A term called “Virtual Real Estate Investing” has become very popular in recent years. I’m not sure if I coined the phrase, but I was sufficiently on the leading edge of that business that I actually own the domain name “VirtualRealEstateInvesting.com“.
But I’ve realized that there’s a wide variety of opinions about what “Virtual Real Estate Investing” actually means. There seems to be a few popular understandings of this term, and I want to know what you think that term means.
When I hear the term “virtual real estate investing”, I think of some of these things:
- Using the internet to find, flip and transact real estate deals
- Buying, developing and reselling internet websites
- Using outsourced workers like “virtual assistants” and “virtual bird dogs” to assist with your real estate business
What do you think when you hear the term “virtual real estate” or “virtual real estate investing”? If you help me to understand what you think this term means, I’ll be delighted to provide additional free training to you! So give me your feedback in the comments area below!
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15 Comments So Far»
I think of buying and selling web sites, which are basically businesses.
When I hear Virtual Real Estate Investing I think about buying,selling Real Estate and outsourcing with virtual assistants also.
I never thought about buying and selling web sites at all!
I think virtual real estate investing is
Using the internet to find, flip and transact real estate deals
last year I purchased a school building in Bushnell NE on ebay for $28,877 I had the owner take about 200 pictures of the property and I rewrote the ad and put it right back on ebay for $1 No Reserve and it sold for $45,100 and it took less than 45 days from closing to closing. I never got to see the property persoanlly, but I am sure it wa great!!! Just one of my many virtual investing experiences!
Well done! — Bryan Ellis
I’ve got almost no experience in REI or VREI, with that said, VREI to me seems to mean conducting normal REI business through the web; like telecommuting to work.
With modern technology, it seems very likely that people would be finding leads, doing the research, sending contracts back and forth, marketing properties, and even transferring funds via the internet.
Besides, that sounds a little more appealing then flying across the country to take a look at a POTENTIAL deal. What better way to expand from your own backyard to the national league?
I think of it meaning to use the internet to find, flip and transact real estate deals, as others have said above.
As follow-up to my last comment, what I know about affiliate web-marketing also could make me think of Virtual Real Estate as web pages, but I guess I would think of the comparison on the commercial real estate level.
The value of the site is determined by its traffic/performance, like an apartment building by its income. They can be bought, sold, rehabbed, held for passive income…
I dunno, I guess maybe it means both.
My first thought was that it was like a virtual stock market account, where you would try out different strategies with real properties but fake money, used as a learning tool.
That is a really interesting idea! — Bryan Ellis
Hi Bryan, To me the term is a catch all that implies that someone can use their web presence as an “office without walls”. No longer are we confined to our own local market as we, as modern real estate investors, search for deals with profit potential. Using the internet we can now find buyers and sellers and bring them together while earning a reasonable fee. It means we can do our due dilligence from the comfort of a home office and learn many things about markets that are far away. In many cases we can drive down the street and look at the neighborhood, check the recent sale history for a property and find comps in a mater of seconds.
It seems that some folks are trying to pass the idea that their products will do ALL of this and find a buyer without any work or input from the investor. All that is left is to cash the checks that the “automated system” will generate. Kind of a set it and forget it approach to RE investing. I would not like to believe that this is possible nor do I believe it is a good idea.
I understand “Virtual Real Estate Investing” to be the acquiring of top level domains and holding them for resale; secondarily, I’ve always also understood it to mean buying already developed websites and/or building websites based on top level domains and offering them for sale.
I think what you mentioned sums it up. But because alot of you trainers buy other products to look at, here are my suggestions:
Charles Petty,Mark Sumpter,Cris Chico,Lou Castillo,Charissa Cawley.
Tell me what you think of these programs, because that’s where I got my ideas as to what “virtual investing” is.
My perception is exactly what Tim has referred to. What no one has mentioned is the role that Web 2.0 (Facebook, Blogs etc) plays into this process, I believe in a very significant way as does direct mail marketing to lists that are created printed and mailed online I would very much like to read your thoughts on this topic.
Like many of the people above, I also thought VREI means using the internet to buy and sell houses, and find private lenders. And I also thought it dealt with virtual assistants…
My understanding of virtual real estate investing is the same as what has been mentioned above. Never considered buying and selling website but to find, flip and sell R.E investments with
out ever seeing them.
Bryan, Like Richard Boeck stated above, I have seen and known about this term for about 2 years. Buying & selling domain names is how I have always perceived it.
As a side note to my statement above, one of the attractions of buying a domain name from someone else is the possibility of picking up on the subscribers from that listed domain name which could be in the thousands. Maybe not your targeted list but being a free list could possibly 1 in a 1000 be interested in your product? Maybe even more than 1 huh.
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