The Ultimate Real Estate Investment Guide: Comprehensive Resource Guides

"The Ultimate Real Estate Investment Guide" is a series of blogs focused on providing resources to fresh faces in real estate.

For any beginners out there, this particular blog post in the series focuses on a conglomeration of comprehensive resource guides that numerous websites provide.

By giving you access to all these guides, I hope to encourage you to sift through not only my blog, but other blogs out there, as well.  This will help you to gain real estate insights you never thought you could have, as you will be searching through the blogs of people who have various perspectives on the market place.  With this first blog, dive in and dive deep.  There is plenty to discover!  Find this blog post here.

Developing the Most Audience Engagement on Your Real Estate Website in 7 Steps

Here are two beautiful examples of optimized home pages for real estate companies. They are simple, functional, and captivating to look at. There is plenty of rich information above the fold, which I will explain in a moment, and they help people to have user-friendly experiences, while on their websites. It is important to optimize your page as a real estate agent in order to get the most leads and develop the most traction from your audience. Here’s seven steps on how to do so with ease.

1) Ace the Homepage Look
Display pictures of real estate or neighborhood attractions as your head image for the site. Keep them rotating every three seconds to keep the attention of your viewer. Have your contact information at the top of the page with your social media sites there, as well. Make sure to keep these images up to date and fresh so that guests do not tire of your websites look. Keep them intrigued with newer and better properties and things to do in the area. If someone does not get what your company is about and who you are by looking at the content above the fold (all the information at the top of the page before having to scroll down), then you need to make changes to your site.

2) Have an IDX
An IDX (Internet Data Exchange) is needed above the fold. Matthew Bushery from Placester states, “[IDX] integration, which allows you to add listings in your area via your local Multiple Listing Service (MLS), is paramount for your real estate website.” Making this the focal point of your website is key to success, because most people coming to your website will be looking for a property dependent on the criteria that they bring to the table. This is what an IDX allows for them to search.

3) Feature Homes or Neighborhoods
Show off your most popular homes and/or neighborhoods on the home page. Keep your audience enticed by the good looks, great statistics, and great prices.

4) Give Your Audience Access to Your Blog
Blogging is the main focal point of your online brand. You must blog to show people you are a resource for the knowledge they seek and that you are active and have something to say. Syndicating this content across your social media profiles is important to getting your audiences to share and interact with your content. Show a featured image from the blog with a small blurb about it on the home page. Let your captive audience explore your blogs from there.

5) Allow Your Audience to Contact You
Make sure to keep a contact form on each page of your website so that interested buyers and sellers can reach you with ease. This will generate leads for you.

6) Share Testimonials
You will want to do anything ethical that you can do to earn the trust of your potential clients. Steadily grow your client’s or potential client’s trust as they surf your website by sharing testimonials on each page.

7) Designate a Page for Staff Members
Keep your entire staff on a page of your website with a photograph, biography, and contact information for each person. This will make your audience feel more comfortable with reaching out to and speaking with you, as this makes them feel welcomed to do so.

Keeping your website optimized is essential to your website’s success in developing leads for you, reeling in potential clients, and making your company the top source of real estate information for your audience. Follow these steps, and you will be well on your way to engaging a captivated audience.

How to Become a Fair, Reasonable, and Profitable Landlord in 6 Simple Steps

Owning and managing rental properties can be exhilarating. From working with tenants to keeping the landscape fresh and clean, there are numerous ways of managing a property that can bring joy and profitability to not only you but your tenants, as well. You will profit financially, while they will profit from the value added to each property you lease to them. Becoming a landlord is no small task, but it is highly rewarding. Here are a list of ways to prepare to become a landlord.

1) Live Near Your Properties
Make sure you live near the properties you are interested in. If you purchase and manage properties that are far away from you, you will have a more difficult time keeping up with maintenance and making sure the staff is doing things correctly. Make sure to check the property regularly for any needs it may have.

