4 Ways to Get Started in Real Estate Investing

Do you want to start a new career in real estate investing? You're not alone. Nearly everyone is looking for ways to make more money and have more financial freedom with less work. That's why millions of people are turning to real estate investing as a potential solution. This blog post will cover the steps that can help you get started as a real estate investor and finally achieve the financial freedom you’re seeking.

1. Source Your List

To properly get started on your real estate investing (REI) journey, you're going to want to nail down the types of properties you'd like to go after.

Determine Your Niche

Niche is another term for a specialized focus. Real estate investors frequently select a focus area on which to concentrate their investments efforts. This is especially true for new investors who haven't had the opportunity to diversify their portfolios yet. However, even the most seasoned investors will usually prefer one sector of the real estate market over others.

Do you want to go after properties with liens or those in probate? How about properties that have utility shut-offs or are labeled with absentee owners? You'll have to decide. But whatever you choose, make sure it's something you can see yourself focusing on and motivated to go after.

Determine Your List Provider

You can find lists of properties from many sources. ListSource, PropStream, PropertyRadar, and local public records, are all great places to start.

Purchase or accumulate your list

After you decide on your list provider(s), you're all set to purchase information and begin building your list of properties.

2. Skip Trace Your List

The next step in your real estate marketing journey is to gather contact information. The easiest and most cost-effective way to do this is through skip tracing. In real estate, investors use skip tracing software to locate additional property owner information so they can conduct their marketing efforts.

Lead Sherpa's skip tracing software can return up to 14 data points per record and deliver the most up-to-date, accurate information, including the "golden address," the most updated address using best-in-class information sources. One of the best things about the software is that you only pay for the information you need or don't already have.

But before you determine the information you need, you first need to determine which marketing channel you will use to contact your prospects (cold calling, SMS, direct mail, etc.). Knowing this will help drive your skip tracing strategy and budget.

Based on your marketing strategy, you may need:

• Phone Numbers
• Email Addresses
• Mailing Addresses
• Contact Information for Relatives
  
  

Or you may need all of the above if you choose to incorporate multiple marketing strategies, which we will discuss later.

3. Stack Your List to Determine the Most Motivated Prospects

In REI, you can try to persuade just about anybody to sell their property swiftly. However, some owners will have more reasons to sell than others. For example, a landlord with an empty home or someone who has inherited a house they don't want are two examples of such motivators.

Knowing this, experienced real estate investors will obtain lists of sellers with specific factors (liens, foreclosures, divorce, etc.). They usually get these lists from providers listed earlier or public records. The issue is, these lists are usually downloaded in the form of spreadsheets. With list stacking, investors will combine these lists and comb through properties with multiple motivating factors, thus finding highly motivated sellers.

This may seem like a daunting task -- and it is if you do it manually. The good news is there are platforms like Lead Sherpa's PropStack software that allows you to upload as many lists as you need and will automatically consolidate or "stack" properties under custom tags, so you never have to worry about manually finding duplicates. PropStack also includes essential search functions and a distress indicator scale so you can find properties with the most highly motivated sellers.

4. Marketing Strategies

Once you have your lists and have the most updated contact information for the prospects you want to market to, it's time to get started on your marketing efforts. We'll break down the high-level steps you need to consider for:

• SMS
• Cold calling
• Direct mail
• Email
• Social media

SMS Marketing

Did you know that  SMS messages have a 209% higher response rate than phone, email, or Facebook? Text messaging is by far the best tool a real estate investor can use. Just remember, it is critical to have the right platform to allow you to compliantly text many prospects as fast as possible.

With Lead Sherpa's SMS/text messaging feature, you can create customized templates and campaigns, use a local phone number, and contact your list right from the platform.

Here's what you'll want to do to create your SMS marketing campaign:

1. Create your message templates
2. Acquire the phone lines you’ll text from
3. Import your list into your campaigns
4. Text through your campaigns
5. Follow up 3 - 4 times throughout the month
6. Pass qualified leads to your CRM
   
   

Direct Mail

Your first instinct may be that snail mail is dead, but as real estate experts, we assure you, it's not! In fact, up to 90% of direct mail gets opened.

Lead Sherpa makes direct mail campaigns easy. The platform is set up to create postcards with pre-made templates and schedule their launch date in under three minutes.

Here's what you'll want to do to create your direct mail campaign:

• Import your list of prospects into a direct mail software
• Set the parameters of your campaign
• Choose the mail template and messaging
• Send postcards/letters out
• Call prospects as a follow-up step
• Pass-qualified leads to your CRM
  
  

Email

An email is still a powerful tool for marketing efforts. Email open rates may not be as high as direct mail, but they can still reach up to 20-30%, making all the difference in obtaining a high-qualified lead.

• Import your list of prospects into an email marketing software
• Craft your email message with appropriate links or contact information
• Bulk email your prospects
• Pass qualified leads to your CRM
  
  

Social Media Marketing

As an investor, having a successful real estate social media strategy is critical. To attract high-quality sellers via social media marketing, here's what you need to do:

• Determine the ad or social platform you’d like to market on
• Set up your public profile with your relevant contact information
• Create ads or social posts targeting your local city, requesting them to contact you
• Qualify prospects who reach out
• Pass qualified leads to your CRM
  
  

Cold Calling

A cold call is an unsolicited contact made to start a connection with potential customers or sellers for your real estate investment firm.

Calling on houses for your real estate investing company is a crucial part of your overall marketing plan. Cold calling may appear outdated in today's fast-paced, technology-oriented environment, but this traditional marketing technique still works. Not only does cold calling work, but the strategy can deliver a high return on investment. 

Here's what you need to do to get started on your successful cold calling campaign:

• Create a call script
• Acquire a dialing tool
• Purchase your phone lines with your local area code
• Import your list
• Call through your list
• Pass qualified leads to your CRM

Now you know the four steps to get started on your real estate investment journey. Remember to determine your niche, stack your lists, skip trace your lists for high-quality prospect information, and deploy the marketing strategies aligned to your goals and comfort level. 

Want to take this list on the go?  Download our free REI Getting Started Checklist to get started on your own REI journey today!