide you through setting up your account, and explain how to structure your campaigns for optimal results.

    Why Should Real Estate Investors Use Google Ads?

    Traditionally, real estate investors have relied on networking, cold calling, and yard signs to find motivated sellers. However, Google Ads offers a powerful and targeted approach to reach a highly engaged audience actively searching for solutions. Here’s why Google Ads should be in your real estate investor toolkit:

    • Reach Highly Motivated Sellers: Target potential sellers actively searching for terms like “sell my house fast” or “we buy houses in [your city].” These individuals are more likely to be open to your offers compared to cold leads.
    • Laser-Focused Targeting: Go beyond demographics. Refine your targeting by location, property type (single-family, multi-unit), timeframe (foreclosure, inheritance), or even budget to reach the most relevant sellers.
    • Measurable Results: Track every click, lead, and conversion generated through your ads. Analyze data and optimize your campaigns for maximum ROI and lead generation. Tip: To streamline your project management and efficiently track tasks, itโ€™s beneficial to create Jira filters that help you monitor your Google Ads campaignsโ€™ performance.
    • Faster Lead Generation: Compared to traditional methods, Google Ads can deliver qualified leads quickly, allowing you to act fast and secure deals before competitors.
    • Scalability & Flexibility: Start small and scale your campaigns as your budget and goals grow. Adjust targeting and messaging based on performance data for continuous improvement.

    Setting Up Your Google Ads Account (Step-by-Step with Real Estate Investor Considerations)

    Creating your Google Ads account is a straightforward process. Here’s a step-by-step approach with considerations for real estate investors:

    1. Navigate to Google Ads: https://ads.google.com/ and sign in with your Google account.
    2. Set Your Campaign Goal: Choose “Leads” as you’re primarily interested in generating seller leads.
    3. Target Location: Enter your target market area (city, zip code, or radius) where you’re actively looking for properties. Your location settings will play a role in placement. For example, if you choose the location target option of “Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations,” and you only buy houses in Oakland, when someone in New York searches for โ€œsell my house fast,โ€ they will not see your ad. Thatโ€™s because Googleโ€™s main objective is to display ads to searchers within the target location.
    4. Budget: Set a daily or monthly budget that aligns with your comfort level and investment goals. Start small and increase as you gain confidence and refine your campaigns.
    5. Bidding Strategy: Consider “Manual CPC” or “Maximize Conversions” initially to prioritize generating leads within your budget.

    Real Estate Investor Considerations:

    • Business Name & Website: Use a clear and professional business name that reflects your brand. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and optimized to capture leads (e.g., contact forms).
    • Payment Method: Select your preferred payment method (credit card, debit card) for your advertising costs.

    Understanding Campaign Structure & Targeting (Campaign Goals, Ad Groups, Keywords for Real Estate)

    Now that your account is set up, let’s explore how to structure your campaigns for success.

    • Campaigns: These represent your overall advertising objectives. As a real estate investor, your primary campaign goal will likely be “Leads.”
    • Ad Groups: Organize your ads within your campaign based on a specific theme or target audience. For example, you might create separate ad groups for “Cash for Houses Fast” or “Sell Your Inherited Property.”
    • Keywords: These are the words and phrases potential sellers will use to search for solutions. Real estate investor keyword research should focus on terms related to motivated sellers, such as “we buy houses,” “sell my house fast,” or location-specific variations like “[your city] house buyers.”

    Keywords Match Types and Research

    The different match types give you room when selecting your keywords. Match types tell Google whether you want to match a search query exactly or if your ad should be shown to anyone with a search query thatโ€™s somewhat related. There are three match types to choose from:

    Broad match “may show on searches related to your keyword, which can include searches that donโ€™t contain the keyword terms. This helps you attract more visitors to your website, spend less time building keyword lists, and focus your spending on keywords that work. Broad match is the default match type that all your keywords are assigned so that you don’t have to specify another match type (exact match, phrase match, or a negative match type).”

    The syntax for broad match is to simply input the keyword. Below is an example of how a broad match keyword would work:

    Broad Match Keyword:

    Quick Sell Home

    Ads May Show on Searches For:

    quick sale

    private home sale

    1 bedroom houses near me

    Phrase match โ€œmay show on searches that include the meaning of your keyword. The meaning of the keyword can be implied, and user searches can be a more specific form of the meaning. With phrase match, you can reach more searches than with exact match and fewer searches than with broad match, only showing your ads on the searches that include your product or service.โ€

    The syntax for phrase match is to put quotes around your keyword. Below is an example of how a phrase match keyword would work:

    Phrase Match Keyword:

    “We Buy Houses”

    Ads May Show on Searches For:

    best we buy houses company

    we buy houses for cash companies

    we buy houses in colorado

    Exact match “may show on searches that have the same meaning or same intent as the keyword. Of the three keyword match options, exact match gives you the most control over who sees your ad, but reaches fewer searches than both phrase and broad match.”

    The syntax for exact match is to use square brackets. Below is an example of how an exact match keyword would work:

    Exact Match Keyword:

    [Sell My House Fast]

    Ads May Show on Searches For:

    sell my house fast

    quick fixes to sell your home

    sell my houses fast

    If youโ€™re starting out and donโ€™t know exactly how your market will be searching, move away from a broad match to a narrowed approach so you can see which searches yield the best results. You should always keep a close eye on your keywords and modify them as you can gain new data.

    Keyword Research

    Once you have your direction plan, itโ€™s time to perform keyword research for your market, intent keywords, and competition.

    • Define your target customer โ€” Most investors likely have an idea, but newer investors might need to take the time to create a customer avatar.
    • Define your target locations โ€” You can target locations down to the city. You can even exclude cities, counties, or states.
    • Build your initial keyword list โ€” Use resources such as Google Ads Keyword PlannerSEOBook, and Ubersuggest.
    • Identify keywords to block โ€” Called negative keywords, adding these in will help block your ads from showing for the wrong searcher.
    • Sort keywords and identify customer intent keywords vs. research keywords โ€” Research keywords might be on the edge, so be careful when choosing them. You must monitor those to make sure theyโ€™re not eating up your budget.
    • Organize your keywords into categories โ€” For example:

    Category: Sell My House Fast
    Category: We Buy Houses
    Category: Sell Your House Quick

    This will help you build your ad groups around your keywords while staying organized.

    Pro Tip: Do some spying on your competitor’s keywords โ€” SEMRush or SpyFu are two great tools that provide helpful information.

    Next Steps:

    In the following sections, we’ll delve deeper into crafting compelling ad copy, optimizing your landing pages, and using advanced strategies to maximize your return on investment with Google Ads.

    Part 2: Creating High-Converting Ads for Real Estate Investors

    Now that you understand the fundamentals of Google Ads for real estate investors, let’s focus on crafting the elements that will grab attention and convert clicks into leads.

    Writing Compelling Ad Headlines & Descriptions (Examples & Best Practices)

    Headlines and descriptions are your prime real estate on the search results page.

    Hereโ€™s the amount of characters allotted in a Google Ads ad:

    Display URL Examples

    • www.domain.com/We-Buy-/Houses-Cash
    • www.domain.com/Sell-Your-Home/For-Cash

    Dimensions for Responsive Search Ads

    • Enter your headlines. Youโ€™ll need to enter a minimum of 3 headlines, but you can enter up to 15.
    • Enter your descriptions. Youโ€™ll need to enter a minimum of 2 descriptions, but you can enter up to 4.

    You can also control where individual headlines and descriptions appear in your ad by pinning headlines and descriptions to specific positions.

    Here is an example of a responsive ad converting at 32.52% with 40 leads:

    Here’s how to write ads for maximum impact:

    Headlines:

    • Keep it short and sweet (under 30 characters).
    • Focus on benefits for sellers (e.g., “Sell Your House Fast for Cash!”).
    • Highlight urgency (e.g., “Get a Cash Offer in 24 Hours”).
    • Use strong verbs and action words (e.g., “Sell Now,” “Get Your Free Offer”).
    • Incorporate location if relevant (e.g., “[Your City] Cash Home Buyers”).

    Descriptions:

    • Expand on the headline’s benefits (e.g., “Skip the hassle of listing & showings. We buy houses in any condition.”).
    • Address seller pain points (e.g., “Facing foreclosure? We can help.”).
    • Showcase your unique selling proposition (USP) as a real estate investor (e.g., “Fast closings, no fees”).
    • Include a clear call to action (CTA) (e.g., “Get a Free Cash Offer Today!”).

    Examples:

    • Headline: Tired Landlord? Sell Your Rental Property Fast for Cash!
    • Description: Get a fair offer in 24 hours and close in 14 days. We handle everything – no repairs, no hassle! Learn More Now!

    Crafting Powerful Calls to Action (CTAs) that Drive Leads

    Your CTA is the final nudge that encourages potential sellers to take the next step. Here are some effective CTAs for real estate investor ads:

    • Get a Free Cash Offer
    • Sell Your House Now
    • Learn More About Our Fast Closing Process
    • Schedule a Free Consultation
    • Download Your Free Guide to Selling Your Property

    Ad Extensions

    If youโ€™re running Google Ads, you should be using Ad Extensions for two reasons:

    1. Theyโ€™re free
    2. They give users additional information and another reason to interact with your ad.

    These extensions fall within one of these six categories for real estate investor campaigns.

    • Call (Phone number)
    • Location (Link to your Google+ profile)
    • Sitelinks (Clickable links that can drive traffic to different pages on your site, such as your “About” page, “Testimonials” page, and “How We Buy Houses” page)
    • Call-Outs (Non-Clickable points. Great for Calls-to-Action)
    • Structured Snippets (Real estate investors don’t get many options with this one, but can use the “Types” option and list out what types of houses you buy)
    • Image extensions allow advertisers to upload relevant visuals to complement their existing text ads. Image extensions can help drive performance, with compelling visuals of past deals or cash offers that enhance the message of their text ads.

    Landing Pages

    Designing Effective Landing Pages for Conversions (Landing Page Optimization for Real Estate Investors)

    Once someone clicks your ad, they land on your landing page. Here’s how to optimize your landing page for conversions:

    • Focus on a single offer: Don’t overwhelm visitors with multiple options.
    • Match the message of your ad: Ensure the landing page reinforces the benefits and call to action from your ad.
    • Keep it clear and concise: Use bullet points, visuals, and easy-to-understand language.
    • Make it mobile-friendly: You will probably already know that your website needs mobile-friendly. 61% of our motivated house sellers, cash buyers, and rent-to-own tenant leads were from mobile devices last year. If your website is not mobile optimized, you’re likely losing tens of thousands of dollars per year in leads and deals without knowing it.
    • Include a prominent lead capture form: Capture seller information with a clear value proposition for submitting their details (e.g., “Get Your Free Cash Offer Now!”).
    • Build your real estate credibility and/or social proof: Add testimonials from your clients. If you have any media mentions. Some investors are very active in their communities. Let searchers know who you are. Make that connection. List your phone number. Add an “About” or “Our Company” page. Find out which page is… The Most Overlooked But Important Page On Your Website (Backed By Science). Add credibility badges (BBB, real estate associations, Veteran, etc). Ensure you have a “Contact” page and a Privacy Page (required for retargeting).

    Pro Tips: A/B test different headlines, descriptions, and landing page elements to see what resonates best with your target audience.

    Here are some tools to ensure your website is mobile-friendly:

    Leverage mobile — Take a tour of Carrot’s mobile responsive websites

    By following these best practices and tailoring your messaging to the needs of motivated sellers, you can create high-converting Google Ads campaigns that generate a steady stream of leads for your real estate investment business.

    Part 3: Optimizing Your Google Ads Campaigns for Success

    Having a well-structured campaign is just the first step. Now it’s time to fine-tune your efforts to maximize leads and ROI.

    Bidding Strategies for Real Estate Investors (Maximizing ROI with Cost-per-Lead (CPA) Bidding)

    Bidding is the process of determining how much you’re willing to pay for each click on your ad. As a real estate investor, your primary goal is to generate leads. Here’s a bidding strategy optimized for your needs:

    • Cost-per-Lead (CPA) Bidding: This strategy allows you to set a maximum amount you’re willing to pay for each lead generated through your ads. Google Ads will then automatically adjust your bids to acquire leads within your budget.

    In Google Ads, Cost-per-Lead (CPA) Bidding is an automated bid strategy that prioritizes acquiring conversions (leads) at your specified maximum cost per lead. It utilizes machine learning to set bids for each auction, aiming to generate leads within your target cost range.

    Here’s a breakdown of Cost-per-Lead (CPA) Bidding in Google Ads:

    • Focus on Lead Acquisition: This strategy optimizes for acquiring leads (e.g., form submissions, phone calls) at a cost you’re comfortable with.
    • Automated Bidding: Google Ads leverages complex algorithms to analyze various factors, such as user behavior, landing page relevance, and historical data, to determine the optimal bid for each auction. The goal is to acquire leads within your set CPA target.
    • Cost Control & Efficiency: This strategy strives to spend your budget efficiently, acquiring leads at or below your target cost.

    Benefits of Cost-per-Lead (CPA) Bidding:

    • Conversion Focus: Directly optimizes for your campaign’s primary goal: generating leads.
    • Cost Control: Set a maximum cost you’re willing to pay for each lead, providing greater control over your budget.
    • Efficiency & Optimization: Google Ads prioritizes bids on auctions most likely to convert within your target CPA.

    Drawbacks of Cost-per-Lead (CPA) Bidding:

    • Data Dependence: Google’s algorithms require a sufficient amount of conversion data to learn and optimize effectively. This may not be ideal for brand-new campaigns.
    • Performance Fluctuations: Actual cost per lead may vary depending on competition and campaign performance.
    • Limited Traffic Potential: Setting a very low CPA target might limit the number of leads you acquire.

    Who Should Use Cost-per-Lead (CPA) Bidding?

    • Established Advertisers: This strategy works well for those with a history of lead generation through Google Ads and a good understanding of their ideal customer acquisition cost (CAC).
    • Lead Generation Campaigns: Ideal for campaigns where generating qualified leads is the primary objective.
    • Optimizing Existing Campaigns: Effective for established campaigns with sufficient conversion data to optimize lead acquisition costs.

    Overall, Cost-per-Lead (CPA) Bidding is a powerful strategy for advertisers focused on acquiring leads within a specific budget. However, it requires a foundation of conversion data and an understanding of your target cost per lead.

    Here are four additional bid strategies you can test:

    Maximize clicks:

    In Google Ads, Maximize clicks is an automated bid strategy that prioritizes getting you the most clicks possible for your set daily budget. It utilizes machine learning to determine the optimal bid for each auction, aiming to stretch your budget to reach a broad audience.

    Here’s a breakdown of Maximize clicks bidding in Google Ads:

    • Focus on Clicks: This strategy prioritizes maximizing the total number of clicks on your ad within your campaign budget.
    • Automated Bidding: Google Ads uses algorithms to analyze various factors like keyword relevance, user search intent, and historical data to set bids for each auction.
    • Budget Efficiency: This strategy aims to spend your entire daily budget on clicks that are most likely to be relevant to your campaign.

    Benefits of Maximize clicks bidding:

    • Simple Setup: No need to manage individual keyword bids, saving you time and effort.
    • Driving Traffic: Well-suited for campaigns where increasing website traffic and brand awareness is the primary objective.
    • Testing & Awareness: Effective for gathering initial data and building brand awareness through a high volume of ad impressions.

    Drawbacks of Maximize clicks bidding:

    • Conversion Focus Limited: Doesn’t directly optimize for conversions (e.g., leads, sales), potentially attracting clicks that don’t convert.
    • Cost Fluctuations: The cost per click (CPC) can vary depending on competition and auction dynamics.
    • Quality Control Risk: You may attract irrelevant clicks that don’t align with your target audience.

    Who Should Use Maximize clicks bidding?

    • New Advertisers: Easy to set up and manage, ideal for those starting with Google Ads and aiming to build initial traffic.
    • Website Traffic Campaigns: Well-suited for campaigns where driving visitors to your website is the primary goal.
    • Testing & Refining: Useful during the initial phase of a campaign to gather data and refine targeting for better conversions later.

    Overall, Maximize clicks bidding is a user-friendly option for driving website traffic and gaining initial campaign insights. However, it may not be the most effective strategy for campaigns focused on generating high-quality leads or sales.

    Target impression share:

    In Google Ads, target impression share bidding is an automated bidding strategy that focuses on showing your ad a specific percentage of the time someone searches for your chosen keywords. Here’s a breakdown of target impression share bidding in Google Ads:

    • Impression Share Focus: Set a target percentage (e.g., 70%) of how often you want your ad to appear on the search results page for relevant keywords.
    • Automated Adjustments: Google Ads automatically adjusts your bids throughout the day to try and achieve your desired impression share goal.
    • Visibility Control: This strategy helps ensure your ad reaches a specific level of visibility within your target audience.

