Why 'Old School' Real Estate Marketing is Back

For the past few years deals have been plentiful for real estate investors; so plentiful in fact many of them felt that they no longer really had to do any marketing. Foreclosures and bank owned properties were everywhere. A lot of real estate investors have had their pick of great deals. All they had to do in many cases was to cherry pick bank owned properties right off the MLS.

As the supply of foreclosures and REOs begin to decline, these same people are once again going to have to think about how to market for deals in their real estate business; how they will compete with all of the other real estate investors out there for those same great deals.

I keep reading in all the forums and in many of the articles I?ve seen that great deals are getting harder and harder for investors to find. And many real estate investors I come in contact with are saying pretty much the same thing.

Old School Marketing

I read an article last week about the expected decline in foreclosures over the next few years, and how this would affect every investor?s real estate business. In this article, the author stated that real estate investors could expect to go back to ?old school marketing methods? to find deals like direct mail, email marketing, and other ?old school? strategies.

I found this statement incredibly funny, because almost all of the really successful investors that I personally know never quit doing those ?old school? marketing activities.

They may have added foreclosures to their other niche markets when looking for deals, and looking for bank owned properties on the MLS may have also be something they added to what they were already doing. But they never stopped their other marketing activities.

Do I need to make a change in what I?m doing?

I would say, ?Probably so?. If you have stopped the ?old school? marketing machine, it?s time to crank it back up again. Even if business is plentiful today working foreclosures, it?s inevitable that one day you will need a different stream of leads coming in the door. Getting back to basics should certainly include these 3 things:

• If you are one of the many real estate investors out there that doesn?t have a website, make that your top priority. Before you spend the next 3 months trying to decide on a banner across the top and what colors you should use, just get one up to collect leads and get some basic SEO in place. You don?t look like a professional if you don?t have a website. Go back later and turn it into a masterpiece.
• Be sure you have business cards. I went to my REIA meeting last week and believe it or not, there are still some investors that have never gotten around to getting business cards. One fellow told me that ?He used to have some, but he ran out about a year ago?. Never leave home without your business cards.
• Pull out a piece of paper this week and spend some time creating a basic marketing plan if you don?t have one. It doesn?t have to be elaborate, but is has to be one designed to get you leads consistently. Once you have your plan, you actually have to take action and work your plan so make sure it is doable for you. Make a decision to add at least one new marketing strategy to your business in the next 30 days.

If you have a marketing plan I would love to hear about it.

Photo: Greentech Media

Welcome to Our Blog!
Welcome to the BiggerPockets Blog. Our blog brings together experts in various fields of real estate with the goal of keeping our readers informed and up to speed. Whether you're a real estate professional (lender, Realtor, banker, etc), investor (landlord, flipper, wholesaler, etc.), or simply a consumer, renter or homeowner interested in the world of real estate, this blog is the place for you to get involved!

You can subscribe to our RSS feed, get blog updates by email, join our free mailing list, or best of all, join our social network along with 63,000 others interested in real estate education, dealmaking, networking, and marketing.

Author: Sharon Vornholt

Sharon's Website: http://LouisvilleGalsRealEstateBlog.com

Sharon has written 51 articles for us.

Sharon has been investing in real estate since 1998. She owned and operated a successful home inspection company for 17 years. In January of 2008 she took the leap of closing her business to become a full time real estate investor.

Source: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2012/08/27/its-time-to-crank-up-the-old-marketing-machine/

Heptathlon London 2012 shot put London 2012 Track And Field Jordyn Wieber michael phelps Kerri Strug Ledecky