Minnesota Real Estate Investors Association, Inc.

Last night we covered a very boring topic with the intent to make it exciting. AutoResponders are not the “Bling” of real estate investing, but there are where the money is.

What is an AutoResponder?

An AutoResponder is an email system that sends a number of emails at predetermined intervals. Basically, it is your follow-up system on Auto Pilot. You can create a series of emails one time for all your follow-up and then forget about it. Which I have done many of times, forgot about the autoresponder that is.

With our Premium Real Estate Websites, you can use an AutoResponder System like Aweber to create your automatic email follow-ups and incorporate the automatic subscription feature into your Real Estate Website and your website leads will automatically get followed up with, even if you don’t know that it is happening. All you do is add the subscription email address from Aweber to the appropriate locations in your Website Control Center at Real Estate Promo and the rest is automatic.

Premium members can watch the replay of last night’s training call at: https://www.realestatepromo.com/MyAccount/WeeklyTraining/2009-11-23/Default.aspx

We will be holding a Webinar tonight that will take a boring subject and make it cool again. Join Mike tonight as he shows you how to use AutoResponders affectively.

With a good AutoResponder system, you can create a series of emails that go out at pre-determined intervals. You can also use the broadcasting feature to send out a onetime email to everyone on your list. For example, you can send out a property lead to all your buyers.

So join Mike tonight, you can even ask him your question, live on the Webinar. Register at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/896272946

As reported on MarketWatch, foreclosures and/or delinquent mortgages reach 14.41% in the third quarter. Does that surprise you? It does a lot of other people, but not the people who are out in the trenches like me.

I have been telling people for months now that we haven’t even seen the worst of it yet. What we have seen so far is that responsible Americans have been struggling to hold on to their homes and other assets and retirement accounts. Most people have been able to do so for a while, but not anymore. We have reached the breaking point, and while Congress and the White House keep telling us that the recession is over, I don’t think the average person sees it that way or even feels it.

Most sellers that I talk to these days have all been telling me pretty much the same story. They have either lost their jobs or taken severe pay cuts over the last year. Many have attempted loan modifications, but most have not been successful. Most of these people bought or refinanced their houses during the peak of the market, and since then, their incomes have been severely cut or totally lost over the last year.

These are just a few of the reasons that I believe we will keep seeing record foreclosure levels for the near future. The more people struggle to keep their homes, the more likely they will run out of resources and will be forced to lose their properties.

I could go on for a long time about why I believe this situation is happening, but I would rather spend my time focusing on how to help home owners while at the same time take advantage of all the good investment deals that will be coming down the pike over the next year.

As mentioned in my latest piece: Using Auto Responders: Understanding the Long and Short Game of Real Estate Marketing auto responders provide the investor with a powerful reach that can help you outperform other investors who are jockeying for the same deals. Here we are going to go one step further and lay down a detailed approach that can provide you with another way to make money in real estate without having to invest any of your own money. What a deal!

Real estate investing isn’t just about property, but also about people… we’re in the people business. Being in the people business we see that networking, marketing, and bringing people together with the right people all have value… especially in real estate! The approach we are going to cover today involves bringing the right people together, creating a win-win-win situation that puts money in YOUR pocket.

Just as rehabbers need wholesalers, investors who have properties that need people are just as important. In this strategy we focus on marketing solely for buyers, tenant-buyers, and renters. In turn, we nurture the list and provide our list with options that are otherwise scattered throughout various marketing channels. Being in the real estate investing community we can all agree that joining a REIA provides you with a panacea of opportunity where you can network your way to becoming a supplier of buyers and renters.

Stepping back for a moment, you would probably like to know exactly how you are going to make money with this strategy…
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Many real estate investors believe that marketing to get leads is as far as they need to go, but where a majority of investors stop is where the power of the auto-responder brings opportunity. Of course many investors understand the value of following up with your leads, but 9 times out of 10 investors are not utilizing the power of the auto-responder. This post will hopefully convince you to make the right choice and take advantage of the most powerful follow up tool you aren’t using.

