Top 20 Web Resources for Real Estate Investors

Have you heard the great news about Google? It has the answers to almost everything these days. Put the words “real estate invest” into Google and you receive 128 million results!

How can we focus on the best of the best for real estate investors on the Internet? Here’s my list of “must have” resources for real estate investors.  Please add your favorites in the comments below.

Google Voice

Google Voice is an incredible resource for real estate investors as it packs a ton of phone features packaged into a single FREE service. This works great for investors who want a phone service for capturing motivated seller leads, building your buyers list, or taking call from tenants.
The service allows you to upload your voice mail script, and when you receive voice mail, it will transcribe the call to you via text and/or email. Here is the link to Google Voice:  http://www.Google.com/voice

ListSource

A great way to get your phone ringing with motivated sellers is to use direct mail. The single most important part of a successful direct mail campaign is the list you mail to. And a great resource for building your list is ListSource.com.
ListSource allows you to focus your marketing onto specific geographic locations, property information, and relevant owner data. Want a list of homes owned by out of state owners, no problem. Want a list of homes with lots of equity, no problem. Here’s the link to ListSource:  http://www.listsource.com.

Direct Mail

A few years back, investors had to manually print and mail their postcards. I use to have mine printed at Office Max and my young kids would put the address labels and stamps onto my thousands of postcards.
The good news for investors today is there are a lot of automated “done for you” services. All you do is upload your list and postcard template and the service prints and mails them for you.
Now the United State Postal Service offers a great feature on their website called “Every Door Direct.”
If you plan to mail yellow letters, which result in the highest response rate, I recommend you use Yellow Letters Complete automated service.
You can easily mail postcards or Yellow Letters. Here’s the link:  ellowLettersComplete.com.

Home Values

In a stable market, the values of houses can become easier to gauge. But in declining or the new rising market, it can be tricky. There are a number of resources available to investors. These sites offer free access to home values.

  • Zillow
  • Trulia
  • FindCompsNow
  • Redfin

If you want to increase the accuracy of your comps, I suggest you check out:

  • RealQuest and
  • http://www.investorcompsonline.com

Both of these services have the capability to provide more accurate comps than the totally free services.

Determining Max Offer

The most important calculation an investor can make is determining the maximum price that can be offered to a seller.
The investor must know the after repair value and the amount of fix up required. Once those two numbers are established, the maximum offer can be calculated.
One service stands out as the best and easiest way to calculate the maximum offer is RehabValuator.  It allows the user to easily calculate the highest price that can be paid for a house. There is a “Lite” version that is free and a paid full-service version available.  Here’s the link: http://www.rehabvaluator.com

Tracking Down Owners

Some of the best houses are vacant, run-down properties. They are easy to find by looking for high grass, boarded up windows and houses crying out for help. Frequently, it’s a challenge is to find the owner, so an investor can buy the house.
The first step is to check your local online tax records. If you cannot determine where the owner lives, then the next step is to skip-trace them. A good skip trace is worth the price that is costs as it can provide owner address and phone number information.
Two skip-trace services that work great for investors are:  http://www.findtheseller.com and http://www.tlo.com

Property Management

There are a ton of resources available for finding, screening, and managing tenants. Great sites for finding tenants include:

  • CraigsList
  • Rentals.com

If you are searching for Section 8 tenants, be sure to check out http://www.gosection8.com
Once you have tenants who want to move into your property, be sure to screen them thoroughly for credit, evictions, and criminal background.  Here are some resources to do it for you:

  • MySmartMove.com
  • NTNonline.com

One great service for managing your rental business is:  http://www.buildium.com

Investor Education

The entire investor process starts with the commitment to invest in yourself to learn how to invest in real estate. Many investors get stuck figuring out how to start and which strategies to go after.
The good news is that there is an incredible resource for you that is very affordable. It will help new investors get started and seasoned investors get to the next level.
Eliminate the fear and confusion, so you are prepared to capitalize on the best investing market of our generation. You can learn to wholesale, fix and flip, buy houses without cash or credit, and build long-term cash flow and equity.

Investors Community

Want to hang out with like-minded people that you can share your investor journey with? Be sure to participate in the CREonline Forum. Here is the link:  http://www.CREonline.com. See you there!
It is true, Google does have all the information necessary, but this list of the top 20 web resources will help you focus onto the best of the best available resources so you can succeed!
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What are some of your favorite resources? Leave me your comments, so we can all share together.

By Jim Ingersoll

Jim Ingersoll is a successful real estate entrepreneur, Author and Coach. He has bought and sold hundreds of houses wholesaling, flipping and buying to hold for the long-term. Jim loves all aspects of creating winning transactions with creative real estate.