    Benefits of Target impression share bidding:

    • Visibility Control: Gain more control over how often your ad appears in search results.
    • Branding & Awareness: Effective for building brand awareness by ensuring your ad is consistently visible to potential customers.
    • Flexibility: Based on your goals (top-of-page placement, absolute top-of-page), you can choose different target impression share percentages for various ad groups or campaigns.

    Drawbacks of Target impression share bidding:

    • Cost Focus Shift: Doesn’t directly optimize for clicks or conversions, potentially leading to higher costs per click (CPC).
    • Limited Control Over Budget: Maintaining a specific budget with this strategy can be challenging, as maximizing impressions might require higher bids.
    • Less Data Dependence: May function adequately without a large amount of conversion data compared to some automated bid strategies.

    Who Should Use Target impression share bidding?

    • Brand Awareness Campaigns: Ideal for prioritizing ad visibility and reaching a broad audience.
    • Competitive Markets: Can help ensure your ad stays visible in highly competitive search queries.
    • Complementing Other Strategies: Can be used alongside conversion-focused strategies to maintain brand awareness while optimizing for actions.

    Overall, target impression share bidding is a good option for advertisers prioritizing ad visibility and brand awareness. However, it may not be the most cost-effective strategy for campaigns solely focused on conversions.

    Maximize conversions:

    In Google Ads, Maximize conversions is an automated bid strategy that prioritizes generating conversions within your set daily budget. It uses machine learning to automatically set bids for each auction, aiming to get you the most conversions possible.

    Here’s a breakdown of Maximize conversions bidding in Google Ads:

    • Focus on Conversions: This strategy prioritizes getting you the most conversions (e.g., leads, sales) for your campaign, not necessarily clicks.
    • Automated Bidding: Google Ads uses complex algorithms to analyze various factors like user search queries, browsing context, and past performance to determine the optimal bid for each auction.
    • Budget Efficiency: This strategy aims to spend your entire daily budget efficiently, acquiring conversions at the best possible price.

    Benefits of Maximize conversions bidding:

    • Simple Setup: No need to manage individual keyword bids, saving you time and effort.
    • Focus on Results: Prioritizes conversions, aligning with your campaign goals.
    • Budget Optimization: Google Ads strives to spend your entire budget on clicks most likely to convert.

    Drawbacks of Maximize conversions bidding:

    • Less Control: You don’t have direct control over the cost per click (CPC) for each ad.
    • Data Dependence: Requires a sufficient amount of conversion data for Google’s algorithms to learn and optimize effectively.
    • Limited Transparency: You can’t see the exact bids Google places on your behalf.

    Who Should Use Maximize conversions bidding?

    • New Advertisers: Easy to set up and manage, ideal for those starting with Google Ads.
    • Conversion-focused Campaigns: Well-suited for campaigns where generating leads or sales is the primary objective.
    • Limited Time or Resources: Saves time compared to manual bidding, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your campaign.

    Overall, Maximize conversions bidding is a user-friendly option for advertisers prioritizing conversions and wanting to automate the bidding process. However, it sacrifices some control over cost per click.

    Manual bidding:

    In Google Ads, manual bidding gives you direct control over the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for each click on your ad. It’s a hands-on approach compared to automated bid strategies that Google Ads sets for you.

    Here’s a breakdown of manual bidding in Google Ads:

    • Setting Your Max Bid: You determine the highest cost per click (CPC) you’re comfortable paying for each time someone clicks your ad.
    • Management: You manually adjust bids for individual keywords, ad groups, or your entire campaign based on performance and budget.
    • Targeting: Manual bidding allows for granular control over where your ads appear. You can adjust bids based on factors like location, device (phone, computer, etc.), and time of day.

    Benefits of Manual Bidding:

    • Precise Control: You have the final say on how much you spend per click.
    • Flexibility: Tailor your bids to specific keywords or audiences you find most valuable.
    • Optimization Potential: Analyze data and refine bids to maximize return on investment (ROI).

    Drawbacks of Manual Bidding:

    • Time Commitment: Requires ongoing monitoring and adjustments to maintain optimal performance.
    • Expertise Needed: Understanding keyword research, competitor analysis, and conversion tracking is crucial for success.
    • Potential for Wasteful Spending: Setting bids too high can lead to unnecessary costs, while bidding too low might limit your ad’s visibility.

    Who Should Use Manual Bidding?

    • Experienced Advertisers: Those comfortable with Google Ads and have the time to manage bids strategically.
    • Small Budgets: May be beneficial for keeping a tight control on spending.
    • Specific Campaign Goals: When focusing on maximizing conversions or clicks within a set budget.

    Overall, manual bidding offers a high level of control for experienced advertisers. However, it requires ongoing effort and expertise to be successful.

    Pro Tip: Start with a conservative CPA bid and gradually increase it as you gain confidence in your campaign’s effectiveness and refine your targeting.

    Conversion Tracking & Measuring Results (Key Metrics for Success)

    Tracking conversions is crucial for understanding your Google Ads campaigns’ performance. Here are some key metrics for real estate investors:

    • Leads: The total number of potential sellers who submitted their information through your landing page form.
    • Cost-per-Lead (CPA): The average amount you pay for each lead generated.
    • Conversion Rate: The percentage of people who click your ad and convert into a lead.
    • Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who see your ad and click on it.
    • Website Traffic: The total number of visitors your landing page receives from your Google Ads campaigns.

    By monitoring these metrics, you can identify areas for improvement. Analyze which keywords are generating the most leads and adjust your bids accordingly.

    Advanced Strategies: Remarketing & Automation (Reaching Past Website Visitors and Using Google Ads Automation)

    Once you’ve mastered the basics, Google Ads offers advanced features to further optimize your campaigns:

    • Remarketing: This allows you to show targeted ads to people who have already visited your website but haven’t taken action yet. Consider crafting specific messages reminding them of your offer or highlighting testimonials from satisfied sellers.
    • Automation: Leverage Google Ads automation tools to streamline campaign management. Utilize automated bidding strategies to optimize bids for conversions and save time on manual adjustments.

    Remember: Google Ads is a continuous learning process. Experiment with different strategies, track your results and refine your campaigns to maximize your return on investment and generate a steady flow of motivated sellers for your real estate business.

    Part 4: Taking Your Real Estate Investor Google Ads to the Next Level

    By now, you’ve built a solid foundation for using Google Ads to attract motivated sellers. Let’s explore some advanced tactics to elevate your campaigns and maximize your lead generation potential.

    Analyzing Competitor Ads (Learning from Successful Campaigns)

    Keeping an eye on your competitors can be a valuable learning tool. Here’s how to analyze their Google Ads:

    • Search for relevant keywords in your target area. See what ads appear at the top of the search results page.
    • Analyze their headlines and descriptions. What benefits are they highlighting? How are they addressing seller pain points?
    • Identify their calls to action (CTAs). What action are they encouraging potential sellers to take?

    Don’t copy blindly. Use this information to inspire your own creative messaging and identify potential gaps in your strategy. Perhaps a competitor is focusing on a specific seller pain point you haven’t addressed yet.

    Integrating Google Ads Data with Your CRM (Streamlining Workflow for Lead Nurturing)

    Once you start generating leads through Google Ads, you’ll need a system to manage and nurture them. Integrating your Google Ads data with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool can streamline your workflow:

    • Automatically capture lead information: Eliminate manual data entry by automatically transferring lead details (name, contact information, source) from your landing page form into your CRM.
    • Track lead activity: Monitor how sellers interact with your emails, phone calls, and website visits within your CRM.
    • Tailor communication: Segment your leads based on their needs and interests, allowing you to send personalized messages that nurture them toward a sale.

    Bonus: Common CRM’s for Real Estate

    Other KPIโ€™s to Track:

    • How many leads per campaign
    • How many deals per campaign
    • Deal conversion rate
    • Gross revenue per Google Ads click
    • Net profit per Google Ads click

    By integrating data, you gain a holistic view of your leads and improve your chances of converting them into successful deals.

    Common Mistakes to Avoid & Troubleshooting Tips

    Even seasoned Google Ads users can make mistakes. Here are some common pitfalls to avoid for real estate investors:

    • Targeting too broadly: Ensure your keywords and ad groups are laser-focused on your ideal seller profile. Avoid generic terms that might attract unqualified leads.
    • Neglecting landing page optimization: Your landing page is the final step in converting clicks into leads. Ensure it’s clear, concise, and optimized for mobile devices.
    • Ignoring negative keywords: Identify keywords triggering irrelevant searches and add them as negative keywords to prevent wasted ad spend.
    • Not tracking conversions: You can’t optimize what you don’t measure. Set up conversion tracking to understand campaign performance and identify areas for improvement.

    Troubleshooting Tips:

    • Low Click-Through Rate (CTR): Analyze your headlines and descriptions. Are they compelling enough to grab attention? Try A/B testing different variations.
    • High Cost-per-Lead (CPA): Refine your keyword targeting and consider adjusting your bids to focus on higher-quality leads.
    • Low Conversion Rate: Optimize your landing page. Ensure it’s clear, mobile-friendly, and offers a compelling value proposition in exchange for seller information.

    Remember: Consistency is key. Regularly monitor your campaigns, experiment with different strategies, and adapt based on your data. By staying persistent and data-driven, you can continuously refine your Google Ads efforts and generate a steady stream of motivated sellers for your real estate investment business.

    Part 5: Expanding Your Reach: Exploring Other Campaign Types

    While Search Ads are a foundational element of any real estate investor’s Google Ads strategy, other campaign types can further enhance your reach and connect with potential sellers at different stages of their journey. Here’s a closer look at two powerful options:

    Video Ads:

    • Target Audience: Video ads allow you to showcase your expertise and the appeal of investing in real estate through captivating visuals. You can target these ads to a broad audience searching for real estate-related topics or create retargeting campaigns for website visitors who haven’t yet converted.
    • Campaign Goals: Video ads are well-suited for brand awareness, showcasing your company’s approach and success stories. They can also be used to generate leads by directing viewers to a landing page with a clear call to action.
    • Benefits:
      • High Engagement: Video ads can grab attention and effectively communicate your message in a compelling format.
      • Emotional Connection: Videos can build trust and establish your brand as a reliable and knowledgeable partner for real estate investors.
      • Versatility: You can create various video ad formats, from short explainer videos to testimonials from satisfied clients.
    • Things to Consider:
      • Production Quality: Invest in high-quality video production for a professional and trustworthy presentation.
      • Targeting: Refine your targeting to ensure your video ads reach the right audience at the right time.
      • Tracking & Measurement: Track key metrics like video views, engagement, and website traffic to measure campaign effectiveness.

    Display Ads & Retargeting:

    • Campaign Goal: Display ads are banner ads placed on websites across the web. They can be used for brand awareness, retargeting website visitors who haven’t converted, or driving traffic to specific landing pages.
    • Retargeting: This powerful strategy allows you to show targeted ads to people who have already interacted with your website or mobile app. Remind them about your offerings and encourage them to take action, like filling out a lead form.
    • Benefits:
      • Brand Awareness: Increase brand visibility by placing display ads on relevant websites frequented by your target audience.
      • Retargeting Power: Reconnect with website visitors who have shown initial interest but haven’t converted yet.
      • Targeted Reach: Display ad networks allow for specific targeting based on demographics, interests, and online behavior.
    • Things to Consider:
      • Banner Design: Create visually appealing and clear banner ads that resonate with your target audience.
      • Landing Page Alignment: Ensure your landing page aligns with the message and offer presented in the display ad.
      • Retargeting Strategy: Develop a strategic retargeting campaign with a clear timeframe and compelling message to re-engage website visitors.

    By incorporating video ads and display campaigns with retargeting into your marketing mix, you can create a well-rounded Google Ads strategy that reaches potential sellers throughout their decision-making journey, ultimately generating a steady stream of qualified leads for your real estate investment business.

    Conclusion and Extra Resources

    Congratulations! You’ve reached the end of this comprehensive guide on leveraging Google Ads to attract motivated sellers and propel your real estate investment business forward.

    Key Takeaways & Recap:

    • Google Ads offers a powerful platform for real estate investors to target motivated sellers who are actively searching for solutions.
    • By crafting compelling ad copy, optimizing landing pages, and utilizing effective bidding strategies, you can generate a steady stream of qualified leads.
    • Continuously monitor and analyze your campaigns to maximize return on investment (ROI) and refine your approach based on data insights.

    Set Realistic Expectations for Your Google Ads Campaign:

    Before diving into Google Ads, it’s crucial to set realistic goals and understand market limitations.

    • Market Research: Research your target market’s potential for seller leads. A high budget allows for more leads and targeting broader markets, while a lower budget might be better suited for smaller areas.
    • Data & Optimization: Google Ads needs time to collect data and optimize performance. Give your campaigns a few months to reach their full potential.
    • Return on Investment (ROI): Factor in ROI when planning your campaign. Track key metrics and adjust your strategy to maximize profitability.

    To minimize wasted spending and maximize lead generation, plan your campaign beforehand:

    1. Target Audience: Are you targeting sellers or buyers?
    2. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Determine your acceptable cost per lead.
    3. Maximum Cost-per-Click (CPC): Estimate your maximum cost per click based on your profit margin and sales conversion rate. 4. Budget: Set a realistic budget for your campaign, allocating a portion for initial testing.
    4. Test Budget: Allocate a specific amount to test different keywords and identify the most effective ones. Use the formula: Test Budget = (100 clicks) x (Estimated CPC)

    By setting realistic expectations and planning your campaign meticulously, you can create a Google Ads strategy that maximizes your return on investment and generates a steady stream of qualified leads.

    Remember:

    • Focus on the benefits for sellers and address their pain points in your ad copy.
    • Leverage your unique selling proposition (USP) as a real estate investor to stand out from competitors.
    • Track conversions and key metrics to measure success and identify areas for improvement.

    Resources for Further Learning:

    The world of digital marketing is constantly evolving. Here are some valuable resources to stay ahead of the curve and enhance your Google Ads expertise:

    By implementing the strategies outlined in this guide and utilizing the resources provided, you can become a Google Ads pro and unlock the full potential of this powerful platform to grow your real estate investment business.

  • Do You Want a Website Thatโ€™s Both Stunning and Effective? Here are 10 Beautiful Carrot Website Examples for Inspiration!

    Do You Want a Website That’s Both Stunning and Effective? Here are 10 Beautiful Carrot Website Examples for Inspiration!

    Carrot’s real estate marketing platform has evolved beyond a simple website builder into a comprehensive Lead Generation Hub that helps investors and agents create unique, high-performing websites that convert visitors into leads at a rate 44% higher than industry benchmarks.

    Key Takeaways

    • Carrot websites dominate search results, capturing over 50% of top-3 Google rankings across 225 U.S. markets, giving members a competitive advantage in visibility.
    • Leads generated through Carrot websites are 7x more likely to convert into deals compared to non-Carrot leads and yield an average profit of nearly $14,000 per deal.
    • Despite using the same software platform, Carrot members can create vastly different website designs that reflect their unique brand identity using the Visual Editor and customization options.

    With Carrot, real estate professionals can build websites that cut through online clutter, capture qualified leads, and become valuable assets rather than liabilities in growing their business.

    Table of Contents

    1. Carrot Website Examples
    2. Kauai Cash Home Buyers
    3. MN Nice Home Buyers
    4. KM Homes
    5. 412Houses
    6. KCMOHomeBuyer
    7. Jessica Wilkinson
    8. DHS Realty Group
    9. Unique Property Solutions
    10. TK Properties
    11. Grand Real Estate Investments
    Carrot icon
    Lead generation, at its best
    Attract, convert & close more motivated leads
    Try Carrot Today

    Carrot was an accident — albeit a wonderful one.

    Tapping into his experience as a real estate investor and online marketer, Trevor Mauch, CEO of Carrot, built his first motivated seller website in 2003.

    Almost immediately, the site began generating organic motivated seller leads – it was then Trevor knew heโ€™d found the gap that all entrepreneurs are looking for… where your expertise overlaps the marketโ€™s needs. 

    So he built another site. And another. He finally had the grand idea to create a software company called Carrot. He wanted our websites to be so irresistible that motivated sellers couldnโ€™t help but convertโ€ฆ and the investors using them couldnโ€™t help but grow!

    Now weโ€™ve transformed Carrot from being like any other website builder into a Lead Generation Hub, built on a real estate marketing platform with multiple tools and resources to help investors, agents, and hybrids grow their businesses with real impact and freedom. Take a look at some of our memberโ€™s performance stats below.

    By attracting the right traffic through SEO, Carrot websites capture over 50% of top 3 Google search results across 225 U.S. markets, meaning Carrot members have a competitive advantage in being seen first by high-quality clients.

    Carrot sites are stunning and effectively converting traffic into leads at a 44% higher rate than industry benchmarks, making Carrot the industry leader in producing high-quality leads.