2) Know the Law
There are many laws governing landlords and tenants and they vary from state to state. According to Laura Agadoni from Trulia.com, “Most states have specific landlord-tenant provisions that cover issues such as security deposits, level of access to the property, and how much notice you need to give your tenants when you want them to leave. There also are federal laws you need to know, such as habitability and anti-discrimination laws.” Knowing the law will keep both yourself and your tenants safe and sound.

3) Research, Purchase, and Prepare a Property for Lease
Make sure to find a property that has inherent value, whether that value is in its ability to be renovated and used or move-in ready. Find out ways to research properties in my blog on real estate investment here.

4) Review Each Potential Tenant
Make sure to run a background check on each tenant, as well as check their credit score. You should not hire a tenant based on these two factors alone. Get two character references and two previous rental references from each tenant. Interview the potential tenants, as well. These vetting tactics should help you to have a broader idea of who the tenant is and what they are about. You will have a better idea of if they will be caring tenants who treat your property with respect and pay rent on time.

5) Make Tenants Pay Rent
If you are too chummy with your tenants, they can start to be “flexible” with when they pay the rent. Instead of paying the rent on time, they may slide back a few weeks. It is important to A) keep a professional relationship with tenants and B) enforce tenants to pay rent on time. One can enforce timely payment by making tenants pay late fees.

6) Make Specific Leases
If you are going to have leases for each rental property, it is important to hire a lawyer who can create the language for your leases. This will keep you safe financially and legally in the event that a tenant takes legal action against you or you need to take legal action against him/her.

These are simple steps you can take to become a landlord that is fair and reasonable with tenants and profitable at the same time. They are logical steps that make sense in the process of managing and maintaining properties. Make sure to keep in mind that owning and leasing properties do not make your rich fast, but in the long haul, they will richly pay off.

5 Advanced Skills Real Estate Agents Must Have

There are many skills necessary to become a successful real estate agent. Here are some advanced skills that, with use, will take your success to the next level.

1) Self-Educating and Teaching Others
As a real estate agent, you obviously started your education by getting your license. There is more to your education than that, however. Teaching yourself through listening to podcasts; reading blogs, magazines, books, or newspapers; and conversing with other like-minded individuals are all ways to improve your knowledge base and become a more successful real estate agent. This works on the other side of education, as well--educating others. It is important to learn how to be a teacher, as well as a learner. By teaching your clients or potential clients about the housing market or teaching skilled real estate agents how to become better ones will make you a resource to people, bringing more and more business your way over time.

2) Obtaining Future Referrals
Knowing how to negotiate with clients is the best way to gain referrals in the future. Helping clients reach their goals and satisfying their real estate needs through negotiation will help to keep you in your client’s mind as someone who wants to help, while also doing business. Clients will refer you if you help them more than hinder them. There is a fine line between negotiating and demanding, and it’s important to stay on the side of negotiating for both your client’s and your sakes.

3) Knowing Legalese
No one can understand and recite every law in existence about real estate. However, you do need to know when and how to find information and when to refer out for information to an experience lawyer. When you do not know the answer, do not speak as though you do. If you do know the answer, speak confidently with a touch of gentleness to communicate effectively.

4) Being a Cunning Marketer
When you are a real estate agent, you are not only selling a property, you are selling the surrounding area restaurants, schools, attractions, amenities, and economy. You are selling the whole package. Make sure to study up on best marketing practices for real estate agents. Here is a good resource for marketing your brand. However, switch out topics in these tips, such as “100 Great SEO Keywords for Realtors” with “100 Great SEO Keywords for Educators,” to find keywords that help point to the school systems in a local area, for example. Knowing information about all the different aspects of a community surrounding a property will assist you in becoming a wealth of knowledge for your clients.

5) Becoming Tech-Savvy
Our world has drastically changed due to technology. The effects of technology on business are exponential. It is important to know that “Most home buyers search online [for real estate], [and] more than half do so on their mobile device.” It is no surprising fact that this is true in our world today. Learning how to use the internet to research like your clients do will keep you abreast of the latest trends in real estate, as well as help you to improve your visibility online. Using technology to improve your business strategy will give you a hardy return as time goes on.

