The real estate investment outlook for 2012 is incredibly bright. Between a plethora of discounted properties, easy funding via transactional lenders and buyer confidence rising flipping houses ought to be a breeze this year. However, turning those tasty deals into real cash often comes down to your sales pitch, so what can you do to tune it up a little and cash in bigger and faster?

1. Bring the Pain

One of the most important parts of a winning sales pitch is highlighting the pain people are in and offering them a solution. Many homeowners are now immune to all the pitches about saving their credit or saving face by walking away from their homes. However, you now have a new motivational weapon in your arsenal. Foreclosures are endangering people’s health! That’s right, “sell or get sick”. A recent study in Philadelphia showed foreclosure stress leading to 41.3% of those in foreclosure having high blood pressure, a number approaching 10% for those suffering strokes of related issues like heart attacks and kidney disease rising 2.2% for those fearing losing their homes on top of diabetes issues and depression in general. You aren’t just saving these families from financial ruin, you are literally saving their lives by buying their homes from them.

2. Geek Out Your Presentations

If you don’t love giving long winded speeches let the numbers do the talking in a stunning visual presentation via your iPad or Kindle Fire. It really doesn’t require you to be a technical genius and if you are tight on time you can easily and inexpensively outsource the creation of your presentations, email them, stream them in HDTV and put them on your website too.

3. Practice, Practice, Practice

Practice your real estate sales pitches to buyers, sellers and other investors by yourself or with someone you know. Learn your stuff and be prepared for FAQs. Practice your pitches until they are second nature and you don’t have to think about them anymore.

4. Improve Your Credibility

Half the battle is already won or lost in any type of sale before you even open your mouth. It is about perception and credibility. If you have it then you don’t have to ‘sell’ it is simply about working out the details. If you don’t then you are in for a losing battle and often a lot of wasted time. Rocket your own credibility and that of your real estate investing business by building your own blog, using press releases to get in the news and gathering video testimonials from previous clients.

5. Move the Conversation to a Friendlier Place

Wowing prospective buyers and sellers by meeting them in your impressive conference room or from the security of being behind your grand desk may feel great to you and do wonders for your ego but is it really turning people on to what you have to offer. Isn’t it better to be likable? What about adding everyone to Facebook the first time you meet them so that they already feel like your friend when it comes to deliver your pitch?

Duane Ortega has been enabling real estate investors to increase their volume and make real profits from real estate in both good times and bad over the last 10 years with no hassle transactional funding through www.BestTransactionFunding.com.

For many agents, turning a potential buyer into a client can be challenging. When a potential buyer calls you or walks through your door, do you have a system in place to qualify your buyer before you start showing them homes for sale?

To convert potential buyers into clients, you should put yourself into your prospect’s shoes. When they contact you, they have plenty of questions on their mind: What homes will my agent show me? What should I expect from my agent? What forms will I need to fill out? What types of questions will I be asked? On top of those questions, they expect to hear a sales pitch about your services, so their initial resistance is high.

You do not want to waste your time showing homes to unqualified or defensive buyers, so here are some tips to improve your presentation and build rapport with your prospect during the home buying process:

1. Make a great first impression.

When you first meet with a buyer, make sure you are smiling and look professional. As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

2. Educate your prospect about the home buying process.

Once the potential buyer is in your office, you can easily take a few moments to ask them about their home buying needs and provide them with a brief overview of how you work. If they call you, it is best to ask them to come to your office for a few minutes before you spend time looking at homes.

3. Qualify your buyer.

Before taking a buyer out to search for homes, find out if they are ready to buy and have the means to do so. You need to know the following:

a) Their ideal home - What area are they most interested in? What features and amenities are important? What price range are they looking at?

b) Their financial situation - Have they spoken with a lender? Do they need to sell their current home before buying a new one?

c) Purchasing decision - Have they ever purchased a home before, and if so, how long ago was it? Who is involved in making the decision to buy?

d) Readiness to buy - Are they prepared to move forward once they find a home that meets their needs?

e) Working with a real estate agent - Are they currently working with any other agents? Do they have any questions about the home buying process?