    Speaking of high-quality leads, Carrot leads are 7x more likely to convert into deals than non-Carrot leads and on average, yield almost $14,000 in profit per deal!

    To celebrate Carrotโ€™s accomplishments over the past decade and hopefully convince you to try Carrot (wink wink), we will share 10 of our favorite Carrot member websites.

    As you read through, notice the versatility of these sites and the significant differences in style and toneโ€ฆ all easily created by the same software backed by the same crazy people with the same crazy dream: to help entrepreneurs reclaim time for the things that matter most in life.

    Gain the most freedom, impact, and growth in your real estate business with highly motivated buyer and seller leads!

    Carrot website examples convert leads into deals 7x higher than non-Carrot leads and 2.5x more profitable.

    Thatโ€™s the power of Carrotโ€™s real estate marketing platformโ€ฆwith websites so powerful that we had to call it something else: the Lead Generation Hub.

    Take a free, interactive demo today to find out how a Carrot website has helped investors and agents attract, convert, and close more deals than ever before for over 10 years.

    Carrot Website Examples

    As mentioned, weโ€™ve compiled this list of 10 sites representing how Carrot members are actively adjusting their websites. But before that, letโ€™s take a minute to show you how one builds a real estate website.

    To paint a picture, once you become a member at Carrot and are ready to create your unique site, weโ€™ll first have you select Site Type to determine what types of leads you are looking for (ex., Motivated Sellers, Cash Buyers). Next, weโ€™ll have you choose a website template to help you get started on constructing your own design.

    Even if you arenโ€™t a web designer, our websites are easily customizable using Carrotโ€™s Visual Editor. This user-friendly design tool eases the process of making your site stand out without the need for any fancy coding. Youโ€™ll be able to drag and drop text boxes, images, videos, and more in real-time without ever needing to leave the page (saving you time and stress).

    If youโ€™ve seen Carrot sites in the past and are asking yourself, โ€œdonโ€™t all Carrot sites look the same?โ€ then these examples prove that you can stand out from the crowd with a little effort. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    We want to inspire you with this quick round-up of Carrot websites that our members love. Be sure to scroll through each site to see the endless possibilities!

    Additional website design services with amazing results!

    Some Carrot website examples below have been optimized using our Concierge Set Up services.

    If you don’t have the time to create your website, check out our done-for-you, high-performance Concierge Set Up!

    On average, our CSU sites…

    • Attract more than 3X the traffic of an average Carrot site.
    • Get more than 5X the leads with 3+ additional leads every month compared to the previous.
    • Have a 35% higher conversion rate from lead to deal.

    Kauai Cash Home Buyers

    A fantastic site design that blends local images, colors, and branding. Kauai Cash Home Buyers packs credibility into three testimonials blocks, including six testimonial videos. Their “Watch Our TV Commercial Below” and accompanying video adds “local” as an important call-out for their market.

    MN Nice Home Buyers

    MN Nice is a change of pace from other sitesโ€”simple, easy to follow, and practical design. The addition of a “You May Have Heard Us On…” section offers a unique way to call out credibility.

    KM Homes

    KM Homes is an example of a “hybrid” website. The realtor.com and Zillow badges communicate the option to list a house. Further down the page, they also offer an alternative to selling quickly. The website is easy to navigate and uses large images to enhance the clean structure.

    412Houses

    412houses.com presents a professional design, relevant content, and features that contribute to its credibility as a platform for real estate activities in the Pittsburgh area.

    The website showcases a well-designed, visually appealing and user-friendly layout, which can contribute to a positive browsing experience.

    Their “customer reviews” section highlights their past clients suggests a track record of successful transactions and satisfied customers.

     KCMOHomeBuyer

    Overall, the website’s design, content, and features contribute to its credibility as a platform for buying homes in the Kansas City area.

    1. Professional Design: The website features a well-organized and visually appealing design, which can contribute to a positive user experience.
    2. Clear Purpose: The website explicitly focuses on buying homes in Kansas City, indicating a specific and transparent business model.
    3. Contact Information: The site provides clear contact details, including a phone number and an address. This transparency can enhance trust and credibility.
    4. Accreditations: The website showcases accreditation logos, such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Senior Transition Specialist, which can further enhance its credibility.

    Jessica Wilkinson

    The real estate website design for San Diego-based Jessica Wilkinson, a Big Block Realty brokerage, is simple yet effective. Whether you want to investigate properties in and around San Diego, get info on housing buying and selling values, or check out some of her informative real estate blog posts and newsletters.

    How Jessica Stands Out with Carrot

    DHS Realty Group

    All aspects of your business are key. That includes your real estate website design. DHS Realty Group utilizes the block editor in a variety of colors to guide guests down the page. The choice of words and color scheme welcomes visitors to their site. The photos are eye-catching, and the icons match the topics.

    Unique Property Solutions

    Unique Property Solutions goes big with videos and authentic local images. Take one look at it, and itโ€™s evident they are a highly engaged “local” business that cares about how visitors learn more about their company and is determined to turn those visitors into leads.

    We tried to create the website on our own and had some initial success however our success paled in comparison to what our Concierge team of Taylor, Lisa, Nate and many others behind the scenes helped us achieve! The team was professional, responsive and super easy to work with and we enjoyed creating a great website with their expertise.

    – Shannon Kolbe – Unique Property Solutions

    TK Properties

    TK Properties’ design is clean and practical by showing off local houses with their motivated seller website. The custom logo and branding show off well. The testimonials and the designโ€™s responsive capabilities across the homepage. Overall, a perfect example of website design.

    Grand Real Estate Investments

    Besides using credibility badges below the hero, Grand Real Estate Investments drives credibility by adding a “Mission” section on their homepage and additional testimonials. They also add local flair with custom location-based images.

    Itโ€™s like utilizing that website as your core for everything is the key. Thatโ€™s definitely the key. But itโ€™s so simple to use. Itโ€™s not like a regular WordPress site. I love the simplicity. I know how to do everything. โ€“ Robert Grand, Grand Real Estate Investments

    Conclusion

    With Carrot, you can build a unique website that stands out amongst all the clutter online, draws buyers and sellers in, snags their contact information, and becomes an asset (rather than a liability) for helping you grow your business.

    Use these Carrot website examples as inspiration.

    We know that because thousands of Carrot members have done it.

    Will you be next?

  • 9 Real Estate Follow Up Scripts to Close More Deals

    9 Real Estate Follow Up Scripts to Close More Deals

    If you want more deals and outgrow your competitors, you need real estate follow up scripts proven to close.

    You want to own one of your market’s most successful real estate businesses (whether agent or investor).

    There are a lot of things you could do. Sending paid ad traffic to a high-converting website, optimizing your ad campaigns for a better click-through rate, and creating sales scripts can make a massive difference in how many leads you generate and how many deals you close monthly.

    Following up on your real estate leads is one of the biggest determiners of success.

    If an agent or investor has a rigorous and consistent follow-up system, they are far more likely to be successful than those who assume a lead is dead if they don’t get a signed contract after the first phone call.

    But you don’t have to take our word for it.


    Hone Your Follow-Up Skills & Close More Deals

    Cover seller objections, use high-converting warm and cold touch scripts, and follow an easy touchpoint schedule to increase your lead-to-deal conversion.

    Download Now: Free Follow-Up Scripts


    Is Follow Up Worth Your Time?

    We’ve mentioned this in other blog posts before, but the data is pretty clear about whether follow-up is worth your time or not…

    is lead follow-up important

    (Image Source)

    Think about that for a second…

    80% of sales are made between the fifth and twelfth contact.

    Let’s pretend that that is true for your business but that you only follow up once with each lead.

    That would mean that you’re giving more than 80% of your potential deals to your competitors — just outright handing them over.

    Because those leads aren’t just sitting at home waiting for you to pursue them, they’re calling other investors and agents in the area and examining their options.

    If you stop contacting them, they’ll forget about you and work with someone else.

    Over 80%!

    Sound crazy?

    Well, even if that percentage is 50% for your business, isn’t that too much?

    Even 10% is too much!

    Especially in real estate, an industry where one transaction often amounts to tens of thousands of dollars in profit.

    Look — you know there’s money in the follow up, but you still have some limiting beliefs about building a follow-up system for your business.

    So let me walk you through 3 of the most common myths of follow up in real estate.

    Three Real Estate Follow Up Myths

    Myth #1: “I need to have a complex CRM before building my follow up system.”

    Yes. Having a super fancy CRM will help you organize your lead flow, assign tasks to different team members, and ensure that you follow up with every lead, with the same messages, a pre-determined number of times.

    CRMs allow you to organize and automate your follow-up system, making the entire process much simpler.

    But CRMs aren’t always cheap.

    And they also aren’t always easy to use (some are better than others).

    If you think your lack of a CRM or your hatred of technology is an excuse not to follow up with your leads, think again…

    Just keep it simple, use an ESP like MailChimp or InvestorFuse (both of which integrate with your Carrot website), and schedule an automated follow-up campaign.

    Remember, some sort of follow-up strategy is better than no follow-up strategy.

    Myth #2: “Most deals come from first contact, not follow-up.

    Whether you’re an agent or investor, it’s easy to assume that most of your deals come from first contact.

    A motivated buyer or seller calls you on the phone, ready to take action now (they might even already know who you are and trust you), and that call effortlessly turns into a closed deal.

    That’s how many of your transactions happen now.

    But we have to ask the question… do most of your currently closed deals happen like that because if someone isn’t motivated from the get-go, then they won’t be motivated down the road?

    Or because you’re not following up and thus not capturing leads that might require more time and effort?

    The answer is clear.

    After all, no matter how motivated someone is to buy or sell their home, a reasonable person likely won’t just decide to work with you right off the bat — they’ll need to process, think about it, examine other options, and speak with you some more.

    And if you’re following up during that decision-making process, they might work well with you.

    Myth #3: “I don’t want to follow up too much or annoy my prospects.

    This “myth” isn’t false.

    Some real estate follow-up sequences are downright annoying to prospects.

    Suppose you’re sending the same thing every time — “Hey! I want to buy your house right now!” — then that’ll get old quickly.

    But this belief is a myth in that the follow-up sequence you create doesn’t need to be dull and drab — it can be interesting, engaging, and trust-building.

    How?

    Well, we think that one of the best ways to build trust and engage prospects with your follow-up sequence is by providing free value.

    Send them a link to an article on your website that might help them solve a problem. Give them a piece of advice specific to their situation. Or even offer to get on the phone and discuss their options.

    The better the relationship you build with them, the more dividends that relationship will pay you down the road.


    Hone Your Negotiation Skills & Close More Deals

    Get the fool-proof strategies & step-by-step scripts used by real estate investingโ€™s top closers โ€” all in one resource.

    Download Now: Free Negotiation Playbook


    What Is The Goal Of Follow Up?

    Sometimes, a lead follow-up system’s goal is to get your lead to take the next step for conversion — getting on the phone with you, receiving their cash offer, or going to an open house.

    Sometimes, though, the goal will be to get them to accept a cash offer you already made or to stay in contact with them if they become ready to use your services.

    Each business is different, and each prospect is different.

    What your follow-up system should look like depends on when you’re following up with prospects (what stage they’re at) and what action you need them to take.

    Typically, though, the goal of mastering following up is to get the prospect on the phone again so you can work your sales magic — a phone call can serve all purposes.

    The 3 Mediums Of Your Follow Up Strategy: Text, Email, and Phone Calls

    How you follow up with your prospects — whether through text, email, or phone calls (or, even better, all three) — will partly be determined by your target market and how they like to communicate.

    More than one investor, for example, has gotten on the phone with an elderly person looking to sell their home fast, only to find out that they have no idea how to work email.

    So adjust with your market’s tendencies.

    If you know, they don’t look at their emails and texts, then call them. If they don’t answer the phone, send text messages and emails.

    The more you adapt your follow-up strategy to the communication style of each prospect, the better.

    (But remember, progress, not perfection)

    Oh! And here’s the best time to email…

    best days to send a lead follow up email

    (Image Source)

    And the best time to send a real estate follow up email…

    best hours to send a lead follow up email

    (Image Source)

    In other words…

    best times and days to send a lead follow up email

    (Image Source)

    Real Estate Follow Up Timeline Calendar

    Following up is, of course, easier said than done.

    You need to figure out what to say and how to say it (covered in the next part of this article) and determine when you will follow up.

    So to help with the decision-making process, we’ve put together this free follow-up timeline calendar that you can steal if you like.

    Try it, see how it goes, and adjust it as necessary.

    When we put it together, we’d tried to put logical spacing between each text, call, and email so that you’ll sometimes need to use free-value-based follow ups…

    “Hey! I found something you might be interested in.”

    and sometimes, you’ll just be checking in…

    “Hey! Just calling to see if you’re still interested in my services.”

    Hope it helps!

    Note: This calendar is one month’s worth of follow-up for a given prospect who opted-in to your website on Sunday, the 1st. You can follow up more or less than the calendar suggests, but this is a good starting point.

    real estate lead follow up calendar

    Free Real Estate Follow Up Scripts

    To make your follow-up strategy even easier to implement, we will provide you with 3 follow up scripts whether you’re an agent or an investor.

    These scripts are written as if for an automated email campaign, but they can be adapted to fit any medium (including text and phone calls).

    One of the primary ways we recommend reaching out to your prospects is by offering value rather than just asking for the sale each time (which can get annoying quickly).

    How can you provide value?

    Well, if you have a blog on your website (check out our Content Tools add-on where we’ll provide you with expert-written blog content every month), then you can send over links to helpful articles that you’ve recently published, making you look like the expert that you are and keeping you top of mind.

    For agents and investors, here are 3 follow-up scripts you’re welcome to steal. :-)

    1. Hard Ask — Use When Trying To Close The Deal
    2. Soft Ask — Use When Trying To Get Prospect To Take Next Step
    3. Free Value — Use When Trying To Stay Connected With Prospect Simply

    6 Free Real Estate Follow Up Scripts For Agents (3 For Buyers & 3 For Sellers)

    FOR BUYERS

    Hard Ask

    This depends a bit on what you’re trying to do with the buyer. Here, I assume you want them to choose to work with you rather than another competitor.

    Hey [name]!

    Great chat the other day.

    I’ve spent some time thinking about your situation and I know that I can help you find the perfect home. If you’re okay with it, let me find some listings that I think are within your budget and we can go take a look.

    What do you say?

    Soft Ask

    Hey [name]!

    I hope you’re doing well.

    I know you mentioned that you’re interested in finding the perfect home for [purpose]. I’d love to help you with that. Do you have time to swing by my office this week?

    Free Value — Use When Trying To Stay Connected With Prospect Simply

    Hey [name]!

    I just published this article on my website and it’s all about [topic] — super relevant to what you’re going through.

    Anyways, I thought you might find it helpful!

    Hope you’re well. :-)

    FOR SELLERS

    Hard Ask

    Hey [name]!

    I was just doing some research on your home and I’m confident we can sell it for [$XXX,XXX] — want me to get started listing it?

    Soft Ask

    Hey [name]!

    I’d love to help you get top-dollar for your precious home so you can get moving with your big plans. How can I help you?

    Free Value

    Hey [name]!

    I just published this article on my website that talks about [topic] — I thought it’d be super relevant to your situation and you might get some value out of it.

    Hope you’re well!

    3 Free Real Estate Follow Up Scripts For Investors

    Hard Ask

    Hey [name]!

    Are you ready to sell your house fast for cash? I’m prepared to give you cash for what I offered you the other day.

    Money in your pocket and stress off your shoulders…

    Let me know!

    Soft Ask

    Hey [name]!

    I would really like to buy your house for cash. Want to hear my offer?

    Free Value

    Hey [name]!

    I just published this article on my website about [topic] and I thought it might help with your difficult situation. Give it a look.

    And call me if you think I can help you out. :-)

    Conclusion

    These nine real estate follow up scripts should help you get started down the path to more deals.

    Remember, some follow up is better than none. And this is going to get you moving in the right direction.

    Create a follow up system that works for you, your business, and your prospects. Then, you’ll reap the benefits of being a business that consistently follows up with its leads.

    If you’d like more real estate marketing materials like this, click on the link!

  • How to Write a Real Estate Investment Business Plan: Complete Guide

    How to Write a Real Estate Investment Business Plan: Complete Guide

    Building an investing business without a real estate investment business plan is sort of like riding a bike without handlebars. 

    You might be able to do itโ€ฆ but why would you? 

    Itโ€™s far easier and more practical to set out on your venture with a business plan that outlines things like your lead-flow, where youโ€™ll find funding, and which market(s) youโ€™ll operate. 

    Plus, according to Entrepreneur, having a business plan increases your chances of growth by 30%. 

    Download Now: Free marketing plan video and a downloadable guide

    So donโ€™t skip this critical first step. 

    Hereโ€™s how to do it. 