For those of you who don’t know, an auto-responder is an automated email that keeps contact with your list of leads over a period of time. We’ll illustrate exactly what this means with an example:

A motivated seller arrives at your site and is intrigued by your special report, but in order to get the special report they must submit their name and email. So they proceed to enter their name and email where you are then notified of the new seller lead and provided with the information. You take their information and submit it into an auto-responder where you have a scheduled an ice breaker email that follows up what you covered in the special report and elaborate on the solutions you are capable of providing. The next email you have scheduled is set to be sent to them 2 days after they downloaded the report encouraging them further to take action to remedy their situation. This schedule can laid out over any amount of time with any sort of frequency. So maybe 3 months down the line you are the only investor still in contact with the seller as they finally come to terms with their situation and realize they need help.

The prior example illustrates a sort of “long game” where your presence and persistence gets the worm. As many investors will give up after a handful of attempted contacts, your automated schedule of contacts keeps coming thanks to the auto-responder. With really no extra work required you will beat out the large pool of investors possibly jockeying for their business.

It is important to note that there is a difference between using auto-responders for a “long game” with sellers and using a broadcaster for buyers...
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As real estate investors we understand that we need to have a pipeline for our leads that is organized and direct. The same holds true for an investor’s website because after years of trial and error we have found that squeeze pages and a direct message constantly outperform websites that are loaded to the hilt with bells and whistles.

What we are going to be covering here is my tried and true method for setting up a website that makes for a fine, unobstructed pipeline for your leads. The more you understand the reasons behind the structure, the better you will be able to market and drive traffic that will convert into leads!

First thing we need to address is what you want to get out of your website, I think we can all agree that we want to display our properties for sale as well as to generate a list of buyers, and have seller leads coming in. We see that these are 3 essential pipelines for any investor, but why should we keep the bells and whistles out of the equation?

The answer is that they are distractions from your main goal and only work to obstruct your traffic from the main goal ::GETTING THEIR INFORMATION:: Many think that more is better, but when we want their contact information we really want to keep things simple and this is where the “squeeze page” comes in handy.

What is a “squeeze page” anyway?

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Sales increased 9.4% from August 2009. Increases ranged from 4.4% to 13% around the country. This is a good sign, but prices are still declining at 8.5% decline from the same time last year. However, this is the smallest decline in the past 13 months. (Information provided by the National Association of Realtors® )

We still have a long way to go, but as Lawrence Yun states “As long as home values continue to decline, I do not see how the economy can recover on a firm foundation”, the decline in housing prices is a clear indication that Americans are cutting back on spending and trying to budget for the future. So for many homeowners, they will either continue to owe more than their properties are worth, will have to do a mortgage modification or even lose their house to foreclosure.

In today’s economy, you need a financial plan that will increase your monthly income to handle down markets. I have been a big believer in multiple streams of income over the years and over the last year, I am so glad I spent the time over the last few years to generate Multiple Streams of Income.

Today there is a new online source that I highly recommend everyone uses. It’s Free, it’s easy to use and it pays you up at least 10 levels deep. Blastoff is an online shopping mall that makes you money every time someone in your network makes a purchase, and best of all, they also get paid. So you are doing them a favor by recommending Blastoff to your friends. They will thank you for it because they are earning cash back on every transaction they make, and so are you.

You can shop online at places like Target, Best Buy, Starbucks, Kohls, Bas Pro Shop, CompUSA, Circuit City, Tiger Direct, Priceline.com, Expedia, Hotwire, Macy’s, iTunes, Old Navy, GAP, Barnes & Noble, GoDaddy.com, Sears, Hotels.com and many many more…

Give it a try, it is FREE and you can start earning right away... Blastoff Now!

The tax credit has helped a lot of first time home buyers get into a new house with little or nothing down. This has spurred a lot sales that would not have otherwise occurred if there was no first time homebuyers tax credit. This has also helped the economy and the housing market stabilize.

So why wouldn’t congress extend the $8,000 First Time Homebuyers Tax Credit? There are many reasons for and against it. I don’t really care which way they go, I just need to know, so that I know how to plan ahead. And today they just announced that
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Why not? Every other financial institution has received one, isn’t it about time the feds bailed out themselves. After all, it’s not their money, its ours.

Here is a report I found on Mortgage News Daily
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/channels/video/112280.aspx

The only reason I think that FHA is even talking about a bailout, is because their counterparts Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac got a bailout. Now granted, there are a lot of FHA borrows who are also going through foreclosure, but I haven’t seen the same kind of number
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