I’ve decided to create a completely new website for use by real estate investors interested in finding motivated sellers (including foreclosures). It will have all of the bells and whistles of all of the “guru websites”, except for one thing:
It will be 100% free. Won’t cost a penny.
I’ll be totally honest with you: My reason for creating this and giving it away for free is because I want to get more subscribers on my email list. I figure you’ll be willing to spread the word about my software if I give it to you absolutely free and include all the features (and more) of the “guru” websites that cost thousands of dollars.
But to make this happen, I really need your input. I need to know exactly what you’d like to see this software do for you. So please, leave a comment below and answer at least one (or more) of these questions:
- Do you already have a real estate website? If so, did you create it yourself or buy it? From whom?
- The URL of one or more real estate website(s) that you think is/are particularly effective, attractive or desirable (Presently, I’m really only interested in websites that target motivated sellers.) What do you like about that website?
- What is one (or more) features of a motivated seller-oriented website that you would like to see in the new free software?
Please, I encourage you to answer this right now. I’m sparing no expense to make sure that this is the best program available to all real estate investors. I really want the program to address your needs, so now is the time to speak up!
Please, leave your responses in the comments area below, right now:
Thank you Bryan this is wonderful! I’d really like for the website to be able to collect information about houses that a motivated sellers wants to sell, and then maybe follow up with them automatically through email.
Also if it could include a blog that would be great.
I bought a website from Jeff A**** (identity protected by Bryan) and it looks nice but has brought me no leads at all, even though I’m very good at getting websites in the search engines.
So I think a really key point would be for the websites you create to be very search engine friendly.
I agree with Terry – it will be off the hook to have an email follow up capability. This way we could keep in touch automatically. Very nice.
i want a website that will let me also make money by selling advertising space or using google adsense. i bought a “guru” website like you say and it wont let me customize it. not good. customizability is important
I got a website from the same guy as Michael. I just hope you\’ll make your new websites professional looking. The one I have now looks like a cartoon with all of the \"smiling faces\" and bright colors. People who are losing their homes are not usually happy about it.
I like the features on **** **** Websites for buyers, sellers and investor wholesaling.
Thank you! Noted and will include the good features of those websites. — Bryan Ellis
I’m interested in having my own website, it’s very important to have a web presence specifically catered towards people that need help, most people I believe don’t have patience so my suggestion would be make a website that’s simple, but effective, they would have to leave their name, number, email address if they have one, the best time to contact them, etc. something like that.
Hi Bryan,
Thanks for taking this into consideration. It would be great to have a website that is user friendly and not cluttered. A website that request basic information from the motivated seller initially and a follow up for more detail. In the past, I used a website which asked for the whole farm of information at one time and it seemed to either scare the seller off (too intrusive for first contact) or irritate them. I also agree with Terry and Michael about auto-reponders and a blog. In addition, it would be great to be able to track those leads and add notes to a database.
Another thought is to have a section to list your properties for sale. Maybe add a link to a page on the website for private money lenders who may be interested in loaning the investor money for deals.
Sorry for going on and on but it\’s kind of refreshing to see someone take suggestions for a new investor site. Thanks again for allowing my input.
Please, do not apologize – I truly appreciate your input and you’ve offered excellent suggestions. — Bryan Ellis
I don’t have a website still but would like to have one that is simple and user friendly.
Thank you, Bryan, for your generosity!
I help develop websites for Fortune 50 (no typo) companies, and one thing site owners tend to forget is: who will use the website? Who is the customer? The site needs to be designed for the customer/end user, with easy to understand terminology (no techno jargon), to increase their comfort level so they will ultimately do business with the site owner.
This means we need text that answers the sales question “WIIFM?”…”What’s In It For Me?”. The potential customer will give us nothing, not even a name, if we don’t provide something of value needed by the potential customer.
I also believe lots of flashing areas and gawdy colors are not good. They make the site difficult to read, and ultimately cheapen it. We want a professional “look and feel”, again to encourage the potential customer to do business with the site owner.
Also, it should go without saying: there should be NO spelling or grammatical errors! But you’d be surprised how many I find on even the major sites. Such errors affect the perceived quality of a business, so quality assurance and thorough testing are paramount!
We need to keep the message short and sweet, as Antwan mentions above, and yet compelling.
