10 software tools the investor needs

Summary

The speaker provides a comprehensive overview of software tools needed to set up a real estate investing business, organized by each stage of the investment process. This includes market research tools like Zillow, lead generation tools for finding motivated sellers, pipeline management with CRMs, deal analysis calculators, digital signature services, inspection technology, and property management platforms. The goal is to give actionable recommendations to assemble the necessary infrastructure and remove friction from finding, analyzing, closing, and managing rental property deals.

Takeaways

• 😀 Zillow and a good rental property calculator are key for initial market research
• 🏠 List Source and Propstream provide property owner data for lead generation
• 📞 Batch skip trace gets phone numbers, while tools like Mojo dialer enable outreach
• 📨 Direct mail works well for marketing to sellers
• 💼 Use a simple, free CRM like Podio to track your pipeline
• 📊 The rental property calculator is essential for quickly analyzing deals
• ✏️ Digital signatures like DocuSign make offers and contracts easier
• 🏡 Inspections with 3D walkthroughs help due diligence for out of state investors
• 💵 Increase bank wire limits to easily send closing funds
• 🔑 Prefer property managers using AppFolio over Buildium for transparency

Q & A

What software does the speaker recommend for market research when buying rental properties?

The speaker recommends using Zillow or Redfin to view property listings and sales data. He also recommends having a rental property calculator like his company's tool open to analyze potential deals.

What is the benefit of using a tool like List Source for lead generation?

List Source allows you to pull detailed property owner data so you can market directly to sellers. It provides clean, accurate data to use for outreach.

What CRM does the speaker recommend for real estate investors?

The speaker recommends using Podo to manage your pipeline. He says it has the necessary features to track leads, log activities, and store property information without being overly complex like Salesforce.

What options does the speaker discuss for making offers digitally?

The speaker states you need a digital signature software to send offers remotely without having to meet with the seller in-person each time. He mentions DocuSign as an option once his current account expires.

Why does the speaker prefer property managers that use AppFolio?

The speaker states AppFolio is more straightforward compared to Buildium. He feels managers tend to misuse Buildium's complexity, while AppFolio provides clear access to information.

What wire transfer tip does the speaker recommend when closing real estate deals?

The speaker advises investors to contact their bank and increase their online wire transfer limits. This avoids having to physically go to the bank for each transfer when closing several deals per week.

What software does the speaker use to track phone calls from potential sellers?

The speaker uses a service called Vumber to buy phone numbers that display the lead source when calls come in. This allows them to track where inquiries originate.

What options does the speaker list for making outbound phone calls to leads?

The speaker mentions services like Google Voice, Skype, and RingCentral as low-cost ways to make outbound calls separate from your personal phone.

What information does the speaker say you can access from county record sites?

County record sites provide property tax history, sales records, square footage details, zoning information, and other useful data for deal analysis.

Why does the speaker say most real estate investors don't need Quickbooks?

He states Quickbooks is only necessary if you reach high volumes of flips, rentals, or wholesale deals. For just getting started, tracking finances in Quickbooks is likely overkill.

Outlines

00:00

🏠 Introducing software for real estate investing

The paragraph introduces the speaker, who will be providing recommendations on software tools needed to build a real estate investing business. It covers areas like market research, lead generation, pipeline management, deal analysis and property management. There is also a mention of a weekly giveaway for the audience.

05:02

📝 Lead generation software

This paragraph discusses software tools for the lead generation phase. For property owner data, ListSource and PropStream are recommended. For outreach via mailing, phone or text, solutions like Batch Skip Trace, Mojo Dialer, Sly Broadcast and Launch Control are suggested.

10:02

📈 Pipeline and deal management software

The paragraph focuses on software to manage pipelines and analyze deals. Call tracking with Vumber is advised to monitor marketing channels. Podio is proposed as an affordable CRM for small investors. Salesforce is mentioned as an enterprise option. Other deal analysis tools include Zillow for comps and county records sites for property details.

Keywords

💡Market Research

Market research refers to analyzing real estate markets to identify profitable investment opportunities. As mentioned in the video, Zillow and rental property calculators are useful tools for initial market research. For example, Zillow provides listings and sales data to assess pricing and rents in different markets.