4. Decide if you want to work with this buyer.

What happens if the buyer isn’t yet qualified? You can either refer them to another agent in your office (and possibly get paid a referral fee down the road) or turn them away. It is up to you, the agent, to set up criteria for whom you will take on as a client. Sometimes it is best to turn potential buyers away if they do not meet your criteria. You can also ask them to postpone their home search until they are both ready to and can do so. If you decide to refer them to another agent, be sure to get the referral agreement in writing. Make sure the agent to whom you refer them is professional and will help them achieve their goal.

5. Make a presentation of the home buying process.

Once you have decided to work with a potential buyer, give them a brief presentation on the home buying process, including a basic timeframe, financing options, how to search and visit homes that meet their criteria, how to negotiate the best terms, how to present an offer and how to open escrow. The home search process can be stressful and overwhelming for many buyers, so you must explain it in an easy to understand format.

6. Sign a buyer representation agreement.

Now that you are at the end of the buying process overview, you should present your buyers with a written buyer representation agreement that states they agree to work solely with you as their agent. If the “fee” is an issue, explain how that fee is almost always covered by the seller and in most cases, no fees are due at closing. By having your buyer sign an agreement, you ensure that you will get paid for your services. Taking time to initially qualify buyers and getting them to sign the representation agreement will ensure you will work only with buyers who can buy, are ready to do so and will be loyal to you.

You now know how to qualify and convert potential buyers into clients, but now you must be wondering how do you find them? It is very easy to find these prospects. These ideal prospects currently have no mortgage (renters) with a good credit score, low debt to income, and good income.

By Ashley Rosenfeld. Synergy Marketing Solutions was founded by Ashley in 2007. Synergy Marketing Solutions is a direct marketing company that provides marketing data, direct mail and full print services. Our marketing data helps real estate and financial professionals grow their bottomline by working smarter, not harder to maximize ROI. We deliver orders same day guaranteed if received by 4:30pm EST (Monday-Friday). Go to www.SynergyMS.net for more information.

Call capture is a service that real estate agents and mortgage brokers use to generate hot leads and increase business. When the real estate market is down, agents and brokers do everything they can to turn leads into buying or selling clients. But when the market is down, agents and brokers need to stretch their personal marketing budget until the market gets better and income improves.

Once the market starts to improve, agents still look for a way to market themselves at an affordable price. One way to do that is with a call capture service, and that’s because this service is available to potential clients 24/7. This means that even when an agent or broker is at home or with a client, their services are being marketed.

Brokers and Agents Work Together

While plenty of leads occur when an agent or broker uses the service solo, when they team up they greatly increase their chances that they can convert a lead into a sale. This is because the potential client is approached by both and it comes across as a one-stop shop type deal. If the client is comfortable with the agent they’ll be more receptive to the broker and vice versa. The agent and broker can also split the cost of the call capture service, stretching the marketing budget.

The broker and agent can also work together to return calls and keep the leads hot. If an agent is unavailable and a call comes into the system, the broker can field the potential client and answer questions right away. This helps prevent losing a client due to an unavailable agent, and the broker will ultimately gain business in the end, too.

Call Capture Increases Business

As more people start investing in real estate again, agents and brokers take advantage of capture services to increase overall business. The dedicated toll free number is available 24/7, so it’s the ultimate way to market yourself. The number frequently appears on sign riders, but it can also go in all print ads, radio spots, website advertisements, and on business cards. By putting the number out to leads through various mediums, it increases an agent’s reputation in the industry and attracts more people.

Call capture can also be used in various forms of advertising. Many people are unsure about the real estate process, so if you can provide free information you attract leads. Instead of just advertising your listings, you can record a series of informative messages that encourage the caller to perform an action such as leaving a voicemail or visiting your website. Although you already have their information because it was captured by the service, you are encouraging them to form a business relationship with you before even speaking with them.

