My Name is Brian Nally and I’m the owner of 512. Investments, LLC. We do business as “SellMyAustinHouseFast.com” and have been active in Austin real estate since I moved here in 2008. In that time, we have seen a lot of the changes that technology has brought to the game. Our company is involved in all types of real estate deals but the area where technology has helped us the most is with our wholesaling business.
You’ve probably seen those annoying We Buy Houses signs all over town? Yeah, that’s not us. That’s our competition doing what we did 10 years ago. The landscape has shifted in how motivated sellers are reached(properly) and technology has had a big hand in that. We don’t put out bandit signs, we don’t send postcard mailers to thousands of homeowners, we don’t drive around neighborhoods at a snail’s pace like we’re looking to rob someone.
What we do is use technology to create a process that when a homeowner decides that they want to sell their house for cash we are the first people they come across when they begin their search for a buyer. There are a couple of main pieces to our system that are crucial to our success. I will do my best to describe each one and how they help us make our business work more smoothly and effectively.
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This one shouldn’t be surprising, but we went all-in with Google when we started seeking out systems and processes that make our business more successful. Google domains services our domain name (I prefer Namecheap actually), GSuite or Workplace or whatever it is handles or email, etc. I’m typing this on a Chromebook in the google docs app. All of which I only mention to show how integrated we have become with Google’s services.
We’ll see if this is a good or bad decision down the road. We also use Google Fi for our cell service, which we’ve been happy with so far. I’m not going to review any of these individual services, there is plenty of that available online already. What I will say is that the integration of these services and being able to connect all of our devices and control a large portion of our back end operations all, basically, in one place has been really important for us since we are real estate professionals who are not tech-savvy in the least.
Carrot
The next provider that has been really important to our success is carrot.com. They create some of the best, out-of-the-box, ready to use from the jump websites on the market today when it comes to marketing to motivated sellers online. We have three websites that we use to attract motivated sellers to our business, but the one we spend the most time with is sellmyaustinhousefast.com.
We took a really good website and through a lot of hard work and on the fly learning, turned it into a highly converting sales funnel that is feeding our business with hot leads that are requesting to do business with us. In our industry, there are a lot of people looking to take advantage of others, which makes most homeowners apprehensive about calling a real estate investor about busing their house. Our website was created to eliminate that apprehension. We put ourselves out there in no uncertain terms that we are the most credible, trustworthy investor that they can be doing business within Austin. That is our message, our motto, our creed. And based on the incredible amount of traffic that converts to leads, I’d say we got it right:) Carrot’s been instrumental in making that happen.
Amplify My Business
The newest tech provider may end up being the most important for us. We originally signed Amplify up to handle our Facebook ads campaign, but quickly realized that they provided so much more value than just the ad management. They have created one of the most powerful, customizable CRM systems that I have ever come across. This system has become our main portal for managing our wholesaling business.
From contact management to email/text/phone automation, scheduling and managing lead through the deal pipeline; AMB has been a real game-changer for us. One of the things I like the best in the VA is who calls through my leads on a regular basis. They provide real human follow-up and lead screening included with the CRM. Literally, they pick up the phone and dial our new leads to set appointments and screen them even further. This service alone would cost us over $1000/mo through other providers and it is a really effective tool that we probably wouldn’t have spent money on, but are very happy that it’s included in the package. Thanks, Angel!!!
It took a few hours to work through everything and set it up for our business, but once that was done, we were off and running. One of the most effective features that they provide is the SMS drip campaigns that we have set up. Sometimes a homeowner fills out the form on our website or calls us, but that is the only interaction we have with that person. With our SMS drip campaigns, we can continue to message those owners in a very consistent and automated way.
Then, when the homeowner eventually is ready to talk to someone more serious about buying their home, we are still there in their inbox, ready to have a conversation about selling their home fast, for cash, as is. As far as the Facebook ads management goes, we have not been using their service long enough to get a good feel for the lead value that is coming in. We’ll report back in a few months when we have more data to share. However, even if they absolutely bomb at Facebook ads (which we doubt), the CRM and everything that comes with it, may be worth the monthly fee by themselves.
About 512.Investments, LLC
512.Investments. LLC is a real estate solutions and investment firm that specializes in helping homeowners get rid of burdensome houses fast. We are investors and problem solvers who can buy your house fast with a fair all-cash offer. You deserve to know all of the options available to you right now. We would never say that we’ve seen it all, but we have seen almost every situation that would require somebody to sell their Austin home fast, for cash, as-is. No matter what your particular situation, we know we can find a solution.
