When you focus on what you have, you gain what you lack. When you focus on what you lack, you lose what you have.
– Greg McKeown
Effortless Essentialism | How Greg McKeown Trains Top Leaders to Get More Done by Trading Chaos for Calm
Greg McKeown is a best-selling author and speaker who works with businesses and individuals to help them find out what’s really important. His world-renowned book, Essentialism, has changed the way people prioritize their crazy lives.
I don’t care whether you run a growing business or you’re raising a growing family at home… if you apply Greg’s concepts from Effortless & Essentialism, they will open your mind and fundamentally change your life.
I couldn’t be happier to hear his insights & stories firsthand. It’s sort of like a behind-the-scenes look at his writing process. By the way- warning: the interview gets pretty emotional towards the end.
So please, listen in or keep reading to learn how to apply these wildly powerful ways of thinking in your life so you can do more of what makes the biggest impact and trade the chaos for calm.
P.S. – His new book, Effortless, is hitting shelves soon and will help make those essential tasks happen with the least amount of effort.
Read the Full Show Notes Below…
In this world of constant business, it’s important to sit back and think about how much more impactful we could be if we cut out all of the clutter. Greg McKeown’s book, Essentialism, has changed the lives of many, including my own.
The book has helped people discover what is essential to them and asks the questions you need to answer if you want to get clear. You don’t want to live your life just checking emails or showing houses.
Greg’s powerful insights will help you work from the inside out to live a life of impact and fulfillment. Whether you are an agent, an investor, or in another industry entirely, Greg’s dynamic lessons offer something for everyone.
Seeing Through a New Lens
One day, Greg was sitting there, staring at a piece of paper that was filled with scribbles and notes. It was overwhelming. So he asked himself, “what would you do if you could do anything?” And while many things came to mind, law school wasn’t one of them. Now, this was very unfortunate for Greg, seeing as he had this revelation while enrolled in law school, halfway around the world.
His revelation led him away from law school, and toward teaching and writing, two things Greg has always been passionate about pursuing. For it is in these things that Greg is able to operate at his highest point of contribution.
When he told his parents his news about leaving law school, his father, quoting Hamlet, said “to thine own self be true.” This gave Greg the confidence he needed to move forward into new endeavors.
As Greg puts it, if you can search out and find answers that reframe common perspectives, you can have an experience of transformation almost immediately. When you remove that set of invisible assumptions and remove the lens you have always seen yourself through, you can have a massive change in perspective and performance.
Essentialism in Your Business
While working for start-ups in silicon valley, Greg noticed there were patterns that were often repeated that determined whether a business would succeed or fail.
Phase 1 – Clarity. The business would get clear about their motivations and goals.
Phase 2 – Success. The company would be successful in its endeavors.
Phase 3 – Options. Their newfound success would give them many options and open many doors.
While this all sounds great, many times this would lead to Phase 4, The Undisciplined Pursuit of More. Greg refers to this as the paradox of success. You can choose to do anything, but not everything. Instead of looking for more, be on the pursuit of less and better.
The Mindset of Essentialism
The most important part of Essentialism is getting in the right mindset. You need to dismantle the cluttering of non-essentialism, and stop believing that you can do it all. Many believe that if they do it all, they will have it all, and both assumptions are untrue. If you try to do it all, you certainly won’t have the outcome of having it all.
Instead, you will experience burnout of body, mind, and spirit, which is the opposite of what you are after. Your relationships will become strained, and eventually, you will begin to fail at the work you spend so much time on.
People who practice essentialism see things much differently. Instead of doing the stuff to make themselves better and improve their relationships, they do things the other way around. First, they work on themselves, then relationships, then all of the other stuff, including work and business.
The only way to change is to root out the nonsense and change the cycle. You can choose to do anything, but not everything. There is true freedom in knowing this. Instead of trying to do everything the competition is doing, focus on one or two things you are good at, and build the system that works for you.
Remember, essentialists think most things are nonessential, while nonessentialists think everything is.
So What’s Essential?
It’s important to create the space to think about what is essential to you. Once you determine these things, you will also understand what is nonessential. Understand that when you are doing something, you are saying no to something else.
If you find yourself doing nonessential tasks, remind yourself of the essential things you are saying no to. Whether it be calling back your leads, starting your advertising campaign, or putting in the work on your website, doing these essential tasks are what will take you to the next level.
Here at Carrot, we have a two-week cool-down period at the end of each quarter. Instead of running full force into the next quarter, we sit back to contemplate what we would like to achieve, where we struggled, and what will be our priorities moving ahead.
Making Things Effortless
You’ve likely seen the example of filling a jar with rocks and sand If the sand is placed first, followed by the stones, then the large rocks, not everything will fit. But if the large rocks are placed first, followed by the stones, and then the sand, everything will fit neatly.
But what happens when you have too many large stones?
You may not lack in motivation, but we all face times in our lives when there is simply too much on our plate. Greg’s latest book, Effortless, is a byproduct of essentialism. When you have many essential tasks, the only way to get through it all is to find an easier path. Essentialism is about discovering the right things, and Effortless is all about doing them the right way.
Free Book Giveaway
We want to give away 10 copies of Greg McKeown’s new book, “Effortless”. Head on over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review. The first 10 who do this and send a screenshot will get a copy of Greg’s new book sent out to them.
For residents, affordable housing is a stepping stone. We empower them to be a better version of themselves.
– Evan Holladay
The Mission-Driven Strategy that Led to 1,347 Multifamily Units & $225 Million in Developments w/ Evan Holladay
In our 250+ episodes of the CarrotCast, we have never talked about the world of affordable housing.
This unique niche is not only a way to make money, but it is a way to provide assistance to the over 7 million Americans who lack adequate housing. Evan Holladay has an incredible business model that is empowering people and improving communities.
Here’s how Evan is influencing change, building thousands of units, and creating over $225 million in developments… all at the ripe old age of 30.
Read the Full Show Notes Below…
What is Affordable Housing?
Affordable housing can have different connotations to different people, Some people have a negative connotation, which is often misguided. Depending on the area, affordable housing is for those making $35-$65k annually.
This includes teachers, frontline workers, first responders, and many hardworking people who work to provide for their families and keep a roof over their heads.
There are incentives available for developers to create these types of communities. Tax credits are offered which can be sold to banks or investors, helping you to raise the capital you need.
Why We Need It
Affordable housing is there to help working-class residents, who are often the backbone of communities. Before COVID, there were 7 million families in America who were paying over 60% of their income toward their housing. With numbers like this, how can they expect to pay for anything else?
Right now, there is a shortage of affordable housing nationwide. We are in a housing deficit, where prices are high and interest rates are low. In today’s market, it can be very difficult to buy a home.
Affordable housing provides an opportunity for those who may not have been able to have their own place otherwise. It serves as a stepping stone to help people become better versions of themselves.
Evan’s approach is about more than just creating units. For him, it is about empowering residents and providing them with the services they need.
Do the Work for Free
Before starting a business of his own, Evan worked for some of the top affordable housing developers in the country. He discovered that creating these impactful communities is what drove him and that he needed to go all in in this niche.
He listened, he watched, and he learned about all of the details that went into these bigger types of deals. He was able to take the experience of his mentors, and learn in one year what would have taken him 10 on his own.
Evan was able to find out exactly what he liked to do, while eliminating and delegating the tasks that he wasn’t so fond of.
Innovation Under Your Nose
One of the things Evan has learned is that it is ok to be innovative and different – you don’t have to follow the mold. In his business, he is able to help families reinvent their lives, while still being able to make his investors happy.
He creates more than units, he creates communities that offer the services people need to get ahead.
Letting Your Purpose Drive You
Evan truly loves everything about what he is doing. Many people involved in real estate will look at buyers and sellers as commodities. When they are equated to dollars and cents, it can be easy to lose your passion.
Many people give up because they lack the heart. Evan stumbled across his mission, but today he knows exactly why he is doing what he is doing.
He knows the kind of change he wants to make and because he has amassed the right knowledge, team, and tools, we have no doubt he will meet his “Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals.”