Teach yourself to become a more effective real estate agent with these skills. Doing so will help your business take off and help your clients to trust you more. What advanced skills would you recommend that real estate agents have a handle of? Tweet me @WDarrowFielder!

5 Ways to Add Value to Your Apartment Rentals

Adding value to your apartment homes will give you the opportunity to increase rent and show tenants you are available and willing to assist them with any need. There are numerous ways you could increase the value of your apartment homes. Here are five ways to do so.

1) Increase Rent 1-3% Annually

Make sure to stay on top of your competition. Research their amenities, apartments, and rents. You can even go for a tour of your competition’s apartments to see what they offer to their tenants. This will allow you to make educated assumptions of how much you can increase your rent. According to Blake Hilgemann of Time Magazine, “Make sure you know the rents in the area, researching sites such as Zillow, Rentometer, Craigslist, and the MLS if you have access. You may find there is plenty of room to increase your revenue a small amount each year (1%-3%) while remaining competitive.” With these tactics in mind, there are plenty of other ways you can increase the rent, as well, in such a way that will keep tenants with you instead of leave you for the apartment complex down the street.

2) Make Updates to Increase the Rent

Paint walls with neutral, earthy tones, and use accent walls to add a home-like feeling. These types of paints can add serious value to tenants. For new tenants, it will draw them in and will likely have them feeling at home just by entering the apartment. While with current tenants, it will show them that your are serious about increasing the value of their apartment homes. Replace aged appliances with new, stainless steel appliances. This adds a clean look that will add value to your tenants’ and future tenants’ apartments. This will likely have them willing to pay an increase on rent come the end of their annual lease agreement.

3) Add a Swimming Pool

Adding a pool to the property will pique potential tenants’ interests, as it is one of the first amenities tenants will want to check out.

Keeping a pool clean and chemically balanced is vitally important if you add a pool in your apartment community. Make sure to have it thoroughly cleaned weekly and have certain maintenance checks done daily, according to your pool guys’ recommendations.

4) Utilize Landscapers for Beautiful Curb Appeal

Keeping a landscape fresh and trimmed is an excellent way to add value to your apartment rental properties. Using a landscaper to do this for you will keep you in the seat of managing the property instead of doing it yourself and possibly wasting your time. This can be a great investment to draw in your audience.

5) Take Safety Precautions

Switch out utility equipment indoors and outdoors for increased safety. Keep outdoor lighting fresh and bright to light up the areas in which they touch. Lighting streets significantly reduces crime. Keep them on timers so that they come on right when it is getting dark. Make sure to change the timers with daylight savings times! Replace the bulbs with eco-friendly, energy-efficient bulbs to reduce costs.

Use bulbs that are around 2000-3000 kelvin to provide light that looks warmer and cozier for areas such as living rooms and bedrooms. Use bulbs that are between 3100-4500 kelvin for bathrooms to help wake tenants up in the morning and for work areas, such as basements. Use bulbs that are 4600 kelvin and above for security lighting outside and garages.

Hire a night guard to show tenants you take safety seriously. Wall in the community and install gates to enter and exit the community. You can event hire someone to screen incoming automobiles at the entrances of apartment communities for added security. These all help increase the safety and security in and around apartment communities.

These are all ways you can increase the value of your apartment rental properties and your profit at the same time. What ways have you increased your rental properties’ values? What are some ideas you would share with others? Tweet me @WDarrowFiedler with any questions or thoughts!

This blog was originally posted here.

How to Prepare for a Networking Event

Networking can be intimidating. Between the awkward laughs, fish-like handshakes, and odd hellos that you can experience, it can be a little bit of a strange incident. Networking does not have to be this way, however. Networking can be rewarding and light-hearted. It can bring you peace not stress. Successful networking comes from successful planning. Planning for your networking event is no light activity. It takes thought and energy and a drive to accomplish what is necessary for your future endeavors.

