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5 Real Estate Market Predictions (And What They Mean For The Agent And Investor)

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Every year, the real estate market changes. And sometimes, it changes faster than you thought it was going to. 20 years ago, agents and investors didn’t have real estate websites — they relied on the talk of the town and coffee-shop conversations to generate business. Of course, that is still partly true today, but with a twist: If you’re not online … then you’re behind the curve and you’re likely losing a steady amount of potential business. Not because you suck at your job, but because people can’t find you where they’re looking: online. That, though, is just one example of how the real estate industry is changing. That doesn’t mention constantly fluctuating inventory and interest rates or technological advancements (like drones and 3D house walkthroughs). Clearly, you have a lot to keep track of. To help, though, here are five real estate market predictions that we here at Carrot and some of the top real estate investors working with us are expecting to see. 1. Inventory Will Increase Slightly Over the past few years, the U.S. has consistently broken the record for lowest inventory. For instance, Forbes reports that, in 2010, inventory sat just under one million, at 967,604. The most recent count puts that number at 653,347. As you already know, that low inventory means you need to be careful with your investments. It drives the cost of homes upward with bidding wars and the number of opportunities downward. Fortunately, there’s good news on the horizon. Samantha Sharf, Forbes columnist, continues… “The general consensus is that inventory will pick up slightly. The biggest reason for this modest optimism is that the current situation is unsustainable. Prices cannot rise faster than wages forever. Plus, life events will eventually force reluctant sellers off the sidelines.” And she’s not alone in her prediction. Danielle Hale, the chief economist for Realtor.com, says, “The majority of the year should be challenging for most buyers, but we do expect growth in inventory starting in the fall… We expect the relief to start in the upper tiers, and it will make its way down to the lower tiers.” The beginning of the year likely won’t see much change, but, by the end of the year, here’s to hoping that inventory starts on an upward slope — even if it’s slight. 2. Renting Will Become A More Popular Option With the cost of housing surging in certain areas, we’ll likely see an increase in the portion of people who choose to rent instead of buy. CNBC reports that, “In the nation’s top 50 markets, half of the housing stock is now considered overvalued, based on market fundamentals, like income and employment.” When the price of housing moves upward, more people, generally speaking, look to renting options rather than buying options. This, of course, depends on your location and requires that you understand the place where you invest. Overall, though, expect renters to flood the market. Jason Bible, real estate investor in Houston, says that he’s going to try and get his hands on as many rentals as he can this year. “We buy over 100 houses a year and this year I will buy as many rentals as I can get my hands on. In fact, I am going to buy some of them at 100% retail with a 20% down loan.” You might want to consider doing the same. 3. Home Buyers Will Be Even More Tech Savvy The real estate market moves fast. But the tech world — driven in large part by social media, a mobile-first culture, and ecommerce trends shaping the future … Continued