Don’t bother with a bunch of spam backlinks. You’ll only end up penalized. The algorithm is smart.
– Bryan Driscoll
5 Backlink Building Pro Tips for Faster SEO Results w/ Keith Sant & Bryan Driscoll
Part four in our SEO series came from feedback we received from Carrot users who wanted to know exactly what to do if they were only putting in an hour a week on their sites.
We brought in two of our favorite guests, Keith Sant and Bryan Driscoll, to dive into using valuable backlinks and creating consistent content for your website. (Pssstttt… it’s easy with our SEO Tools add-on.)
So listen in or read on to find out how to get the most out of your website in just a couple hours a week!
I am super excited to share this installment of our SEO series. After customizing your website, creating content, and getting everything dialed in, the next step is to send out some signals to let Google know you’re there. You can do this by utilizing backlinks, which will help to drive your rankings forward.
What Are Backlinks and How Many Should You Have?
Backlinks are when your website is mentioned on another person’s website, with a link directling them to your URL. This is crazy important to Google as it enhances your credibility. If other people are talking about you, then you must be good.
The number of backlinks you will need will vary depending on the size of your market. Some small towns may not need any backlinks to do well, whereas larger, more competitive markets, will need quite a few.
You don’t want to go from zero to 1,000 backlinks. Keep it natural because the algorithm is smart. A few places to get backlinks are…
Local places to list your business – your local chamber, business directories, etc.
Yelp, YellowPages, and other, larger, directory sites
Vendors and other businesses you’ve worked with in the past
You can create strong, useful content and distribute it to relevant sites
Guest post on other relevant blogs and websites
Check out what your competition is doing – there are many tools out there that can help
Doing outreach may seem like a lot of work, but it will be worth it. A little effort now can offer rewards for years to come.
How Much Time and Money Will You Spend?
Again, this will depend on the size of your market and how many links you will need to see results. If it is a competitive market, you may want to spend an hour a day for a couple of months on outreach, creating content, and building relationships.
For those who simply want to understand it, but not actually do it, you can hire an SEO firm to help. You can also pay to have your content listed as a guest post on a relevant website, typically paying somewhere around $150 for the post.
The Basics of a Good Backlink
You want your links to be real, to offer value, and to be on relevant websites. It is better to look for something local and highly targeted, as opposed to larger sites that may be more generalized. You want the links to be high quality.
Buying 5,000 links from Fiver can have an adverse effect, which could get you blacklisted completely. Avoid spam, and make sure your links offer value to your potential clients.
The Importance of Internal Links
Internal linking is linking to other pages that are in your domain. While Carrot sites come with many of these in place, it is a good rule of thumb to go in there and mix them up a bit. If you are using our automated content, be sure to add some internal links within your website where appropriate.
In addition, it can be a good idea to add some external links to your different pages. This shows Google that you aren’t trying to get all of the focus on you, rather you are trying to help your reader get the best information possible.
Keith likes to add a hyperlink to Google Maps when he is showing off properties he has purchased in the past. He has seen great results from this small trick.
What to Avoid With Backlinks
There are a lot of mistakes people make when it comes to backlinks. The biggest is buying fake links that will make your site appear spammy. Adding these links can drop your rankings, which is the opposite of what you want.
Avoid anything spammy, where you are just coping and pasting. Just like your business, your links should be there to add value for the reader.
All of this may seem like work, and it is. However, stacking these evergreen bricks now will offer you rewards for years to come. You can either spend your time running on the hamster wheel or refocus some of your time on creating great content and building those links!
Don’t overthink it. Good things happen when you begin creating your digital footprint. Don’t get caught in the weeds, just get started.
– Adrian Nez
SEO 3/4 | SEO for Multiple Markets w/ Bryan Driscoll & Adrian Nez
Part 3 of our SEO series is aimed at those who wish to rank in multiple markets. We’re sitting down with Bryan Driscoll and Adrian Nez (2 of our favorite SEO pros) to find out if you should set-up multiple websites, how to best optimize your homepage, how to ace your location pages, where to send your paid leads, and much, much more!
In the last episode of our SEO series, we talked about core pages, sharing who you are, and getting those testimonials out front and center.
Today we are going a bit deeper into what you can do to optimize your Carrot website so you can really drive those rankings, create a bigger impact, and get more leads – especially when you are working in multiple markets.
SEO for Multiple Markets – 5 Tips to Get You Started
#1 – Should You Have One Site or Multiple?
This is a question we hear from many of our subscribers – if they are in more than one market, should they have more than one website?
The consensus is that instead of multiple websites for different markets, you should instead create one website per lead type. Then, utilize location pages to focus on the different areas you serve.
By having one website, you will be able to focus your time and effort into one place. While 2 websites may convert better, you will also need to do double the work, double the link building, and create double the content.
Multiple websites make sense when you are targeting different lead types. For example, if you are looking for both motivated sellers and investment buyers. Both Adrian and Bryan operate multiple websites for this very purpose.
#2 – How Do You Optimize the Home Page if You are in Multiple Markets?
A general rule of thumb is if you are focused on SEO are trying to reach one major market, use that city on your home page. So if you are primarily working in Dallas, put that on your homepage and create location pages for the smaller cities nearby.
However, if you are in Dallas and Austin, you may want to make your homepage a bit more generic, appealing to homeowners in both areas. You may let them know you buy houses in Texas, then list the cities so they know you work in their market.
#3 – Building Out Location Pages
When building out location pages to reach motivates sellers, the process is very simple.
We recommend duplicating your homepage for the area you wish to target, then rewriting some of the copy to make it localized. You can also add a local photo and a testimonial from someone in that area.
#4 – How Deep Should the Location Pages Go?
When creating these pages to reach buyers, you can get a bit more hyper-focused, creating pages that are neighborhood-specific. Buyers will need to know more about the area before making their decision.
When trying to reach sellers, you can make pages that are specific to a city, county, or large metro area. Whether creating location pages for buyers or sellers, you’ll want to make sure you have a solid URL structure and that you have utilized our SEO tool.
#5 – Where Do You Send Your Paid Traffic?
While your paid advertising on Facebook or Google doesn’t have much to do with SEO, it’s important to know where to send the leads that you are paying for. As you build out your site, you will want your advertising to send people to the corresponding page on your website.
If your ad talks about selling your house in Dallas, you’ll want to send them to a page that mentions Dallas specifically. However, if you are targeting people in Fort Worth with your advertising, you should be sending them to a page discussing Fort Worth.
Sending to a page that isn’t relevant can cause them to quickly click away from your website and onto the competitions.
Whether you are using SEO, paid advertising, or both, the most important thing is to keep your user’s experience in mind. Add content that will be relevant to their location and situation and utilize paid advertising accordingly. You don’t have to overthink it. Carrot provides the framework, all you need to do is tweak it to make it your own.
Look out for the next episode in our SEO series where we will get a little more advanced, diving into backlinks and how to optimize your site like the pros!
The great thing about Carrot is that I don’t have to think about the content. I rewrite it a little bit to fit our locations, personality, and brand.
– Bryan Driscoll
SEO 2/4 | The 5 Most important & Most-Overlooked SEO Secrets for Real Estate You’ve Never Heard of w/ Bryan Driscoll
SEO is a topic that can seem overwhelming for some of our members who simply want to close deals and not work on the details of their website. However, as you’ll discover in our latest episode of the CarrotCast, with these simple, effective, and often overlooked strategies, you’ll be able to achieve higher rankings faster than you may think.
Higher rankings lead to more clicks, more clicks generate more leads, and more leads mean more conversions.
Last week we spoke with Adrian Nez to go over SEO basics and to offer a few high-level strategy tips. Today, in part 2 of our SEO series, we’re diving into the meat and tactics of SEO with Carrot customer, Bryan Driscoll.
Not only is Bryan an investor, but he also boasts a 15-year background in digital marketing. His sites are bringing in hundreds of organic leads, using simple tactics anyone can implement into their site.
So without further ado, here are 5 SEO secrets for real estate you can use to quickly ramp up on your Carrot site.
