There's the telephone, there's email, there's in-person meetings, semaphore, etc. They're all pretty important in general and especially in business ventures. Why you would use one type over another is really not the focus of my blog -- that sort of material is outside of my focus and heavily psychology dependent. Just keep in mind not to text most people. If they're not a voice communicator; email them. Texting is only appropriate for some of your marketing efforts. This is my opinion, of course, your mileage may vary, but it's a good standard practice. Save the texts for your boyfriend.
How to say some things, when to say them, and even what tools to use -- that's another issue.
Firstly; using tools effectively and in a professional manner will put you heads above the competition. Know how to leverage free and cheap tools out there.
First off Google is probably going to be your best friend. Google Documents (soon to be renamed Google Drive) allows you the ability to have multiple people have a single copy of a document. And edit it simultaneously. This is great for anything you need to work on with your team. My team and I have got all of our buyer and seller leads in Google docs, and when we're taking notes in conference calls we'll often open one to jot things down. This keeps someone from having the single updated copy, it keeps it accessible, and even tracks your edit history. Use it, you'll love it.
On top of that there's Google Voice. Having a "vanity" number is a professional touch. How much trust are you really going to engender with your out-of-state cell phone number with your "This is Jim, leave me a message" voicemail? Google Voice is your cake, and some would say you even get to eat it, too. First off -- you can get a different Voice number with every email you have with them. Want to track where your marketing efforts are doing you the most good? Use a different phone number on every batch. Use Number 1 in your newspaper ad. Use Number 2 on your signs. Use Number 3 for referrals. You can pick the area code (most of them are available at this point), and even try to spell out words so it's easier to remember for your potential clients. Over and above giving you so many choices on the front, the back end is where it gets amazing. You run the business from 9-5? You do the morning shift and your partner does the afternoons? You can set Voice to call your phone 9-1, his phone 1-5, and go straight to voicemail without answering during off hours. Usually at home where you get bad cell reception, but want to catch all the calls? It'll ring both your home phone and your cell and route the call to whichever picks up. Often on a loud construction site taking care of your properties? Free transcription of voicemail. Want to keep your personal life separate from your business? You can assign infinite groups their own voicemail greetings, down to the individual. All administered from your computer or your smartphone. For the rest of this year, it's also free to make outbound calls in the United States (and Canada, I think?) for free. They extended it last year, and might do so this year, too. Or, you know, you could use your Skype number... that doesn't do half of that.
Taking pictures or videos of your properties to view at home, or share with your team? Have Google's Picasa automatically upload all of your pictures, and then share them with just a few buttons to anyone that needs access. Plus, they're online where they can't be dropped in the toilet.
Once you get someone's email address -- you should email them. You can set up an email autoresponder with GetResponse. What's that do? Oh, just email them as often as you want with progressive marketing materials. Someone not interested in doing something immediately? Put them in a specialized campaign with your autoresponder for long term deals. You getting a lot of people who just need money fast? Set up a special sequence of emails touting all of those benefits to those people specifically. Do whatever you can imagine with it. Just don't annoy people with your email. If someone gave you their email, they're usually going to expect to hear from you -- just don't abuse that trust and they may decide you're the right one to work with.
Get business cards printed up. When you talk with someone about what sort of work you do; hand them out.
Make a welcome packet to take with you when you visit a prospective seller outlining how you do business, what your benefits are.
Do the same thing with buyers.
And, and with your emails, cards, and print items; You should be using the same color scheme and logos on all of them. Tie it all together and make an impression.
There are other people out there doing real estate investment, too. If you're like me they're going to have more experience, more connections and more comfort and confidence in doing it all. What you can do is look more professional than them. 90%+ of them are not using a custom letterhead on their emails and other correspondence.
It's not difficult to brand yourself as more put together. Do it, so you have the edge.
If you're more organized and you look it you won't even have to be the highest offer. You make decisions based on who gives you the best feeling in business all the time. Look better. Sound better. If you provide the better looking product people will assume it is the better functioning product. Many will opt for less money if they're being taken care of better.
Position yourself to be the better product, and act it. It'll eventually become true.
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