Thank you again for your generosity!
I do not currently have a website, but hope to soon. I would still be interested. Having read the above posts I can’t think of anythig else to add.
I purchased my site over a year ago from S**** S**** W** P******.
I may get one lead a month.
I would really like one that worked.
User friendly, easy to change and edit content.
Thanks
I also agree with Terry. I’d also like for it to collect information on “buyers” investors and other important people needed for real estate investing like Title Co.’s, realtors, etc.? How about virtual assistance, contracts, calculations for different values needed to sell a house, info. needed to wholesale, what type of contract to use according to seller info., comparables, just make it 100% automated and virtual so we don’t have leave home.
a lot of the current “guru” websites have a home page that lists a whole bunch of different problems that may be faced by a motivated seller, like foreclosure, divorce, bad tenants, etc.
I think its smarter to have a separate website for each one of these. or at least a separate landing page for each one. people who are going through foreclosure have a different problem them people going through divorce and the issues they face aren’t the same so the message they see shouldn’t be the same either
I have a little different opinion than some people. I only want the site to have a single focus. (desperate home sellers) It should NOT have a page for properties for sale, or For Investors pages, that just confuses the issue.
It should have a simple form to collect information. Name, Property Address, Why selling, necessary repairs, How much is owed, When they want to sell, What is the least they will take, their phone number and email address.
One great thing some of the sites have that is good is once you fill out the form, they come back and ask is that the best you can do if we pay cash and close quickly.
It should be a minimum of 5 pages long and should be customizable copy.
Bryan,
I would like to see an option (either an entire website or pages within a website) devoted to attracting international investors/buyers.
What a great idea. i have no site at the moment. what i would like to see is help for people who want to buy properties from outside of your country, and to have a link maybe for private lenders who are willing to work with non us citizens like some lenders do. also what i would like to see when the seller has input the information about their prop the software would search for 3-5 comps in that area.
if your not at the computer to see if any leads have come in then you would get tex message telling you have mail ect.
there are more things i would like to see but will stop there.
good look with this great idea as i would like to start buying in the us from here in the uk.
keep smilin,
adrian
Bryan,
Thanks for thinking up this great way to get your name spread as someone who is helping investors grow and for a website that is affordable and in tune with what we are looking for.
The ideas already express are on target. I don’t have a website yet. I believe the straight forward professional approach would be effective. The option to offer a free report that would give the seller the opportunity to leave their information and provide them a short simple report that would focus on information about their situation and how we as investors could help.
Thank you Bryan for being so generous. The website should offer something free, but useful like, an ezine, report, article, or ebook to encourage the motivated homeowner to leave their information. I agree with previous comments that the site should have autoresponders, blog, lead tracking and be customer friendly.
Hi,Brian Great approch!
Yes I have a website and like it BUT!!!! since I bought it from a company I do not have the freedom to modify or add links to other sites I may want to promote so besides all the features listed above ( squeeze page, auto responders , Blog , monthly customizable newsletter on auto with places we can advertise our professional clients who funnel leads to us etc. , your better off emailing me we can go on hours on the ultimate website for investors.
Another site I like is ******.com they seem to always in the top searchs at google but they charge $1400 plus monthly charges. I guess as long as its bringing in business its probably a bargain. John
I like the features on D*** Z*****’s site. But reading your articles, I now understand that this is actually his website and he will be getting the number 1 listings on Google. Will your website give us the freedom to be detached from the “mother” website?
Yes, using the software I provide, you’ll undeniably have a totally individual presence. And I’ll teach you how to make it rank really well in the search engines! — Bryan Ellis
Either a page with links for Auditor and Recorder websites or a link on the property address to the Auditor website. These sites are very important and valuable for researching real information on the properties for sale. Which, result in profitable deals and avoiding the time wasting sellers that lied about not having delinquent property taxes, etc. Bryan, Thank You for your time.
I love to see a area where investors can come to network. When real buyers can come and meet with wholealers and network together. Also very simple and user friendly would be great. Maybe a place like real quest. Also link for counties to look for information for properties and tools for investors to do some due diligence. I guess a area blogging would be great, and where you can start a new blog. Thank you for this opportunity.
Hi Bryan,
Thank you for the offer. It appears that the investor websites have issues because they are all alike. I have read many articles on how the search engines handle this.
