Interested in buying, selling, leasing, flipping or optioning a piece of real estate? You may be tempted to think that the internet has nothing to do with this, but you’d be wrong. Here’s why:

Let’s imagine you’re interested in buying a pre-foreclosure property. What might a person in that situation do if they happen to be using the internet? Some things that come to mind for me are:

  • Search for terms like “stop foreclosure”, “file for bankruptcy”, “foreclosure information”, etc.
  • Visit websites offering “payday loans” or other types of short-term financing
  • Search for local real estate agents, apartment communities and property managers (since they will soon have to move to a new property)

As an example, go ahead and type in any of those types of terms in this Google search box and see what happens:

What happens is this: Somebody else is getting the attention of the pre-foreclosure victims that you are in need of. Somebody else will make contact with that person before you do – in fact, you’ll probably never even have a shot at talking to that person. Why?

Internet marketing. Somebody else had the foresight to know that many, many, many pre-foreclosure victims will use the internet as a resource to avoid foreclosure, or to find a bankruptcy attorney, or to find a new place to live. And whoever that sombody else happens to be, they are getting high-quality leads and investment opportunities exclusively as a result of internet marketing.

Do you use internet marketing in your real estate investing business? I do, and have taught thousands of others how to do it as well. But I’d love to hear from you right now: How do you use the internet in your real estate investing business? What would you like to learn more about?