#1 – Reviews and Testimonials
Having rock-solid reviews and testimonials is a huge part of building credibility. It will keep people on your site longer because they will see you are a real person who has helped people in situations similar to their own.
But you’re not just posting your positive reviews to show your credibility to potential clients. Google is looking for credibility too. Time spent on your site, the bounce rate, and many other factors helps Google determine how valuable your site will be for someone searching for a business like yours.
You’ll want to get these reviews up on Google My Business, Yelp, and Facebook. Then, make sure to get them up on your website. You can grab links and send them directly to satisfied customers, asking them to write up a review about how you were able to help.
#2 – Google Console
Google Console is an incredible, free tool that many people don’t use or even know exists. It will help you see impressions, clicks, and how you are ranking for particular search terms.
What’s so great is that if you are ranking low, you can go to the ranking URL, improve it to be better optimized, and easily see how your efforts pay off. You can see if a particular page is ranking higher than others, and focus more of your efforts there to drive conversions.
Google Consul is also a great tool to discover what people are searching for. You can then use this information to properly target your potential clients. You don’t need a ton of traffic. When you target properly, you will generate more leads and conversions.
#3 – On-Page SEO
Straight out of the box, Carrot aims to build sites with great content. According to Bryan, the best part is that when changing up the content, he doesn’t have to think about it. He simply has to put it into his own words, injecting his personality and some references to his unique market.
As far as length, Bryan recommends around 600-800 words on the homepage, with at least 400-500 words on the city pages.
However, more than anything else, your goal should be to provide content that is useful to your user. Don’t just write content to try to trick the search engines. Algorithms are smart. When you write great content, you’ll attract more visitors and keep people on your site longer – two things Google loves to see.
#4 – How Many Keywords Per Page?
Bryan advises he will focus on one main keyword, with two or three secondary keywords all of the same theme. If you want to focus on multiple keywords, create a separate page for each.
If someone is searching for a specific answer, you’ll want to lead them to a page that directly answers their question. Not a page that is focused on several different things. So for example, if you are in multiple markets, you’ll want to create separate pages focused on each.
#5 – Lead Tracking
When you have leads coming in the door, you’ll want to know exactly where they are coming from. While the Carrot built-in CRM is great, Google Analytics will help you take it to the next level.
It’s easy to add to your website to see exactly what sources are driving people to your website. It will help you get a better idea of where your quality leads are coming from, so you can focus your efforts accordingly.
Putting it All Together
Credibility plays a huge role in your positive SEO. In the past, when we have studied sites that have gone up vs. sites that dropped in the rankings, there were a few commonalities we came across.
The sites that dropped lacked reviews and testimonials, and the content wasn’t being updated on a regular basis. Having great SEO incorporates something we are very fond of here, and that is Evergreen content.
This is the content you put out once, that will benefit you for years to come. So now is the time to get off of that hamster wheel of cold calling and direct mail, which only benefits you for a few weeks, and instead, spend some time improving your SEO using Evergreen Content that will benefit you for years to come.
You’ve heard me say it before, but Carrot has changed my family tree.
– Adrian Nez
The Best Time to Get Started in SEO is Yesterday | 3 Steps to Get Started + Free Guide w/ Adrian Nez
Want to get more leads through SEO, but have no clue where to start? Over the next 4 episodes, we’re bringing on industry-leading SEO experts to teach you everything you need to do as an investor or agent to start bringing in more leads through the power of Search Engine Optimization for real estate. From getting started to advanced tactics & concepts.
Three years ago, Adrian Nez was all set to continue his virtual deals and make the move to Columbus.
However, after a detour in Wilmington, he decided to become hyper-focused on the local market, building a brand, a website, and a reputation all from scratch. By following proven formulas, he has built his business in SEO, leading to excellent results. He never let the fear of others already being in his market get in the way of what he was setting out to do.
By being genuine, keeping it real with his clients, he has positioned himself as the real estate expert of Wilmington, NC. Here’s how he did it and how you can too…
Read the Full Show Notes Below…
I am crazy excited to share this episode of the Carrotcast with you all. Whenever Adrian and I get together, the creativity just flows and we find that we could end up chatting for hours. It’s so awesome to be able to share one of these great convos with you in Part 1 of our SEO series.
Today we are diving into Adrian’s background, how he’s utilized SEO to thrive in a crowded market, and what you can do to make it work for your business.
Adrian’s Story
As many of you may know, Adrian has been a part of the Carrot family for quite some time. In fact, he was Carrot’s first customers, who has operated several websites, in several markets since signing up with us.
Today, Adrian leads our Tuesday Coaching Calls and has had 1000’s of calls with Carrot customers to provide his insight. We’re thrilled to announce that he’ll be taking on a new role with Carrot as the Official Real Estate Investor in Residence as of this quarter. We couldn’t be more grateful to have his insight, knowledge, and passion for helping, added to our team in a greater capacity.
For his investment business, Adrian focuses solely on SEO. He’s created proven strategies and formulas that simplify the entire SEO process. Here are 3 of the biggest takeaways from our talk.
Google Changes… Concepts Don’t
We’re recording this in 2021 and while Google changes, the fundamentals don’t. When thinking about good SEO, it all comes down to what the search engines want to see. It’s not complicated.
They want to see that you are a credible, trustworthy business, that adds real value to people searching them out.
Adrian entered a highly competitive market just 3 years ago, and by being hyper-focused on his content and his brand, he’s shaped himself as the local real estate professional, vs. just another “we buy houses guy.”
What to Post and Where
SEO is more than just Google. It is Yelp, Amazon, Linked In, Airbnb, Facebook, and any other website that offers a search engine. How many times have you looked up a business on Facebook?
Or maybe someone you are working with on LinkedIn? As the real estate professional that you are, it is important that you provide, claim, and own all of the information about you on these sites.
Make sure your information is consistent and that you are listed in as many credible places as possible. Doing this will help your online reputation both with people and with Google.
When to Share and How Deep You Should Go
For Adrian, being genuine and transparent with his audience has given him the most traction. This openness has helped him to change the perception of real estate buyers and put him in the good graces of agents, lawyers, and many others within the community.
It’s important to speak directly to your ideal customer, letting them know that you understand their problem and can offer a solution. Get to know your customers and become the resource they go to when they have questions.
Consistency is key when it comes to posting. What is your perception of a business if you look them up on Facebook and their last post was two years ago? Now, what if the competition has added valuable content as recent as yesterday. Who are you more likely to contact first?
Before You Start…
Before you begin your journey into SEO, it is important to think about the business you want to have. You may hear these influencers out there talking about their 100 deals per year and it may sound exciting.
However, there is a whole lot of work and responsibility that goes into 100 deals a year. Do you want a big company or do you want a lifestyle business that gives you freedom? Once you figure out what you want, you can build the strategy to get you there.
My story and how I realized all leads and marketing aren’t created equal. The mainstream real estate world teaches us all marketing that is accidentally structured to keep us trapped in a never-ending marketing “hamster wheel”. Yes, it works to get leads and deals, but at what cost to our lifestyles and stress levels?
Show you how a shift in the way you market
It was 2011, and I was worn out.
I was running my previous company before Carrot and was second-guessing whether this “entrepreneurial dream” of true freedom & impact was real… or whether it was just something the late-night infomercial pitch masters sold to make a buck.
Financially, my company was doing great when you looked at the profit and loss statement at the end of the year, but I was tired of the “boom and bust” cycle my income and leads were on.
One month, our outbound marketing would hit and bring in many leads and sales…
… the next month, my business partner and I would take our “minimum draw” of $1,500 each.
So, we’d hop back on the “marketing hamster wheel” and crank out some more outbound marketing, get customers coming in, and the cycle would repeat every 3-4 months.
My business was successful in all of the normal metrics people would use to grade it, but it felt like the way I was doing it wasn’t sustainable and certainly wasn’t giving me the consistency, predictability, and momentum I craved.
In 2012, I finally sat down and asked… “How can I get more consistency and predictability so this business can support me rather than me support it?”
Are you tired of needing to get a gazillion unqualified leads to close a deal?
More leads = more time and expense to sift through the tire kickers.
