Real estate investors deal with nervous people all the time. Sure – you might be a real estate mogul, but the people you buy from and sell to are often in tough situations.
There’s a reason we call people ‘motivated’ sellers. People who live happy, confident lives are not going to sell their house for a 40%-50% discount from the market. Motivated sellers have issues. Your job is to solve their ‘issues’… for a price.
Renters can be the same way. They’ve all heard stories of ruthless slumlords who let their places degenerate into something one step up from a third-world slum.
Even buyers of your properties have inspections done. They want to know you didn’t go find ‘$5 An Hour Hank’ straight off the turnip truck to do the rehab.
These people want to know they are working with someone who is competent and professional. You need to show these traits in everything you do.
First Impressions Are Lasting Ones
You know what they say about first impressions…
The motivated seller, or prospective buyer, or renter will usually come in contact with you initially through your advertising. They will hear about you through several methods:
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Bandit Signs
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Direct Mail
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Your Website
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Social Media
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Networking
Most of these advertising media involve some kind of graphic design. Nobody wants to read a bunch of text these days. They want pictures and logos and videos. They also want professional artwork. Generally, the only people interested in a first grader’s artwork are the first grader’s parents. You don’t want your parents to be the only ones interested in your designs.
The visual elements of advertising are so important to conveying your message.
Large corporate firms spend a ton of money on graphic design. Many advertising firms have a full-time graphic design staff that do nothing but create the needed art.
Real Estate Investors Can’t Afford a Full-Time Designer
Full-time designers can be very expensive. Even outsourcing your design to a virtual assistant overseas can be several hundred dollars per project.
Maybe you can go to websites like Upwork or Fiverr and find a reasonably priced designer for your business. Those are definitely alternatives worth exploring.
What if you could create your own professional designs for free, or at least just a buck or two?
There’s a website called Canva that allows you to do just that. Canva is completely free to use. Its interfaces are extremely simple. And you can create fantastic designs just by dragging and dropping.
Once you have created your account (for free) or just logged in using your Facebook or Google+ account, the site takes you to your dashboard. You will also need to specify if you want to use the account for work, personal stuff or education. Most investors will pick work.
On the dashboard, there is an option to click on over to another website that is Canva’s ‘Design School.’ The site will take you through all you need to know to create great designs using Canva quickly and easily.
Back to the dashboard…
Right away, you can scroll through a whole host of potential designs. The categories they have include:
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Social Media Posts
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Documents
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Blogging and Ebooks
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Marketing Materials (including real estate flyers as you can see above)
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Social Media and Email Headers
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Events
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Ads
The nice thing about Canva is that all your designs are automatically sized to fit in whatever media you are using. No more trying to shrink, crop or fit your photos or PowerPoint ‘groupings’ into the right space on your website or social media.
Once you select the type of design you want to create, Canva takes you to the page where the real designing takes place.
You can use the search bar at the top to see if they have a particular image you want. They have tons of stock photos. Many of them are free, and others just cost a buck.
Don’t see a photo you want to use? No problem–o. Using the ‘Upload’ button in the left-hand menu of the screen, you can import your own photo for the design. Canva does have some very easy tools to crop and resize the photo to fit.
Once you have the photo set, you can use the editing command bar on the left to customize your design. Whether you want to add (or edit) text, or change the background, Canva, again, makes it very easy to do.
The text not only allows you to change font and size of the text, but there are lots of text graphics to use as well.
Just like the photos, you can search these images with the search bar, or just scroll through them to find one you like.
If you are looking to make more than one page, you can also add pages to your design. All designs are saved in your dashboard for future use.
Once you have finished your design, Canva makes it easy to put it into action. You can choose from three options in the upper-right section of the design page. You can:
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Share – You can share the design as a Facebook post, a Tweet on your Twitter account or email a link to whomever you want
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Download – There are several options from this choice. Save it as a JPG or PNG picture file. Or as a PDF in standard or ‘printer’ ready format
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Make Public – Just let other Canva users see it. Your design will be added to the options other Canva users can see. They can also comment on your design. Bear in mind that a lot of pro graphic designers use this site. You might receive some excellent feedback if you ‘go public’
Look, Canva is a simple website but a very powerful design tool. For real estate investors on a tight budget, or just starting out, Canva is a great way to look professional.
Whatcha Think?
Have you tried Canva, or will you now? Share your experiences below.
Be Professional - In everything you do with your business. People want to know they are dealing with people who will get the job done.
Research What Sells – Canva can make great art, but great art doesn’t necessarily sell. Learn how your advertising can be tailored to encourage people to buy from you.
Promote Your Brand – Once you have a logo or a particular design that is yours, consistently put it out there. Let everyone become familiar with your designs. Keeping your company in a motivated seller’s head is very important when they’re ready to pull the trigger.
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.