EP 81: 2017 Carrot Year-End Review – Looking Back On An Accomplished Year

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As with 2016, 2017 was a banner year here at Carrot and our customers. Here’s a brief snapshot of some great things that happened in 2017. It was an exceptional year for our Carrot members and another year of HUGE growth for our team and company. With the intention of amplifying our members and “Add humanity back to business and help people regain more precious time for the things that matter in life.” Let’s recap some of the cool stuff in this quick post! Watch the CarrotCast 2017 Recap with Trevor and Chris Listen to the CarrotCast 2017 Recap with Trevor and Chris 2017 Carrot Year-End Review Carrot members crushed lead generation  9 awesome new features released The CarrotCast Podcast continues to inspire Customer Success team worked their tails off Our team grew (again) and continues to be the innovators of our industry … and more! Here we go! Hundreds Of Thousands Of Leads … You’re Crushing It! You guys made another forceful charge in 2017. With over 270,000 leads coming in this year (when you DON’T count phone call leads… which we can’t track in Google Analytics currently) you’re pulling in more PPC, SEO, and social media online leads as a collective group than any other real estate investor lead generation platform… by far. Keep crushing it! 52% via Mobile Devices Which States Converted More Leads? Well…  9 Major NEW Features Launched Another Core Value of ours is “Consistent Improvement and Innovation“… and both our members and Carrot continued to push this value. In addition to the features, we released in 2017 to help our clients spend less time hassling and time more time focusing on their business … New Innovative Features we rolled out in 2017 include (but not limited to)… Advanced marketer plan Keyword ranking tracking Stats V2 Lead manager sessions (merging) App cluster upgrades (hosting) AgentCarrot And here’s one of the coolest/most effective marketing features for our members that we launched just last week … Check It Out: Carrot VideoPost Transcription Carrot’s VideoPost Feature – Turn Your Videos Into SEO Content In Minutes… Enjoy :-) We’re Building a Following for the CarrotCast Podcast We had many amazing comments about the CarrotCast come through our Awesomeness channel this year. Here’s just a couple … I’m hooked on CarrotCast! The latest interview with the entrepreneur from Germany… was pure awesomeness. A lot of helpful tips about real estate as well as good advice on balancing family life. Keep up the great work! Tucker C P.S. you’ve built a great company, you should be very proud. I listen to your carrotcast pods and really appreciate what you guys do. Nice to have a customer focused company in the industry, and your culture is admirable. Cheers! William W Top 10 CarrotCast Episodes of 2017 EP 56: [Case Study] From Junior High School Teacher to $80k/Month Investor in a Competitive Market. How Brian Rockwell Uses Patience and Planning for His Success It’s awesome because once you know the formula of how to do this, its just do it again and keep going and going and see how you can grow it. Brian Rockwell EP 31: Facebook Marketing Tips for Real Estate Investors + Agents w/ Kiley Newbold Your first month of online marketing typically is going to be one of your hardest and least productive because you’re really cutting new trail everywhere you go. Kiley Newbold EP 43: An SEO Master Breaks Down How He Closes 2-3 Real Estate Deals A Month From SEO In A Competitive Market w/ Dave Brown I knew from my background that once I did the work, it would keep returning a benefit to … Continued

NEW: Announcing VideoPost – Turn Your Videos Into SEO Content In Minutes…

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This blog post took us 80% LESS time to create than a normal blog post… because we did it with the assistance of Carrot’s new VideoPost tool. See what VideoPost is, and how it can be a game-changer for your content marketing in 2017. We’re insanely excited to announce a brand new feature. We’ve actually been using this process to cut our content marketing time down by 80%, increase our traffic, and help our clients do the same. I’m going to walk you through this new feature that we call VideoPost, what it helps you do, and how we came up with this content marketing method to automate and make your life simpler. Introducing Carrot’s Automatic Video Transcription… VideoPost’s VideoPost helps you turn simple videos into powerful written content that Google loves in just minutes vs. hours. 3/4 of this blog post was created with our VideoPost feature, saving us over 60 minutes vs. writing manually. Let’s dive in to see how you can start using VideoPost today. (click to play video, OR read the article below)  VideoPost came about by us trying to solve our own problem a year and a half ago. As you know, it takes time to sit down and craft content or it takes money to hire it out to have someone else do it. Content and SEO are our number one source of leads here at Carrot, but it’s also the number one source of leads for our Carrot clients. We know that content marketing is effective in the real estate market, but can we put out great content with less time and energy? So we asked the question… How do we make it so it’s so simple and easy that you want to do content every single week?” Especially when you’re in competitive markets, one of the best ways to crack through that clutter and to gain an advantage is to build credibility and your expertise. And the best way to do that is through content, except most people don’t have the time to do written content. VideoPost Simplifies All Of That For You – An Example: G. Stiles Realty Let’s say you’re in a small town like Roseburg, Oregon. This is actually one of our AgentCarrot client’s G. Stiles, and they were having a tough time with their content marketing strategy as well. We went to them and we said… “Hey, go out on site and film a short 3-8 minute video walking people through some information that’s going to help them and be useful for them in that scenario.” One of their specialties is in farmland and in some other agricultural-type properties, so they went there, filmed the video, and then uploaded it to YouTube. We then had the video transcribed word for word and made a blog post for them (this was before our VideoPost feature, so it took a bit longer). Here’s Denny’s Three And A Half Minute “On The Job Content” Video He recorded it of him on the farmland giving tips and talking about buying farmland in Roseburg, Oregon. We Then Turned The Video Into A Content Rich Article That Google Loves This particular example was long before we created VideoPost to automate the process. We then manually submitted it to a transcription service, brought it back, copied and pasted it into their blog, bolded a couple of things for readability, separated some of the paragraphs, put a link in there, and then we put a clear call to action at the end of it. Less than five minutes of editing in total. About 30-45 minutes to submit the video for transcription, pay for it, get it back in a Word document, bring it to their Carrot site, … Continued