Inbound online marketing with Evergreen content is the answer. It attracts your most qualified prospects who are motivated to solve their problem. It builds trust and credibility with them 24/7, 365 through your Carrot Lead Generation Hub.
They convert from visitor to lead between 2-4 times higher… and lead to deal closed from 2-3 times higher. Resulting in lower lead volume but more profits and less hassle.
Timeframe: 90-day period | Source: Carrot Member Site Google Analytics
Evergreen marketing is what we focus on the most here at Carrot. We then amplify it with paid marketing and even hamster wheel marketing.
We’ll also discuss hamster wheel marketing in this post and the difference between it and Evergreen. To us, it’s not one or the other. It’s both. But you want to grow more and more into the Evergreen side of things because that’s where you create your consistency, freedom, and flexibility.
You can make a greater impact with your business, but that’s where your most valuable and highest converting leads come from is from, and then we amplify it with the hamster wheel approach.
What is Evergreen Marketing?
Evergreen marketing is essentially creating content and getting online in a spot where it will be there forever, your website or your “lead generation hub” here with Carrot, and then amplifying that on social media.
Where a lot of agents and investors go wrong is they take the content and they just put it on Facebook or Instagram.
That, to us, is what’s called “hamster wheel” marketing.
If you’re creating a piece of content and you just put it up on Facebook or Instagram, it’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 must be on the hamster wheel continually.
If you get off the hamster wheel, stop doing those postings, stop doing direct mail, stop cold calling or doing RBMs, then your leads will eventually dwindle to a stop, and you’ve got to restart and get back on the hamster wheel.
Now, Evergreen is another way we like to focus outside of the hamster wheel. But it does take work. Evergreen is more like picturing a stack of bricks.
Here, you see the hamster wheel, which looks amazing because it’s easy. You can hop on it. You can take a step, and it immediately gives you feedback.
It immediately gives you a result. But the problem mentioned earlier is you have to stay on the hamster wheel forever or plug somebody into the hamster wheel for you to keep giving you the result.
That’s where agents or investors get burnt. Everyone tells them, “Do this method, do this method.” But two, three, four, five years later, they get burnt out because they’re still doing that hamster wheel marketing with no end or systems to make it Evergreen.
This is where we want to help make a change.
So, each brick in the stack represents a piece of content, a page on your website, something that will be there forever. It could be a video. It could be a location page of a neighborhood you do business in.
Or, a video post on our system where you can take a short video from your cell phone, upload it to our video post feature, and automatically turn it from a video into a written article that you can then publish.
So, get into the weekly routine. Pick up a brick and stack it, pick up a brick and stack it.
Eventually, you’re going to have a whole row of bricks. It was dirty. It was hard work. You might even pull back and say, “I’ve done a lot of work here, and I’m not getting the result yet.”
That one row is not a wall.
What would happen if housebuilders stopped building a brick house in the first row? They were like, “Man, that was a lot of work. My hands are hurting. It’s not a wall yet; I’m just going to quit.”
Well, there wouldn’t be a house.
That’s where most people quit Evergreen marketing. They do a few actions and want instant gratification, as hamster wheel marketing gives them. But they didn’t shift their mindset to the long-term momentum-building mindset.
So instead, get on the hamster wheel, get some leads and deals coming in, but then go back and stack bricks.
Get 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, you’ll have a brick wall that does all the work for you.
Remember, it will be slow going in the first three, four, five, six months potentially.
But as long as you’re consistently stacking bricks of quality content that answers real questions from your market, you’re entertaining in your way; you’re going to start to pick up that momentum.
Hamster wheel marketing, you get a quick result, but then you get off of it, and it goes down. Then you got to go, “Shoot. I got to get more business.” You get on it, get off, get on it, get off. This creates stress.
Evergreen marketing creates freedom.
Freedom or stress. You pick which one you want.
So, how long does this take to work? This little graph will show you—essentially the time and the results that we want to have you expect.
Evergreen Marketing Time to Results
The first one to two months is when you’re really going to be dialing things in. By now, you should have already had your website or lead generation hub created.
Dialed means you have your logo on your site, changed some of the content, and got some of the location pages created. Once you’ve got that dial, then this is where you’re ready to start to bring traffic to your website. Dial it in those first couple of months, add credibility, and get your content started.
In months two to five, two to six or so, that’s when you want to start some of that short-term marketing. Paid marketing, quick traffic methods, and things like that. And months five to 12 is when you really start to see this Evergreen content marketing pickup and get momentum.
So, in the early months, that’s when you will be doing a lot of work on the Evergreen marketing but may not see the highest level of result that you see over on a hamster wheel.
So, in the short term, once again, this Evergreen marketing works in tandem with short-term or quick-result marketing. In those first three months, execute things from that short-term marketing to get traffic and leads immediately.
Hamster Wheel
Short-term
Foundation
Quick traffic
Mindset
Amplify
Evergreen
Long-term
Traffic stacking
Content + SEO
Building + Adding Authority
While you’re executing short-term marketing, you’re going to want to be building the foundation, executing the long-term momentum-building Evergreen marketing, which is simply creating content on your website consistently that Google likes to answer questions for people’s problems.
Free Live Workshop
Unlock Growth & Eliminate Burnout. Independent of Cold Calling, Direct Mail, SMS, and other ‘Draining’ Marketing Tactics
With the shifting real estate industry, there must be a marketing shift that has to happen in the tech disruption in general.
We will talk about this shift, what Evergreen marketing is and what it is not, and how you can really start to like it.
If you implement, stay consistent, and have patience, you’ll be able to get more consistent, more predictable, and high-quality leads.
People will be reaching out to you rather than you having to contact them. No longer will you need to rely on posting on Facebook 18 times a day. Instead, let’s get you to where you publish a piece of marketing today, and it works for you in six months, in a year, in three years, in five years.
You might say, “Yes, I want that, but what is it?”
We’re going to walk through what that is and show a couple of examples and case studies to really connect you to how it works for buyers and how it works for sellers.
We aim to get you to shift your marketing mindset into what will work amazingly well in the market ahead.
The industry is shifting, and you can see with the industry shift, there are two parts to the industry. There’s the retail side of the industry, and then there’s the wholesale side.
The Shifting Industry
The retail side is working through the MLS, working with real estate agents. On the wholesale side, of course, just like any industry, the auto industry and the grocery industry all have retail and wholesale sides.
Both of them serve a great purpose. Some people want to buy properties at a discount for investment, and they don’t want to pay retail. In contrast, some people want to sell properties at a discount in exchange for speed and convenience in solving their problems. And many real estate agents don’t tread into the other side very often. Many wonder, “Why would that seller sell at a discount when they can sell it over here for a higher price?”
Well, oftentimes, the seller wants to sell because of many reasons. They need to move fast, or they had a bad experience selling it traditionally before, or they want cash quickly, and they need it within 30 or 60 days, and they don’t want to have to put up with showings and people going through and making offers and backing out or a variety of other reasons.
It’s a big market over there, and it will keep growing with the iBuyers. iBuyers like Opendoor, Offerpad, and Zillow fall between retail and wholesale.
The big tech giants are starting to say, “Hey, I think we can do a little bit of what agents do a little bit better, and I think we can do a little bit of what house buyers and professional house buyers do a little bit better. And we will bring in better branding, better marketing, huge budgets, and try to shift the overall industry towards direct selling.”
Now, I feel that there will be more and more sellers selling directly to an end buyer through an investor or an iBuyer service like this.
I still feel that real estate agents will be the backbone of house sales over the next several decades. But, there will be a change, and we want to ensure that agents are not becoming a commodity.
We want to make sure that your commissions and your profits as an investor or agent are not being compressed. We want to make sure that you don’t die a slow death in your career because of this shift and get left behind in this shift.
So the next question is this: how do you stand out in this market? How do you stand out when there are a lot of agents, when there are a lot of investors, and these iBuyers and tech giants are coming in to try to disrupt the industry?
You stand out, not by creating fancier CRMs and fancier automation with text and email. That stuff is fantastic. That stuff amplifies what you’ve already got.