    Real Estate Investment Business Plan Guide

    In this article we’re going to discuss:

    What is a Real Estate Investment Business Plan and Why Does it Matter?

    A real estate investment business plan is a document that outlines your goals, your vision, and your plan for growing the business

    It should detail the real estate business model youโ€™re going to pursue, your chosen method for lead-gen, how youโ€™ll find funding, and how you plan to close deals. 

    The kit and caboodle. 

    BUTโ€ฆ

    It shouldnโ€™t be overly complicated. 

    Whether this real estate investment business plan is only for your personal use or to present to someone else, simplicity is best. Be thorough, be clear, but donโ€™t over-explain what youโ€™re going to do. 

    As far as why you should have a business plan, consider that it gives you a 30% better chance of growing your business. 

    Also, consider that setting out without a plan would be like — full of unexpected twists and turns — is that something you want to do? 

    Probably not. 

    Itโ€™s worth taking a few days or weeks to put together a business plan, even if itโ€™s just for your own sake. By the time youโ€™re complete, youโ€™ll have greater confidence in the business youโ€™re setting out to build. 

    And an entrepreneurโ€™s confidence is everything. 

    How to Create Your Real Estate Investment Business Plan

    Now we get into the nitty-gritty. 

    How do you create your real estate investment business plan? Here are the 10 steps!

    1. Create Your Mission & Vision

    This can be considered your “summary” section. You might not think that you need a mission statement or vision for your real estate business. 

    And you donโ€™t. 

    We know a lot of real estate investors (many of our members, in fact) donโ€™t have a clear mission or vision that theyโ€™ve outlined — and theyโ€™re successful regardless. 

    But if youโ€™re just getting startedโ€ฆ

    Then we think itโ€™s a worthwhile use of your time. 

    Because if you donโ€™t know why youโ€™re going to build your real estate investing business, if you donโ€™t see what purpose it serves on a personal and professional level, then itโ€™s not going to be very exciting to you. 

    You can either use this time to create a mission for your businessโ€ฆ or a mission statement for you as it relates to growing your business (depending on your goals).

    For instanceโ€ฆ

    • Our mission is to create affordable house opportunities in the Roseburg, Oregon community. 
    • Our mission is to provide homeowners with an exceptional experience when selling their properties for cash. 

    Or you could go a more personal routeโ€ฆ

    • My mission is to create a business that supports my family. 
    • My mission is to build a company that gives me more time for what matters most to me.

    Or you could do bothโ€ฆ

    • My mission is to create a business that supports my family, and my businessโ€™ mission is to provide homeowners with an exceptional experience when selling their properties for cash. 

    Either way, itโ€™s good to think about this before getting started. 

    Because if you know why youโ€™re going to build your business — and if, ideally, that reason resonates with you — then youโ€™ll be more excited and determined to work hard toward your goals. 

    It is also an excellent opportunity to outline the core values youโ€™ll adhere to within your business as Brian Rockwell does on his websiteโ€ฆ

    add core value to your real estate website

    With this information in hand, youโ€™re ready to move on to the next step. 

    2. Run Competitive Market Analysis

    Which market are you going to operate in? 

    That might be an easy question to answer — if youโ€™re just going to operate in the town where you live, fair enough. 

    But itโ€™s worth keeping in mind that todayโ€™s technology has made it possible to become a real estate investor in any market from pretty much any location (remotely). 

    So if the market youโ€™re in is lacking in opportunity, then you might consider investing elsewhere. 

    How do you know which market to choose? 

    Here are the 10 top real estate markets for investors, according to our own Carrot member data of over 7000 accounts, based on lead volume…

    • Dallas, TX
    • Atlanta, GA
    • Houston, TX
    • Chicago, IL
    • Charlotte, NC
    • New York, NY
    • Los Angeles, CA
    • Orlando, FL
    • Philadelphia, PA
    • Phoenix, AZ

    And here are the top 20 statesโ€ฆ

    • Texas
    • California
    • Florida
    • Virginia
    • Illinois
    • Georgia
    • Ohio
    • New York
    • North Carolina
    • Pennsylvania
    • New Jersey
    • Oregon 
    • Washington
    • Kansas
    • Arizona
    • Indiana
    • Michigan
    • Colorado
    • Missouri
    • Tennessee

    Thatโ€™ll give you some ideas. 

    But what makes a market good or bad for real estate investors? Here are some metrics to pay attention to when youโ€™re doing your research. 

    • Median Home Value — This will tell you how much the average home sells for in the market, which will impact whether youโ€™ll be willing to operate there. Because obviously, you want to play with numbers that feel reasonable to you. 
    • Median Home Value Increase Year Over Year — Ideally, you want to invest in a market where homes are appreciating every year. And a positive increase in this metric is a good sign that the properties you invest in will continue to increase in value. 
    • Occupied Housing Rate — A high housing occupancy rate means itโ€™s easy to find tenants, and thereโ€™s a healthy demand for housing. Thatโ€™s a good sign. 
    • Median Rent — This is the average cost of rent in the market and will give you a good idea of how much youโ€™ll be able to charge on any rentals you own. 
    • Median Rent Increase Year Over Year — If youโ€™re going to buy rentals, itโ€™s a good sign if rental costs increase every year.
    • Population Growth — When the population grows, it creates demand for housing, both rentals and on the MLS. Thatโ€™s a good sign for a real estate investor. 
    • Job Growth — Job growth is a sign of a healthy economy and indicates that youโ€™ll have an easier time capitalizing on your real estate investments. 

    Fortunately, all of this research is super easy to do on Google. 

    You can just type in the market and the metric in Google and youโ€™ll get meaningful results. 

    Thank god for technology. 

    Want more freedom & impact?

    From Mindset to Marketing, join our CEO as he unlocks the best stories, tactics, and strategies from Americaโ€™s top investors and agents on the CarrotCast. If you want to grow your business, you need to check it out!

    3. Choose Your Business Model(s)

    Thereโ€™s not just one real estate business model

    There are many. 

    And the market youโ€™re in — as well as your business goals — will determine which business model you choose. 

    Hereโ€™s a brief overview of eachโ€ฆ

    • Wholesaling — Is a prevalent business model in the real estate world. Wholesalers find deals and flip them to other cash buyers for an assignment fee, typically somewhere between $5,000 to $10,000. Itโ€™s low risk and requires little capital upfront (you can get started with as little as $2,000). 
    • Wholetailing — Wholetailing is a mix between wholesaling and house flipping. A wholetailer will find a deal, do some very minor repairs (if any), and sell the house on the MLS themselves. It results in large profits with far less work. But wholetail deals are hard to come by. 
    • BRRRR — This stands for Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. Itโ€™s a long-term process for buying and holding rental properties. Itโ€™s a great way to build net worth and create generational wealth. 
    • Flipping — House flipping is the most popularized real estate investing method. It consists of purchasing distressed properties, fixing them up, and selling them at a good profit on the MLS, often making upwards of $100,000 per deal. However, this method involves much more risk than the other methods and each deal takes a lot longer to complete. 

    If youโ€™re just getting started, then we recommend choosing just one business model and doing that until youโ€™ve mastered it. 

    Down the road, you will likely want to use multiple business models. 

    We know the most successful real estate investors are wholesalers, wholesalers, flippers, and they own some rental properties. 

    That allows them to make the most of every opportunity that comes their way. 

    But againโ€ฆ to start, just choose one. 

    4. Determine Your Business Goals

    At this point, you should have a pretty clear idea of why youโ€™re going to build your real estate investing business. 

    Are you going to build it because you want to make an impact in your community? Because you want more financial freedom? Because you want more time freedom? 

    All of the above? 

    Whatever the case, now itโ€™s time to set some goals related to your mission for the business. 

    Remember the SMART acronym for goal settingโ€ฆ

    • Specific
    • Measurable
    • Achievable
    • Relevant
    • Time-Bound

    Start by thinking about how much money youโ€™d like to make per month — this should be the first income threshold that youโ€™re excited to hit.

    Letโ€™s pretend you said $10,000 per month. 

    Okay, now take a look at your business model. How many properties do you need to have cash-flowing to hit that number? How many deals do you have to do per month? How many flips? 

    Try to be as realistic with your numbers as possible. 

    Here are some baselines to consider for the different business models at the $10k/month thresholdโ€ฆ

    • Wholesaling – 2-3 Deals Per Month
    • Wholetailing – 2-3 Deals Per Month
    • BRRRR – $1 Million in Assets
    • Flipping – 1-2 Flips Per Year

    Now you have a general idea of the results youโ€™ll need to hit your first income threshold. 

    But we havenโ€™t talked about overhead costs. 

    How much will you need to spend to get those results? 

    Your answer to that question will be influenced by the market analysis you already did. But itโ€™s pretty standard for the price of finding a deal to hover around $2,000 for a real estate investor (if youโ€™re doing your own advertising). 

    So now youโ€™re spending $2,000 per deal, or whatever your specific number is. Thatโ€™s going to have an impact on how much money youโ€™re making. So now we can adjust your goals to be more realistic for hitting that $10k per month markerโ€ฆ

    • Wholesaling – 4-5 Deals Per Month
    • Wholetailing – 4-5 Deals Per Month
    • BRRRR – $1.5 Million in Assets
    • Flipping – 2-3 Flips Per Year

    The idea here is to figure out how many deals youโ€™ll have to do per month to hit your income goals. 

    Then work that back into figuring out how much youโ€™ll need to spend every month to realistically and predictably hit your goals. 

    At $2k per deal and intending to hit $10k/month, hereโ€™s what your deal-finding costs might look likeโ€ฆ

    • Wholesaling – 4-5 Deals Per Month – $8k-$10k/month
    • Wholetailing – 4-5 Deals Per Month – $8k-$10k/month
    • BRRRR – $1.5 Million in Assets – $6k-$8k/month
    • Flipping – 2-3 Flips Per Year – $4k-$6k/month

    That should give you a baseline. 

    How do those numbers look? 

    If they feel too high for you right now, lower your initial goal — you want to make your first goal something that you know you can accomplish. 

    Then, as you gain experience, you can increase your goals and make more money down the road. 

    Free Real Estate Marketing Plan Template

    Take our short survey to find out where you struggle most with your online marketing strategy. Generate your free marketing plan video and downloadable guide to increase lead generation and conversion, gain momentum, and stand out in your market:

    real estate marketing plan generator

    Download your marketing plan template here.

    5. Find Funding / Cash Buyers

    Are you going to fund your own deals or find private investors? Or maybe youโ€™re going to get a business loan from a bank? 

    If youโ€™re just starting as a wholesaler or wholetailer, then it’s recommended funding your own first few deals — that should only cost $2,000 to $5,000โ€ฆ and why overcomplicate things in the beginning when youโ€™re still trying to learn the ropes? 

    However, as a wholesaler or wholetailer, youโ€™ll still need to find some cash buyers. 

    Hereโ€™s a great video thatโ€™ll teach you how to do thatโ€ฆ

    How To Find A Cash Buyer For Your Wholesale Deal

    To consistently grow your cash buyer list (which is an important part of the wholesaling and wholestailing business model), we also recommend creating a buyer website like thisโ€ฆ

    Cash Buyer - Investment Property Website

    Learn more about creating your cash buyer website with Carrot over here

    To scale, you might seek out other sources of funding. 

    Here are some optionsโ€ฆ

    • Bank Loan — Getting a loan from a bank might be the most straightforward strategy if you’re just getting started. But keep in mind that the requirements for a loan on an investment property will be more stringent than the requirements were for your primary residence mortgage. And the interest rate will likely be higher as well. For that reason, you might seek out some of the other options. 
    • Hard Money — Hard money loans come from companies that specifically serve real estate investors. They are easier and faster to secure than a bank loan and hard money lenders typically base their approval of the loan on the quality of the investment property rather than the investorโ€™s financial standing. 
    • Private Money — Whereas a hard money loan comes from a company; a private money loan comes from an individual with a good chunk of capital theyโ€™re looking to invest. That could be a friend, family member, coworker, and acquaintance. Interest rates and terms on these loans are typically very flexible and the interest rate is usually quite good. Private money is an excellent option for real estate investors looking to scale their business. 

    But before you seek out funding from those sources, get clear on what exactly youโ€™re going to use those funds for. 

    Finding funding is even more critical. In fact — if youโ€™re flipping properties or using the BRRRR method. 

    (Itโ€™s a key part of the BRRRR method)

    Youโ€™ll likely want to use hard money or private money to fund your deals as you grow your business.

    Okayโ€ฆ

    But how do you find and secure those loans? 

    Hard money lenders are easy to find — just Google for hard money lenders in your area and call the companies that pop up to get more details. 

    Private money (which usually has more favorable terms than hard money) is a bit trickier to find but not at all impossible. 

    To find private money lenders, you canโ€ฆ

    • Tell Friends & Family — This should be the first thing you do. Tell everyone you can about the business youโ€™re building and the returns you can offer investors. Then ask them if they know anyone who might be interested in investing. 
    • Network — After youโ€™ve exhausted all your friends and family, make a point of getting to know people everywhere you go. The easiest way to do this is to wear branded clothing so people ask about what you do. Talk to people at coffee shops, grocery stores, movie theaters, and anywhere else that you frequent. You never know who you might meet. 
    • Attend Foreclosure Auctions — Foreclosure auctions are jam-packed with people who have cash-on-hand to buy properties. These people might also be interested in investing in your real estate endeavors. Or they might know where to find private money. Either way, itโ€™s in your interest to build relationships with these people. Attend foreclosure auctions and bring some business cards. 

    Here are some tips on finding private money lendersโ€ฆ

    How to Find Private Money Lenders for Real Estate Investing

    6. Identify Lead-Flow Source

    Now letโ€™s talk about how you will generate a consistent flow of motivated leads for your business. 

    Because no matter which of the business models youโ€™ve chosenโ€ฆ youโ€™re going to need to find motivated sellers.

    And youโ€™re going to need to find those people every single month. 

    There are essentially two parts to a successful lead generation strategy for real estate investing business. 

    Both pieces are criticalโ€ฆ 

    1. The Short Term — We call this โ€œhamster-wheel marketingโ€ because it requires you to keep working and spending money to generate leads. Examples include Facebook ads, direct mail, bandit signs, cold calling, driving for dollars, and other tit-for-tat strategies that will burn you out if youโ€™re not careful.
    2. The Long Term — We call this โ€œevergreen marketingโ€ because it requires an upfront investmentโ€ฆ but that investment pays off for years and years to come. Examples include increasing brand awareness for your business in your target market(s) and improving your websiteโ€™s SEO, so that motivated sellers find you

    Short-term tactics are critical when youโ€™re first starting — in fact, they are likely going to be your only source of leads for at least the first few months. 

    Here are some more details on the most popular and effective methodsโ€ฆ 

    • Direct Mail — This should be your go-to method in the beginning. Send a few thousand direct mail pieces to the lists below and see how many calls you get in return. Expect to close about 1 in 25 calls (thatโ€™s pretty typical for this method).
      • Tax default mailing lists
      • Vacant house lists
      • Expired listing lists
      • Pre-foreclosure lists
      • Out-of-state landlord lists
    • Cold Calling — This might be more uncomfortable than stubbing your toe on a piece of furniture, but it can still be effective for finding motivated sellers. We have an article all about colding calling — it even has scripts for you to use. 
    • Facebook Ads — Facebook ads is another excellent method for generating leads so long as you have a high-converting website to send them to. If you donโ€™t, get yourself a Carrot website. Each Carrot site is built to convert. Here are some more details about running successful ads on Facebook for your real estate investing business.
    • Google AdsGoogle Ads is one of the most popular platforms for real estate professionals needing to provide quick results with a minimal to high investment depending on markets.

    But over time, the goal is to invest in more long-term evergreen marketing tactics so that you can get off the hamster wheel and build a more sustainable business. 

    Check out the video below to learn more about the critical distinction between short-term and long-term marketing. 

    At Carrot, weโ€™ve created an online marketing system that makes generating leads super easy and simple for real estate investors. 

    And itโ€™s 100% evergreen. 

    Hereโ€™s an example of one of our members’ websites that converts like crazyโ€ฆ

    Try our free Marketing Plan Generator here.

    7. Gather Property Analysis Information

    We just talked about how you can generate leads.

    But once someone calls you, once youโ€™re checking out a propertyโ€ฆ How will you know if the property is a good fit for your chosen business model? 

    After all, not every property will be a fit. 

    First, ask the following questions when the seller callsโ€ฆ

    • What is the address of the house you want to sell?
    • How many bedrooms, bathrooms does it have?
    • Does it have a garage, basement, or pool?
    • If you were going to list it with a Realtor, what repairs and/or updating would you say would be needed?
    • How much is owed on the house?
    • Do you have an asking price in mind?
    • Is the house behind on payments?
    • If I come out and look at the property and make you a cash offer to buy it โ€˜As-Isโ€™ and close as soon as you want, what would be the least you would be willing to take?