EP 74: How April Acquired 40+ Units and Flips 10+ Houses Per Year in Pennsylvania w/ April Crossley

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Listen to the CarrotCast Podcast and Subscribe Below! Sellers will call and say you know I have 10 letters on my desk. So of those 10 letters what makes you stand out? How are you personalizing that letter? And, how are you connecting with that seller like no one else is? That’s what I think about when I create my marketing. April Crossley April Crossley has almost been with Carrot from the beginning. April shares how she has grown her business and made the leap into real estate full-time after leaving a high-paying medical career. She also reveals how she’s now built up her portfolio of rental properties to dozens of properties. Also, find out her direct mail strategy and how she leverages her online real estate investing with Carrot to amplify her business. Listen, enjoy, and check out more CarrotCast episodes at carrotcast.com. Listen to the CarrotCast Podcast Listen in to learn how April combines her online real estate investing with direct mail to acquire 40 + units and 10+ flips per year. 1:15 – Who is April Crossley? Where is her real estate investing business located, and what does her team look like? 4:15 – Breaking down her whiteboard notes and schedule structure. How she stays on task. 8:15 – What was that “aha” moment when she decided to shift from a high-level healthcare career to real estate investing?  14:00 – Viewing risk differently. How April sees risks differently than most people. Also, how long it took for her to feel safe to leave her job? 18:00 – If she had kept her medical license, would she have slipped back into that career? 20:00 – Breaking down her business model. What does her mix of rentals and flips look like right now, and why does she have that strategy? 24:40 – In a competitive market, where is she finding her properties? Online and offline? 25:50 – April’s direct mail strategy. What types of messages does she put in her letters? She gets creative and puts much thought into the message and design. 33:35 – How she builds credibility with her prospects. 38:45 – What made her feel like she needed a web presence? How is having a website helping her investing business? 41:20 – Why building credibility in real estate is so important. 45:10 – What she is seeing from her online leads. Has she seen a difference in quality or closure rate between her online vs. offline leads? 46:45 – How did she get such high SEO rankings, and what was involved in that process? 49:05 – What advice would she give to a student who has decided to start investing but is very hesitant? How would she get them to push through? 51:45 – What advice would she give someone who needs to start a website for online real estate investing? Find more about April Crossley on Facebook @Lazy Girl Real Estate Investing