The way that we actually stand out is by becoming an authority.
It’s an authority on a topic, on a neighborhood, on a specific type of a seller situation, in the area-owned real estate, whatever it is, becoming an authority that people look to, to say,
“Wow, that person knows a lot about the subject. I trust that person, and I feel less risk in taking care of better if I work with that person with this type of transaction.”
With the authority scale, it goes from the very bottom of the tactician.
Tacticians know:
How to take the steps.
How to do the basics of a transaction as a real estate investor or agent.
How to close deals, but their earning potential will be very, very low.
The tacticians’ influence will also be very, very low on those clients in that industry.
So to raise your income and become more stable as an agent or an investor, you need to start taking steps to become an expert.
Experts are:
Well beyond just knowing how to do the tactics, shuffling the paper, knowing how to do the transaction.
They are experts in niches such as experts in a neighborhood or neighborhoods, in a type of a buyer, a type of a seller, certain types of transactions as an investor, or if you’re an agent, you’re an expert in commercial property, investment properties and you’ve put in the time to invest into learning the expertise in that.
These things are going to increase your pay, and it’s also going to increase your ability to influence your market to work with you so you can serve them better.
But, you need to move to be an authority to really win
There are going to be a lot of tacticians in this next phase of the real estate industry that are going to get pushed out of the market. Technology is going to gobble up those people.
Experts are great, but the difference between an expert and an authority is an expert that many people know is an expert. An expert is just someone who knows a lot of information, but no one may know who you are.
How do you get to have people know who you are?
The more people who know who you are and are an expert on this topic, the more people will know you. The more people will be attracted to you, the more sustained and consistent that business will be.
The way to bridge that gap between expert and authority and increase your pay, decrease your risk in the market, and increase your ability to stay and thrive in this market change while these two segments, tacticians and experts, have a tougher time and they start to go downhill is you need become an authority.
How to Become an Online Authority
What is the only way to become an authority?
The answer is CONTENT.
What is content?
One way to do it is with your cell phone. You can record a video and upload it on Facebook. You can also take that video and upload it to your Carrot site (if you’re a Carrot member) and turn that video into a written blog post using our Video Post feature. That’s content.
When people see your content, and they see your expertise and personality, they see your authority on that subject, especially if they see it over and over again.
It could be a written piece of content. It could be you in front of a chamber of commerce meeting. That is content, even though it’s in person.
If you’re attending those networking meetings or meeting one-to-one at a coffee shop, that’s amazing, but you can only scale that so far. What happens during situations that pandemics, like America and the world, have been through in 2020?
You can no longer show up to those big networking meetings. You can no longer go to the coffee shop and shake someone’s hand.
But what you can do is create content so people can find you online. Online is only going to get bigger and bigger. More and more people are going to the internet to make Google searches, and that’s where we want you to be.
We want you to be rooted in this authority or eventually branch up to the “celebrity” authority in your market.
How do you do that?
This is where Evergreen marketing steps in.
Evergreen marketing is so amazing; that’s why we’ve gone all-in on Evergreen marketing; it’s what we’ve done since day one of Carrot.
We’re not a company that started out doing X, and then we realized this opportunity, and we’re shifting our strategy. We’ve been doing Evergreen marketing since day one. It’s what the entire business has been built on since the inception of Carrot at the end of 2013.
Millions of leads have been brought in through our system, mainly motivated sellers, but also a ton of buyers, a ton of tenants, land sellers, land buyers, mobile homes, retail listing houses, you name it.
How Evergreen Marketing Works And Examples Of Carrot Members Who Have Been Highly Successful Using It
Buyers and sellers are searching online every day to solve their problems.
You create valuable content and put it on your website (lead generation hub).
It could be a video like we’re seeing here from Anthony Beckham. It could be a blog post. It could be a location page where you’re talking about areas and neighborhoods in which you buy or sell houses. You can see this one from Anthony; he talks about the top five neighborhoods in Roseburg, Oregon.
He put it on YouTube and also created a video post. His video already has over 1000 views.
If optimized well, your site ranks high. Searchers land on it and engage.
Search “North Umpqua River homes for sale”.
The number one result in Google is a Carrot site. One of their location pages they stacked a brick and created a bunch of location pages, and it’s outranking Zillow, and that produces leads every single month for them of people who are looking to buy in that luxury home area.
Your content lives and works. It builds trust, credibility, and authority 24/7 for months and years.
Rinse and repeat over the long term so your content is everywhere online.
Amplify your content with social media, ads, and email.
You’ve got to start shifting some of your patterns, start shifting some of your thoughts on what marketing is for you. Shift some of your hamster wheel efforts into Evergreen efforts, and then you start to stack more and more content pieces onto your website.
Then, to really make it hum, those content pieces you get on your website, share them on social media, share them on Facebook.
Just like you see here, Anthony is linking up his Carrot page with his video, and he has over 16,000 views.
Once again, the strategy in your first two to three months will be the most work. That’s probably where you’re going to be putting three to five hours a weekend into creating the content getting your marketing plan created in that first month or so.
After that first six months, it will probably be more like an hour a week, and that’s your weekly marketing commitment regarding your content.
Here’s a case study of how Brian Rockwell, an investor down in Dallas, Texas, is getting sellers through Evergreen marketing. There’s a full case study. We will link it up below on how Brian Rockwell has done that.
Brian went from school teacher to a multi-million dollar wholesaling and house flipping business and multifamily investment company just from Evergreen marketing and amplifying it with paid marketing.
This is a text message he sent us. Six wholesale deals this month. If all goes through, $124,000. Four came from pay-per-click.
And then one came from organic and one came from retargeting.
So, there is an amazing, amazing result for seller-motivated households.
Let’s look at a real estate agent G Team, for buyers—North Umpqua River homes for sale. Anyone who types up that phrase in Google now takes about four to five months of doing the process, putting their heads down, and doing the work, or you can hire our services team to do some of this work for you.
They’re ranking above Zillow and Realtor.
What does that equal? It equals leads. The G Team gets leads every single day from that one page.
Now, imagine if you started to stack on more of those pages, you get three leads from this one every month, two leads from this one and 10 leads from this one every month, and three leads from this one, none from this one, but six from this and three from this, you get the idea.
Here’s another example. So, the niche seller leads. Let’s say you’re going after sellers who are in tight niches. They have a problem. They’re searching online. I want to sell my inherited house in Detroit, or sell my house in a divorce, or sell my luxury home, or how to sell my house without a real estate agent, or how to sell my house with a real estate agent, phrases like that.
What if you were ranked really high in Google for that phrase, just like these Carrot members are, and they’re ranked in front of those clients, what does it turn into? Well, it turns into leads.
This one came through Steve’s Carrot website. He put Evergreen content up there. That was a blog post that he used for an automated blog system, and he used one of our plays in the playbook to modify those to give it a better chance to rank well in Google.
And you can see this one came from Google search, and this one came in at 7:33 PM. Carrot is working while you are eating dinner, while you’re hanging out with your family, or while you’re sleeping, Carrot’s working. That is what Evergreen marketing is. We want it to give you freedom.
Lastly, the whole thing with the strategy of Evergreen marketing is that it is a fundamental shift in the way that you do things.
If you want to be on the hamster wheel for the next five or 10 years and grinding away in five or 10 years and having to continue to post and continue to do things and continue to work five, six, seven days a week, then keep on doing hamster wheel marketing as your only marketing method.
We want to start to have you shift things over to Evergreen marketing, but it’s going to take work.
It’s going to take focus. It will take effort, but in 12-24 months, you will say, “Oh my gosh, I’m so glad I made this shift in my business because now I have freedom. I have flexibility. I’ve got this machine and lead generation hub that is continually attracting the right prospects that convert the best that want to work with us.”
And this is what your site is going to look like essentially.
You have got your core homepage or Lead Generation Hub. Then there are “core conversion” pages, niche/location pages, and the authority content.
Let’s dive into those a little deeper:
Core Conversion Pages:
Purpose: To convert visitors into leads and deals at a high rate
What: Your home page, primary nav pages, reviews, About, FAQ, How it works, etc.
