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Real Estate Strategies
THE PERFECT REAL ESTATE CRAIGSLIST AD?
by Josh Schoenly
63,216,431 people used Craigslist in the month of September. Based on this information, do you think there may be a slight possibility that you could generate additional leads and sales using Craigslist real estate marketing strategies for your business?
Although the answer to this question should be a resounding "yes", there is certainly a right and wrong way to use this platform. Unfortunately, with our years of experience working with agents, investors and brokers around the country, we have found that many professionals are not initially implementing this technique correctly.
Here's the major issue we have found. Since Craigslist closely resembles a form of traditional classifieds based advertising, a majority of users choose to utilize this real estate marketing tactic by simply running basic ads with no or a very poor call to action. We cannot expect visitors to contact us directly. Instead, online marketing strategies require us to be proactive instead.
A Craigslist Case Study
For instance, if you were to spend 15 minutes scanning over local postings on Craigslist, you would typically find a lot of listings that rattle off a bunch of features and benefits of a particular home, with perhaps a link to a website or property search tool.
However, the problem with this approach is that 95% of the population is doing the same exact thing! Unless that prospect is ready to buy or sell on the spot, your ad could quickly be glimpsed over with no action being taken. The difference with using Craigslist real estate marketing strategies is that you must focus on lead capture instead of simply advertising your goods and services to a huge marketplace.
True, this is a super simple concept to grasp, yet too many real estate professionals are still following outdated methodologies to build their lists. Consequently, this calls for a complete mindset shift in order to fully take advantage of all that Craigslist has to offer.
Introducing the Craigslist Ad Sandwich
I decided to cover this exact topic in a recent video training video that I published. I am going to keep the text portion of this part short and sweet. Here is a basic Craigslist real estate marketing outline that you can refer to to get the real nuts and bolts of everything that is involved with this process:
Gripping Headline: What makes your listing or offer unique? Focus on features, benefits, and pain points that will grasp your audience�s attention. This has to be compelling to get people to first click on your ad.
Image/Banner Ad: Once a person opens your ad, the very first thing that should draw their attention is an image or banner ad with a very strong call to action. The offer should be something that will speak to your audience and cause them to click over to your opt in page.
Property Info With Link: This portion of the Craigslist real estate marketing ad should be very short and to the point. The property information can be followed by an HTML link that directs to a property specific landing page with lead capture for future follow up.
Final Call to Action: You can finish off your sandwich with an image or text link call to action. Create a twist on your top offer leading to the same landing page, or perhaps target buyers on your first image ad and sellers for the bottom portion.
2 GREAT WAYS TO FIND
INVESTMENT PROPERTIES
by Russ Whitney
Thanks to the Internet and plenty of online resources, your next investment property may be just a click away. I'm not suggesting that you should invest in properties in other states or other countries. If you're just beginning, keep it simple and invest in the markets you know best - in your own backyard. A quick search online can yield a goldmine of properties in your own market.
Top Online Sources For Finding Investment Deals
Here is a list of the site that I use personally in finding investment property deals:
Craigslist.com - just click on "real estate for sale" and type in your city and you'll get a listing of all the properties listed each day. This is also a great source for finding buyers and tenants; just click on "housing wanted" on the home page.
Zillow.com - although a terrific tool for researching values on specific properties, it's also a valuable tool for finding properties for sale in the markets that interest you.
Backpage.com - another great resource for sellers as well as buyers. Just click on your metro area to get started.
Kijiji.com - this is just like the old-fashioned classifieds section in the newspaper. Owned by eBay you simply click on your city and then select what you're looking for: homes for sale, room & roommates, etc.
Cheap Local Guerilla Marketing Technique
Here's another great way to find investment properties. It involves using a "guerilla marketing" tactic that I was doing long before it was even called "guerilla marketing" and is still one of the best tools to find properties: Bandit Signs.
These are the 18 x 24 corrugated plastic signs you see along the sides of the road at major intersections or on poles.
Believe it or not these work fantastic. In fact, the simpler you make the sign the better. Some of our best signs are made with a white background and we handprint in black marker any of the following messages along with a phone number:
"Cash in 7 days for your house"
"Don't let those other guys steal your house"
"If you don't sell me your house I'll cry"
"I buy junk property"
"Cash for clunker properties"
One of our best signs simply says, "I love to buy hood houses." We posted that sign at several major intersections on a Friday and we had one man who owned 2 properties called us right away and we had a deal on those 2 properties the next day.
The key is to handwrite the message. It sounds crazy but people have told us that they were embarrassed by their property and didn't want to deal with a large corporation who has better looking signs. They want to deal with regular people who are local.
WARNING: City and county laws may prohibit posting signs so check with your local government before posting the signs.
I know some investors who wait to put the signs out on Fridays after 5 pm knowing that municipal workers won't pick them up over the weekends. And then the investors pick them back up by Monday mornings. But be careful they are getting wise to that.
Try it. It's cheap. Easy to do. Best of all it's proven again and again to work! Again, I only pass along what's worked so you can start making money fast.
Yours in Success,
Russ Whitney
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