I’ve been in this business for many years and I would like to see a group representation domestically and internationally that the websites worked in conjunction with that would feed each other. Once that worked for these websites they would offer their time and education in teaching others, giving back. I am a firm believer of the concept of a little of a lot.
One of the issues we also face is that we may be experienced in real estate but not in how to utilize the internet so our websites work better than the guru’s. The guru’s seem to keep selling each others information and after a while you get tired of seeing it over and over again.
It would be nice to be part of something special, informative, professional, flexible and different in our market. Just an idea, thanks again. I hope it doesn’t sound like I am asking for the moon but I would like to see better representation of our industry. Any help I can provide, I’m there.
Bryan,
After reading all the comments above, with a couple of exceptions, I think they are right on the money. But I have only one comment,
What is going to differenciate all of these sites from the canned sites that are all identical. With all the following that you have there has to be duplicity. It is hard to imagine you being able to come up with 1,000 or 2,000 different website for each of those on your lists that would sign up for this fantastic offer.
That’s a very astute question. I’m not going to answer it now, but be aware of this: Search Engine Optimization is an area of particularly strong knowledge for me. And you can be sure that every site I provide to you will have the capability to rank very well, independently of how many other people use the software. I will not provide a system that has the same weaknesses that all of the ridiculous “guru” software has.
In your previous blogs, you have menttioned that you have to have key words for the search engines to find you ahead of other site in order to give you position on the web.
Sorry to sound somewhat negative, because it is a great idea that could bring each of us additional contacts and business, if they get to our site.
If you have the answers to the above, you will be a magician.
Don’t worry, I’m a magician, as you’ll soon see
Keep up the good work. Yours is the only blog that I read daily. You give us great information and insight to the marke.
Thanks so much, I truly appreciate your kind words. — Bryan Ellis
Rudy
Bryan,
Here is my ideal site, it kinda goes along with what Susan K, and others, have mentioned.
Have a central hub type website, that investors like us could have access to not only get leads, but have a forum as well as other “members only” benefits. You could put out HTML code, like aweber, that can be placed on virtually any site (you could put terms/conditions) that feeds leads into the main hub site.
Since you are offering to host the site, (for the record, I didn’t say that — Bryan) in exchange for you offering that service, we, the members of that site (investors) could setup blogs and/or other sites (squidoo, hubpages, etc), that feed leads into that main site. You can give us ideas, but each one should be unique.
Since we are usually looking for a different type of seller, I may collect a sellers info on my site that I may not be interested in, but another investor may be interested. Since the site is on the Internet, by its nature, it has worldwide exposure, so there is no reason why it should not be able to collect info from a seller in any country.
You pretty much have the instructions already put together to teach someone how to put up a wordpress blog, and get it found in the search engines. Can you imagine if just 100 of your loyal fans set up blog sites and had them feed leads into a central hub site.
There are a few article distribution sites where blog owners could get real estate related articles to put up on their blog, if they do not have the time to put up original content.
This could work not only for seller leads, but get leads for buyers and cash investors.
Ideally, I would like to be able to keep the leads that come in from my site, that are local to me, as my own leads, but anything outside of, say, 10 miles from me, I would share with the group.
As far as the info to collect from the seller, would be:
-Address, City, State, Zip, Country, etc.
-Loan balance
-what the owner/seller thinks the value of the property is
-what they are willing to sell it for
-any time constraints
-contact info for seller
I think thats enough for now.
Thanks,
Brian
The website should be very easy to update / change content with a control panel. Also the site should offer something free (maybe reports) that would be effective in getting people to sign up and leave their correct contact information. It should allow people to enter a fax number or email address to get free reports. If they enter a fax number the website should be able to generate a MySQL database based on fax or home phone numbers.
Bryan-
I’ve never done a deal and am a complete novice, but I am under the impression that what you really need is to also get motivated BUYERS-investors and end buyers-and match them up or find homes of sellers for the buyers. Your website needs autoresponders and the ability for email blasts to the lists we build. Also, any motivated sellers who fill out the squeeze page need to have that lead end up on our email so we know we have a lead to follow up on. I also guess the website should allow for affiliate links.
If this was included in all the bells and whistles, ok.If not, this is my opinion of what you need.
Looking forward to it. Thanks.