    That will provide you with a lot of critical information about what youโ€™re dealing with. 

    Next, once youโ€™re off the phone, do a bit of due diligence and look at what nearby properties of similar size have sold for in the last 90 days or so — that should give you a ballpark idea for the after-repair value of the property. 

    If you decide that the property sounds promising, youโ€™ll want to walk through it and take pictures of anything and everything thatโ€™ll need to be repaired. 

    Back at the office, estimate the cost of those repairs — hereโ€™s a great resource from REISift thatโ€™ll help you estimate rehab costs

    Youโ€™ll need to go through this entire process regardless of your business model so that you understand your max offer on the property. 

    So how do you calculate your max offer? 

    Use the 75% rule — check out this video from Ryan Dosseyโ€ฆ

    What Is The 75 Percent Rule In Wholesaling And Flipping Houses?

    With that, youโ€™ll know how much to pay for the property, how much to spend on repairs, and how much itโ€™ll sell for. 

    The more you streamline this part of the process, the better. 

    8. Create Your Brand

    Building a company is one thing. 

    Building an easily recognizable brand and known to be reputable in your marketplace is quite another.

    But thatโ€™s an integral part of the process. Consider some of these statisticsโ€ฆ

    • Using a signature color can increase brand recognition by 80 percent.
    • It takes about 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds) for people to form an opinion about your website.
    • Consistent presentation of a brand has seen to increase revenue by 33 percent.
    • 66 percent of consumers think transparency is one of the most attractive qualities in a brand.

    When it comes to building a real estate investing brand, your goals are toโ€ฆ

    • Establish Rapport 
    • Create Easy Recognizability
    • Dominate The Conversation

    The first step in this process is building an online presence โ€“ that means creating a high-converting website (i.e., one that systematically turns visitors into leads by capturing their contact information), running advertisements, and ranking in Google for important keywords. 

    Thatโ€™s what we can help you with at Carrot

    Out of the box, our website templates are built to convert visitors into leads โ€“ and you can customize them however you want with your branding materialsโ€ฆ

    real estate investment business plan - branding

    Youโ€™ll even receive immediate text notifications when someone signs up to be a lead so that you can contact them right away (speed is the name of the game!). 

    Having a high-converting website is ground zero for brand-building success. If you donโ€™t have a website that systematically converts visitors into leads, then every dollar you spend on advertising is going to be wasted. 

    So thatโ€™s where we start. 

    Once youโ€™ve got your website up and running, then โ€“ if youโ€™re a Carrot Member and subscribe to the Content Tools add-on โ€“ weโ€™ll provide you with blog posts every single month that are written to rank in Google for high-value keywords relevant to your specific marketโ€ฆ

    real estate investor blog posts

    You just upload, make some minor tweaks, and publish โ€“ and the more you publish, the more traffic youโ€™ll drive. 

    To help you become a true authority in your market, we also have the following toolsโ€ฆ

    We want to make generating leads as easy as possible for youโ€ฆ so you can focus on closing deals and growing your business. 

    You can try us here risk-free for 30 days. 

    If you get yourself a Carrot website, thatโ€™ll take care of the โ€œDominate The Conversationโ€ part of the branding process.

    But what about these parts? 

    • Establish Rapport 
    • Create Easy Recognizability

    Super easy. 

    Establishing rapport is simply a matter of putting testimonials and case studies on your website. The more of these you have, the more people will trust your brand when they arrive on your website for the first time. 

    real estate investor testimonials

    As for creating an easily recognizable brand, create a simple branding package…

    • Brand Colors
    • Font
    • Logo
    • Brand Name

    And then be consistent across all platforms. Use the same colors, font, logo, and brand name on everything โ€“ online and offline. 

    Thatโ€™ll make it feel like youโ€™re everywhere โ€“ which is what you want. 

    So there you go. 

    Thatโ€™s how you create a brand identity as a real estate investor. Youโ€™ll know youโ€™ve done it right if people are coming to you out of nowhere โ€“ because a friend of a friend told them about you. 

    And if you want a brand that dominates your market without all of the footwork, weโ€™ve got just the thing โ€“ itโ€™s called the Authority Leader Planโ€ฆ and weโ€™ll do everything for you. 

    9. Set Growth Milestones

    Okay โ€“ letโ€™s pretend that youโ€™ve taken all of the steps above. 

    Youโ€™ve got yourself a functioning business and brand with funding, youโ€™ve got consistent lead-flow, and youโ€™re even closing some deals. 

    Now what? 

    Wellโ€ฆ you want to grow, of course!

    You donโ€™t just want to do one deal per monthโ€ฆ you want to do three, five, or even ten deals per month.

    You want to make more money, increase your net worth, grow your business, and have a significant impact. 

    How do you do that? 

    First, you set new goals and milestones for your businessโ€™ growth โ€“ how many deals do you want to be doing per month in 6 months? In a year? 

    Then break those goals down by quarter โ€“ and turn them into actionable to-dos. 

    For example, if youโ€™re currently doing one deal per month and you want to be doing five deals per month by the end of Q2, hereโ€™s what your goals might look likeโ€ฆ

    • Q1
      • Send 10,000 Mailers Per Month
      • Spend $5,000 on Facebook Ads Per Month
      • Hire Salesperson To Answer Phone
    • Q2
      • Send 10,000 Mailers Per Month
      • Spend $5,000 on Facebook Ads Per Month
      • Hire Acquisition Manager
      • Create Workflow Process

    Or maybe itโ€™ll look a bit different. Make your to-dos as realistic as possible so that if you do those thingsโ€ฆ youโ€™re virtually guaranteed to hit your goals. 

    After all, whatโ€™s the point of having goals if youโ€™re not going to hit them? 

    All in allโ€ฆ

    Set milestone goals to grow your business, turn those into to-dos and break them down by quarter. The next and final step of your real estate investment business plan might be even more importantโ€ฆ 

    10. Plan To Delegate

    At some point, every real estate investor has to come to terms with a straightforward factโ€ฆ

    You canโ€™t build the business of your dreams on your own. You need to delegate.

    Youโ€™ve got to partner with other people, build critical relationships, hire people, manage people, create systems and processes to streamline your teamโ€™s workflow, and lots more. 

    One of the most important areas that deserve a highlight is your client communications and satisfaction. Consider setting up a robust cloud contact center software to manage all the communications that will lead to long-term partnerships.

    Building a business isnโ€™t so much about hustling and bustling as it is about putting the right pieces in the right place. 

    How do you scale your business? 

    The answer is quite simple: you do the same things youโ€™re doing nowโ€ฆ but at scale โ€“ that means hiring people, training people, and creating clean-cut systems. 

    Thatโ€™s how you grow your business. 

    Automate, delegate, and step outside of your business as much as possible to build a real estate investment company that serves you rather than enslaves you. 

    Final Thoughts on Real Estate Investment Business Plan

    Whew!

    What more is there? 

    You know how to create a mission and vision statement, run market analysis, choose an REI business model, set goals, find funding, generate leads, analyze properties, create a brand, set long-term growth milestones, and delegate. 

    All thatโ€™s left is action. 

    And reach out anytime with questions โ€“ weโ€™re always here to help!

    Featured Resource

    Free Real Estate Marketing Plan

    Generate your free marketing plan video and a downloadable guide to increase lead generation and conversion, gain momentum, and stand out in your market!

  • Carrot Recap 2021: Highlights From The Year!

    Carrot Recap 2021: Highlights From The Year!

    2021 Carrot Review

    Here’s to you Carrot members! You had an amazing year. Here’s a brief recap reel of some of the stories and things that happened in 2021.

    It was another fantastic year for our Carrot members and another year of growth for our team and company.

    Let’s recap some of the cool stuff in this quick post!

    2021 Carrot Review

    A Year of Giving and Inspiring

    It was another year of giving… when all said and done…

    • We made donations in 38 team members names for a total of $16,500.
    • The shareholders chose a few causes to donate to as well for a total of $10k
    • We donated to food banks across the country 10 times for a total of $55,428.86
    • Our team also went out in December and between just over 50 people each handed out $100 for the giving challenge – to things that were important to each individual employee – with things like over tipping waiters,  buying coffee for everyone in line,  buying toys for needy kids,  helping elderly people, helping recently widowed mothers, etc was about $5300+.
    • We also hosted a toy drive here at Carrot HQ and from our community here in Roseburg collected over 130 toys for Toys for Tots.

    The CarrotCast Podcast continues to inspire our audience. Our sales negotiation series was the most popular this year! Catch all four episodes:

    Part 1: How to Deliver a No-brainer Offer & Close More Sales, Faster w/ John Martinez

    Part 2: How to Eliminate Competition by Negotiating With Sellers as a Hybrid Agent/Investor w/ Steve Trang

    Part 3: 9 Magic Negotiation Phrases Guaranteed to Turn Sellers into Your BFFs w/ Creative Finance Junky, Pace Morby

    Part 4: Closing 20 Deals a Month Using 1 Simple Conversation Recipe w/ Beau Hollis & Adam Johnson

    Our team grew by 22 this year as we continue to innovate and be leaders in our industry as well as in our communities.

    We’re Honored Again – Carrot On the Inc. 5000 List for the 4th Straight Year!

    This year we were placed at the 2,509th fastest-growing company in the nation according to the Inc. 5000 list. Again, major kudos to the Carrot team and our members. We wouldn’t be here without an amazing product, team, and amazing members.

    … and more!

    Here we go!


    Hundreds of Thousands of Leads … You’re Crushing It!

    Carrot members crushed lead generation.

    You’re pulling in more SEO, paid, and social media online leads as a collective group than any other real estate investor and agent lead generation platform… by far.

    Keep crushing it!

    Here are some states based on site types…

    Seller Sites

    • 11.1M Sessions, 199K leads

    Buyer Sites

    • 2.6M sessions, 102K leads

    Agent Sites

    • 1.6M sessions, 13K leads

    All Other Site Types

    • 2.9M sessions, 146K leads

    Other interesting stats…

    • 33.3M pageviews across our network
    • ~32% of all sessions came from organic search
    • Mobile accounted for 53.4% of all sessions, steep increase from years past (mobile first is way to go)
    • Mobile conversion rate is 28% higher than for desktop (could be a function of site types and traffic sources)
    • 60.1% of all conversions occurred on mobile compared to 37.3% for desktop and 2% for tablet
    • Paid search saw a big year of growth on our network (sessions up 6.9% and conversion rate up 16.6%)
    • Total organic traffic up 8%

    Major NEW Features Launched in 2021

    We launched many NEW Features for our members.

    Core Value of ours is “Adapt, Evolve, & Always Improve“… and both our members and Carrot continue to push this value. In addition to the features we released in 2021, we helped our members spend more time focusing on their business.

    Here is a look back on some of the features our AMAZING team rolled out in 2021 (but not limited to)…

    • Improved member site speed by up to 50% through our Core Web Vitals optimizations.
    • Added more data and insights to the SEO Keyword Rank Tracking tool to make member sites even more competitive in Google Search.
    • Offered members the all-new ability to purchase more SEO Keyword Packs.
    • Launched an enhanced version of our Visual Editor including new + improved content generation along with a friendlier and more powerful Lead Form creation toolkit.
    • Created and enhanced site templates: Agent Seller, Motivated Seller and Hybrid.
    • Enhanced our IDX feature with a more polished site appearance, advanced map search and made it FREE for Advanced Marketers (minus pass-through fees).
    • Added the Onboarding Checklist to our Motivated Seller site to get members up and going (and producing leads) faster.
    New SEO Keyword Rank Tracking Tool
    Enhanced Visual Editor

    Getting Ahead of Google’s Core Web Vitals Update – We Made Carrot Websites 69.8% Faster Than Custom Websites on Mobile

    Core Web Vitals was introduced to Googleโ€™s search ranking algorithm. Google partially introduced the update in June and by the end of August, it played a full role in Googleโ€™s ranking mix.

    Our Dev team worked extremely hard to exceed this Google update. Here’s the data behind Carrot sites vs custom WordPress websites…

    [Data] Carrot Sites Now 69.8% Faster than Custom WordPress Websites

    Design

    Carrot members have seen many design elements scattered around their websites. Changes that make it easier to navigate checklists, read reports, and track leads. Shouting out just some of the amazing work the Design team created in 2021!!


    Our Amazing Success and Support Teams

    The Success team made a positive impact on many lives in 2021 by fielding 425 onboarding and strategy calls. These calls help our members succeed with inbound and outbound marketing.

    The Support team also turned in an amazing year.

    Here are some support stats:

    • Total Conversations: 36993
    • Total CSAT: 96%
    • Response time via Live Chat: 2 minutes 9 seconds
    • Response time via Email Support: 59 minutes 22 seconds

      Premium Support Call Numbers
    • Calls scheduled: 1049
    • Impromptu calls: 107
    • Total calls executed: 507
    • Average phone CSAT: 4.89/5

    These two teams always align with our core value: “Craft Amazing Experiences” for our members!


    Excellent Net Promoter Score

    How do you know if you’re providing value and happiness to your members? How do you know if you’re failing? By using “Net Promoter Score”. It’s basically a question that asks how likely you are to recommend Carrot to a friend or colleague.

    how to calculate NPS

    With thousands of responses in 2021, the majority scored us 8-10… leaving us with an impressive NPS of 54%.

    To put that into perspective

    Image Source: Medium

    NPS Scores range from -100 to 100. They vary based on industry and anything above 50 is considered as โ€œExcellentโ€.

    The Support team’s vision is “Putting customers at the heart of everything we do.

    We’ll continue to go all out in 2022 to help make our members successful, excited, and happy… the way people expect companies to serve them in the future after they experience service the “Carrot Way”.


    Hundreds of “Doses Of Awesomeness” From Our Members

    Hearing amazing stories never gets old! We’re in business to change lives. So much that we have a dedicated #Awesomeness Slack channel.

    Here are just a few examples of notes we get each and every day… not counting the hundreds that happen that we never hear about!


    We Added 1,246 YouTube Subscribers and Accumulated Over 21.3K in Watch time hours!

    2021 Youtube Totals:

    Views:                          220,443
    Likes vs dislikes:         97.4%
    Watch time:                 21,360 hours
    Shares:                        2.093
    Impressions:                1,323,213
    New subscribers:        1,246        
    Videos published:       129

    Our favorite videos of the year…

    The Story of Carrot.com | About Us

    1 Zip Code, 30 Days, 200 Leads | How to Optimize Your Digital Marketing for Maximum Conversions

    $40k Profit Per Deal | The Power of Inbound Marketing w/ Beau Hollis | A Carrot Success Story

    Two Carrot Team Retreats + Growing Our Team…

    Carrot Team First Retreat 2016…

    Carrot Team 2016

    Carrot Team Retreat 2021!

    Carrot Team Summer 2021

    The Carrot team grew by 22 this year as we continue to innovate and be the leader in our industry. Our winter retreat again took virtually but we meet up for the summer retreat in beautiful Hood River, Oregon.

    Retreats are a great way to pull back, celebrate wins, and deep dive into high-level planning for the future.


    CarrotCamp (Spring and Fall 2021)

    Since its inception in 2017, CarrotCamp has been a success for our members. It’s not just a workshop or seminar, nor is it a retreat.

    CarrotCamp is designed to be more like an immersive experience. We deep dive into the campers’ world. We allocate time to unplug and get out of the office and into nature. It’s also time to work with the Carrot team to get massive things done to uplevel business. All the while building relationships with other high-level real estate entrepreneurs that will hopefully last a lifetime.

    Thank you again 2021 CarrotCampers!

    Spring 2021
    Fall 2021

    Be on the lookout for CarrotCamp 2022 Editions. Kicking off May 2022. Learn more about CarrotCamp.


    We Lost One of Our Own…

    Sadly, the Carrot team and the world lost a great person. Adrian Nez passed away in the fall. He is missed by many…

    Headshot of Adrian Nez

    We’re Grateful To Have You On This Journey With Us

    How Was Your Year? 

    How was your 2021? Let us know below in the comments section. The amazing, the fair, and the awful :-)

    Alsoโ€ฆ want to fire up your 2022 and get momentum building?

    These resources are the most shared and commented weโ€™ve ever made. They can change your lifeโ€ฆ

    Thank you for all you do and for inspiring us every day to do great things.

    Chat with you in 2022!

  • How A Pumpkin Farmer Changed My Perspective On Life And Business

    How A Pumpkin Farmer Changed My Perspective On Life And Business

    Everything in my life from the outside in looked amazing. My friends, family, and colleagues in the industry thought I was an example of “success.” 

    I owned 3 separate companies, the world’s best family, amazing business partners in 2 of my businesses, and great customers, and felt I could do anything I set my mind to.

    The only problem was… I was overwhelmed and unhappy.