When an agent and broker team up together, they can provide even more free information and really bring in leads. As the market continues to improve, more agents and brokers will try to stretch their advertising budget by using call capture services to generate leads.

Once you see which methods of advertising are attracting the most leads, you can improve your marketing strategies to find more clients. All of the mentioned methods will help your leads become more than just a lot of names and numbers on a paper, and turn them into profitable clients. For a 15 Day Free Trial of a leading call capture provider visit www.RealtyOne800.com today. Or click call capture to learn more about how it works and the benefits of using one it your business.

As a real estate agent, you’re always looking for ways to bring in new business. Many REALTORS® spend a lot of time and energy hunting for new business and trying to acquire new clients. What many fail to realize is that the real value lies in investing your energy into furthering the existing relationships that you’ve already built.

It takes 5 times the amount of time, money, and energy to find and service a new customer then it does to maintain and service an existing customer. And that’s not all. 80% of people who don’t have a real estate agent will get one through a referral. A good REALTOR® has a way to manage and organize his/or her contacts and gradually obtain more information on them as time goes by. Having a detailed database of contacts is a necessity because this is precisely how you can keep in touch as effectively as possible and market to your clients in a way that is targeted, personalized, and relevant.

I’ve previously discussed the advantages of positioning yourself as an expert on all things home related. By building and promoting a comprehensive business directory of Home Inspectors, Plumbers, Attorneys, Landscapers, etc. that you can recommend to current and past clients, you give your clients a reason to CALL YOU between transactions, rather than you always having to initiate.

At this point, you might be nodding your head but saying to yourself, this is all a lot easier said than done. You might not have a consolidated database. You might not have a complete and detailed business directory. You might not be marketing to your clients in a targeted and personalized fashion. Well, all this can certainly change. And although the change requires some commitment and a little bit of work, it’s actually much easier that you would imagine.

We are continually working to make IXACT Contact the best real estate contact management solution available. It is quick to learn, and easy to use. The navigation is intuitive and the overall feel of the system is very user-friendly. The system allows you to create a comprehensive database of all your contacts, which can be added to over time. It allows you to filter, sort, and run reports on your database. It also has a great business directory feature that makes it amazingly easy to implement our suggestions mentioned above.

As a REALTOR®, you need to focus on fostering loyalty and generating referrals and repeat business. With the right knowledge and a little bit of help, you’ll be well on your way to a successful career in real estate sales.

By Rich Gaasenbeek and Matthew Collis. As the VP of Sales & Marketing at IXACT Contact, my goal is to help REALTORS create more referrals and repeat business using IXACT Contact’s easy-to-use web-based contact management system. Sign up for a risk free, 5-week free trial! Go to www.ixactcontact.com.

We are all working smarter these days and with all the techie tools out there, we should be accomplishing a lot in terms of generating leads. But with all these leads flying around from everywhere we might be struggling a bit to convert them into sales, whatever you deem a sale in your business.

So lets take a look at some ideas.

1. Main Database: as you market on all your tools, have a contact collection form that sends all leads to one central database for follow up and management. That way you don’t loose any that are waiting to be manually input and saving you times. There are many choices for a database out there. Look for one that can help you integrate your business with your lead generation. Many businesses have industry specific contact management software, so find one that works for you.

2. Customize: as you collect these contacts into your database, you want a customized follow up plan. You would not send the same follow up to a home seller as you would a home buyer, so be sure to customize to fit the category. Then set up a customized plan with specific steps that either remind you of what you need to do, or that in many cases will do the step for you automatically. When you have this automation in place and compare $40 a month for the software to $20 an hour for an good assistant, you will be asking where you can hire this tool for $40 a month.

3. Types of Leads: you will also be collecting leads from specific locations: an open house, networking, email. So be able to track by those types so your customized message also refers back to where you met them. The lead will be impress you remembered meeting them somewhere and all you did was plug them into the right box.