4 Most Important SEO Ranking Factors for Real Estate From a 10,000 Foot View

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There is a lot that goes into search engine optimization, but in actuality, there’s only really a few things that will move the lever for you. The things that will be important and help you get results. That’s what we’re going to focus on in this post. We’re trying to give you the action items and the understanding of how it works and what you need to do to actually get results. Watch the Video or Read the Post Below From a 10,000-foot Point of View, What’s the Most Important Part of SEO? First of all, there are four main parts of SEO. This introduction is all about really getting your head around what SEO is, how it works if you really want to learn the craft of SEO. SEO Ranking Factors for Real Estate #1: URL First of all, you’ve got what’s called the URL factors. The URL is your domain name. That’s things like how long your domain name has been owned by you. How long the website’s been up online. Those are things that matter. The site structure of the website. Is the website set up correctly with your URL? That’s something we’ve already built into Carrot. If you have a website outside of Carrot, that’s something you might be concerned about. There’s a bunch of other things, like site structure, like I said, domain lifespan, search engine friendly URLs. All of that stuff except for domain lifespan is built into Carrot to make your life easier. As your website stays online longer, it ages, and Google likes it. Here’s a screenshot of a website. Klamathfallsapartments.net. That’s the URL. I have owned that domain for several years, and if I was to go up a different website that Google felt was very similar as far as optimized in content, and my URL was owned for let’s say 10 years, and this one was brand new, I would definitely get a boost and some sort of credit for having a domain that has been owned and up and online longer. The longer that you own the domain, the more authority that Google will feel that your website potentially has. That’s one factor to always keep in your mind. That if you just purchased a domain, and you’re just attaching it to a new website, you’re going up against other websites that have been around for longer. We can definitely accelerate the process of ranking well using what we’re going to teach you, but some part of the equation may be that your domain might just need to age a little bit to get that ranking up. Be patient with some of the things. Make sure that you recognize that if you’re not seeing your ranking crack through and you’re doing everything else right, and your website is new, it may be domain age is part of it. You want to keep a nice, simple URL structure. That’s a good thing. Complicated is a bad thing. This is the way that we have it built out in our Carrot websites already, so if you’re a member, you don’t have to worry about this. If you’re not a member, if you have another website platform or you built one yourself, this is something you’re going to want to pay attention to. A simple URL structure will be something like: yoursite.com/sell-my-atlanta-house, or yoursite.com/how-it-works. On the flip side, something that’s complicated that Google doesn’t like is too many forward slashes in your URL: your-site.com/sell/sellingyourhouse/boston That’s just not a very friendly URL. Google doesn’t like that as much. Or having weird characters in your … Continued

Real Estate Marketing Online: How to Rule With SEO In Competitive Markets [Whiteboard]

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Transcript Are you operating in a really competitive market like a Houston or a Dallas or just a large market where there’s a lot of competition? Well, a lot of our clients are and every single week we do coaching calls on every Tuesday at 11 o’clock Pacific time for our care customers who are in content pro membership or above. And one of the main questions we get on a really consistent basis is, “Man, I’m in a crazy, competitive market. There’s a lot of other investors, investing there, and there’s a lot of other care clients there. Can I crack through it and how do I do it? The first answer is, “100% yes, you can.” That sounds like a political stump that I just did there, yes you can, yes you can do it, we have clients every single day who are going out there implementing the plan we lay out on these whiteboard strategy sketches, on our coaching calls in our training’s and in, through support and they follow these methods I’m going to show you to get that result. So I want you to know that it can be done, but you gotta follow this to a T and don’t come complaining to me if it doesn’t work if you don’t do these. Online Real Estate Marketing in Competitive Markets OK, so here we go. So if you’re in a competitive market I’m gonna be kind of walking you through, how do you get in that search result for search engine optimization but also just in search in general, to get those consistent stream of leads coming in to fuel your business because when you’re in a large market like that you really can go deep in that market like we’ve talked about in other whiteboard strategy sketches you can go deep, and you can focus just in that market for the first year and get 30-40-50-60 leads a month if you really hit it hard, okay? And that can fuel your entire business 2-4-5-6-10 deals a month if you do it right. OK? So we want to get you here first of all, and we want to get you there through paid and through SEO in the competitive market. It’s going to be really hard to get really consistent, and a lot of momentum with just SEO okay? PPC is great, but you can stack on SEO to really add momentum over that year and this is kind of what we want to do. We’ve done a whiteboard Strategy Sketch on this exact topic before go check out youtube, go to YouTube.com and then go look up InvestorCarrot, find our channel, the first thing you need to do is subscribe to our channel the second thing you need to do is go search our channel for a video I think it’s called the 90-day marketing plan or something like that where we layout in a lot more detail what you should do in the first 90 days in any market to have leads coming in and to set yourself in a really, really solid foundation, okay? But we’re gonna give an abbreviated version of that today. So you’ve got here, and you’ve got twelve months out there and if you’re in a large market the first thing you need to do is we need to know that it’s going to take time, and we need to have a lot of patience, okay? Because with SEO, search engine optimization large market, it’s probably going to take you between 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 plus months … Continued

