🚀 Game-Changing CRM AI Never Lift a Finger Again - Revolutionary Features Coming! Be The First to Know →

Proper Text and Image Attribution: How To Avoid a Law Suit So You Don’t Lose $50,000

A Carrot member recently canceled. And when someone cancels their membership with us, they have the option of including details as to why they’re canceling. Just so happens he did include some details — here’s what he said (In this instance, Carrot did not provide the images that they chose to put on their website): “Lawsuit for copyrighted images required me to dissolve my LLC and not sure what’s next so I am canceling my account. Please confirm I will not be billed this month my business account does not have enough funds to cover the auto draft.” Good night.  One day you’re operating a perfectly healthy real estate business… and the next day someone is suing you for using their images on your website. Unfortunately for unsuspecting victims who made a one-time mistake like the member above, the penalty for copyright infringement is no joke. According to Copyright.gov… “Anyone found to have infringed a copyrighted work may be liable for statutory damages up to $30,000 for each work infringed and, if willful infringement is proven by the copyright owner, that amount may be increased up to $150,000 for each work infringed. In addition, an infringer of a work may also be liable for the attorney’s fees incurred by the copyright owner to enforce his or her rights.” It’s no surprise then, that this member wasn’t able to continue doing business. That’s a big hit to the financial well-being of any real estate business. A hit that you need not encounter. Which is why we put this article together for you. To explain copyright law, show you the risks of breaking it, and then show you how you can safely share images and quote other people’s content. Let’s get started. Current Copyright Laws: What You Can and Can’t Do I’m going to start with some copyright safety standards that should be obvious… but just to be safe. You should never copy someone else’s content word-for-word without quotation marks, proper attribution (Who said it? When did they say it? Where did they say it?), and a link — if possible — to the place where they said it (to create a hyperlink, use Command + K on Mac or Control + K on Windows). You should never use another website’s screenshot or image on your website without proper attribution (At the very least, a link to where you got the image — see our Carrot articles for examples of this). You should never use another person’s image or photograph if it is exclusively copyrighted and not allowed to be used by anyone else. Follow those three rules and you’ll be mostly safe. Emphasis on “mostly.” The truth is, online copyright laws are painfully ill-defined. Here’s how Anna C at TinyTake puts it: “Screen captures and image use on both private and personal blog use is common practice. Since the internet offers an easy to access collective of useful images and information, the line can be blurred on what is considered fair use and what is considered copyright infringement. Courts have refused to set bright-line rules regarding what is fair use. This is mainly because the Fair Use Doctrine was codified as part of the Copyright Act (Title 17) to address potential rigid application of copyright laws that could otherwise infringe on the very creative works the law was designed to promote. Since its implementation, courts have struggled to how to apply this doctrine consistently. One federal judge has been quoted as saying that, ‘fair use is one of the most unsettling areas of the law. The doctrine has been said to be so flexible as to virtually defy definition.’” … Continued

EP 154: From Dealing Drugs to Flipping Houses – How I built A Booming Wholesaling Business w/ Steve Londeau

  “First, just believing that it’s possible is absolutely huge. If you don’t truly believe you can do it, it will never happen for you.” Steve Londeau, House Full of Cash Sometimes all we need is a little inspiration…someone, further down the road to guide us. Let Steve Londeau be that guy. Growing up in Detroit, Steve got off to a rough start but soon realized he had the ability to change his life. Real Estate was his vehicle of change. He’s built a very successful wholesaling business that has set his family of 7 financially free. Hear his story where he walks you through his tactics, his marketing methods, how he built a team, AND what his single biggest lead source is. Ep 154: From Dealing Drugs to Flipping Houses – How I built A Booming Wholesaling Business Follow our guest: Steve’s Carrot Site: https://www.stevebuyshousesfast.com Steve on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevelondeau/ Mentioned in this Episode: The Psychology of Negotiation: How To Talk With A House Seller to Close More Deals + Help More People w/ John Martinez: CarrotCast We want to hear your thoughts on the podcast! Drop them in the comments section below or hit us up on Facebook or Instagram

