You will spend a bundle on marketing in your real estate investing career, but why spend it on the customers that you already sold to or bought from?� Don’t do it, you shouldn’t have to if you simply do your job right in the first place by remembering that the close of the sale is NOT the end of the process altogether.� Now, you have this individual in your group of “trusted” buyers or sellers and they have you as the same, don’t lose that invaluable trust and confidence.� Ask them to refer you to their friends and family while keeping in contact with them continually after the initial process is over.

Have a system in place that makes it easy for you to keep in contact with EVERY person that you buy from or sell to in your real estate investing venture.� Major corporations like worldwide banks and car dealerships have systems in place that require or encourage their salespeople to call in a set routine after the completion of the sale.� Make a chart or file that allows you to call your clients on a schedule that is friendly, not harassing.� Call them in a week, then a month, then three months, six months, a year, etc.� Ask questions about friends, family, or whatever you learned about them initially.

By continually making contact with past clients you will stay fresh in their mind and almost establish a friendly relationship that would make them feel guilty for going to anyone else.� This guilt isn’t the goal of your real estate investing career, but building a loyal group of followers is and it will save you a bundle in marketing.� Be as friendly and hospitable as possible in an effort to be the most respected and loved real estate investor in the market.� Don’t let these people get away because you will have to pay, likely twice as much, to get them to come back again if you lose contact.� Keep them coming back and laugh all the way to the ATM!

In this declining sales time, here are some tips for marketing your properties

There is nothing more difficult to someone beginning the real estate investing game than to decide what type of marketing method is best for them in this venture.� Sure, different strokes work for different folks, but how are you going to find what works for you and helps to separate you from the other real estate investors in the game?� In the beginning you may be struggling to come up with the cash that you need to be able to market the way you want, so why not try some methods that are both inexpensive and effective to beginning making your name well known in the game.

Try using the more time-tested and continually effective methods like door-hangers, yard signs, flyers, direct mailers, and postcards to get your name in front of prospective buyers.� With the possible exception of direct mailers, these methods can provide some relief to your pocketbook while providing you with the ability to brand yourself as a buyer in the market.� Remember, the key is to get people to think of you every time that they have to buy or sell a house.� If you are the first person they think of you may get the inside track on the prime properties in the area for the prime prices!

Once you have begun to establish yourself as an individual in the real estate investing market then you need to be everywhere that people look when real estate comes to mind.� Be in the newspapers, on television, or on the radio with a jingle or slogan that makes people remember you.� Also, if you are in a market where homes seem to be for sale in a hurry quite a bit (near a military base, etc.) then be the first one the buyers or sellers see in your local phone book.� Like most business, brand yourself in the beginning by being everywhere, then you just need to remind people that you are around!