    In this blog post, I’m going to walk through how I fell into the “too many great opportunities” trap, how it nearly crushed my entrepreneurial and life dreams, and how the advice of a pumpkin farmer changed my perspective on business and life.

    Why am I opening up and writing this right now?

    First, I wrote this post a few years ago, and a lot has happened since then. Good stuff. We’ve grown Carrot to over 8,000 active members and multiple 7 figures in revenue… and I’ve had to use this process multiple times this past year to clear out the “distraction” and focus on the “big pumpkin.”

    So just know… this process I went through a few years ago is one I still use to this day… that’s how much it’s changed my life.

    Also…

    Now is the perfect time of the year to make some mindset adjustments so you can hit next year hard and make it your best year yet. Also, this one shift in my business has made the single most dramatic impact on my income, fulfillment, and impact on the world of anything I’ve ever done.

    This article is for you if you… 

    • Are a high achieving entrepreneur and don’t want to settle for living an average life
    • Feel like you’re working your butt off but not getting closer to your ultimate goals
    • You have all kinds of revenue coming in, but your bank account isn’t growing as it should
    • Find yourself saying “yes” to almost any opportunity that looks “good” and is profitable
    • Start each day feeling overwhelmed at everything you have to do and the little time you have to do it
    • You wish that finally one of your businesses or business ideas would grow to its full potential rather than doing “decent” and leveling off

    If you’re feeling any of those, you’re not alone.

    That Was My Life For 2 Years. Busy. Long Hours. Unfocused. Less Happy. Less Fulfilled.

    The frustration that I felt like I was doing all of the right things and I was “successful” in many people’s eyes… but I just never felt that I could crack through to my potential.

    It seemed like I’d start a bagillion projects because they all had “promise”, but I would rarely take the important things through the finish line.

    I’d always have a backlog of “to-do’s” and always seemed to carry the important “to-do’s” over to the next day for weeks and months on end.

    I’d get to the end of the day and feel totally wiped out because I was really “busy,”… but I’d look back on the day and always felt like I couldn’t pinpoint what important project I actually pushed forward in a measurable way that day.

    Vision… most of the time, I really couldn’t clearly articulate what I wanted in life and what impact I felt that I was made to make on the world… because I was torn by making a vision too specific that it would alienate some of the “important” projects and businesses I’d already committed my time to… but that didn’t jive with what in my heart I knew i loved to do.

    And worse, I felt that the more I took on and the more things I had going in my business and life, the better off I was.

    In that life, being “busy” was a good thing, and when people asked how I’ve been my default answer was always…

    “Really busy as always!”

    … almost like it was a badge of honor to be “busy.”

    I Hit A Breaking Point, And Things Had To Change. So Here’s What I Did…

    I couldn’t do things like this anymore. You can maybe relate.

    If I wanted to live the life I knew I was made to live and to make the impact in life I knew I could make, I had to figure out how to change the way I lived and worked.

    Then, a deceptively simple mindset shift helped me break through to a new way of living and thriving in life and business.

    I now work less, am focused and excited about the vision, am extremely fulfilled, I’m making more money than I ever have, have an amazing team of A-players around me, and I’m helping more people than I’ve ever been able to help.

    Enter the pumpkin farmer. 

    How A World Record Pumpkin Is Grown (and why it matters to you)

    Take a look at this picture below.

    Let it soak in for a few seconds.

    less-work

    This picture is from the book “Essentialism – The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” by Greg Mckeown

    On the left… 

    distracted

    … you have the “busy” and unfocused entrepreneur. Likely you. It used to be me.

    That overwhelm, lack of finishing things, achieving below your potential, lower income, always being “busy” but nothing to show for it, etc.

    That’s how I was during those 2 years of my life.

    I started to see success in my businesses, and that success opened up more and more opportunities.

    I didn’t realize it then, but opportunities are often times just distractions in disguise.

    Each of those arrows is a different project, focus, or thing… that required my energy and time.

    And as you may be able to relate… when you are working on so many things… none of those things can really grow to their full potential.

    On the right…

    energy-level

    … is what happens when you say “no” to 99% of everything (even things that look like great opportunities) and say YES to just the essential few things that are going to help you make the biggest impact in your life and income.

    If you add up the length of all of those little arrows in the first diagram, they equal the length of this one long arrow here. So you’re expending the same amount of energy doing a bunch of unfocused things. None of them do all that well, and you feel like you’re spinning your wheels.

    But what if you focused on ONLY THE BEST opportunity and used that same energy to make that great? The results are a factor of 10x+.

    As a real estate investor, you may try to wholesale, fix and flip, and do that new townhouse development you’ve got your eye on. They all seem related (all real estate)… but each of them requires your focus, energy, and time.

    So unless you build out an amazing team of people, none of those sides of your real estate business will really grow to their full potential like they would if you focused on just one of them… BUT MAKING THAT ONE THING EPICALLY GREAT. 

    That was the decision I made several years back after I read another book called “The Pumpkin Plan“… that hammered home in a very simple way why it was so critical that I trim stuff down in my life and only focus on a few great things.

    Enter The Pumpkin Plan And The Farmer

    influential entrepreneur pumpkin

    I’ve found over the years that many of the answers we need in business and life can be learned from farmers.

    Farming is a 10,000-year-old discipline, and while technology has changed to help make farming more efficient, the essence of what it takes to grow great crops is the same.

    You prep the soil, plant the seeds, water and fertilize those seeds, nurture that crop, and harvest it when it’s ready.

    But looking back today, at that time when I was overwhelmed, bringing in good money but spinning my wheels… I was spending too much time planting seeds… I had too many crops out there… and none of my crops had a chance to grow to their full potential because I had to tend to so darn many of them.

    But in the book “The Pumpkin Plan,” the author talks about an epiphany he had at a similar point in his life after he read an article in his local newspaper where a state record-holding pumpkin farmer was asked how he grows pumpkins that get so damn big. 

    How to grow giant pumpkins according to a record-setting pumpkin farmer

    pumpkin-plan
    Taken from the Pumpkin Plan book. Just do yourself a favor and get the book or get the free PDF of the first chapter online.

    And that process has crazy similar parallels in life and business. 

    Notice in steps 3 – 6 how focused that farmer is on getting rid of everything except that one single pumpkin that seems like it’ll grow the biggest and yield the best result.

    He knows that if he keeps marginal pumpkins that are “good opportunities” just in case, they may be great… or so he has ones to fall back on if that big one doesn’t work out… none of those pumpkins would ever have a chance of growing as big as it could.

    The “ok” pumpkins or “good” pumpkins kill the chances of the great pumpkin from being amazing…

    It’s that focusing all of that water energy, sun energy, and his own personal energy on that one pumpkin that has the most promise that makes the pumpkins so amazingly large.

    If we relate this life and business… it may look something like this.

    How to grow the best life, business, and income possible
    (following a farmer’s advice)

    pumpkin-plan2

    Notice the same essential themes from farming to business.

    • Promising seed = your biggest natural strengths.
    • Water = selling (gotta make those offers and market the heck out of your business!)
    • Weed like crazy = cut all distractions and things that pose as “opportunities” but are distractions.
    • Focus all your attention on the biggest pumpkin = focus on your best and most fulfilling opportunity or strength like crazy.

    Most real estate investors and entrepreneurs think that trying 14 different things at once is the path to success.

    That “trying” direct mail, SEO, PPC, at the same time, is the path to success.

    But it’s not.

    Maybe dabble with each of them for a month just to see what gets a bit of traction… but then quickly recognize the one that you feel has the best opportunity to crush it for you if you give it more focus… and weed out the rest of the stuff. Then, focus on being insanely great at PPC.

    Then once you’re great at PPC, you may want to add SEO.

    Or if you are doing wholesale deals, some fix and flips, or developing an apartment building here or there… you’re likely not doing any of them justice.

    What if instead, you recognized that your fix and flip business was the one that was the most fun and most profitable?

    Then you’d want to weed out the wholesaling and apartment development and laser focus on being the best fix and flip investor in your area.

    Your profits, fun, and fulfillment will all multiply.

    Or, if you’re like me, who is a serial entrepreneur… you don’t have to cut off everything else you’re working on and choose just 1 thing.

    But you should have 1 main thing that eats up 90%+ of your focus for a period of time.

    How I Trimmed The Small Pumpkins

    For me, at that moment in my life when I had several companies going on… and people were throwing new opportunities at me all of the time… this is what I did.

    1. I got laser-focused on what my unique abilities were (I love business and marketing strategy, I’m a big vision guy, and love amplifying people to think bigger in life and teaching).
    2. I trimmed off everything in my business that didn’t BEST help me do those things above.  This also meant a lot of little projects or partnerships that looked like they were a fit at first glance, but they weren’t a “hell ya! I want to do that!” type of project… just a “ya, I could make money on that.”

      There’s a BIG difference. I also started having my assistant check my email so I wouldn’t waste time in my inbox every day… but could focus just on the important emails.
    3. I weeded everything that was taking me away from my focus. At one time, I used to be subscribed to probably 50+ email lists. I’d get dozens of marketing emails daily from “gurus” just in case I’d need them someday or in case they had value. I unsubscribed from all email lists, but my favorite 1-2, turned off Facebook email notifications, deleted the Facebook app from my phone, and deleted the Gmail app from my phone.

      I also started not feeling bad if I didn’t answer back an email from someone immediately… because anything that wasn’t directly contributing to my laser focus became a low priority.
    4. I focused on growing that one thing the best I could. That one thing was Carrot. Before making this decision, I had always treated this “online website thing” as a side project. One of my many little projects that had potential that I put a half-ass effort into.

      But I started thinking, what if I put all my energy into this and made it an amazing company? What if it was so great I could recruit amazing team members, the ideal customers, and could make my business fun and profitable at the same time… while using it as my way to help the most amount of entrepreneurs as possible?

    That’s it.

    Sounds too simple right?

    Well, it is simple. But it can be hard to take that first step because it feels weird.

    It feels like you’re cutting out things that are perfectly fine things that are bringing you money… paying the bills.

    But if you don’t get rid of those extra things and if you don’t laser focus on that “big pumpkin”… and give it all of your energy, focus, and resources… you’ll likely be spinning your wheels this time next year.

    So You Have A Choice…

    And looking back, this choice is pretty obvious now… but it wasn’t easy then.

    Choice 1: Focus on what you do best and what you love; focus on that 1 business strategy/opportunity and work it like mad. Grow that 1 thing. And be less busy, make more money, and be happier. Buy The Pumpkin Plan (thanks, Mike!) and Essentialism if you’re serious about it.

    And… Listen to Mike Line Out How To Plan Your Business For Less Stress And Higher Profits on His Episode of the CarrotCast:

    Choice 2: Keep thinking that “more opportunities” is better. Keep thinking that “being busy” is a good thing. Keep hedging your bets by keeping some of those “small pumpkins” on the table as an option to fall back on and ignore the things your biggest pumpkin needs (your full energy and attention).

    And keep settling for your life and a business that runs you.

    The choice is yours. 

    It won’t be comfortable at first, but you’ll look back this time next year and marvel at how your life changed. A simpler life, with more focus and more time to do epic stuff rather than half-assing a dozen things.

    Follow that pumpkin farmer’s advice and trim your pumpkin vines often (especially at the end of each year).

    Do you feel “busy,” over-extended, and stuck at your current income level?

    Also, do you want more content like this? Showing behind the scenes of our entrepreneurial journey as we build a multi-million dollar company from the ground by doing the right thing and delivering an amazing product and experience?

    If so, we’ll write a lot more about growing your team, creating a culture in your business, hiring, creating income streams other than real estate, increasing productivity, investing your money wisely, etc. If we get enough interest… we’ll start sharing our journey. Let me know in the comment section below.

    Hit me with a comment below on what you think you should trim out before the end of the year?

  • Carrot Leads Convert 7x Better & Are 2.5x More Profitable Than Non-Carrot Leads

    Carrot Leads Convert 7x Better & Are 2.5x More Profitable Than Non-Carrot Leads

    We recently surveyed our Carrot members about their lead-to-deal conversion rate — that is, what percentage of leads become deals. We also asked them about the source of these leads (Carrot leads or Non-Carrot) to determine which efforts provide the most high-quality leads and thus the most deals.

    The results were exciting. They indicated that Carrot leads convert 7 times better and are 2.5 times more profitable than non-Carrot leads.

    carrot leads vs non-carrot leads

    This is something we’ve known anecdotally for a long time — from all of the reviews we’ve received from our members. For example…

    “Carrot literally changed my life. Trevor and his crew are the best people on the planet. Get plugged into their system and culture, and you will start generating leads!” – Brian Rockwell


    “I have generated just over 200 leads in a little over 4 months using my Carrot site. I couldn’t be more thankful for the services they have provided. Thank you Carrot!” – Hank Tobler


    “Closed 3 deals exclusively from SEO leads / Carrot conversions. No PPC. No attribution to any Facebook ads. Just Google search results and credibility.” – Daniel DiGiacomo

    … but still, it’s refreshing to see the actual data.

    Let’s take a look!

    Not a Carrot member? Take a free demo…

    The Survey Data & What it Means

    To be clear, non-Carrot leads refer to any leads that didn’t come through an investor’s Carrot website. Maybe they called, texted, or emailed instead.

    Carrot leads, naturally, refer to any leads that came through the investor’s website. They visited and opted into a CTA that looks something like this…

    Carrot investor website hero section

    So, what exactly were the results?

    Well, we asked Carrot members for their lead-to-deal conversion rate and their average value per deal for both Carrot and non-Carrot leads.

    We then used those numbers to calculate the survey respondents’ average value per lead.

    Here are the Carrot vs. Non-Carrot results:

    Carrot lead vs non-carrot leads per deal

    Amazing, right?

    Carrot leads had an 8.2% lead-to-deal conversion rate, while non-Carrot leads had a 1.11% conversion rate.

    Even more surprisingly, Carrot leads that became deals had an average value of $23,089.26, and non-Carrot leads that became deals had an average value of $9,159.11.

    That makes the average value per Carrot lead $1,893.40. That is enough to pay for an entire year of our top subscription plan, by the way! And, the average value per non-Carrot lead is $102.07.

    Something is going on here, and let’s talk about that.

    But before we do, understand that we’re not saying you shouldn’t generate leads one way, but you should generate them another.

    Every real estate investor has to find what works for their business and their market, which usually is a mishmash of various marketing tactics.

    Here, we’re just looking at some high-level trends that might be helpful for investors to consider.

    Why are Carrot leads so much better than Non-Carrot leads?

    There are essentially two questions we have to answer.

    1. Why do Carrot leads become deals much more frequently than non-Carrot leads?
    2. Why do Carrot deals have much bigger profit margins than non-Carrot deals?

    And the first thing we need to examine is where these leads are coming from. After all, the source determines the quality.

    Non-Carrot leads is a broad term that includes a lot of different sources: cold calls, inbound calls from direct mail campaigns and door knocking, flyers, business cards, bandit signs, and so forth.

    You might not notice it at first, but all of those sources have a similarity: they all represent outbound marketing efforts.

    That is, you go out and try to find people who might be interested in selling their home. You offer them a fair cash offer and a quick turnaround time. You do this by sending them mail, knocking on their door, or calling their phone.

    Of the people who contact you via outbound marketing methods, it’s safe to assume that many of them are just curious. They’re not motivated to sell by any particular circumstances in their life, but your offer caught their attention, and so they call you to find out more.

    That’s how most non-Carrot leads are generated.

    Now let’s look at Carrot leads.

    We’ve built Carrot websites with wicked-fast load speeds, mobile friendliness, and a clean tech stack.

    Carrot sites rank for high-value phrases in Google more than any other site builder in the industry (terms like “sell my house fast in ” or “sell my house for cash in .”

    Third-party data from Fresh Chalk pointed this out. Here are page speed scores for different website builders (a huge factor for Google rankings).

    Fresh Chalk pagespeed test results

    The same is true for Carrotโ€™s mobile performance (which is now a huge part of internet traffic).

    This graphic represents the recent updates that Carrot developers have made to our member sites to get ahead of the latest Google Core Web Vitals update. Learn more about what this graphic means and the changes that we made here.

    Carrot website mobile speed Core Web Vitals Update

    But thatโ€™s only one of the many reasons that Carrot sites sit at the top of the rankings.

    The secret to quality lead mastery

    Our members also create Evergreen content for their blogs every single month, content thatโ€™s optimized to rank in Google.

    We also give our members the ability to:

    • Track their rankings right inside of their account. 
    • Ensure that every page and post is optimized to rank (via a simple checklist). 
    • Create long-form evergreen content by transcribing video content with the click of a button (VideoPost). 
    • Publish weekly blog content with a click of a button.
    • And so much more!

    This is the difference between hamster wheel marketingโ€ฆ

    โ€œIf youโ€™re creating a piece of content and you just put it up on Facebook or Instagram, itโ€™s going to be there for 24 to 48, maybe 72 hours before it gets pushed down, forcing you to get back on the hamster wheel and post again, and post again and post again, because the life span of that content is so short.