Introduction to Pay-Per-Click Advertising for Real Estate: A Beginner’s Guide

In 2018, PPC was the second highest lead generation medium for our members. Trying to rank on page one of Google can be a daunting task for some. It takes time and resources to invest in a full, all-out SEO strategy. Even then it could take months to notice. What can you do in the meantime? Well, many of our members make use of both PPC and SEO — using the former to generate short-term traffic and the latter to generate longterm traffic. In this intro to PPC for Real Estate, we run down what you need to understand if you’re considering this route. Including: What is PPC for Real Estate? How does PPC work? What are the benefits of using PPC advertising for Real Estate? Who should use PPC? How to get started with PPC? Introduction To PPC For Real Estate What Is PPC For Real Estate? (Image Source) PPC is a broad term used for various cost-per-click platforms real estate professionals use to get in front of their target audience. These include Google Ads (AdWords), Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, and numerous retargeting options. Overall, PPC is a digital marketing strategy in which you advertise within a search engine’s sponsored results by bidding for the keywords, ad sets, and/or retargeting list connected to your real estate niche. Pay-per-click is exactly that… you pay each time your ad is clicked. Although, there are times you can be charged for impressions (number of times your ads are shown). Google Ads (Adwords) still reigns as PPC king for generating motivated seller leads. Facebook ads can also be an effective way to generate motivated sellers as well as buyer leads. Facebook cost-per-click is also considered a lesser amount compared to AdWords. It’s important that you understand where your leads are coming from and the value of your cost per lead to fully understand which platform works best for you. How Does PPC Work? Starting with the basics. When a motivated seller types a search query into Google, the search engines provide two sets of results: pay-per-click ads (sponsored) and organic results. As seen in the picture below, the first three results on top are sponsored ads (indicated by the green square around the word “Ad”). The other results below the ads are organic results. More than likely, the organic website results have climbed the rankings by executing a solid SEO strategy. With PPC, when the searcher clicks on one of the ads, you (the advertiser) is charged for that click. The price of that click will vary per the competition for that specific keyword as well as your target location(s). You can use specific tools to find keyword traffic estimates as well as the competition and cost-per-click estimates. Tools such as: Google Ads Keyword Planner Ubersuggest SEMRush (free or paid) What Are The Benefits Of Real Estate PPC? (Image Source) Advertising with PPC ads can have many benefits. Here are some of the top reasons you should consider using PPC as part of your online marketing strategy. 1. You Have the Opportunity to Control Your Position on Page One of the Search Results PPC advertising allows you to gain the most valuable ad space on whichever PPC platform you choose to use. If that’s Google, then you have the ability to get on top of the first-page search results without having to dedicate the time and resources for SEO. Claiming ad space where most eyes will see them will increase your odds of getting solid lead generation and return on your investment. 2. Place Your Ads in Front of YOUR Audience This is … Continued

