Using the Web and social media to sell real estate

Being out of the game of today Web 2.0 can be quite deadly but you can also die in the effort of doing it the wrong way and wasting a lot of time and energy in the process. Like every other activity, also your social media presence must have a plan and must be aimed at obtaining a specific result that will benefit you an your business.

Using social media to sell directly is a bad idea and it will eventually recoil back, you can instead use it for creating the connections and setting the stage that will then allow you to continue the conversation elsewhere and the do business.

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Legal papers are just as good as the people who sign them and though required in some types of transaction will never replace the true respect and mutual dependence that results from knowing and trusting who you are doing business with.

Since my arrival in the United States I have followed an approach that is quite contrary to the business habits of this country. I have opened all my connections and resources to the people who wished to work with me, without first asking to sign a iron clad agreement or any other type of paperwork.

Amrk and me during a recent family event.

My intention was first of all to contribute something to this great nation and also to invite the right people, because I knew that the very best wouldn’t have taken any advantage of it. I met many potential partners, but some of them were simply not ready yet and some were just too busy doing something else and didn’t want to take the time to build a strong and long lasting relationship.

Eventually I found the right person that was willing to work with me for nine months, creating one of the most powerful investment network that exists in the real estate field: Mark Jackson.

These are the five successful actions that helped us getting to this point:
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In every business and activity there is a level of security and a level of speed, and they sometimes work one against the other. The faster the action, the less protection you can expect to have. Also, with a faster action you can have higher gains, as well as higher losses.

It is easy to understand with physical objects, like a race car compared to a bus. If you ride on a bus, you don’t need much attention or skill, and you can usually reach your destination with no risk, but you will never be able to win a competition.

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Yet there are situations where speed and safety go together, like in the real estate business, where you buy and sell properties with the maximum possible speed so to protect yourself from additional holding costs and from changes in the market that could affect your prices. So here you have faster processes that equate to higher safety.

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I have been writing about technology for a long time and I have come to understand that people want ready solutions to immediate needs or better want to get some immediate advantage, without really caring of knowing much about what they are really doing and why.

There is some definite advantage in learning tips and short cuts and gaining the direct advice of experts, but when it gets overdone then you can run into serious problems. If you know how do to a procedure or a job and you don’t know why you are doing it and what is behind those actions, you can easily get off track when something changes in the usual circumstances and now you are required to take judgment on something you now very little of.
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Today, for example, a friend came to visit me and she had a problem with her computer that had been apparently infected by a virus. She couldn’t use it any more since every time she opened it up a slew of windows would come up urging her to buy a specific anti-virus software and provide credit card information for the purchase.

Fortunately she was wise not to proceed in the purchase, but while talking with her I realized that her machine had been contaminated three days before and she had been using it all that time while the bad software was spreading everywhere.
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An impromptu meeting spurred by family needs will probably change the course of events for the months to come. Many crucial business matters are sometimes defined at the kitchen table during unexpected events that occur at the right moment in the right place. This is what happened to me today. I was planning to have a day with my family when my business associate Daniele Bogiatto called asking for assistance for his kids who have been coughing for a few days now, after their arrival in Florida.
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So I volunteered to get some natural healing products at a local store and deliver them to Daniele’s house, about 20 miles away from my place. When I arrived in the late afternoon, we set down at the table in the kitchen with Daniele and his wife Jenny and began chatting about their experiences in the US after they arrived from Italy one week ago and we pretty soon ended up talking about Daniele’s new blog and the extensive research and development efforts that has been put into its development during the last 3 months, involving many people.
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