Receiving engagement

               The social media campaign that I decided to look at was the Where's Jeremy campaign by T-mobile. This is a very clever campaign that T-mobile decided to promote their new international coverage plans with.  Although it does not relate directly to real estate, the principles on how the growing conversation is affecting the world directly relate. Creating content is the easy part, getting it to spread is one of the biggest mysteries that every major corporation and business deals with on a day to day basis. How do you get leverage on your customer to get them to create positive content about your brand and co create the content that your company is putting out? The campaign is a way to spread the word about T-mobiles international coverage which is exactly what it is doing. They have implemented rewards for the person who locates Jeremy. Jeremy is located somewhere in Europe and is constantly on the move so it is not an easy task. T-mobile is constantly putting out hints to help the T-mobile community locate him.

                This is a great way to get engagement from this community, however, I do think it could be better. If T-mobile were to find a way to get more customer to customer engagement in this campaign I think it would make it twice as strong. This would make it so T-mobile users were using each other to share hints on where to find them. Essentially this is building relationships between customers, as well as relations between employees and customers. This could really help to take this campaign to the next level. This could spark organic growth for this community which could help spread this content that T-mobile has put out naturally. I believe that there is great power in engagement and it is a key principle on how conversation is affecting the world.

                For my online presence I want to use twitter. Twitter will allow me to capitalize on the power of videos, pictures, and text. It is one of the most well rounded platforms and it forces you to you specific and concise language because of the limited characters allowed in a post. For my online presence I want to look at how to finance real estate projects. I want to create a community in the real estate industry that works together and shares ideas for how they finance their personal projects. The twitter account will be videos, visuals, and informative text of past experiences that people have had in the real estate industry financing projects that have been successful and ones that have not been successful. I really want to use real world examples so that it can really give people motivation to try these different ideas. With the right plan anything is possible! Financing projects is anyone's worst fear when it comes to purchasing real estate. It scares most people away from ever even trying to invest in real estate because they are to afraid to take the risk. I want to show people with this twitter account that with the right research plan and strategy, financing real estate projects is possible.

Long term investments for dummies

Story board script

Long term investments for dummies

          Meet uncle Sam and Jack. Jack is an inexperienced in the real estate market and looks to Uncle Sam for some advice. Uncle Sam has been working in this industry for over twenty years and is a real estate buff. This story board is to provide some insight to people who are looking to buy a second home but haven't gone through the process of purchasing property in a very long time. In this case "Jack" is looking to purchase a home as a long term investment. He plans on renting it out until the house pays for itself so he can cash out on his investment for retirement.

Jack: Hey uncle Sam, do you know which way it is to the bank?

Uncle Sam: Yea its down judge street on the left, why?

Jack: I don't know, I am trying to buy a second home as an investment but it's not easy getting a loan with a good rate, and plus I haven't gone through this process in over 20 years.

Uncle Sam: Well of course it's easy to get a good rate! Have you tapped into all of the resources available to you to find other ways to finance your purchase?

Jack: What resources?

Uncle Sam: What resources?!?! You plan on purchasing a second home all by yourself without trying to find investors, partners, and other sources available to you to finance your purchase????

Jack: Uhhhhh..........yea I guess

Uncle Sam: You're insane! Before you go about this process I think you really need to do some research on what it is you want. What kind of investment are you trying to make?

Jack: I'm not sure, just an investment. I plan on renting the property out to create an extra cash flow and help pay for the property. When I retire I will be able to sell the house and use that as a source of cash for retirement.

Uncle Sam: Now you are using your head, what you're talking about is a long term investment. Which will mean you will have your hands full, it will take serious dedication to accomplish what you are trying to do.

Jack: What do you mean?

Uncle Sam: Well finding the right property in the right location that has a hot renting market is tricky. If it were easy everyone would be doing it!

Jack: Well it really isn't that complicated, Find a house and rent it, seems pretty simple to me.

Uncle Sam: HAHA!!! How do you plan on finding renters? Why would they rent from you? is renting common in the location you are buying? These are all questions you need to ask yourself while you are searching for the right place to buy.

Jack: Wow uncle Sam, those are some really good points. Tell me more about what I should expect and what I should know before I do this.