💡Lead Generation

Lead generation means obtaining contact information for potential sellers that real estate investors can market to. As discussed in the video, list source and propstream are used to pull owner data that investors then outreach to via direct mail, phone calls, or texts.

💡Pipeline Management

Pipeline management refers to tracking all incoming leads and managing follow-ups. As suggested in the video, Podio is an affordable customer relationship management (CRM) platform for this. It allows organizing lead data, logging past activities, and scheduling next actions.

💡Deal Analysis

Deal analysis means evaluating potential property investments to see if they meet buying criteria. As stated in the video, this involves using tools like Zillow for comps, county records for property details, and a rental property calculator to analyze financials.

💡Digital Signature

Digital signature software allows remotely signing real estate purchase offers instead of meeting sellers in-person. As noted in the video, common platforms like DocuSign or DotLoop improve efficiency during negotiations.

💡Due Diligence

Due diligence refers to research done to confirm details and evaluate risks when under contract. As mentioned in the video, some home inspection companies like Pillar to Post provide 3D walkthroughs to help out-of-state investors complete due diligence.

💡Closing

Closing the deal means finalizing the property purchase through signing documents and wiring funds. As suggested in the video, setting higher wire transfer limits for your bank account makes this process easier when buying frequently.

💡Property Management

Property management means having a company handle leasing, maintenance and operations after purchase. As stated in the video, manager softwares like AppFolio and Buildium help organize this, with AppFolio being a simpler option.

💡Batch Skip Tracing

Batch skip tracing services compile phone number data for real estate leads. As mentioned in the video, Batch Skip Trace integration allows dialers to call leads directly for marketing.

💡QuickBooks

QuickBooks is an accounting platform for tracking income, expenses, and taxes across rental properties and real estate projects, as noted towards the end of the video.