7 Habits of a Highly Successful Real Estate Investor

We’ve assisted thousands of real estate investors generate millions of leads online. × × Demo Carrot: How many deals are you losing to your competitor’s website? Take a Free Demo But we haven’t just helped our members with their online marketing strategies but joined them in their success. For years, we’ve put ourselves in the environment of high-performing real estate professionals — interviewing them (check out our podcast), going to their conferences, becoming real estate investors ourselves, and even hosting masterminds of our own (check out CarrotCamp). Throughout our time talking with high-performing real estate investors, we’ve noticed some trends in how they run their businesses, think, and even start their mornings. Knowing those similarities, anyone can work backward to build habits leading to a successful real estate investing business. But before we dive into the seven habits of highly successful investors, we want to first talk about the mind. That is the one mindset difference between top performers and everyone else. Or, you can skip down to the seven habits. Now we know claiming that one solitary mindset shift is what makes the difference between those who succeed in real estate and those who don’t is an ambitious claim. Could there only be one difference between the people who win and those who lose? Probably not. After all, there are a lot of factors that determine whether a real estate business succeeds: Many other unforeseeable events can derail your business or turn it into a thriving money-maker. When it comes down to it – if we’re being honest – a large part of building a successful business is cold, hard luck. Did you start at the right time? Did you launch your business in the right market? Did you have someone willing to teach you? But that’s not what you came to hear. You came to find out how to ensure that your business will succeed despite the unpredictable and often frightening events that can destroy a growing business. You don’t want to know what you ​can’t control but what you ​can control. However, you can’t understand what differentiates those who succeed and those who don’t unless you first accept that you can’t control much of what goes into building a business. But here’s the dead-simple thing you can control – and if you learn to, it practically guarantees your success, despite being lucky or unlucky. Your mind. ClichĂ©s aside, how you think won’t only ​impact whether you succeed; it will completely make that decision. Of course, telling you to think differently than you do now is about as helpful as telling you to buy a new car without describing the brand or make of the vehicle. The only mindset difference between top performers and everyone else is the belief that you will succeed before you even start. The business can’t be an experiment, and it can’t be a we’ll-see-if-it-works undertaking. You might not know when or how it will become successful, but you must have 100% confidence that it will. That’s what differentiates someone who builds a successful business from someone who doesn’t. Despite uncontrollable circumstances, someone with an if-then mindset will quit when things get hard. ​Maybe it’s not possible, after all, they’ll think to themselves. Someone who fully believes the business will succeed before starting is far more likely to push through all the difficulties of growing a new business. In other words, believe that you’ll succeed, and you will. Believe anything less, and you’ll fail. It is that simple. Of course, you know what ​isn’t that simple? Believing with your whole being that you’re going to … Continued

EP 150: [Republish] Don’t Blow It! The Psychology of Negotiation: How To Talk With A House Seller to Close More Deals + Help More People w/ John Martinez

Listen to the CarrotCast Podcast and Subscribe Below! I see a lot of good, really good, salespeople and a lot of really bad salespeople. You can tell whose good by how often people talk and when they talk, what they say. So, real quick, the best salespeople in the world in all industries … they talk maybe 10% of the time and when they do open their mouths it’s with the question. John Martinez This episode of the CarrotCast was previously published but we all now that competition is fierce. Right now, maybe more than ever, you need to know how to show up, ready to negotiate. If you don’t… you lose. This episode touches on the are of the negotiation. Enjoy! A few weeks ago, I was talking with a client and a friend, and we were talking about how can you get more leads coming in on the front end? They were already doing pretty darn good, so what we started to do was look at … I said, “Where else in the process can we actually tweak and improve to give you a lift in your revenue, in deals?” Because there’s a lot of different ways to grow a business. It’s not just to get more leads in on the front end. You can also grow a business by tightening up the processes after the lead comes in on the follow-up, on setting expectations, on the phone call, in the meeting, that kind of thing, to really pull levers at each and every point where people can fall off. On this episode of the CarrotCast, I invited a guest on named John Martinez. John is probably, not probably…he is the leading sales trainer in the real estate investing industry. I had a chance to meet him in person finally after following him for quite some time down in Dallas at a mastermind, at the Investor Fuel Mastermind that we’re a part of. John blew me away at his presentation down there. I really loved kind of the role-playing that he did up on stage, talking through the way that high achieving and high performing real estate investors negotiate and discuss the transaction with sellers. What we’re going to do is you’re going to learn a lot about John’s story, but then about 10, 15 minutes in, we’re going to dive in knee deep on role-playing, and basically walking you through every step of the way, all the way from hopping on the call, to meeting the seller in person first, what you say, how you prepare them, how you set expectations, exactly word for word what to say. This stuff is pretty darn amazing. Now, the cool thing about this is this call isn’t just, hey, jot this script down, because that’s not it at all. What John teaches you is the fundamentals behind why these work, so now you can be empowered to go out there as someone who understands psychology and understands how to actually really, truly serve your sellers and your prospects, all right? What I would love for you to do is if you get any nugget out of this episode, head over to iTunes or Spotify or wherever you listen to this podcast and give us a rating and review, okay? That would be amazing. We look at and read every single rating and review on iTunes and everywhere else. It pumps us up but also lets us know how we’re doing. Also, check out past CarrotCast episodes at carrotcast.com. On this episode of the CarrotCast, I want you to completely shift and transcend … Continued