Uncle Sam: Alright kid, Meet me in my office on Thursday and we can sit down and discuss everything you will need to know about your potential long term investment.

.......2 days later

Jack: Thanks so much for meeting with me, I really appreciate it

Uncle Sam: No problem, I have been in the real estate business for over thirty years and I am always looking to help people like yourself. So let me get this straight, you are looking to make a long term investment, and you are planning on renting the property out until it is paid off.

Jack: Correct

Uncle Sam: Okay well the first thing you really need to understand is the risk that comes with this. Things don't always go as planned so you need to be ready to deal with adversity as it comes. You won't always find the perfect tenant, and sometimes your house will be empty and you won't be collecting off it, that's just the way it is.

Jack: Okay uncle Sam I understand.

Uncle Sam: Okay, you are going to need to do a some research on your own but I can give you my insight based on my own personal experiences. I take it you don't have a location picked out yet, right?

Jack: I do not, but I was thinking maybe near a city or a major attraction like a beach or ski resort.

Uncle Sam: Good, you are moving in the right direction, but you need to become far more specific. Find out exactly what it is you are looking for. If you are looking at a city you need to narrow your search down into a population. Young adults, business professionals, college students etc. A great way that I have found to be very effective is buying near a college campus and renting to college kids. They are always looking for places to live and are willing to pay the right price to make it worth it for you. Or young professionals who cannot yet afford to buy a house so they need to rent for a few years.

Jack: Okay this is starting to make a lot more sense. Like you said this is going to take some serious time and commitment.

Uncle Sam: Yes it is so you need to be ready. Once you narrow it down to the a certain renting population then you are ready to pick a location. A city, college campus, etc. A valuable resource that can help you find tenants for a fairly cheap price is real estate agents. They always take a small cut but it can save you an astronomical amount of time. A real a estate has connections in this area that can find tenants quickly and effectively, it is their job. I have been working with the same real estate agent for the past fifteen years, it is safe to say that we have a mutually beneficial relationship.

Jack: That is exactly what I will do then, no sense in wasting my time, time is very valuable.

Uncle Sam: I think it is a good idea, time is far too valuable to waste. The next step I would recommend is finding out how you are going to finance your purchase. You will need a down payment, A lot of times I like to search for investors, or partners to work with on certain projects to help split up the risk. I have has a partner that I have worked with for the past 10 years. He is a friend of mine from high school and we have buying and selling homes together for the last ten years, it is going quite well for us.

Jack: what about loans? Don't you think that is a reasonable way to finance projects like this?

Uncle Sam: Yes I do, and right now you will find some historically low rates because they economy is down right now. However, never forget that you will be paying interest on these loans. If you can scrounge up enough money from investors, and out of your own pocket to outright buy the home upfront, you will save yourself quite a bit of money. This is not always possible, so a loan could be your best bet. Once you really get going in this industry you will meet more people and understand the market better so you may not ever have to take out a loan again if you continue purchasing property for a profit.

Jack: Okay this is really starting to come together for me. What about the expenses it will cost to purchase the house? Is there a strategy you use to figure out how much it will cost to make repairs to make the house attractive to renters?

Uncle Sam: You are learning fast! This is called property analyses. Before you purchase any home you need to really do your homework on how much work it needs in repairs. The best way to learn how to do this is experience. You also need to calculate how much of your own time it is going to take to fix this property. It is not always pretty numbers when you are analyzing properties. This is also part of the risk, the property may be so much more than you bargained for. You really need to be careful and make sure you take your time when you are analyzing the house. Asking questions to the current owner is also key, ask him what needs repairs and what has been repaired in the last five years. This will help you determine what work needs to be done.

Jack: Wow this is a lot more than I bargained for, the risk is so high I am not sure if I can afford to take this risk.

Uncle Sam: Well Jack, this is something you really need to decide for yourself. If you do go through with it you need to do everything in your power to reduce the risk as much as possible, which really comes from doing your research and your homework. Remember, the most important and forgotten part of this process is to believe in yourself, have confidence that you can do it.

Jack: Okay thanks Uncle Sam I really appreciate you meeting with me, you have given me some excellent advice that I will be able to use when I am going through this process.

Uncle Sam: No problem, you have my number, so don't hesitate to call with questions along the way.