    The lifespan of that content is so short that you have to be on the hamster wheel continually.

    If you get off of the hamster wheel, if you stop doing those postings, if you stop doing direct mail, if you stop cold calling or doing RBMs, then your leads will eventually dwindle to a stop, and youโ€™ve got to restart and get back on the hamster wheel.โ€

    โ€ฆ and Evergreen Marketingโ€ฆ

    โ€œGet into a routine of creating content. Another piece of content this week, another piece of content next week, a blog post next week, a video post, a video post, a location page, and eventually, youโ€™re going to have a brick wall that does all of the work for you.

    Remember, itโ€™s going to be slow going in the first three, four, five, six months potentially.

    But as long as youโ€™re consistently stacking bricks of quality content that answers real questions from your market, youโ€™re entertaining in your own way; youโ€™re going to start to pick up that momentum.โ€

    At Carrot, we focus on evergreen marketing โ€” consistent action that produces long-term results. 

    Evergreen marketing for real estate

    Now, why all of this information about Google rankings, page speed, and tech stack?

    Well, because of the way Carrot sites are built, they typically generate a good chunk of leads via evergreen marketing through search engines like Google โ€” this means that motivated sellers find you rather than you trying to find motivated sellers.

    Thatโ€™s called inbound marketing.

    And it almost always results in higher quality leads than outbound marketing.

    So that answers our first question.

    Why do Carrot leads become deals much more frequently than non-Carrot leads?

    There’s a high likelihood it’s because many of them are likely coming through search engines.

    When you think about it, itโ€™s not all that surprising that outbound marketing leads tend to be lower quality than inbound marketing leads. Itโ€™s the difference between you looking for motivated sellers and motivated sellers looking for you.

    We get feedback about this difference all the time from our membersโ€ฆ

    โ€œI consistently get organic leads from my Carrot website. I have purchased my best deals to date through my websites. I highly recommend you implement training and tools available through the platform.โ€ – Beau Eckstein


    โ€œIโ€™m getting 2x more motivated seller leads with my custom Carrot site than my old site, and the tools and content help me stand out in my crowded market.โ€ – Tyler Ford


    โ€œI am saving between $20,000 and $50,000 every single month in lost lead-gen closing potential after switching from my expensive custom-made site to my Carrot site.โ€ – Carter Steph

    And itโ€™s not just hearsay. When we take a peek at the source of traffic and leads for our members, we can see a good chunk coming from the organic content that Carrot helps to provide. So far, in 2021, organic traffic accounts for 25.8% of our member leads.

    carrot leads 2021 - organic

    But what about the second question: why do Carrot deals have more significant profit margins than non-Carrot leads?

    Part of the answer is likely the same as the first โ€” since Carrot sites drive organic leads through search engines, investors donโ€™t have to directly pay for those leads like they would have to with a direct mail campaign.

    This makes a big difference in per-deal profitability. But thatโ€™s not the entire story.

    Again, we have to look at where these deals come from.

    If someone receives your mailer and it makes them think about selling a property that theyโ€™ve owned for a while, and so they call you, theyโ€™re probably not going to be as willing or motivated to accept a lower offer.

    But if someone is actively looking for someone like you who can buy their home as-is for cash, theyโ€™re probably more motivated and thus more willing to accept a lower offer, which results in higher profit margins.

    And so that answers our second questionโ€ฆ

    Why do Carrot deals have much bigger profit margins than non-Carrot deals?

    It’s because inbound marketing efforts are less expensive and generate leads that are more motivated to accept lower offers.

    Final Thoughts

    If thereโ€™s a lesson to be learned from all this, itโ€™s about the value of inbound marketing.

    When you create an online presence that allows motivated sellers to find you, you can expect to generate much higher quality leads for less money and increase your per-deal profitability.

    Thatโ€™s not to say that you should stop sending direct mail, cold calling, door knocking or driving for dollars. We are huge advocates of those strategies, and they support many Carrot member businesses!

    Perhaps a hybrid approach is best.

    Steadily invest in your online presence. Create a high-converting real estate website, start search engine optimization, create new content, and so forth to build a long-term source of lead generation.

    That will take time to start working.

    While youโ€™re working on SEO and content, you can also run PPC ads and send direct mail to generate leads more immediately for your business.

    Thatโ€™s the balanced approach that has worked for thousands and thousands of real estate investors, and thereโ€™s no reason that it wonโ€™t work for you, too.

    Click below if youโ€™re ready to take the next step.

  • 43 Real Estate Lead Generation Strategies That Can Change The Way You Do Business

    43 Real Estate Lead Generation Strategies That Can Change The Way You Do Business

    As a real estate professional, you know that effective real estate lead generation is a fundamental aspect of business success. The process of acquiring new leads directly translates to cultivating a broader client base, ultimately contributing to increased revenue for your real estate endeavors.

    65% of businesses say generating traffic and leads is their biggest marketing challenge. The real estate industry is saturated, and competition is high. Whether itโ€™s agents looking for buyers or investors looking for sellers, the struggle is the same.

    How can you beat the competition and get new leads through the door? Lead generation might seem monumental, but with the right strategies, patience, and hard work, you can raise your number of clients through effective lead generation.

    This article discusses 43 of the best real estate lead generation strategies.

    In fact, these are the same lead generation strategies that many of our Carrot members have used to generate millions of leads (not counting 1000s of phone call leads):

    Carrot members real estate lead generation

    Experts say 20% of real estate professionals pull in 80% of the sales.

    And despite how exact those percentages are, there’s a merit of truth to the 80/20 rule. We’ve all met, for instance, the person who out-profits every other real estate professional in their location. More often, though, we meet the real estate professional who generates 80% of leads annually.

    The reality is that some people are better at generating leads than others โ€” but only because they implement the right strategies.

    Over that time, we’ve learned a thing or two about lead generation in the real estate space… and so have our members.

    We want to give you these real estate lead generation strategies that will change your business.

    43 Real Estate Lead Generation Strategies for Agents, Brokers, Realtors, and Investors

    1. Treat your properties as a storefront… kind of

    Our first idea comes from mobile home flipper Paul doCampo, who responded to an inquiry I made on Facebook asking for real estate lead generation strategies.

    Here’s what he said.

    “Treat your house flips like a storefront almost. Especially in places that have a lot of traffic. Banners, signs, take-home boxes during construction, contractors with a stack of your business cards, and trained what to say. Make your message/USP known to everyone who walks by and make it as easy as possible for them to contact you.”

    For real estate agents, that’s par for the course. Most agents wouldn’t try to sell a house without putting a sign in the property’s front yard.

    For home flippers, house-front signage and banners often miss real estate lead generation opportunities. While you own the property, you might as well use it as free advertising for your real estate business, “especially in places that have a lot of traffic.”

    Here’s one example from Coroa Homes doing this.

    Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas - Free Advertising

    Hereโ€™s the thing about real estate lead generation: you never know where your next deal will come from. If youโ€™re like most real estate professionals, youโ€™ve landed deals in unexpected ways โ€” coffee shop conversations and everyday run-ins.

    That is just one more advertising method that allows you to get your message in front of more people. And who knows? Maybe youโ€™ll make $25,000 extra this year just because you put a sign in a yard.

    2. Create amazing website content

    Your real estate agent or investor website can greatly impact your overall revenue.

    And at Carrot, we talk about content marketing on your website.

    But that’s intentional. We only do it because content marketing is often an undervalued lead generation strategy โ€” especially in real estate.

    Part of that is because some of the benefits of content marketing are evergreen or long-term.

    Usually, you won’t see many SEO results for at least six months. Still, content marketing has some short-term benefits โ€” such as immediate promotional opportunities.

    If you don’t have great website content to promote, then talking about your website and what you do can come off a bit trite (to put it lightly).

    Content marketing lets you subtly talk about your business and what you do without being too heavy-handed.

    This is why Nexus Home Buyers creates blog content like this regularly.

    real estate blog content

    Matt had to say when I asked him about real estate lead generation strategies.

    “One of the lead sources that we like is writing a short guide or shooting a quick video about how to do something or a guide about your city. For example, in real estate, writing a guide about “How To Winterize Your Home” or a YouTube video about “Winterizing Your Home” will target multiple potential clients in your area.

    You create a guide based on your local market. You could even create a guide about the best restaurants you’ve been to in your city.

    People love learning about their city or how-to guides. If you are genuinely trying to provide helpful information instead of selling to them, people will visit your site, engage with your content, and potentially become a client.”

    Well, the verdict is in, and the stats back him up, whether we’re talking B2B or B2C.

    B2B companies that blog 11 or more times every month receive three times the traffic of companies that blog zero to one time per month.

    Similarly, B2C businesses that blog 11 or more times every month receive four times as many leads as companies that only blog four or five times a month.

    As it turns out, create more content if you want to drive more traffic and pull more leads.

    It doesn’t have to be complicated. Check out the video below for a dead-simple content creation strategy we use here at Carrot. With this strategy, you can create a fantastic piece of content in 20 to 30 minutes for about $5.

    Content Marketing Strategy for Real Estate: Carrot's # 1 Method

    The ideation phase is one of the most complex parts of creating massive content. How do you know what to talk about? What will interest your audience?

    Well, here’s the answer: Go to the FAQ page of your website and create content that answers those questions.

    That’s what people are asking, and if you answer, they might work with you in the future.

    Or download our free Video Marketing Playbook For Investors And Agents. You’ll get 52 templates. You can start implementing the ideas today!

    3. Post on Instagram

    Hootsuite reports that the top brands on Instagram post 4.9 times per week.

    That’s about one post for every business day.

    But maybe you’ve never considered using Instagram as a real estate professional. That’s okay โ€“ but it’s time to consider it because Instagram is the most visual social media platform with three prominent industries: food, clothing, and real estate.

    This is probably precisely why some savvy real estate agents and investors have already flocked to the platform with their hashtags ready and their cameras clicking.

    Of course, your Instagram content doesn’t need to be complicated. Just consider RealEstateKirby’s post about how he loves the entryway to a home he’s selling.

    Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas - Instagram

    (Image Source)

    Perhaps the biggest secret behind Aaron and Krista Farr’s success has been their consistent and creative activity on social media and their website.

    On Instagram and Facebook, they post 2-3 times per day.

    Krista claims that consistency, day in and day out, helps them build trust with their market.

    Farr group instagram

    Real estate lead generation is all about being in the right place at the right time. You never know when someone will see your Instagram post, call you, and make you $15,000. It could come from anywhere โ€” including Instagram.

    Try posting one photo of a property daily for six months and see what happens.

    Unlock Your Instagram Marketing Knowledge

    Learn everything that Real Estate Agents need to know to get started with Instagram marketing.

    4. Join community efforts

    Real estate professionals are something of community advocates.

    When entering the real estate industry, you probably tried to relocate to an area you thought would be particularly ripe for sales and profitability. Because you know as well as I do that you don’t just sell a home โ€” you sell the neighborhood, the coffee shop across the street, and the city as a whole.

    And if a prospect thinks you don’t love the city you’re operating in even for one second, they won’t give you the time of day.

    After all, who wants to live somewhere that the local real estate experts don’t even love?

    That’s right. No one.

    Perhaps there’s no more sure-fire way to build meaningful relationships, establish local expertise, and show people that you love your town than by supporting community efforts.

    Maybe your city is cleaning up its parks or helping to remove graffiti from local buildings. Whatever the case, make time to attend at least some community service events.

    You’ll build relationships with local people who might eventually become customers and show people you’re worth working with.

    Even Windermere real estate does this.

    Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas - Community Involvement

    (Image Source)

    One source reports that consumers value a company’s reputation more than its products.

    In other words, the house you’re buying or selling matters, but your reputation matters more.

    And if you’re going to build a long-term sustainable business, then maintaining your reputation is non-negotiable.

    5. Create a consistent newsletter

    There’s no talking about real estate lead generation strategies without discussing email.

    Still, email is one of the best opportunities for real estate agents and investors to reach their prospects and valuable connections. For instance, according to Constant Contact, for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $38.

    This is probably also why 80% of professionals claim email marketing drives customer acquisition and retention.

    Of course, running a consistent newsletter is easier said than done.

    Because you still have this daunting question: What should you talk about?

    Well, the answer to that question lies in two more questions.

    1. Who are you emailing?
    2. What do you want them to do?

    If you are emailing all your connections and want to keep in touch regularly, you might consider sending something fun, as Corinne Bernard does in her email newsletter.

    Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas - Newsletters

    (Image Source)

    In this case, there’s not anything that you’re asking people to do. You’re simply staying in touch with them so they’ll think of you when they are ready to buy or sell their house.

    That illustrates the primary benefit of running a consistent newsletter โ€” when you’re regularly in touch with people, they’ll think of you first when they’re ready to take action.

    I also love this email newsletter by Charity Adams. She offers several pieces of content for various audiences and then finishes with a friendly reminder that she’s there to help if people need her.

    Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas - Email

    (Image Source)

    To start your newsletter as soon as possible, add a form like this to your real estate agent website or your real estate investor website that allows people to sign up.

    (Image Source)

    MailChimp lets you do this easily for free, with up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 monthly emails.

    Then, send your list of valuable content, relevant offers, and exciting updates. They’ll appreciate it, and you’ll generate more leads.

    6. Ask for referrals

    This tactic is dead simple, so I won’t belabor it: ask your past customers for referrals.

    While people are going through the buying process, focus on them. But once they’re taken care of, gently ask them if anyone they know might be interested in your services.

    It’s no secret that word-of-mouth is still the most powerful marketing tactic for generating leads โ€” and referrals exploit that fact.

    While 83% of consumers are willing to refer someone after a positive experience, only 29% do.

    Why?

    Because the salesperson rarely asks.

    But the salesperson that does ask reaps massive benefits. For instance, people that a friend refers to are four times more likely to buy, and a referred customer’s average lifetime value is 16% higher than non-referrals.

    Said another way, you’re missing out on potential revenue if you’re not asking for referrals. Period.

    Fortunately, this doesn’t need to take a lot of extra time. Here’s an email that HubSpot put together that you can steal when asking for a referral.

    Hubspot Lead Generation Email Example

    (Image Source)

    You can say the same thing if you’re asking over the phone. Either way, ask for a referral, whether over the phone, via social media, or by email.

    Your past customers represent a goldmine of potential for your business.

    7. Record “live” open houses

    Technology is changing the way that real estate investors and agents market themselves.

    And live video changes how you can do open houses (for agents) or house walkthroughs (for investors). With a smartphone and a Facebook or Instagram account, you can double, triple, or even quadruple the number of people you reach when showing off a house.

    How?

    Live video.

    Plus, people love live video.

    Consumers spend almost 83 minutes per day consuming digital video.

    While there are many ways to use live video to your advantage as a real estate expert, perhaps showing off properties is the easiest and most effective strategy for your business.

    Here’s an example of Zac McHardy running a live video while he manages an open house.

    So, how does this generate leads?

    Simple. When more people see your properties, there’s a higher chance that one of those people will show interest and buy.

    8. Wear a company-branded T-shirt

    real estate lead generation ideas - wear branded clothing

    Founder, Beau Hollis โ€“ โ€œThe House Buying Guyโ€

    What if people randomly started talking about your real estate business without knowing your profession?

    That’d be pretty cool, huh?

    By wearing branded clothing, you might be able to make that happen. Not everyone will ask you about the logo on your T-shirt or what your business does, but some will.

    And when they do, that gives you an easy way to talk about your real estate company. Some people you speak to might even be interested in working with you.

    Again, you never know where a lead or deal will come from. Wearing business-branded clothing is another simple avenue for generating this year’s unexpected revenue.

    As GrowthHouse says,

    An often overlooked way to generate leads is to wear your name badge or company wear such as a hat or polo shirt. When people ask, โ€˜Oh, in youโ€™re in real estateโ€”howโ€™s the market?โ€™ Be prepared with a concise answer about how much inventory is on the market, how much prices are increasing or declining, and offer to send them a free report on their property. Agents can use RPR to gather this data quickly and of course, you need their contact information to send them the report. One woman who worked for Coldwell Banker got a CB t-shirt for her dog.

    And in today’s digital world, creating a t-shirt with your logo or brand name is pretty easy. You can create a logo for free using Canva. And you can design a custom t-shirt using Custom Ink.

    9. Launch an email campaign

    Nurturing relationships should be part of your real estate marketing strategy. Email marketing is a great way to do just that!

    Emails can help you save, sort, and segment contacts to control the list fully.

    Automated email campaigns automatically deliver messages tailored for each person while you’re busy finding new homeowners in the beautiful properties available on the market today.

    10. Bandit signs

    Bandit signs can be essential for many investors in a real estate marketing system. This is because they create the point-of-contact necessary to initiate transactions and have unmatched exposure, even compared with newer techniques that might seem more sophisticated at first glance.