Highlights

Zillow and a rental property calculator for initial market research

List Source and Propstream for lead gen property owner data

Batch Skiptrace for phone numbers, Mojo Dialer for cold calling leads

Podio for pipeline CRM to track leads and follow-ups

Legendary rental property calculator for analyzing deals

Increase bank wire limits to easily send closing funds

Prefer AppFolio over Buildium for property management software

Zillow for comps and understanding the local market

Digital signatures like DocuSign to send offers remotely

Pillar to Post provides 3D walkthroughs for due diligence

Separate phone system instead of using personal phone

Simple Texting for compliant texts to engaged leads

Propstream to supplement List Source missing property types

QuickBooks only needed once significant transaction volume

Tools match the flow of the real estate investment process

Transcripts

here's every piece of software that you

need to build your real estate investing

Empire packed into a 10-minute session

I'm going to give you all the ones that

we use plus some more so get your pen

and pad out take some notes it's going

to be a good one we're going to kick

this session off with our weekly

giveaway 25 free copies of the legendary

rental pop property calculator or

anything else from the ace toolkit store

you're going to get to that toolkit

store using that link floating over my

head or the link in BIO it's first come

first serve so get there quick they go

fast and if you don't get it the coupon

code's already expired by the time time

you get there just buy the calculator

it's 45 bucks if you need one it's worth

it trust me but anyways the code is all

lowercase tools of the trade one word

tools of the trade no spaces all lower

case you know how to spell it uh the

code is not good for the uh the virtual

Investors Guide that's our course it

teaches you our entire process to go out

and acquire properties out of state if

you're serious about that it's the cost

of a home inspection it's obviously

worthwhile you'll probably jump on it

and you don't need a freebie to just

justify the value of it and if you need

the freebie then you probably don't want

to bother with it trust me it's not

worth it anyways I'm done plug in except

for I think you can get there through

this link floating over my head too um

or the linoln bio as well but let's move

on to the actual session today and sorry

my voice is shot um I sat Courtside this

week at a ball game and I was yelling my

ass off uh it was it was an emotional

roller coaster so yeah my voice is still

gone from a couple nights ago uh but for

today's session we're going to give you

these software tools in the format of

the actual real estate investment

process right so we're going to start

all the way with like market research go

through lead genen and pipeline

management and deal analysis all the way

down to closing the deal in property

management and we're going to give you

the tools that we use along the way so

it's going to be this natural flow and

essentially this is a session on how to

set up the infrastructure for your real

estate business so it's better than it

sounds it's not just a list of softwares

right it's actually a setup session so

let's get to it so first for market

research a lot of people overthink this

one for most consumer investors that are

buying rental properties you know one to

16 units I start that research with with

Zillo honestly you got to learn how to

throw some filters on for property types

for Market rents for uh for sale prices

and you just got to look at listings and

sales in a variety of markets around the

country and see where there's stuff that

looks like it could remotely fit your

criteria so Zillow or red finin or

whatever other like properties for sale

online listing tool surprisingly useful

in this market research stage and very

easy to use as well now while you have

that going you're going to want on a

separate screen or a different window

but I prefer a separate screen

altogether you're going to want a rental

property calculator open because you're

going to run mock properties to see if

they fit your criteria obviously our

legendary rental property calculator is

the best one out there and I say that

pretty confidently because I didn't want

to build it I didn't even sell it for

like a year and a half after I did build

it all the other ones out there just

kind of sucked not because one

calculator's that different than the

other from the other with regard to how

the information output is generated it's

like the use of it and the flow of it it

took way too long to get quick results

out of all these other ones that were

out there so I made one where you plug

in a few numbers and boom boom boom you

can like qualify move on to the next

Market move on to the next deal so you

need a good calculator and you

know I don't think you need co-star it's

an expensive research tool they own

apartments.com they I think they own

loopnet as well it's usually for

commercial investors you may make some

use of propstream while you're doing

some market research and looking into

property data and property taxes and

last Market sale dates and all that

stuff um it costs a little bit of money

I got a free trial on my bio if you want

to get on it and just check it out just

make sure you cancel it before the week

or two weeks or whatever it is runs up

um I don't know if you need it for this

market research stage for most people

though so Zillow and a rental property

calculator gets it done the next thing

you're going to want to do is lead gen

you need software for lead generation

and there's two phases of lead

generation we want to talk about the

first is data the second is Outreach so

for data to get property owner data to

actually Market to to pursue properties

you're going to want to hop on list

Source that's my favorite one it's a

little expensive but you could find

discounts for list Source access through

different marketing companies that sell

like direct mail and such too sometimes

right if you have a relationship with

them so um list source is awesome for

pulling owner data and it's got pretty

clean data but sometimes list sources

missing certain types of properties in

certain markets like I noticed in

Michigan list source does not have

multifamilies available for us to pull

owner data to be able to market to in

like any city in Michigan right so we've

gone to propstream to do that that's the

one that you can get that free trial of

in my bio but that kind of makes it

worthwhile right getting more data is is

great and that's what we use propstream

for besides market research or besides

analyzing properties uh but the data

that comes out of propstream is not as

high quality as the data that comes out

of list Source sometimes it feels a

little bit messy but to get property

owner data list Source prop stream those

are the two things you need then for

outreach Outreach is basically your