All geared to guide people through a specific set of content to answer questions, squash objections, and convert a visitor into a lead and deal.
Frequency: You create these one-time but then update them as needed.
Niche / Location Pages:
Purpose: To attract new prospects who are searching for localized phrases.
What: Pages specific to a location and/or niche that are created to rank well in Google for those localized searchers.
Seller: It’s best to duplicate a motivated seller lead gen page and localize it for each market. This may be a home page on our motivated seller sites or a seller page on an agent site.
Buyers: Use the Locations page tool so we can populate properties. And each location is unique, so it’s harder to duplicate a page. These pages take more heavy lifting.
Frequency: Ideally, 5-10 per quarter.
Priority “Authority” Content:
Purpose: To build ongoing trust, credibility, and authority through small but hyper-focused pieces of content.
What: Automated content pack blog posts, video posts, etc. These may be market updates, video posts answering common questions, etc.
Frequency: Weekly. Ideally, 1 automated post per week and 1 VideoPost.
Conclusion
That’s it. That’s publishing one authority content piece in under an hour a week, every single week. Then, take your “Lead Generation Hub” and amplify it by sharing it on social media and or paid marketing.
Over time, you’ll see these stack up in Google and start to bring you traffic.
Eventually, you can start to get off of that hamster wheel, and you can start to stack those bricks and get that freedom you’re looking for.
Hopefully, your mindset shifted around what to do. You understand what Evergreen marketing is now to crush it, gain that freedom, gain that flexibility, and grow momentum.
One of the things I have seen investors and agents struggle with the most is finding ways to stand out and differentiate themselves from the competition. Many people are under the impression that they just need to go out there and get leads when in reality, it takes much more than that.
If you want to stand out in your market, you’ll need to tap into the psyche of your customers, find out how you can help them, and build value from that foundation. You have to learn how to truly understand your customer’s pain and lead them to the solution.
When you are able to convey the message that you are the one who is uniquely qualified to help them, marketing becomes easy!
Learn how Nate utilizes 3 content marketing pillars to help businesses stand out and how you can implement these same concepts into your own business!
Read the Full Show Notes Below…
Use These Simple Content Marketing Hacks To Stand Out From Your Competition w/ Nate Kennedy
Nate calls himself the builder of Funnels, Master of Ads, King of Conversions, and The Doctor of Marketing, all with good reason. Since starting his business, he’s helped people to generate hundreds of thousands of leads, maybe even millions!
I’ve known Nate for over 10 years now and have seen first-hand the results he has been able to deliver his clients. Nate’s involvement industry encompasses more than just marketing.
He has owned a mortgage company, wholesaled properties, worked on rehabs, and even built houses himself. When he discovered online marketing in 2007, he went all in and hasn’t looked back since. Today he works with many top leaders and trainers in the real estate space, as well as local agents and buyers.
Over the last few years, Nate and his team have focused heavily on real estate investors. With so many people saying the same things and offering the same services, how do you stand out from the rest?
You can say you pay cash and close quickly, but that doesn’t make your business any different from all the other homebuyers in the area. The investors who are really seeing success are the ones building authority and credibility. When someone has a problem an authoritative business is the first one thought of.
To achieve this, Nate utilizes three pillars when working with his clients. He helps them to understand their client’s pain, deliver a message that stands out, and capitalize on the valuable content they are creating.
Pillar 1 – Creating An Online Presence
Many people think they can just put up a page and the leads will begin to roll in, however, it takes much more than that to be successful with your online marketing. As the leader of your business, it’s important that you understand the psychology of your marketing so you can move people from their pain to a solution.
Our online presence will need to be different from your competition, letting your customers and clients know exactly how you are uniquely able to help them solve their problems.
Getting Great Testimonials
One of the first things Nate asks his clients to do is to provide testimonials from happy clients. It is one thing when you go out and try to sell your services, it is quite another when you have a 3rd party doing it for you.
If possible, get video testimonials that you can utilize in all sorts of ways on your site. When setting up online ads, you can have them point right to your testimonials page so potential clients can immediately see how others feel about you and your business.
Pillar 2 – Developing A Content Plan
Together with his clients, Nate will develop a strategic marketing plan, making a list of the content they would like to create. The content plan should always focus on caring, helping potential clients understand that your goal is to help them with their problems and needs. With so many people in the real estate space, it’s important to show that you are really solving problems and not just another company.
Video Content
As I’ve said repeatedly, content and credibility are key to help investors and agents stand out from the pack. One of the best ways to do this is through video content.
Video helps to quickly get your message out and will help people to feel like they actually know you. Your video content can then be transcribed and used on a blog and social media. A few examples of great video content include:
Interview with prominent real estate figures, community leaders, or related professionals in your area
Video testimonials that shed light on exactly what the problem was and how you were able to solve it
If you go to a property, take your phone out and take a quick 3-minute video showing people what you are looking for in a house
The beauty of video content is that you can get your message out there quickly and easily. All you need is a phone.
Pillar 3 – Amplifying The Valuable Content You Create
The great thing about testimonials and video content is that it gets all eyes onto your website. A video shot for Facebook can be added to a Youtube playlist. If can go up on your website and be turned into a blog using our quick and easy transcription service.
Segmenting Your Audience
A prominent tool for Nate and his team is Facebook Marketing. With Facebook ads, you are able to strategically target, and retarget potential customers to convey the message you want to get across.
For example, you can run a video ad for one week, then run a second ad only to the people who watched 25% of ad #1 in the past seven days. You can tweak this in all sorts of ways, segmenting by interest, major life events, and previous interest in your product.
Becoming A Celebrity
Using Facebook ads and other marketing channels, you can effectively become a celebrity in your industry and market. When you are able to get the right content to the right people on Facebook, then hitting them again on Youtube, and again with Google Ads, your face and business will pop up where ever they go online.
When you are consistently adding fresh content, you will keep people interested and prove to any skeptics that you are in fact real.
Finding The Who To Do The How
Marketing isn’t for everyone. People don’t always get excited by data and analytics. The good news is that you don’t have to do it all yourself. As Nate puts it… find the who to do the how.
If you don’t want to do the work yourself, find someone who does and is good at it. As an entrepreneur, you must understand how it all works and what needs to be done, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it all on your own.
We surveyed over 7,000 of our members to pinpoint the primary real estate investor websites and services that investors depend on in their day-to-day operations.
Demo Carrot: How many deals are you losing to your competitor’s website?
Investors use a variety of websites, tools, and services to gather information and generate leads.
In this article, we will analyze the top 10 real estate investor service websites in-depth. We show why these real estate investor websites are indispensable resources for individuals currently engaged in real estate investing and those contemplating entering this field.
On average, 7x higher lead to deal conversion AND $13,930.15 in EXTRA profit per deal.
Leads generated through Carrot real estate investor websites experience a remarkable 7x higher conversion rate and yield 2.5x greater profitability than leads from non-Carrot sources (discover more about this here).
We wholeheartedly embrace our core values, and when it comes to our members’ success, we take “Adapt, Evolve, & Always Improve” and “Add Humanity To Business” very seriously.
Our commitment extends to staying ahead of factors that impact lead generation. This includes developing new lead generation templates, staying abreast of Google’s algorithm updates, and relentless testing. Our goal is to continually uncover fresh and inventive methods to enhance the performance of our members’ websites.
Carrot continues to be an excellent option for real estate investors in 2024 for several compelling reasons:
High-Quality Real Estate Investor Websites: Carrot provides investors with the tools to create professional and high-converting real estate websites. These websites are designed to attract motivated sellers, cash buyers, and other potential leads. The platform offers a range of customizable templates to suit various investment strategies.
SEO Optimization:Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for online visibility. Carrot websites are SEO-optimized, helping investors rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract organic traffic. This can significantly reduce marketing costs and increase quality lead generation.
Content Marketing: Carrot offers content marketing features that enable investors to publish valuable, relevant, and engaging content on their websites. This content helps establish credibility, build trust with potential leads, and position investors as industry experts.