4. Rank Leads: as you follow up and find out their motivation have a way to rank and sort the hot leads from the not so hot leads so you can focus your attention on the ones that are going to convert right now and put the ones that need to simmer a bit into your automated follow up system. There is no point wasting valuable time trying to personally sell a lead when they are not ready to buy. By focusing your personal efforts on the hot leads and letting the automated system focus on the not so hot leads, you have a much better chance at conversion.

And as you sort, categorize and follow up with automation, don’t forget that the personal touch needs to go in there – call them up for a face to face meeting so you can sell them on you and working with you.

By Don Tucker who is a real estate investor in the Kansas City Market who buys home with cash from private partners, renovates them to bring them back among the desired and resells homes to a deserving new homeowner. A home recycler if you will. If you have a home you would like to sell, please visit Don at www.kcmoHomeBuyer.com.

You have in your hand, on your hip or in your handbag the most valuable four inches of real estate in the world today. It is your mobile phone. And you carry it with you wherever you go. What makes it so valuable? It has your eyes and your attention. Unfortunately, even while most people are driving. You might spend your idle time playing games or texting your friends. It is like television used to be… nearly everyone has one and uses it every day.

Here are ten facts:

1. You along with about 4.1 billion people worldwide have a mobile phone.
2. An amazing 86% of all Americans own a mobile phone.
3. An astounding 68.7% of all cell phone users are considered frequent text users (mostly the young).
4. Text messages are OPENED 97% of the time. Compare that to bulk e-mail rates.
5. Within the first hour, 83% of all text messages are opened.
6. In the USA last year, 1.56 trillion text messages were sent. That has tripled since 2007.
7. Every second 52,082 text messages are sent.
8. Mobile phones are now the gateway for businesses to connect with customers.
9. Customers choose what information they want to receive and when they want to receive it.
10. Smart businesses have begun using mobile media marketing as part of their marketing plans, both for prospecting new customers and for rewarding their existing customers.

What better group to reach with your business than a young demographic? They have money and are setting their buying habits for a lifetime of spending. If you satisfy their needs and continue to satisfy their needs, you will retain their business for a lifetime.

How do you begin?
You can begin adding all your customers names and cell phone numbers to your cell phone and create a group. It is a bit cumbersome and your phone company can refuse to deliver the text messages if it decides you are spamming or, you can use a service that provides automated opt out features so it cannot be considered spam.

What better group of people to offer a customer rewards program? And what better way to bring your customers back in the door over and over again? Save some trees! Most coupons are expensive and end in the trash. Your coupons arrive on your customer’s cell phones and they always carry their phones on them.

What better way to advertise a manager’s special on a day when things are slow? Within, the first hour, 83% of text messages are opened…so send a text letting your customers know about your Manager’s Special at 11 am and watch your lunch hour fill up!

If you are interested in seeing how it works or getting other ideas for your text marketing campaign, text b2b to 90210. Text 4thAve to 90210 to see a coupon example. (90210 is used as the phone number and b2b or 4thAve is the message). You can always reply STOP to any message and be instantly removed from either list.

Build a List
List-building is a business basic that most everyone in business should be using as part of their marketing plan. Using text message marketing is another way to build a list, but instead of collecting e-mail addresses or mailing addresses, you are collecting cell phone numbers. A text marketing service can enable you to build a list so your customers or prospects will receive your messages wherever they are, whenever they want to receive them and it will help you better reward your customers for their loyalty to your great products or services.

About the Author:
Ken Van Horn is managing partner of the Mount Olive Group, LLC of Columbus, GA. He has over 30 years experience in non-profit, business and government work. He specializes in web design and article and new media marketing for his clients. You may contact us through our website at www.mountolivegroup.com.

To get more information about a text marketing service, go to www.iziggb2b.com. There are other programs out there but this is the one we use and recommend.