I believe that I have a great site it incorporates a lot of technology that investors need today, it uses video, asks the motivated sellers to fill out a simple form that captures their information into a back-end CRM system that emails me when a seller has completed the form. I like all of the features that I have heard so far. My problem and I’m sure its the same problem as your posters is marketing. You can have the greatest site on the Internet but if no one knows about it, it doesn’t do you any good. Getting leads. I’ll be very interested to see what you come up with.
Lots of great ideas here. With your knowledge and expertise I’m sure you will come up with a great website for us.
Bryan, thanks for your generosity.
Mike A
I do have a buyers site that I created using Web 2.0 class. I have not really had a lot of time to put posts on it to keep it up in the search engines though, so if this could be automated, that would be GREAT!
Take a look at 1800SELLFAST.com Its a great looking site that I beleive captures well. I like that its direct and to the point and gives customer 1-2-3 process (simple).
I would just like for the site to constantly rank high on SEO with minimal effort (ie: not having to post videos or articles, etc to keep SEO up). If you have that, the site could literally sell ice to eskimos!
Wow! Some good ideas – some not so good! While I agree with the person who said that right now a site for finding good buyers would also be pertinent to todays market – NOT ON THE SAME SITE!
Investors/home buyers, motivated sellers, and private money attracting websites are all good – but should be separate.
My contribution to all this? Now – since you may NOT be offering hosting – then this probably doesn’t apply. But http://www.homesellers.com/abrziii777839aywe.affiliate doesn’t work on a bandit sign! So – we need to have our own, short url for advertising. YOU are the seo guru – I leave the rest to you!
~(and yes, I – I do feel humbled even THINKING of offering you
website hints!Ha – and this will help me a lot – over the years tho
not recently – I’ve set up a number of sites – that got zero traffic and s8cked horribly. Sorta fun to do – but I’d rather have somebody who actually knows what they are doing create my sites for me!)
~(p.s. along with that? I also had a HOSTING COMPANY go belly up
overnight – destroying the sites I had – now I just have cartoons for placeholders on my homepage. The sites were pretty much useless – but I’d like access to hosting services that are SECURE – not hackable – and financially solvent! The secure part? I’ve got a hellofa problem here in Las Vegas with email hackers – I might as well just post my stuff on the wall at work – I’m not sure how they do it but they get into EVERYTHING I do online. And no – this isn’t a situation where I log on to my stuff AT WORK and then wonder why
people are in it – this is stuff I only access at home. Oh well – a larger problem and probably not pertinent to the topic at hand.)~
A great big thank you in advance for what you are about to offer us – it will help me a lot for creating credibility for home sellers I talk to. ARIGATOU GOZAIMASU!!!!!
Hello,
Your site has been one of the most important areas of my investing career so far. I want to recieve your free website in the hope that this too will further enhance my marketablity.
Thank You
Well, Bryan. Since you said dream a little, here goes. A website that is SEO friendly (WEB 2.0) as well as truly customizable. A website that once the client puts in their information, it lets you know if they are a tire kicker, or serious motivated seller. (same for buyers)
A website that automatically drafts a letter for the bank, if it is a short sale, or forebearance agreement, with the banks information already filled out. A website that has an auto property valuation system, or access to the relevant information nationwide, i.e.: (city-data.com), or (realeflow.com)
Able to map the location of the property in each county. Able to
get info on when the default was filed and the sale date published.
Man I am just dreaming here, so please forgive me if I got carried away.
Thanks
I have been trying to create my own site using a local vendor who come into my office. The process is slow and the vendor is not always available to help me add to the project. Although I like the touch and feel of personalizing the site using the local vendor I don’t think that the site will attract many people. As a professional site it may be nice for a home page but I would like to have better control on how it interacts with the internet.
Your offer is great and I look forward to helping you increase your readership.
Dave
My website is from ** *******, M*** B*****. It’s boilerplate then you can customize each page they provide and can add pages (great feature). I can use my own URL and have GoDaddy point to their server for hosting. I pay nominal fee per month for the Starter Package. Once I get a few deals, then I may upgrade to the Pro package which provides additional features.
Drawback: not a lot of pictures with people of color. So has I find some I copy the picture and replace the one in the website with the one found. Since my community is diverse, I like my website to reflect that.