Business Cards
Put your business cards in a business card holder in your pocket or purse. Don’t have business cards? Get some. You can get hundreds of business cards for only $10.00-$20.00 online. Put your first and last name, phone number (clarify if just for calls or calls and texts), email, and LinkedIn account. This way, the business card will be accurate no matter what company you work for. The LinkedIn account might not be something someone would think to put on a business card, but it can be very rewarding to grow your business network online. You can use this to grow your online presence in a positive light. This way, someone does not have to Google you, because let’s face it, no one has perfect search results!

Clothes
Lay your clothes out the night before. This may seem like a cheesy thing to do, but it is worth it. When you are running from work, which you could maybe just wear your work clothes if professional enough, you have no time to think about what clothes to wear. Have something ready to go right for when you get home. This way, you will be fresh and ready to take the networking event by storm.

Elevator Pitch
Get your elevator pitch solid. In particular, you want to ask these four questions of yourself, and then, put your answers all together.

1. What is your full name?
2. What is your current position?
3. What company do you work for?
4. What are you looking to accomplish?

Once you have come up with succinct, substance-heavy answers to each of these questions, put all the answers together into one paragraph. Get out your stopwatch and track how long it takes you to say this paragraph. It should only take between twenty and thirty seconds in order to keep someone’s attention without monopolizing the entire conversation. This will give someone an answer to who you are and what you are about without having to dig for answers. This is nice to have at a networking event, because people are there to connect and engage others.

Preparing for a networking event can be an exciting activity to get you revved up for a networking event. It can get you prepared by making you forward thinking. Start to think of questions to ask people in order to get to know them better. Follow these three tips to prepare for a networking event, and you will be successful in meeting the right people at the right time.

Do you have more tips for how to prepare for a networking event? Tweet me @wdarrowfiedler with your ideas!

This blog was originally posted here.

10 Red Flags When Considering a Real Estate Investment

If you are looking for real estate to invest in, then you certainly want to read this blog. Make sure to stay away from the ten biggest red flags that you can find when searching for properties.

1) Demands a Deposit
When you have not seen the property yet, do not put down a deposit. Oftentimes, scammers will pull legitimate properties from legitimate sites and then take down the posting and disappear once they get your money.

2) Pressure to Act Immediately
Scammers will pressure you to put money down and act quickly. This is typical of scammers. Doing so can cost you money and legal fees to deal with them after the fact. Go at your own pace and make sure to consult trusted people about your purchase before moving forward.

3) Instructions to Not Consult Others
Speaking more on the topic consulting others, make sure to consult your lawyers and lenders before moving forward. Discussing all investments with trusted professionals before moving forward is vital to a successful purchase.

4) Upfront Fees
Before services are actually given, no fees are allowed to be made, according to the FTC’s Mortgage Assistance Relief Services Rule.

5) Extravagant Guarantees
When someone guarantees that they can expect to make a certain ROI in a certain amount of time and that this would work for anyone buying this property, it’s time to think about another property to invest in.

6) Lack of Documentation
Some scammers promise documents, such as titles and deeds, but they never show. Make sure to get all the documentation necessary to make this deal go through before taking any steps forward.

7) Location is in a Bad Neighborhood
Many factors play into buying a home, but location is the most important. You have probably heard the common phrase, “Location, location, location!” If the home is a great place in a poor or vandalized area, proceed with caution. Stay away from slummy or run down areas. You want to make sure a location has a great school system and economy, as well as an active local police enforcement to protect the citizens.

8) Businesses Are Closing
If you are looking to invest in an area that has businesses closing, beware. You want to invest in an area that has a great economy and demand for residents. If businesses are closing, it’s likely that people are moving out of the area to better locations.

9) Photographs Looked Altered
If you are looking at a property online and the photographs look altered, you may be making contact with a scam artist. People will alter photographs to make a property look better than it really is. Make sure to visit the property first hand before making any big decisions.

10) The Property Requires Too Much Maintenance
A property that requires a lot of maintenance or seems like it would need a lot of maintenance is not a good buy. You do not want your expenses to exceed your income from the property. One way to tell if a property is like this is to see how long it has been on the market. Make sure to do your research on properties to find out if they have been on the market for too long.

Do you think there are other red flags to watch out for? Tweet me @wdarrowfiedler, and we can talk about it!

This blog was originally posted on here.