Real Estate SEO Copywriting: 7 Tips to Drive Passive Traffic and Convert Website Visitors

Are you wondering what real estate SEO copywriting is and why it’s important for your website? × × Real Estate SEO Bible: The Ultimate SEO Keywords Guide Download Now SEO copywriting for real estate is niched writing that: At some point, you must put pen to paper (or rather keyboard to a computer, I suppose). Now is that time. In this article, I will teach you how to write every page on your website that you’d like to rank so that it will have the best chance of ranking. This will likely apply to your homepage, consistent blog content, and about page. Use this blog post as your guide whenever you’re trying to rank a page on your website for a specific keyword phrase. Writing for Search Engines VS. Writing for People… It’s an easy enough mistake to make… You intend to write content that ranks in search engines, pulls passive traffic, and generates consistent leads for your business. So you optimize, optimize, optimize until your fingers are bleeding. The problem is there is such a thing as over-optimizing your content for search engines. Google itself refers to including too many exact match keyword phrases on a single page as “keyword stuffing” — a naughty word that’ll get you fewer rankings. Similarly, building backlinks with PBNs or similar shady tactics can hurt your rankings when Google finds out what you’re doing (they don’t like being manipulated). Learn more: Are you Sabotaging your Real Estate Website’s Rankings With These 3 Black Hat SEO No-no’s? Not just that, but writing a page purely for search engines without thinking at all about the people you’re trying to attract will naturally increase your bounce rate, decrease your click-through rate and conversion rate, and, again, hurt your rankings. In other words, you must walk a fine line between writing for your ideal market and writing for SEO. Ideally, you’ll do both. 7 Real Estate SEO Copywriting Tips to Drive Passive Traffic and Convert Website Visitors Tip #1: Keyword Research and Implementation: Hitting the Right Target (Image Source) Keyword research forms the foundation of effective real estate SEO copywriting. By understanding the specific terms and phrases your target audience uses when searching for properties or real estate services, you can tailor your content to attract the right visitors. Here’s a breakdown of different keyword types and their strategic placement: Primary Keywords: These are the core phrases investors like you are likely typing, such as “motivated seller leads,” “cash for houses [your city],” or “wholesale properties [your state].” We’ll strategically place these in key areas like titles, headings, and throughout your platform content, ensuring high visibility for the right audience. Secondary Keywords: These are more specific variations that drill down further, like “inherited property cash buyers” or “foreclosure deals [your area].” These help you attract sellers with unique situations and specific property types, increasing your chances of finding the perfect investment opportunity. LSI Keywords: These are semantically related keywords that search engines associate with your primary topic. Think “sell my house fast for market value,” “sell my house fast reviews,” or “need to sell my house asap.” Including these helps search engines understand the broader context of your content and improves your ranking potential. Remember, the key is to integrate these keywords naturally. We want your platform to speak directly to motivated sellers, providing clear and concise information while ensuring search engines recognize the relevant context. This way, you can attract the best deals and maximize your success as a real estate investor. Tip #2: Headlines that Hook: Captivating Attention and Driving Clicks Headlines are the first impression your real estate … Continued