Lead Generation Tools: The platform provides lead generation tools and lead capture forms that prompt visitors to take action. Investors can capture contact information and other relevant details from potential sellers and buyers, allowing for personalized follow-up.
Conversion Optimization: Carrot is known for its focus on conversion rate optimization (CRO). The platform employs best practices and A/B testing to improve website conversion rates continually. This means more leads and potential deals for investors.
Mobile Responsiveness: With an increasing number of users accessing websites via mobile devices, Carrot ensures that its websites are mobile-responsive. This enhances the user experience and ensures investors don’t miss out on mobile traffic.
Educational Resources: Carrot provides investors with a wealth of educational resources, including blog posts, webinars, and guides. These resources help investors stay informed about industry trends, marketing strategies, and best practices.
Community and Support: Carrot has an active community of real estate investors who share insights, tips, and success stories. The platform offers customer support to assist users with technical or platform-related issues.
Integrated CRM: Carrot offers an in-house CRM for real estate, making it easy for investors to manage and follow up with their leads effectively. Carrot also integrates with other CRMs.
Performance Tracking: Carrot provides analytics and tracking tools that allow investors to monitor website performance, lead generation, and conversion metrics. This data-driven approach helps investors make informed decisions and refine their marketing strategies.
Customization Options: Carrot allows for extensive customization of websites, ensuring that they align with an investor’s unique brand and message. Investors can tailor their websites to specific niches and markets.
Competitive Pricing: Carrot offers pricing plans suitable for investors with various budgets, from beginners to seasoned professionals. Investors can choose plans that match their needs and scale as their business grows.
Carrot is a top choice for real estate investors due to its user-friendly website builder, SEO capabilities, content marketing tools, and commitment to conversion optimization.
The platform’s emphasis on education, community support, and mobile responsiveness makes it valuable for investors looking to establish a strong online presence and generate motivated seller leads in a competitive real estate market.
Roofstock is a compelling option for investors with real estate investor websites, especially those interested in single-family rental properties, due to its unique features and investor-focused approach. Here are some reasons why Roofstock is a good option:
Exclusive Marketplace for Single-Family Rental Properties: Roofstock offers single-family rental properties in various markets across the United States. Investors can browse various properties in different locations and find opportunities aligning with their investment goals.
Certified Pre-Owned Homes: Roofstock’s properties are “certified pre-owned,” meaning they have undergone a thorough inspection and evaluation process to ensure they are in good condition and rent-ready. Knowing they are investing in well-maintained properties gives investors peace of mind.
Tenant-Occupied Properties: One of the significant advantages of Roofstock is that many of its properties are already tenant-occupied. This allows investors to start earning rental income from residential properties from day one without the need to find and screen tenants themselves.
Transparent Property Information: Roofstock provides detailed property information, including financial projections, rental history, property reports, and inspection details. Investors can access all the essential data they need to make informed investment decisions.
Property Management Services: For investors who prefer a hands-off approach, Roofstock offers property management services through its network of vetted property managers. This service helps investors efficiently manage their rental properties and optimize rental income.
In-Depth Neighborhood Data: Roofstock provides extensive neighborhood data, including crime rates, school ratings, and other essential statistics. This information helps investors assess the desirability and potential for rental demand in specific locations.
Mashvisor is a fantastic option for real estate investors for several reasons:
Comprehensive Property Analytics: Mashvisor provides in-depth property analytics and data for traditional and Airbnb investment properties. Investors can access key metrics such as rental income, occupancy rates, cash flow, cap rate, and more, helping them make informed decisions about potential investments.
AI-Powered Investment Tools: The platform utilizes artificial intelligence to offer predictive analytics and investment insights. Mashvisor’s algorithms analyze vast amounts of real estate data to identify lucrative investment opportunities and forecast property performance.
Property Search and Analysis: Investors can easily search for properties that match their investment criteria using Mashvisor’s intuitive interface. The platform streamlines property analysis, saving investors time and effort in finding the best investment deals.
Neighborhood Analysis: Mashvisor provides comprehensive neighborhood analysis, including data on property prices, rental demand, and investment potential. This information helps investors identify high-growth areas and pinpoint locations that align with their investment goals.
Heatmap Feature: The platform’s feature allows investors to visualize the potential rental income and Airbnb occupancy rates across different neighborhoods. This visual representation aids in comparing and selecting the most lucrative locations for investment.
Investment Property Financing: Mashvisor offers tools to estimate mortgage payments and financing options for investment properties. This feature helps investors assess the financial feasibility of their investments accurately.
Property Management Insights: Investors can access data on property management fees, enabling them to factor in these costs while calculating potential returns. This information is particularly useful for investors considering hiring property management services.
Historical and Forecasted Data: Mashvisor provides historical and forecasted data on property performance, giving investors a long-term perspective on their investments’ potential appreciation and cash flow.
Property Comparisons: The platform allows investors to compare multiple investment properties side by side, facilitating quick and effective decision-making based on data-driven insights.
Investment Strategies: The platform caters to different investment strategies, including traditional rentals, Airbnb rentals, and short-term rentals. Investors can tailor their searches and analyses based on their preferred investment approach.
Stessa is an excellent option for real estate investors due to its comprehensive tools and features designed specifically for property management and real estate portfolio tracking. Here are some reasons why Stessa is a valuable platform for investors:
Portfolio Management Made Easy: Stessa simplifies the management of real estate portfolios by providing a centralized platform to track and monitor all properties in one place. Investors can easily view the performance of their entire portfolio at a glance, making it convenient to assess overall financial health.
Automated Income and Expense Tracking: Stessa automates the process of tracking income and expenses for each property. The platform integrates with bank accounts and property management software, automatically categorizing transactions and generating detailed financial reports. This feature saves investors significant time and effort on manual bookkeeping.
Property Performance Analytics: Stessa offers each property’s in-depth analytics and performance insights. Investors can access metrics such as cash flow, net operating income (NOI), cap rate, and return on investment (ROI), enabling them to make data-driven decisions to optimize their portfolio’s profitability.
Document Management: Stessa provides secure cloud storage for all property-related documents, including leases, vendor contracts, and property photos. This organized document management system ensures essential paperwork is readily accessible when needed.
Tax Reporting Made Simple: With Stessa’s accurate income and expense tracking, tax reporting becomes seamless for real estate investors. The platform generates detailed tax-ready reports, simplifying tax preparation and potentially reducing accounting costs.
Property Insights and Alerts: Stessa’s platform includes AI-powered insights and alerts that notify investors about potential issues or opportunities within their portfolios. These proactive alerts help investors stay on top of maintenance needs, rent collection, lease expirations, and more.
Integration with Other Tools: Stessa seamlessly integrates with various popular property management and accounting software, allowing users to connect their existing tools and consolidate data for a more holistic portfolio view.
BatchLeads remains a strong option for real estate investors in 2024 due to its robust lead generation capabilities, customization options, and integrated marketing and lead management tools. Its focus on data accuracy and off-market opportunities makes it a valuable asset for investors seeking to identify and capitalize on motivated seller leads in a competitive real estate market.
High-Quality Leads: BatchLeads provides access to a vast database of high-quality real estate leads. Investors can target motivated sellers, distressed properties, vacant homes, and more. The platform’s extensive data coverage ensures investors have a wide range of lead options.
Customized List Building: Investors can create customized marketing lists tailored to their investment criteria. This customization allows for precise targeting, enabling investors to focus on properties that align with their strategies.
Off-Market Opportunities: BatchLeads offers access to off-market leads, properties not actively listed on the MLS. This gives investors a competitive advantage, as they can identify opportunities before they become widely available to other buyers.
Skip Tracing: The platform includes skip tracing services, helping investors locate and contact property owners efficiently. Skip tracing can be valuable for contacting motivated sellers and negotiating deals.
Integrated CRM: BatchLeads has a built-in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Investors can manage their leads, track interactions, and streamline communication, improving efficiency in lead management.
Direct Mail and Marketing Tools: The platform offers integrated direct mail and marketing features, allowing investors to create and send targeted marketing campaigns. This feature simplifies reaching out to potential sellers and engaging with leads.
