The really good real estate investors are really good marketers. Sure, an investor needs a lot of different skills, but the one that makes them bank is the ability to market.
By marketing I mean:
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Finding motivated sellers (MLS, direct mail, signs, Internet, etc.)
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Finding great renters (newspapers, Internet sites, signs, etc.)
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Finding buyers for flips (MLS, signs, networking, Internet, etc.) and so on…
Without marketing, your real estate business stops being a business.
Your cash flow becomes a cash drought.
One theme you will hear over and over again about good marketing is the necessity of having pictures. The first thing potential renters and/or buyers will think about your marketing in places that don’t allow pictures is…
What’s wrong with the place?
Not the way you want to create a first impression.
In our short attention span society, people increasingly don’t want to spend the time reading long ads. They get distracted easily. Oftentimes they just want to see a picture and decide quickly if what they see is worth investigating further.
Instagram May Increase Your Real Estate Business
The folks over at Instagram are taking advantage of our collective ADD. They have provided the world a social-media website where users mostly post photos. There are also places to post comments, follow people and share photos and videos. We’d like to show you some ways to use Instagram to increase your real estate business.
But wait…
Why not use Facebook you ask? It’s soooo…2008. Besides, Facebook bought Instagram, so you can connect easily between the two.
How about Twitter? Tweets are cute, but they are not generally thought of as a picture site – although you can post pictures. Twitter can also link to your Instagram pictures.
Linked In? Good if you are looking for your next J-O-B, but who wants one of those?
In all seriousness, Instagram can complement all these other sites for a total marketing campaign, rather than replace them.
What’s in it for Me?
Plenty. But in order to take advantage of the power of Instagram for real estate investing, we would like to explain a little about how to use it.
Some things to know about Instagram:
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Most of its functionality can only be accessed via your Apple or Android mobile device.
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You can’t put long posts or clickable links in your ‘portfolio.’
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You have a profile section where you can put a 150-word bio. You can put links in the bio, as well as display your website.
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Videos posted on the site can only be 15-seconds long, but that should be plenty of time to show a room. Multiple rooms could have multiple videos.
Sounds pretty confining doesn’t it? Sorta, but there is a reason to the madness. The founders of Instagram are trying to encourage pictures on their website, with a minimum amount of text. Pictures really help your selling, renting and buying in real estate.
Here’s how to get Started
1. To use Instagram, you need to download it from the Apple or Android App store. If you download the Apple app, you will need to sync it to your iOS device before creating an account.
2. Create a login and profile. You need to do this on your mobile device. You can do this through your email or Facebook. Instagram will need your username, email, password, phone number (optional) and picture (optional) to set up an account. There is also a place called ‘Bio’ to put 150 words about yourself or your company, and then you can put a link to your website.
3. You can then choose people to follow, or people who can share your photos. This is great for wholesalers who want to share photos of properties they acquire with their buyers list. Or, if you are a buyer, you can search for and find wholesalers in your area to follow and see the pictures of properties they have available.
4. You can use the control buttons at the bottom of the screen to help your real estate business in the following ways:
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The ‘House’ button will allow you to scroll through your feed. So if you are a buyer and your realtor or wholesaler has a new house, you can quickly see pictures to determine if you are interested in it. This is also the way renters can see pictures of your property.
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The ‘Star’ button will take you to the popular or trending photos on Instagram. But it also has a search option that will allow you to find other real estate investors in your area, as wells as wholesalers and realtors, and generally other people that you might want to network with. And why confine it to your area? Learn tips and techniques from investors around the country – or maybe around the world! You may want to search with hashtags “#” too – such as #houseflipper. If you find a photo you like, double click it. Then you can leave a comment such as “I am an investor too – please contact me.”
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The “Share” or middle button will allow you to take photos with your mobile device or select photos from your storage and share them with others. Instagram will allow you to edit, put a filter on and add text to your photos, once you have them selected. That way, you can explain to others why they should buy your house, for example. Just make it short.
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The ‘speech bubble’ button with the heart in it allows you to ‘Like’ the photos of others, and/or comment on them. Here, you can find someone’s house and say something like “How Much if All Cash and Close Quickly?”
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The far right button is your ‘Profile’ button. When you select it, you can see a complete archive of your photos, who you’re following, who’s following you, and you can edit what the world sees about you in your profile.
A Powerful Tool
As you can see, this photo-sharing website can be a powerful tool for real estate investors. Besides just wholesaling houses, we have found real estate investors use it to:
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Showcase their rehabs as they fix them up. This makes potential buyers feel good that it’s being done right, and other investors can learn along the way.
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Learn tips and techniques for fixing up houses from tradesmen (and women) who post plumbing or electrical fixes, for example.
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Realtors and others, who keep a blog, can go to a website called Iconosquare and put in an Instagram hashtag (#luxuryhome, for example). Then all the photos for the hashtag will come up. They can then like a lot of the photos on that tag and they will find people liking them back and coming to their blog. Great for marketing.
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Younger tenants are always posting on sites such as Facebook and Instagram. So you can even use these sites to track down tenants who might have skipped out on you…
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Add a map to the photo so others can see if your property is in an area in which people would want to rent or buy.
Instagram Helps you Connect
Instagram is becoming more and more popular as people turn toward pictures and videos and away from text content on the web. The younger generation loves sites like Instagram and Pinterest and they will be the home buyers and renters of tomorrow.
The sooner you put yourself on these sites, the more established you will become and the more likely you will be found by a customer.
They say real estate is a ‘contact sport.’ The more contacts you have, the better you will do. Social media is a great way to get those contacts!
What do you Think?
Do you have any other helpful tips for using Instagram as a means of real estate marketing? Let us know below!
Learn more about Social Media – Like it or hate it, you have to accept that this is where the world is going. Social-media sites like Instagram can be powerful tools to help you in real estate.
Learn more about photography – Whether you take your own pictures or hire a pro, the better your pictures, the more likely you are to sell or rent your property. Figure out the best way to showcase your property in photos and videos in order to optimize your marketing.
Search the web for more tips on using Instagram – Many businesses use Instagram to showcase their products. You can learn a lot from other industries and translate what they are doing to real estate.
Network! Network! Network! – We can’t say it enough. Someone with a great deal is not going to just knock on your door. They are going to sit and wait for someone to find them. Be that someone. Go on the hunt!
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.