    A bandit sign can go a long way in generating brand awareness for all levels of investors or business owners when placed strategically on public property near their target audience’s destination, even if some may dismiss them as primitive methods compared to contemporary advertising tools on social media networks.

    11. Launch a Google Ads account

    Google Ads is one of real estate professionals’ most popular online advertising platforms. Google Ads has an excellent track record and can provide quick results with minimal investment on your part, making it an excellent tool to utilize if you want to gain exposure quickly in today’s competitive market.

    You can rank #1 in organic search results, but it takes months or years, and there’s no guarantee you’ll achieve high-ranking page positioning. Google Ads instantly lets you compete with other advertisers competing for real estate keywords.

    12. Start a podcast

    This idea isnโ€™t for everyone — it wonโ€™t help you generate leads immediately.

    But over time, and with enough consistency, running a real estate podcast can increase brand awareness, establish credibility, and even attract motivated buyers and sellers to call you.

    However, this depends on where you operate.

    If you invest in a small market, starting a local podcast probably wonโ€™t offer much traction.. If youโ€™re in a large market, starting a local podcast might pay off!

    13. Interview local businesses for your blog

    Interviewing businesses in your local community presents an exceptional opportunity to grow your credibility and authority. This will help expand the reach of your business with a broader audience who is likely interested in what you have to say or offer them.

    Shemika Fox, a Real Estate Agent in Santa Cruz, has had major success using this method. Here is an example of one of her interviews.

    Interviewing local businesses also:

    1. Allows you to tell your story
    2. Expands your networking 
    3. Increases word of mouth around your business
    4. You can repurpose the content into YouTube videos, paid ads, and blog posts
    5. It provides the opportunity to share with your email list
    6. It gives you the perfect content to share on social media

    14. Take advantage of Craigslist

    Craigslist is a powerful — and easy-to-use — platform for generating leads.

    Investors can use Craigslist to find motivated sellers (look for FSBO listings posted a while ago and still havenโ€™t sold or created posts in the house listings section advertising your services) and find cash buyers (create posts in the house listings section advertising your deals). 

    Agents can use Craigslist as an additional place to list homes or even as an outlet for finding potential sellers (look for people who seem to be having trouble selling their homes as FSBO). 

    Ensure you post multiple times, refresh as often as possible, and replace posts when they expire. We highly recommend hiring a VA to help manage your Craigslist lead-generation strategy since itโ€™s a little tedious but easy. 

    15. Create virtual tours

    Virtual tours are a great way for real estate agents to find buyers — investors can also use them to promote deals to cash buyers.

    Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook are probably the best places to post your virtual tours — you can even do it LIVE if the platform allows it. 

    Whatโ€™s even cooler is that technology now allows you to create 3D virtual tours where people can go through the homes at their own pace from the comfort of their sofa. Hereโ€™s a video that explains how to do thatโ€ฆ

    How To Create A 3D Virtual House Tour

    16. Submit press releases

    When you launch your business — whether youโ€™re an investor or an agent — why not try to garner local attention? 

    Your local newspapers and radio stations are always looking for news-worthy stories — can you spin an exciting story about your business to make it โ€œnewsworthyโ€? 

    If you can, then youโ€™ll get free publicity!

    Which is always good for business. 

    Just reach out to local media outlets and tell them an interesting story about how your business started and see if they bite. The more community members who know about your business, the better!

    17. Start a partnership

    Rome wasnโ€™t built in a day. And it sure as heck wasnโ€™t built by a single person. 

    Youโ€™re not trying to build an empire, of courseโ€ฆ youโ€™re trying to build a business — but building a company is also very rarely a one-person job. It requires expertise from many different people as well as partnerships with lots of various experts. 

    So whether youโ€™re an agent or investor, start looking for partnerships — you can partner with other investors or agents, title companies, hard money lenders, private money lenders, property management companies, and more!

    Opportunities are everywhere when you keep your eyes open!

    18. Attend foreclosure auctions

    If youโ€™re a wholesaler, your business model depends on finding high-quality cash buyers whoโ€™ll pay a fair price for your deals and do so quickly and without too much fuss. 

    Foreclosure auctions are probably the single best place to find these people. 

    Think about it — people who go to a foreclosure auction have cash on hand to buy a distressed property sight-unseenโ€ฆ doesnโ€™t that sound like exactly the type of person you want on your buyerโ€™s list? 

    Hereโ€™s a great video that goes into more detail on this strategyโ€ฆ

    How To Create The Best Cash Buyers List [Hack Strategy]

    19. Drive for dollars

    Driving for dollars is a tactic real estate investors can use to find off-market distressed properties and motivated sellers. 

    Itโ€™s straightforward. 

    You drive around neighborhoods, write down the addresses of distressed properties, research the homeowners back at base, and add those people to your marketing cycle. 

    Itโ€™s a great way to find deals your competitors are unaware of. 

    If you want to make this process less time-consuming, contact mail carriers in the area and offer them a little money for every deal they send. 

    20. Make DIY videos

    The real estate space is filled with DIYers who want to learn how to repair and/or renovate their property. 

    Some people also want to learn how to sell a house without a realtor

    Some want to learn about the first-time home buying process — how to find a mortgage lender, what to expect at house showings, and how to find a trustworthy real estate agent. 

    In other words, all that real estate knowledge youโ€™ve got in your head would make GREAT content for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. Get in the habit of pulling out your phone to record videos and offer DIY advice — itโ€™ll build brand awareness and make you the go-to expert that people want to work with. 

    21. Partner with local contractors

    Hereโ€™s an idea for investors looking for motivated sellers. 

    Contractors in your area are constantly fixing up distressed propertiesโ€ฆ or, at the very least, meeting homeowners and offering quotes for fixing those properties. 

    Some of those homeowners quickly learn that they canโ€™t afford the contractor’s services and thus decline — and the contractor loses time and money. 

    What if you partnered with contractors in your area and offered them a commission for every deal they bring your way? Then, the next time, a seller tells them, โ€œWell, I canโ€™t afford that.โ€ They can say, โ€œI understand. If youโ€™d rather sell the property, I do know someone who can pay cash and will buy it as-is.โ€

    Win-win.

    22. Advertise in the local newspapers

    Advertising in the local newspaper is easy to build brand awareness and generate leads for real estate agents or investors.

    However, it is also a little bit pricey. 

    So youโ€™ll want to weigh the pros and cons of putting money toward it. 

    If youโ€™ve got a big budget and are looking for more outlets to spread the word, then itโ€™s probably a great thing to try (we recommend using a unique phone number to see how many phone calls it generates). 

    If you have a small budget, every dollar you spend counts. Then, we recommend trying more direct lead-generation methods like Facebook ads and direct mail. 

    23. Speak at an event

    Do you live in a big city with various conferences and events where you could share your expertise? By doing so, you can build partnerships with other real estate professionals in the area and maybe even find some new sources of leads!

    24. Advertise on the radio

    Local radio stations consistently reach a lot of homeowners.

    So if youโ€™ve got the money for it, why not try and advertise on the radio? We recommend using a unique phone number to see how many phone calls the radio ads generate for your business.

    25. Start a direct mail campaign

    Direct mail is one of the most influential and effective strategies for generating a consistent flow of leads for your real estate business — for investors and agents. 

    Some of the most popular lists for real estate investors are, according to Flipping Junkieโ€ฆ 

    • Tax Delinquent List โ€“ criteria: 2 years behind, are still the homeowner
    • Code Violation List โ€“ no criteria
    • Equity List โ€“ Absentee Owner, Owner Occupied, and Global (all) โ€“ criteria: over 45 years old owner, last sale date between 1990 and 3 years ago.
    • Inheritance List โ€“ USLeadList
    • Evictions โ€“ no criteria
    • Yard Sale/Garage Sale List โ€“ tenants sell before they move
    • Probate โ€“ Recommends getting the course from Rick Ginn
    • Arrest Record List โ€“ list of people recently arrested

    If youโ€™re a real estate agent, we recommend sending direct mail by zip code to increase brand awareness. 

    Also, set out with accurate estimates of how much you expect to spend to acquire each deal — between $2,000 and $4,000 is typical when using direct mail.

    26. Follow up on old leads

    Generating a flow of steady leads is critical for growing your real estate business, but so is nurturing the leads you already have

    I spoke with Ryan Dossey — a real estate investor in Indiana — before about this, and he told me that 90% of his deals happen during the follow-up processโ€ฆ not during the first phone call. 

    The same is true for real estate agents. People might not be ready to buy or sell right now, but in 6 or 12 months, when they are prepared to sellโ€ฆ you want to be top of mind. 

    So, you might consider periodically sending email newsletters like this to the people on your email list.

    Thatโ€™ll increase brand awareness and keep you top-of-mind so that when people are ready to sell, youโ€™ll be the person they come to.

    Create a follow-up machine and start

    27. Use leaflet drops or inserts

    Full leaflets or inserts are another great way to generate real estate leads (similar to direct mail or door hangers).

    28. Use your business cards

    Business cards might seem a little outdatedโ€ฆ but for real estate agents and investors, theyโ€™re a great way to build brand awareness and generate leads. 

    Business cards are effective specifically for local businesses — and even more so for companies that require the client/customer to contact a salesperson. 

    So yeahโ€ฆ real estate counts. 

    We recommend printing a few hundred business cards and carrying a few around. 

    You never know when you will meet someone interested in your services. Hand them out whenever possible; many people will get to know your business over time.

    29. Door hangers

    Door hangers can also be a great way to build brand awareness and generate leads. 

    If youโ€™re an investor looking for motivated sellers, consider making door hangers a part of your driving-for-dollars process. After writing down the address for further research, put a hanger on the door so the owner can contact you if they want to sell their home. 

    If youโ€™re a real estate agent, choose a neighborhood where youโ€™d like to work and put door hangers on the homes — you might also seek out FSBO listings and put door hangers on those properties to offer your services.

    30. Attend REIA meetings

    REIA meetings provide an excellent opportunity to discover lead-generating methods. 

    Attending these gatherings is free and open to anyone interested in learning more about real estate investing.

    31. Cold call expired listing owners

    Cold calling is the most uncomfortable lead generation strategy for real estate investors and agents. 

    But hereโ€™s the thingโ€ฆ

    Since itโ€™s uncomfortable, many of your competitors arenโ€™t doing it

    This means that there are deals you could get by cold calling that your competitors will never have access to. 

    But you donโ€™t have to take our word for it. 

    Check out this case study of how Max Maxwell used cold calling to grow a $900k real estate investing business. Itโ€™s pretty mind-boggling. 

    32. Share your testimonial stories

    How do you convince someone to work with you? 

    Do you tell them how many homeowners youโ€™ve helped? Do you tell them how long youโ€™ve been working in real estate? Do you tell them youโ€™ve got a trustworthy track record? 

    All of those tactics can work. 

    But you know whatโ€™s even more powerful? 

    Stories. 

    Specifically, true stories about real people youโ€™ve helped buy or sell homes and the beautiful things theyโ€™ve had to say about you.

    Nothing builds trust and credibility like testimonials, so use them often on sales calls and marketing materials!

    33. Join your local home builder association

    Home Builder Association offers networking events, allowing builders, trades, and industry-related companies to come together to discuss best practices and learn from each other.

    This presents an opportunity for your business to get its name out in the community while spreading positivity. 

    Many local chapters are also involved in making their communities better places to live, supporting and organizing community outreach programs like Habitat for Humanity and Home Aid, and providing homes and support services for the homeless.

    This is a great chance to spread positive messages about your company at events that contribute to helping others!

    34. Crash garage sales

    Garage and yard sales are a great way to find people thinking about selling or at least being willing to chat with you because they’re looking for something better. 

    Even if the person isn’t moving yet, maybe give them your card so when they plan on leaving, it’s easier to contact you when they are ready!

    35. Send postcards to expired listings

    Sending postcards to expired listings is a great way to help sellers who may be worried and discouraged. These postcards encourage them that you’re the right agent or investor by asking the right questions and letting them know there is nothing more important than finding someone they can trust with this sale.

    Expired listings often have many motivated sellers, making direct response postcard campaigns effective since these anxious buyers want answers fast!

    36. Attend local networking events

    Most communities have local meetups where entrepreneurs, business owners, and investors gather. 

    Why not join?

    Who knows what opportunities those meetups will present if you attend them consistently.

    Youโ€™ll likely discover partnerships, additional lead generation strategies, and marketing tactics you wouldnโ€™t have thought of if you hadnโ€™t joined!

    37. Contact โ€œFor Sale By Ownerโ€ listings

    FSBO listings can be a great place for real estate agents and investors to find leads. 

    Investors can contact these sellers and offer their services. For exampleโ€ฆ 

    โ€œHey. I know the home selling process can be a headache. And thatโ€™s why we buy peopleโ€™s homes as-is for cash. We can make you a fair cash offer in just 48 hours, and you can pick the closing date. Weโ€™ll even pay all closing costs!โ€

    And agents can do something similarโ€ฆ

    โ€œHey. How is the home selling process going? I know how much of a headache it can beโ€ฆ so I thought Iโ€™d offer my services. I have a track record of selling homes quickly and for higher than market prices. Plus, my commission is negotiable! Give me a call if you want to chat.โ€

    38. Utilize Facebook Ads

    Investors can use Facebook Ads to build brand awareness and generate leads — real estate agents can do the same. 

    For targetingโ€ฆ

    1. Ensure you target a specific zip code so youโ€™re not running ads to people outside your market. 
    2. You might consider using โ€œretargetingโ€ via the Facebook pixel. This allows you to show ads to people who visited your website but left without giving you their contact information.

    For inspiration, hereโ€™s an example of a Facebook ad being run by an investorโ€ฆ

    real estate lead generation ideas - Facebook Ads

    And hereโ€™s an example of an advertisement run by a real estate agentโ€ฆ

    FB Ads for Real Estate lead generation

    39. Join a local landlord association

    Finding and becoming active in a local landlord association is a great way to build relationships with other real estate experts in your area.

    And as we all knowโ€ฆ those relationships often lead to business growth down the road.

    Youโ€™ll learn new business strategies and lead-gen tactics and even have opportunities to collaborate with other real estate professionals.

    Itโ€™s definitely worth your time!

    40. Guest post on a local blog

    If you live in a decent-sized city, online blogs will discuss various topics specific to your market — food recommendations, current events, market updates, etc.

    And writing for those blogs is an excellent opportunity to drive traffic to your website and build brand awareness. 

    To find those blogs, search for topics specific to your market.

    For instanceโ€ฆ 

    • Best restaurants in
    • What to do in
    • Real estate updates in

    Then, reach out and pitch the owner of the site an idea!

    Here are 101 blog post ideas to get you started.

    41. Create a LinkedIn brand page

    Maximize your real estate marketing efforts by focusing on LinkedIn to generate leads and referrals. To do this, optimize your profile with photos and a summary of your experience, including valuable content that will help you connect better to other contacts in the industry through mutual connections.

    Be sure to create a complete profile:

    • Your company page is where you can share your company’s history, mission statement, and interestsโ€”and it should be filled with every detail about what makes your business unique. We encourage our partners to use the About section of their pages to tell others who they are and why people might want to do business with them.
    • Make your company page stand out from other agents. Fill it with interesting posts and many photos. 

    42. Implement text message marketing

    Direct mail, advertising, and cold calling used to be the primary marketing options available to real estate agents and investors. 

    But with the rise of SMS, text message marketing presents new opportunities!

    Just check out some of these stats (pulled from VoiceSage)… 

    • 64% of consumers think businesses should contact them via SMS more often.
    • About 61% of marketers still donโ€™t use SMS. If you start now, youโ€™ll be on the cutting edge.
    • It takes the average person 90 seconds to respond to a text message.
    • 29% of SMS marketing recipients click on links in SMS messages.

    Crazy, right? 

    We recommend adding SMS to your follow-up and lead-generation processes — you can use a tool like SimpleTexting to get started. 

    43. Generate buyer leads by becoming a Zillow Premier Agent

    Zillow is the most frequently visited real estate website, and buyers spend a lot of time there. 

    With 186 homes viewed per second, they’re coming here to get information about their next home. 

    The Zillow Premier Agent program puts you in the spotlight along with your prospects’ viewing activity and gives access to great perks like featured placement in the agent finder and live connections programs.

    Conclusion

    You donโ€™t want to fall into most real estate professionals making only 20% of the sales. Instead, you want to be one of the 20% that generate 80% of the revenue.

    What differentiates the many who donโ€™t and the few who do?

    At least in part, using the right real estate lead generation tactics.

    And while these 43 real estate lead generation strategies wonโ€™t solve all your lead generation woes, they offer a great place to start.

    How do we know? Because we’ve tested them and published the results in our Market Harvest Report.

    What are your best lead generation strategies? Let us know in the comments below!