1. FSBOs

Believe it or not there are still homeowners out there who have equity or even own their homes free and clear and who are ready to deal. Unfortunately those who have signed up for some for sale by owner sites may have invested thousands in junk marketing but there are nuggets to be found. Data and lead list companies can help you target those with the most equity for a variety of marketing campaigns.

2. Probate Properties

With so many new players and old players jumping into real estate investing today it can make a lot of sense to find a niche and own it. Probate and estate sales could be just the ticket you need, offering discounted homes and motivated sellers.

3. Condemned Properties

More investors are inquiring about real estate investing in condemned homes. You need to be very careful here as there is obviously a reason they are in trouble but you could find some amazing deals which aren’t that difficult to flip if you do your due diligence correctly.

4. Realtors

Real estate investing newbies and long time pros alike often immediately turn their noses up when they hear Realtor. However, more often than not this is because they are told to, not because they have had an endless string of bad experiences using them themselves. Find one or two great ones, negotiate discounted rates and make sure you have a constant stream of homes to look at every morning.

5. REOs

While their is a lot of talk about bank owned REOs going away, at least for the average investor they are still up for grabs right now. You can even often find them by walking into your local bank branch though you may find more luck and less competition approaching smaller banks than the bigger nationwide chains.

6. Wholesalers

For those looking for the best of both worlds; a constant stream of properties offering big discounts, without a huge investment in marketing and hours a week scouting for deals one at a time then hooking up with 2 or 3 great wholesalers might be the answer.

Putting off on getting started in real estate investing because you may have to pay taxes on the income you earn is perhaps the most ridiculous excuse of all. That’s like saying you wouldn’t accept $20 million if you won the lottery because you would owe taxes on it. For that matter why work at all?

2. The Market is Bad

There are more opportunities for flipping houses right now than ever before and homes are more affordable than they have ever been. Do you really want to wait until the top of the market to get in?

3. Too Busy

If you don’t make the switch to real estate investing now you will likely never have the freedom you crave. Certainly you can spare an hour a day to kick start your real estate investing in exchange for financial freedom and a lot more free time later?

4. No Cash

If you are short on cash now that is exactly why you need to be in real estate investing. From transactional funding to seller financing to private mortgage lenders there are endless ways to find the money you need to invest in real estate.

5. No Credit

None of the above methods of financing your real estate investing deals requires you to use your own credit.

6. You Don’t Know Where to Start

If you have never purchased a home before getting into real estate investing can seem a little daunting but with so many resources at your finger tips giving your real estate education a quick boost has never been easier.

7. It’s Too Risk

No investment is 100% without risk. However, the best strategies for flipping houses today can be almost risk free. What is really risky is sticking with a day job which may not exist in a year from now and certainly isn’t providing enough for you to build a huge nest egg for retirement.

Sadly it seems that some still just don’t get flipping houses or at least they haven’t been successful at it or make more money from acquiring rental properties. Though one blogger who recently claimed ‘flipping houses is not real estate investing’ and that it relies on speculation was certainly irresponsible, misleading or at least terribly misinformed. A prime example of why constantly building on your real estate education is so critical.

Flipping houses the right way is certainly anything but speculative. In fact there is really no safer way to get into real estate investing. Buying homes at full market price and sitting on them, hoping to unload them for a profit sometime in the future, now that is an incredibly dangerous and speculative approach to real estate investing, especially if any leverage is used. That is exactly what brought the housing market to its knees.

In contrast, buying low and locking in your profits at acquisition is not just smart but the only way you should approach any type of investment. If you buy low enough you don’t even have to get into rehabbing and you certainly don’t have to wait months on end to get full price from a retail buyer. Right now the focus of the game should be buy low, sell low, flip more houses. If you can get top dollar great. If not make a nice spread and get onto the next one.

Going a step further, those who really take their real estate education seriously will learn how to build a serious buyers list and network. This eliminates months of marketing compared to what some outdated real estate courses may teach but it only makes sense. This way you already have buyers lined up before you make acquisitions, you know how much they can pay and that they can pay. Meaning barring any issues which you should have a back up plan for anyway your acquisitions are almost as good as gold when you put pen to paper.

Next to video marketing it is widely accepted that mobile marketing is one of the most important differentiators between winners and losers in business during the next 18 months. So does your real estate investing business need its own mobile app in order to compete and win?

There are many ways to improve your mobile marketing capacity and presence without having a mobile app. Optimizing your site for the mobile web, reserving the .mobi extension of your domain name, building on local search marketing and utilizing text and bulk SMS marketing can all enable you to compete in the new mobile world.

However, there is no question that mobile apps are taking over the real estate industry. Real estate investing pros must realize that they are not just another channel for reaching buyers, tenants, sellers, private lenders and other investors for sending repeat messages like social media or for keeping brands at the forefront of prospect’s minds. The best mobile apps are evolving into tools which are hard wired into the daily lives of users and are becoming inseparable from their everyday routines. It’s far better than magnetic marketing which draws people back or social recommendations through friend’s Facebook profiles. It is controlling the matrix that others live in.

How could this new breed of apps work for your real estate investing company? What about an app which showed rent to own tenants how much equity they were building up and helped them keep on track to take out a loan? What about an app which helped prospective first time home buyers improve their credit and manage their everyday spending and savings so that they could buy a home from you faster? Perhaps even a mobile app which calculated buyer’s equity and finances and alerted them to opportunities to invest with you by buying new properties you are flipping or as private mortgage lenders?

Unlike other forms of marketing prospects won’t be tapped into numerous mobile apps for every industry. They will lock themselves into one and grow with it. Will it be yours?

1. You Look Like an Agent

Just as many of those in the real estate investing business don’t like working with real estate agents, neither do renters, especially if their credit isn’t perfect. You may find all kinds of tools for creating neat looking ads but carefully weigh the benefits of visuals versus effectiveness. Sometimes feeding your own ego is exactly the opposite of what is needed to get results.

2. Your Photos Stink

Many renters won’t even look at ads without pics. However, this doesn’t mean putting up terrible pictures is OK. How much cash flow is this property going to put in your pocket over the next 5 years? Isn’t it worth making sure you have at least half a dozen decent photos? Make sure the toilets are flushed, trash isn’t over flowing and sorry, no one wants to see you standing in their home, unless you really are a super model.

3. Ease of Contact

The easier it is for prospects to contact your real estate investing company the more likely they will. Phone and emails are a must and social links can be a great way to allow people to learn more about you and enter your funnel even if you don’t have a property which is a perfect match for them right now.

4. Too Strict

While narrowing down the number calls you get can certainly help you to maximize your time it can also mean alienating some of the best tenants and missing out on adding hundreds of additional prospects to your lists. You don’t have to advertise application fees and tough screening measures in your ads, even if you do require them.

5. Too Much Money Upfront

This is especially true when your real estate investing business is promoting rent to own deals. It is OK to leave some mystery. Focus on generating the the most leads.