Property Details and Analytics: BatchLeads provides comprehensive property details, ownership history, transaction history, and more. Investors can access valuable property insights to make informed investment decisions.
Data Accuracy: Data accuracy is crucial in real estate investing. BatchLeads strongly emphasizes data quality, helping investors avoid wasting time and resources on inaccurate or outdated information.
Integration Capabilities: The platform may offer integrations with other real estate software and tools, enhancing its functionality and compatibility with an investor’s existing toolkit.
DealMachine is a valuable tool and platform that can greatly benefit real estate investors for several reasons:
Driving for Dollars Technology: DealMachine’s unique “Driving for Dollars” technology enables investors to find distressed or off-market properties by driving around neighborhoods. The app uses the phone’s GPS to identify properties and provides immediate access to property owner information for follow-up.
Direct Mail Marketing: DealMachine specializes in direct mail marketing for real estate investors. The platform allows investors to easily create and send personalized postcards to property owners in targeted areas. This direct mail approach can effectively generate leads and identify potential investment opportunities.
Lead Generation and Acquisition: With DealMachine, investors can use the platform’s built-in property research tools to find properties with investment potential. The app’s features, such as property information, owner contact details, and property history, help investors assess the viability of each lead and make informed decisions.
CRM Integration: DealMachine seamlessly integrates with popular customer relationship management (CRM) systems, allowing investors to manage leads, track progress, and streamline their workflow efficiently.
In-App Communication: The platform offers a built-in messaging system that enables investors to connect directly with property owners through text messaging or direct mail. This direct communication feature can help establish a rapport with potential sellers and increase the chances of successful negotiations.
Lead Scoring and Tracking: DealMachine provides lead-scoring tools to prioritize potential deals based on specified criteria. This feature helps investors focus on the most promising opportunities and manage their time effectively.
Property Analysis: DealMachine offers property analysis tools to help investors evaluate potential deals. By accessing property details and historical data, investors can make informed decisions and assess a property’s potential return on investment.
Mobile Accessibility: As a mobile app, DealMachine provides the flexibility and convenience for investors to manage their real estate activities on the go. Whether driving for dollars, analyzing properties, or communicating with owners, investors can access the platform from their smartphones or tablets.
BiggerPockets is a highly regarded and valuable resource for real estate investors for the following reasons:
Knowledge Hub: BiggerPockets is a vast knowledge hub for real estate investors at all levels of experience. The platform offers a wide range of educational content, including articles, blog posts, podcasts, videos, and forums, covering various aspects of the real estate investing journey.
Community and Networking: BiggerPockets boasts one of the largest and most active real estate investing communities. Investors can connect with like-minded individuals, network with experienced professionals, and participate in discussions to gain insights and valuable advice.
Forums and Q&A: The platform’s forums and Q&A sections allow investors to ask questions and seek guidance on specific real estate investment topics. Users can receive input from experienced investors, mentors, and industry experts.
Real Estate Calculators: BiggerPockets offers a suite of real estate investment calculators, enabling investors to perform in-depth financial analysis on potential properties. These calculators help users evaluate market data, cash flow, return on investment, and other crucial metrics.
Marketplace: The BiggerPockets Marketplace provides a platform for buying, selling, and finding investment properties. Investors can access a wide range of real estate deals, including off-market properties and opportunities from other community members.
Supportive Community Culture: The platform fosters a positive and supportive community culture, encouraging investors to share their successes, failures, and lessons learned, creating a space for continuous learning and growth.
SparkRental is a good option for real estate investors for several reasons:
Tenant Screening Services: SparkRental provides comprehensive tenant screening services, allowing investors to make informed decisions when selecting tenants for their rental properties. This feature helps minimize the risk of rental income loss and potential property damage.
Rent Collection and Payment Services: The platform offers rent collection and payment services, streamlining the rental management process for landlords. This feature ensures timely and hassle-free rent payments for both landlords and tenants.
Rental Property Analysis Tools: SparkRental provides advanced rental property analysis tools that help investors assess the potential profitability of prospective investments. These tools include cash flow calculators, cap rate calculators, and investment property analysis reports.
Landlord Forms and Documents: The website offers a collection of landlord forms and documents, such as lease agreements and rental applications, saving investors valuable time and effort in creating these documents from scratch.
Focus on Passive Income: The platform emphasizes passive income strategies, guiding investors on how to build a portfolio that generates reliable and consistent rental income over time.
Personal Finance Tools: Besides real estate-specific tools, SparkRental offers personal finance resources and budgeting tools, allowing investors to manage their finances more effectively and make informed investment decisions.
PropStream empowers investors to rapidly create precise leads and marketing lists by leveraging over 120 property search filters and statuses. Whether you prefer customizing your filters or opting for pre-defined quick lists, our platform is your gateway to identifying motivated sellers, whether their properties are currently on the market or off-market.
PropStream remains a great choice for real estate investors in 2024 due to several key reasons:
Motivated Seller Leads: PropStream provides access to both on-market and off-market property listings. This is particularly valuable for investors seeking motivated sellers who might not actively advertise their properties. Access to off-market listings can give investors a competitive edge in finding lucrative deals.
Comprehensive Property Details: PropStream provides comprehensive property details, including ownership history, transaction history, tax information, and more. This wealth of information equips investors with the knowledge to negotiate favorable deals.
Integration Capabilities: It offers integration options with various real estate tools and software, enhancing its versatility and compatibility with an investor’s existing toolkit.
Extensive Data: PropStream offers access to an extensive database of real estate information. With over 120 property search filters, investors can narrow their leads to target specific properties matching their investment criteria. This wealth of data enables investors to make well-informed decisions.
Customization: The platform allows users to set their filters and criteria, tailoring their searches to their unique investment strategies. Whether you’re looking for distressed properties, foreclosures, or specific property types, PropStream can be customized to meet your needs.
Market Insights: PropStream offers valuable market insights and analytics. Investors can analyze property trends, neighborhood data, and market statistics to identify emerging opportunities and make informed decisions.
Time and Cost Efficiency: By streamlining the lead generation process, PropStream helps investors save time and resources. It eliminates manual research and allows investors to focus on deal analysis and negotiation.
RealtyMogul is an excellent real estate investor website option due to its innovative approach to crowdfunding and investment opportunities. Here are several reasons why RealtyMogul.com is a standout choice for investors:
Diverse Investment Opportunities: RealtyMogul offers many investment opportunities, including commercial properties, residential assets, and specialized real estate projects. Investors can choose from various deals, allowing them to tailor their portfolio to their specific investment preferences.
Access to Institutional-Quality Deals: The platform curates investment opportunities from reputable real estate sponsors and partners. These projects undergo rigorous due diligence, providing investors with high-quality deals typically with institutional-grade investments.
Passive Real Estate Investing: RealtyMogul enables investors to participate in real estate deals passively. Investors can co-invest with experienced real estate professionals, leaving the day-to-day management and operational responsibilities to the experts.
Investor Protection: RealtyMogul places a strong emphasis on investor protection. The platform conducts thorough underwriting and risk assessment for each deal, aiming to align investor interests with the success of the projects.
Low Minimum Investments: RealtyMogul offers relatively low minimum investment amounts, making it accessible to a broader range of investors. This feature allows individuals to diversify their investments across multiple projects, even with a modest initial capital.
Streamlined Investment Process: RealtyMogul simplifies the investment process, making it convenient for investors to participate in projects that align with their investment goals. The platform handles administrative tasks, allowing investors to focus on building their portfolios.
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs): In addition to individual property investments, RealtyMogul offers access to Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). REITs allow investors to pool their funds with others to invest in a diverse portfolio of real estate assets, providing further diversification and liquidity.
Exploring the extensive landscape of real estate investor websites can be overwhelming. Some websites focus on educating investors about the real estate industry and fostering peer connections.
With these cutting-edge technology-driven platforms, you take charge of your investment choices, determining where your funds are allocated and the depth of your financial involvement. Some platforms prioritize lead generation, while others excel in market analysis, property selection, and simplifying the investment journey.
We’re interested in hearing about the tools you rely on, too. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below; we’re eager to learn about your preferences and experiences.