3 Low-Risk Real Estate Businesses You Can Start With $2,000

You’re interested in investing in real estate… Maybe you have some friends who do it successfully or you follow Facebook real estate pros who consistently share the deals they’ve done with big dollar signs. It’s all so appealing. If only you could bite the bullet and try your hand at real estate investing… Maybe you would be just as successful as the investors you watch from the corner of your eye… (Who’s to say you wouldn’t?) But there’s a problem. You don’t have $50,000 or $100,000 laying around to try and get into real estate investing. Maybe you don’t even have $10,000. And it’s no secret that real estate pros play with big, high-risk dollar amounts. Sure — you could try to get other investors to support your business, but then you’re just in debt to them. How do you win? Is it even possible to build a real estate investing business without deep pockets and high risk? Yes. Yes, it is. In fact, lots of people do it (we know because those people are our customers! :-D). And below are three ways to make it happen. Since this article is meant to be a high-level overview of the business models, I’ve also included “Learn more” sections at the end of each type so that you can take action sooner rather than later. 3 Low-Risk Real Estate Businesses You Can Start With $2,000 #1: Wholesaling Here’s a helpful video that describes was wholesaling is in real estate (not to be confused with the retail business). As a wholesaler, your job is to find “motivated sellers” — people who need to sell their home fast for cash (this happens for lots of different reasons: divorce, probate, foreclosure, inheritance, bad tenants, etc) — put their property under contract, and then find a buyer to pay the agreed upon price for that house minus your commission. Let’s imagine, for example, that you find a motivated seller by sending direct mail. You talk to them on the phone and determine that they do want to sell their house for a price that you can probably afford. You then go and look at the house to determine the ARV (After Repair Value) of their home to ensure you make an offer which works for the seller, the buyer, and yourself. Let’s further imagine that you offer the seller $40,000 for their home, they accept, and you put it under contract. The next thing that happens is you work to find a buyer (often another real estate investors) who will pay maybe $45,000 or $50,000 for the home and you then make $5,000 or $10,000 in the middle. Your only overhead expense is generally the marketing materials to find motivated sellers and maybe a few advertisements to find buyers once you’ve put a house under contract. And the only risk involved is however much money you put down on the seller’s contract for earnest money (i.e. how much you’ll have to pay if you don’t end up buying the house) — and that’s an amount that you and the seller can determine together. Learn more: [Case Study] From Teacher to $80k/Month Wholesaling Real Estate in a Competitive Market #2: Vacant Land Investing (Image Source) If you’ve never heard of it before, then it might sound silly: but there’s a lot of real estate investors who’re making a killing on flipping vacant land. But that might not be what it sounds like. Usually, when people think of flipping houses, they think of buying distressed properties, fixing it up, and selling it for a profit. But with land, you buy low from motivated … Continued

Ep 148: Creative Strategies to Close More Deals w/ Expert Investor Laura Patterson

“We end up closing about 7-8 out of every 10 deals.”Laura Patterson You’ve tried direct mail, you’ve tried cold calling, you’re on social media… you’re hustling every single day, but you’re just not getting the results you need. Something has to change. That’s why we brought Laura on the show today. She’s a 30-year real estate veteran who has had massive success and wants to share exactly how she is closing 8 out of 10 deals and getting a consistent stream of quality, motivated leads. Listen in, take notes, and start executing the next-level creative strategies to help you build the business that sets you free! Listen to Episode 148: Creative Strategies to Close More Deals w/ Expert Investor Laura Patterson Follow our guest: Laura’s Facebook Group: Online and Virtual Wholesaling Check out Laura’s Carrot site at webuyrichmondvahomes.com Mentioned in this episode: CarrotCast EP 122: 100+ Deals This Year Turning Other Peoples DEAD Leads Into Deals / Tang Nguyen and the “Odd Brothers” The most exclusive mastermind for high achieving real estate investors
CarrotCamp.com We want to hear your thoughts on the podcast! Drop them in the comments section below or hit us up on Facebook or Instagram

EP 147: Do You Have What it Takes to Scale Your Business? w/ Carrot VP of Growth, Kiley Newbold

“The future is never a solution to the present.”Kiley Newbold, VP of Growth, Carrot Are you in the stage where you need to scale your business? Sometimes our biggest challenge when growing a business is conquering the false limitations that we place on our own potential. Today, Kiley Newbold and Trevor Mauch talk about the real struggles of scaling a multi-million dollar business, how to build the systems and teams that unleash you. Prior to Carrot, Kiley helped scale the Color Run to over $70MM in revenue as VP of marketing and founded Silver Street Marketing, a facebook ad-based marketing agency for real estate investors and agents. Listen to the CarrotCast Podcast: Follow our guest: Kiley on Instagram Kiley on LinkedIn https://silverstreetmarketing.com Check out our blog! Check out our podcast! Mentioned in this episode: Get Trevor’s Free Habit Tracker: Carrot.com/Habits The most exclusive mastermind for high achieving real estate investors
CarrotCamp.com We want to hear your thoughts on the podcast! Drop them in the comments section below or hit us up on Facebook or Instagram