How To Build Local Real Estate Citations For Agents & Investors

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Local real estate citations are an important local SEO ranking factor and an integral piece for your real estate marketing framework. Along with other factors such as backlinks, local citations are one of the leading ranking factors for search engines to decide on the relevance of your website for local search results. Basically, a real estate business that is consistently mentioned on other trusted and relevant websites achieve higher rankings in search results than a business that is never mentioned. Obviously, ranking high for search results means that more potential leads will find your real estate website, which will have a positive impact on both on and offline traffic, branding, and conversions. Use the following local real estate citations tips and add them to your Local SEO Tips for Your Real Estate Marketing playbook. Doing this ONE SIMPLE THING may help push you over the edge and could very well be one of the most effective SEO things you do this spring. Get an advantage with your Carrot site and learn how to drive quality traffic to your site. What Are Local Real Estate Citations? First, don’t confuse citations with links. Remember, citations are just mentions of your name, address, and phone number. Google will increase your business’s relevance and strength within your specific city or region. Yes, some of your business listings within the citation sites include a link to your website, but very few contribute to any Page Rank or “link juice”. Basically, you are claiming your digital footprint with Citations. Moz explains local citations as: Citations are defined as mentions of your business name and address on other webpages—even if there is no link to your website. An example of a citation might be an online yellow pages directory where your business is listed, but not linked to. Citations can also be found on local chamber of commerce pages, or on a local business association page that includes your business information, even if they are not linking at all to your website. Citations are a key component of the ranking algorithms in Google and Bing. Other factors being equal, businesses with a greater number of citations will probably rank higher than businesses with fewer citations. Citations from well-established and well-indexed portals (i.e., Superpages.com) help increase the degree of certainty the search engines have about your business’s contact information and categorization. To paraphrase former Arizona Cardinals’ coach Dennis Green, citations help search engines confirm that businesses “are who we thought they were!” Google is always looking for websites that are real. Citations are one way to show Google that you’re a legit and real company. Why Are Local Real Estate Citations So Important For SEO? So, why are building citations for local SEO so important? One reason is the vastly growing mobile search factor. According to a study done by Search Engine Land, 78% of local searches on mobile and 61% of local searches on laptops resulted in offline transactions. Mobile devices (not counting tablets) account for over 56% of our member leads. There will continue to be a steady rise in consumer and company adoption of mobile devices. It’s not a question anymore if mobile is important for real estate. It’s here and you MUST pay attention to it. Another reason: Citations Correlate with Search Rankings Local citations improve your search rankings through ongoing creation of relevant and consistent NAP information (name, address, phone number) across hundreds of websites, also known as citation sources. The more consistent, relevant and localized your citations are, the more likely your business will be at ranking for people searching for your services and products in your … Continued

Real Estate Conversion Copywriting: How To Sell The “Click” With Your Meta Description And SEO Title

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When it comes to online real estate marketing, your website’s visibility on search engines like Google can make or break your lead generation efforts. But visibility alone isn’t enough—you need to convince users to actually click on your listing in the search results. This is where your SEO title and meta description come into play. These two elements are your first—and sometimes only—opportunity to make a strong impression. In just a few words, they have to convey the value you offer, speak directly to the needs of potential sellers or buyers, and drive them to take action. For real estate investors, who often rely on capturing the attention of motivated sellers, mastering this art can lead to a consistent stream of high-quality leads. Why Meta Tags Matter in Real Estate Meta descriptions and SEO titles are not just placeholders for keywords. They act as the “ad copy” for your search engine results. Well-written tags can directly influence Click-Through Rate (CTR), which is the percentage of users who click on your result when it appears on the search engine results page (SERP). How Meta Tags Influence Click-Through Rates (CTR) For real estate investors, your leads often come from sellers in distress or urgency, whether it’s due to foreclosure, repairs, or financial issues. The more targeted and reassuring your title and description are, the higher your chances of converting that curiosity into a lead. What You’ll Learn In this blog, we’ll break down the steps to craft high-converting SEO titles and meta descriptions that: By following these tactics, you’ll be able to create optimized meta tags that not only improve your search rankings but also increase CTR, leading to a steady stream of motivated leads ready to sell or invest in real estate. Let’s dive in! Understanding SEO Titles and Meta Descriptions What is an SEO Title? An SEO title is the clickable headline of your webpage that appears on search engine results pages (SERPs). It serves two major purposes: SEO titles are a crucial ranking factor because they give search engines important clues about the content of your page. However, they also play a pivotal role in determining your Click-Through Rate (CTR). A well-crafted title that aligns with a user’s search intent can convince them to choose your result over others, regardless of where it ranks. For example, a user searching for “sell my house fast in ” is more likely to click a title that addresses their exact need, such as: “Sell Your House Fast in | No Fees, No Hassles” This title speaks directly to their problem and offers a solution upfront. Connection Between SEO Titles, Rankings, and CTR SEO titles influence rankings by incorporating target keywords that search engines use to understand your page’s relevance to a search query. While rankings are important, a high ranking without a compelling title won’t generate clicks. In the real estate investing space, where competition is fierce, your title must capture the urgency and pain points of motivated sellers to stand out. For instance, a title like: “We Buy Houses in Fast | Get a Cash Offer Today” not only ranks well for keyword searches like “we buy houses,” but also appeals to homeowners who need to sell quickly. How SEO Titles Are Shown on SERPs (Example) Let’s look at an example of a real estate-related search: Search Query: “Sell my house fast in Dallas” SEO Title Example:Sell Your House Fast in Dallas | No Repairs, No Fees, Cash Offers This title uses important keywords—”Sell Your House Fast in Dallas”—while also offering solutions like “No Repairs, No Fees,” which address common seller … Continued