Regarding capturing the motivated seller data, a separate page for each state, then within each state separate lists based on the reason for selling (i.e divorce, estate, pre-fore, etc.) Each seller is handle differently based on their reason for selling.
Thanks for offering a free service.
L
Hi Bryan:
First of all: thank you for your insightful blurbs daily. Keeps one thinking, and thinking leads to new ideas.
Anyway, I have a basic service that is customizable, has a back office, ongoing education about optimization, etc and it is both user-friendly and affordable. For a fair bit more money, it can include the \"auto-pilot\" added features of autoresponders, etc. He even gives \"free\" trainings, no-selling events. I have to be honest, I have not availed myself of all he has to offer. And I still have not generated much traffic ( my own fault for lack of follow through)
I only say this because I think you are doing a fabulous service to develop something of this nature for free.If I were to offer a suggestion or two, I would agree with separate pages, if not url\’s, for buyers and private lenders. I believe in keeping it simple, and for providing the option of downloadable ebooks or lists that may help the seller. One how investors may help solve their challenge is good, but also self-serving. Some sellers may not see past that.The website should be ALL ABOUT THE SELLER. Among questions asked should be how soon do they need to sell and what is motivating them to sell. I like the idea of automatic comps if they give you enough info on their forms…size, age, area as basic requirements.
Thanks!
Hi Bryan,
Thanks as always for your generousity. I can’t think of anything that has not already been covered, but I did want to thank you. I am extremely anxious to see what you come up with. The sites I use now make it extremely difficult to customize and displays ads that don’t look like a neon sign. I love how you have this one set up in regards to ads. To be able to utilize your website to earn income in three or more categories is definitely a plus.
The problem with mass-produced websites is that the search engine spiders only pick up original content. So if your website is like someone elses, for search engine purposes you might as well not have one. The benefit of a website of your own is to gather information from local sellers who are driven to that site from another source, i.e. band-it sign, newspaper ad, etc. It becomes an anonymous way to find information and possibly leave information. But a mass produced website is not going to be effective for the reasons I gave. I have one and I get very little traffic from it, even though I advertise it both on and offline.
You’re absolutely right. That’s why the solution I provide will provide not just a “default” configuration which can be used “out of the box”, but a complete “framework” in which each investor can completely customize their site. And the solution I’m actively working on right now will absolutely be top of the line as far as ability to attract search engine rankings. I’m so excited about this – it will be far beyond what is available anywhere. — Bryan Ellis
Hey Bryan,
Thank you for your generous offer. After reading the other suggestions and comments I realize how much I don’t know about this tool. The uncertainty of how a site works, does it really bring in leads, and the outrageous cost of these sites is prohibitive.
Thanks for the courage to step up to the plate.
Hi Bryan
I do not have a website, I’m interested in having my own website that would be pursuing every last lead with automated custom follow up,
So Even The Most Reluctant Homeowners will Be coming back to my website to work with me.
It follows-up with leads for me until they become deals all automatically!
It brings me new deals i wouldn’t otherwise have.
Gets those “hard-to-close seller leads to come back to me for a deal without i having to do anything!
It runs by itself so i never have to hunt for my next deal again.
Thanks Bryan
First, I want to thank you for your generosity. Everyday, you give us new ideas, and you are appreciated. The possibility of getting a free website here is just one more example of your generosity, and it’s a WOW for me!
I agree with most of what has been suggested, including the suggestion that each “group”, i.e., buyers, lenders, sellers, etc., should be on a separate site, and not lumped together. I also agree that having a way to collect “buyers”, and “money people”; is VERY important, especially in today’s market. I do not like the idea of having “chatrooms” for all the buyers, sellers, etc. to meet because I believe that could potentially move them away from our sites to, heaven forbid, those “other” sites. BUT …. what about some way to do a referral? I’m thinking of something like …. let’s say, you can’t find what you’re looking for on my site, for example, so you have the ability to “search” for more exactly what you’re looking for through all of our sites (those of us using your websites) ….. BUT the referral comes back to the person who was the original contact site. That way we can pay each other referral fees or some compensation, or? I believe http://r*******w.com is using this type of a system, and has some other good things that you might like to review and use in your own system. No, I do not have that system, and, yes, it’s expensive.
