Investor Quarterly™ Issue 1 - May 2015 | Page 11

Note: I used the word “I” a lot in this article. Any of the success I’ve achieved couldn’t have happened without many others, not the least of which is my wife Lindsay (my secret weapon), who refers to herself as “the woman behind the curtain”. As a busy real estate investor, it’s critical that you leverage technology to become more efficient and more productive. Better yet with FlipNerd, we’re working on solving one of the largest issues that all real estate investors face, finding local contractors and professional vendors! If you’re reading this article right now, you’ve surely asked or heard many questions like, “Do you know of a good, cheap, fast electrician in X part of town?” Leverage Your Network We’ve essentially created a tool that’s kind of like Angieslist.com, but for real estate investors. To really take on a challenge, we’ve split the country into about 8,700 markets so the vendors you see on FlipNerd are local to you. Given that we launched just a month ago, this is quite simply going to take time to build out nationally and we’re all over it! It’s a great tool and members can even rate vendors so other investors can be sure they’re hiring someone that’s been validated. If you have a business to promote (Painter, General Contractor, Lender, Title Company, Pest Control, etc., etc.), you can get a free vendor account in just a few minutes. Check out our Vendor Directory Here: click me beginning of any meaningful relationship. Everyone knows that networking as a real estate investor is important. Unfortunately, many think that the act of networking is in the ‘meeting’ of people (i.e. meeting someone at an event, shaking hands, trading business cards). Truth is, that’s just the beginning. As an investor, it’s critical that you identify which of the people you meet that you need to focus on building a long-term relationship with. I’ve always told everyone I’ve ever mentored to only Social media has allowed us to believe that the use vendors or contractors that another investor has simply act of ‘friending’ someone is a ‘relationship’, recommended. Let’s face it, not all vendors and but that alone isn’t meaningful in any way. contractors are ‘investor friendly’, and for sure, not We’ve built some incredible tools into FlipNerd all vendors and contractors are reliable. Why be for me