Nowadays it seems as though there is too much information available for anyone in any particular field, at any given moment. Right now you can Google the words "real estate investing", or "Chicago real estate investing", and you will turn up thousands if not millions of pages with content. How can a investor keep up with so much information? Learning to navigate the waters and knowing what you want takes time, but can benefit your deals in the future. I have come across a few tools that may help filter the info overload.
1. Read blogs about the local market. Blogs from Local Chicago agents, brokers, and wholesalers is a great way to get introduced to other professionals, learn the latest trends, and get a beat on the investing pulse of Chicago. Also, the Tribune and Times have many articles a week regarding Chicago and Chicagoland real estate. Most do not know this but, the Tribune and Times websites are technically blogs. TIP: To find blogs about real estate in Illinois, go to: http://www.real-estate-blogs.com, pick our state and start looking at what information is readily available to you.
2. Join the conversation online. Facebook is your key to getting in touch with people directly without really meeting. Joining Facebook groups and messaging the admin of this group can help start a great conversation, as well as get you plugged into the latest meetings, events, and networking groups in Chicago. TIP: Try not to join groups who have very general names like, "Real estate investing". Join groups with your city's name in it. This narrows down the number of people, but increases the quality per person within a group. Send a message and get started! (Sidenote: If your city does not have a group, create one! This will probably get you plugged in at a faster rate.)
3. Pick one guru and stick with him! What I mean by this is, there are too many real estate guys who just want to get your email in order to sell you something. Many of these guys run in the same circles and promote the same product. So if you sign up to receive one persons free e book, he will sell you the same thing as the next. I suggest sticking with someone like Than Merrill from the Fortune Builders Group. He sells, but always offers great incentives and content. He also is doing real estate on a daily basis.
4. Stick with one niche! If you are new, this is for you. There are a million ways to get involved with and profit from real estate. Investing can mean financing, wholesaling, rehabbing, land lording, etc... so pick one and stop joining webinars for other stuff. Some niches compliment one another like wholesaling and short sales, so there are some exceptions, but not at first. If you want to stay ahead of the game, pick 1 aspect of investing and stick with it until you make a profit. Only then, should you decide to buy another product or google other niches.
5. Just because its FREE does not mean it's good enough. Yes, using sites like Zillow.com and Trulia.com to find comparables works when you are starting out, but its not enough. You must find a way to get MLS comps, whether you become an agent or just have an agent work with you does not matter, but you cannot get away with free all the time. The best FREE source in Chicago for comps is Redfin.com, but it still falls short. Zillow is a bust, never trust numbers from there.
6. If you are setting up a website, do not worry about SEO right away. SEO is a very complicated and long subject that wont give you an immediate ROI. If you are going to put up a site, just put up a blog and start writing about your business and what you do. The content will drive people to your site eventually, your priority should lie in getting deals done. If you are a seasoned pro, pay a specialist to set your site up! Your site should be for buyers/sellers to come to once they get your business card or an email from you, that is it.
7. Do you tweet? You should, but its OK if you don't. I cannot say much about twitter since we don't really focus on it much, other than just to have it. I would not get too spread out on your web stuff, having Facebook works just as good. Hope this information is useful!
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