Sorry for writing so much here – but I’m very excited about what you are doing. Thank you, Bryan, so very much! If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know. Don’t know what it might be, but ASK! If I can, I will!
Thanks again,
Linda
Bryan, a great idea, one of the best sites I’ve come across is ***** ****’s site which presents an automated business complete with searchoptimization, auto responders, taarget by target follow up, automated templates etc.
One issue is standard web sites is that google can punish those using a standard web site.
Hey Bryan,
Excellent idea. I am honored to have you in my email everyday with such great information and don’t have to join a membership for $30 a month to get the information.
What I would like to see is how to let the Sellers know that their house is not the same value it had in 2005 when things were good. I believe that educating and explaining the process and options available to them will make them more at ease with their specific situation.
It would nice to see an effective marketing campaign that actually works or at least truely helping explain how to go about it because this is the heart of the vehicle; without this nothing else matters.
Thanks again Bryan for taking the time to listen and share your knowledge with us.
Reinaldo Lopez
Jersey City, NJ.
I had a website that I had pruchased from Mark. I liked it. It was very simple and effective. It captured just the basic information and was quite user friendly. I only stopped it because I met up on rough times and could not afford it.
I also have purchased a J*** A**** website. Nice looking, and it does allow you to customize the content as you suggest. I suppose it’s really the SEO part of things that I’m really lacking – I input all the search terms I could think of in the websites control function – but really have not gotten a lead yet in a couple months of having it. I’m REALLY hoping there are things I could do to get it working for me since I dropped the coin on it. Thanks for your proposed website idea – really looking forward to seeing your final product!
I’m familiar with the “customization” about which you speak, and it’s wholly insufficient for the real world. I know you want to get it working since you spent many thousands of dollars on it, but the only thing that happens when you beat a dead horse is you get tired and mad at the dead horse. Better to get a new horse – particularly when it’s better than the old one and is FREE! — Bryan Ellis
Hi Bryan! I’m new to this and I don’t have a website but would like to have one that is simple and user friendly. Thanks – Lloyd
I am speechless, a free website program by the master!!! Please count me in. Thanks.
You’re very kind
— Bryan Ellis
Bryan,
I have been a “newbie” real estate investor now since Jan of this year. I have a real desire to reach the motivated pre-foreclosed seller with solutions to their problems on a user friendly optimized website. My wife and I went through a foreclosure almost 3 years ago; lost our dream home, large family loss of spouses full time income and the snowball began…market softened you know the rest. In starting our online marketing focus I have been able to step away from my trade in construction and am constructing a winning multiple streams home marketing business for my loved ones.
Investing to enrich others for Him!
Ted Williams
Minnesota
I’m in!!!!!
Bryan,
I would love a motivated seller website that would be user friendly and allow you to edit material and add/copy and paste information in as necessary. My current website is a cookie cutter it does generate leads it is from USLANDCO and I am happy with the basic functionality but I yurn for a more robust site that is editable and SEO friendly this one is not. Creating meta tags is a challange and adding pictures and forms are almost impossible, I have been toying with getting a newer site but afraid to invest anymore $$ everytime I look I am getting a new website marketing sales pitch and frankly I am tired of spending hard earned money and getting very little ROI.
So I am excited that there is someone like yourself out there looking out for the small business guy and ready to help us out.
thanks
scott
This sounds great to me, since I don’t have a web site. The site needs to be easy to use, since I am one of those who are computer challenged. This is wonderful you are wllng to be of help.
Thank you
Linda
So when will we be able to see even a beta version of this opportunity?
I expect version 1 to be available in 60 days. — Bryan Ellis
sounds super to me! I’ve been looking to get a site for a couple of weeks but good ones are not cheap. I think it needs to be simple and easy to use as not to confuse and scare people off. and certainly needs to be customizable so you can change things and add new things. I hope this is soon!!
When will we get the chance to try the website out?
Steve
I expect to have version 1 available in about 60 days. — Bryan Ellis
Hi Bryan,
I have a wesite thru Prospectizer already. I was on a webinar hosted by Chris Chico back in Nov, 2008 where you built a SEMsite in front of our eyes. It was amazing how many spiders you had @ the end of that hour. I couldn’t afford it then …Do you still offer this? Please let me know if it’s still possible for me to work with you.
Thank You,
J Alford