Monday, August 21, 2006

New support knowledge base feature added!

I have recently added a new support knowledge base feature to this website.  Over the past year I have been receiving support questions and other comments that I have collected to add to a knowledge base of support articles.

Well, I recently added this new support feature and I plan to frequently add how-to and support articles for customers to be able to quickly find the answers they need.  I will also post questions and answers to many of the common questions that I am frequently asked.

To access the new knowledge base, please visit http://www.realinvestorsoftware.com/support.

If you have any questions or comments about articles that I should add, please let me know using the contact us form and I will certainly add them.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

The new version of RealProspect is available for download!

After many months of hard work, the latest version of RealProspect (prospecting software for real estate investors) version 2.1 is available for download.  Over the past year since the initial release of the software, I have been collecting requests from all of my customers for improvements to the program.  As a result I have compiled a list of all the features and improvements that we felt would benefit everyone, and now have added them ALL to the latest version.

One of the major new additions is the automatic mailing campaign feature.  This feature allows you to setup your multi-step mailing campaigns into the program, then assign the letter templates that you are going to mail merge and print for the prospects in each campaign step, and then the campaign manager will automatically process the mailings in the order that you have defined. 

So for example, if you imported 10 prospect records, and you have a 3 step mailing campaign that sends a letter or post card every 5 days, then all 10 prospects will be automatically scheduled to receive the first mailing, and then be scheduled to receive the second mailing in 5 days, and so on.

Now, let’s say two days after you sent out your first mailing to those 10 prospects, you go and import another 10 new prospect records.  Well, these prospects will be automatically scheduled for the first mailing, and then be automatically scheduled to receive the second mailing 5 days after that.  Now these to groups of prospects will be independently tracked to ensure that your mailings are sent to them in the appropriate time frames, and to avoid mixing them up and accidentally sending a letter to a prospect twice.

This is a huge time saver.  With this process, you can easily manage your mailing campaigns without worrying that you are sending the same letter to a prospect more than once, or in the wrong order.  If you receive your mailing list on a weekly basis, then all you have to do is import your list, and the campaign manager will automatically begin to track the process of scheduling your mailings.  And if you are targeting several types of prospects, then you can create a category for each prospect type, and then create separate campaigns for them.  You can essentially have as many campaigns running as you need to keep your direct mail marketing organized and running efficiently.

And another great advantage is, when you have completed sending all your mailing pieces to a prospect and have not received a response, you can just set them as inactive.  Now if you get another list with their name on it, RealProspect will not import this record so you can be sure that you are not wasting postage, or irritating people by sending another series of letters to the same prospects.

Aside from this killer new feature, there have been many great new updates.  Entirely too many to list here, but if you are interested in learning more about this program, click here to view the software information.   

Friday, August 18, 2006

Create eye catching flyers to help you sell, rent, or lease your houses

One of the many techniques to market your house for sale, lease or rent is to use flyers.  You can post flyers in Laundromats, bulletin boards in community centers, or large apartment complexes, or just about any high traffic area around your property.  And creating an attractive flyer can help draw attention to it and generate greater responses.

I was asked by one of my customers that is using RealProspect if I knew of a “simple” program that they could use to create flyers to put in the take one tubes in front of the houses that they are selling.  Well, I tend to use programs that are much more advanced to do this type of stuff, so I did a quick Google search and I found a great program that was developed by HP (Hewlett Packard).

As it turns out, Hewlett Packard has an interest in providing people with the resources to burn up more toner cartridges… and they have created a flyer making program for real estate professionals.

They call the software “The HP Real Estate Marketing Assistant” and it sells on their site for $79.  With it is included a group of templates for quickly creating a flyer for just about any of your real estate needs.

If you are looking for an inexpensive solution to creating more effective flyers to help you sell, lease or rent out your properties, then this is the deal for you.  Click here to go to the HP website to learn more about this software.  If for some reason the page doesn’t load properly, then just go to the HP website at www.hp.com and enter the term “Real Estate Flyers” in the search box on their home page.

Welcome to my new Real Estate Investor Blog!

Well, I finally took the time to setup my new blog for real estate investing news and information.  Some of my customers, friends and other investors are always asking me what methods I am using to find deals, what techniques am I focusing on, and what tools am I using in my investing business, so…

I decided to create a blog so I can dump all this information for anyone who is interested in it.  I plan to make this a place where I can informally compile my thoughts, some of my investing strategies (new and old), and other nuggets of information that I pick up along the way that others can benefit from.

So what I am hoping to do with this blog is… each week, or as often as I can, I will post...

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News and updates to what is happening in the real estate market that would have an effect on us as investors

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Marketing strategies I discover that are generating great results for myself and other investors. As the developer of RealProspect, I meet many successful real estate investors that are using my software RealProspect to manage their prospecting processes.  Well, this allows me to learn many different techniques and strategies that are working for investors all over the country that I will share here on a regular basis.

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My personal thoughts on what’s going on in the real estate investing industry, reviews on new course material an books that I have read, technical reviews and recommendations on software programs that I find, and great web resources that I find.

So again, I would like to welcome you to my new blog that I have titled “The Technical Real Estate Investor”.  Please check back from time to time and see what great software, tools, services, resources, news, tips and comments I have posted about real estate investing for creative real estate investors.