EP 56: [Case Study] From Teacher to $80k/Month Wholesaling Real Estate in a Competitive Market With 100% Online Leads w/ Carrot Client Brian Rockwell

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Listen to the CarrotCast Podcast and Subscribe Below! It’s awesome because once you know the formula of how to do this, its just do it again and keep going and going and see how you can grow it.Brian Rockwell I always get excited when I get to do these types of CarrotCasts when I bring on a client of ours who has a great, great story. And the client that I’m bringing on in this episode is Brian Rockwell. This CarrotCast is pretty compelling and hopefully, it’s going to speak to everyone about patience and swift and focused execution when you decide to make things happen. He didn’t use the excuses of, “There’s way too much competition.” He didn’t use the excuses of, “I already see Carrot sites everywhere.” He didn’t use any excuses of “I’ve never done a deal.” He went out there, executed according to what we laid out, our plan for him. He executed it. He carved out time to study. He carved out time to implement, he carved out a budget, and he did $80,000 in wholesale fees in March. You’re also going to be able to learn how he’s executed like mad as a newer investor, not having all the advantages that you do with experience and credibility and how he went after and executed with one marketing plan, on one way of getting clients now with building up momentum over the long term with another way of getting clients, and how he’s turning those into profits. He eliminated emotion from his wholesaling real estate decisions by setting a solid marketing budget that is 100% based off of data and math. Magically that turned into amazing results for him. You’re going to love his story, how he went from junior high teacher and baseball coach, and a 12-year journey on starting being a real estate investor from thinking about it to taking the action on it. So listen to this episode of the CarrotCast and check out the other episodes at carrotcast.com. Listen to the Podcast Listen in and hear how Brian took action and within three months he’s doing $80,000 a month in revenue from online marketing… 1:35 – Who is Brian Rockwell? 3:00 – What originally got Brian locked into real estate and his 12-year journey. 7:20 – Closing the first deal and what his business strategy looks like right now. 12:25 – Breaking down the online marketing mindset. 14:45 – Dissecting Brian’s formula for wholesaling real estate success.  18:05 – Why his About page on his Carrot site has been effective in building credibility. 20:55 – The importance of integrity and customer service — building a set of strong core values. 23:55 – Why it’s so darn important to utilize testimonials to build credibility. 27:00 – Going from an SEO mindset to PPC in one of the most competitive markets in the country. How long it took Brian to start closing PPC deals. 30:30 – Brian’s PPC budget and the formula he uses to expand upon that budget. 36:05 – How he found Carrot and why he decided to commit to the Carrot system. 38:25 – What is Brian’s “Why” and some of his big goals. 41:25 – “Having a greater impact on the world” – Entrepreneurship done right. 44:35 – Why sellers have chosen to work with him and how his website has factored. 45:45 – What hesitations he had with Carrot before joining. 48:30 –  Brian’s final advice for someone searching for wholesaling real estate success – “Trust the Carrot System.”