Your credibility is highly important as a real estate investor. Property transactions involve sizeable amounts of money, and this leads most people to be cautious with whom they deal. If the other party doesn’t fully trust your intentions, they may be more hesitant to work with you. On the other hand, if you establish a great reputation in your community and are known for getting deals done honestly and quickly, you might just see a big increase in available opportunities.
You don’t have to be a seasoned investor to develop a credible reputation. In fact, even beginners who haven’t even entered into their first deal can begin establishing credibility right away. Here are a few great ways to come across as more credible to buyers, sellers, and other real estate investors:
Develop a Professional Web Presence: According to research by the National Association of Realtors, at least 90% of home buyers use the internet to research their future residences. If you’re not taking advantage of this huge opportunity as an investor, then you’re missing out on a myriad of great deals and leads every day. Just having a web presence isn’t enough – you need one that is professional and establishes credibility with its visitors. If you don’t have experience creating websites, seriously consider hiring a professional web designer to develop an online presence for you. In most cases, the returns will outweigh the costs in no time at all.
Keep Your Brands Separate: The more targeted your online presence is, the better results you’ll see from it. One of the most powerful ways to grow your credibility in the eyes of the people you’ll be working with is to aim your marketing efforts directly at them. This means separating your brands, rather than creating an all-purpose website. Your landing page for current owners wanting to sell their homes should be different than the one you market to buyers looking to purpose properties. These should both be separate from your page targeted at other real estate investors. Rather than a “jack of all trades”, developing separate brands will make you come across as more of an expert on each specific part of investing.
Maintain a Clean Reputation: Even if you live and invest in a sprawling metropolitan area, you’ll be surprised at how small the “real estate investing world” really is. Professionals talk, and if you begin to develop a bad name for yourself it’s likely to spread like wildfire. If you’re investing in a smaller city, your reputation can be formed (or changed) even more quickly. No one trusts a dishonest business person, making it vital for you to maintain a clean reputation. While you should aim to maximize returns from your investments, profiting an extra $5,000 or $10,000 isn’t worth the long-term damages to your reputation and credibility.
Network with Local Investment Groups: You can find real estate investment associations scattered all across the country. These groups are one of the best resources out there for all investors, regardless of whether you’re new to real estate or have been buying and selling properties for years. These groups offer a wealth of knowledge about your local real estate market. Real estate investment associations also give you the chance to develop relationships with some of the leading investors in your community. These connections are priceless when it comes to building your credibility with other local real estate investors.
Perhaps one of the best ways to build your credibility is to focus on solving the problems that your customers face. Quite frankly, the more educated you are in different types of investing strategies, the capable you will be of solving problems.
During the housing downturn last decade, many of my ‘fix and flip’ colleagues failed to adapt their strategies to meet the needs of the market & economy. When their marketing would yield people who owed more than their property was worth and wanted to sell, instead of adapting from fix & flips to short sales, they would try to fit the customer’s problem into their solution. Obviously, this didn’t work out. At the end of the day, they weren’t able to provide a solution because they didn’t know enough strategies.
This lack of knowledge cost them business, provided a disservice to the customers and hurt the company’s credibility.
Credibility is vital if you plan to have long-term success in real estate investing. The more you’re respected and trusted in your community, the more opportunities you’ll find. No matter your experience level, you can begin building your credibility right away by taking action on some of the tips in this article. It’s important to remember, however, that no matter how hard you work to build up your credibility and reputation, they can be much more quickly tarnished through bad decisions.
by Phill Grove