marketing direct to these sellers now

you could mail and that's my preferred

method of marketing now some people use

phone-based marketing right so for phone

based marketing you need to get phone

numbers I hear batch skip Trace is

really good for getting phone numbers

and batches none of these guys pay me by

the way um except for prop stream I get

like a affiliate fee if you actually

sign up and pay but like I'm not I'm not

like getting plugged up for plugging

these guys in this session um batch skip

Trace is the the preferred place to get

phone numbers in the real estate

investing community in bulk for all

these leads that you've gotten through

list sourcer prop stream so you can

reach out to them using either a dialer

people seem to like batch dialer or Mojo

Dialer for cold calling um a ringless

voicemail and i' be careful of

regulations with all the phone based

stuff make sure you understand what

you're doing who you're marketing to and

that you're not breaking any laws right

uh a ringless voicemail like Sly

broadcast is a good ringless voicemail

software and then some people text you

got to really mind the regulations with

with text too right um and a lot of

these softwares will make sure that you

are compliant before they allow you to

use them uh but for text we use either

like simple texting to reach out to

people that are already like on our

engaged list they're pretty inexpensive

it's like 1 cent per text in bulk

um or for outbound marketing we do hear

of wholesalers using stuff like launch

control which is more expensive uh I

don't know what they do to kind of make

the regulatory process a little bit more

compliant um but I hear I hear they're

pretty good um so for outbound text

launch control and simple texting for

rvm Sly broadcast um dialers Mojo and

batch dialer and then to skip trace the

phone numbers in the first place um

batch skip Trace is a popular one out

there uh the next stage is pipeline

management now to manage your pipeline

you got to have a place to actually take

in the leads that call you right uh if

you are getting a good amount of intake

getting a separate phone number that has

a tag on it so you know what the lead

source is is important um we use a

really simple software called vumber and

we literally just use the numbers that

we buy through them a couple bucks a

month each uh just to receive voicemails

and to receive inbound calls and just

know where they came from just to be

able to Source them right uh then you

need a CRM now we use sales Force to

manage our whole pipeline all the data

all the followup all the information we

collect on properties our activity logs

that's too much for most Real Estate

Investors especially if you're just

getting started and you're just trying

to get a marketing funnel going don't

pay don't pay for sales for us you don't

need it we have a whole organization we

like the controllability of Salesforce

um you can use podo and just build it

out so that you make sure something like

podo it was free last time I used it

that was a long time ago it's probably

still free or cheap um make sure your

podio uh whatever organization that you

build whatever term they use uh just has

your lead set up so that you have a

clear place to put last activities every

time you make a call or make make a

point of contact with someone and a key

next steps and then just property

information and maybe like a next

follow-up date or something like that

right so podio is probably the place to

go for CRM for most Real Estate

Investors watching this video then you

need some sort of phone system to call

these people you could just use your

phone if you want if you want to do it

through your computer uh and you want a

little more control uh over just

separating your phone from your real

estate business Google Voice is cheap

Skype is really cheap actually they're

just kind of a pain to set up ring

central is a little more official you

got a couple employees maybe that's

useful our employees actually have

Verizon phones um so it is what it is we

just gave them all iPhones we like

spending money on our people but just

make sure you have some sort of dialer

if you're not planning on using your

personal phone to contact all these

sellers and property owners and

everybody else um the next key stage now

pipeline management now naturally comes

before deal analysis you go through your

pipeline you talk to people you get

deals you got to analyze them and to

analyze deals it's this is another

simple one that gets over complicated

right you could do this for very very

cheap or free um the legendary rental

property calculator is an absolute

necessity like this isn't even a plug

it's so worth it if you're going to be

analyzing deals the one that you can get

through our store or you can make your

own rental property calculators just a

spreadsheet guys just make sure it makes

it easy for you to move quickly through

these deals your time is more important

than the actual metrics that come out

the metrics are easy to get right uh

Zillow we use Zillow a bunch when we're

analyzing deals for comps rent comps

listings that are available in the area

just understanding what's going on with

our property comparatively uh County

record sites can be a pain they they are

where you they are where you will get

information on property taxes on recent

sales history on the property square

footage on zoning on things like that uh

you just got to find each County record

site for each market that you Opera in

which isn't all that bad if you're only

in a few markets if not you could just

go to propstream and you can you know

it's it's all kind of Consolidated there

and it's a little easier to operate when

you're doing your deal analysis right

but really a calculator and Zillow and

County record site that's all you need

then you got to make the offer and this

is simple now you just need a digital

signature right you don't want to have

to deal with mail or someone delivering

an offer meeting with a seller every

time just to sign a piece of paper um

get a digital signature software signs

fine I've got funny um we're still using

an account I used to work for a real

estate software company before I started

while I was starting this business and I

quit that company I'm still buddies with

the owners um and and came on over here

and the day that I quit before I left I

set myself up with um with an account

for CU I was an account executive so I

had the admin access I set myself up for

digital signature access um through them

and I still have it I think our team

still uses it here so one day they'll

kick me off and we'll just pay for a

docu sign account 30 or 40 bucks a month

or something like that and we'll be all

good uh but you need a digital signature

for due diligence now this isn't really

your software but this is a nice plus

some inspection companies have 3D

inspection walkthroughs they generate

kind of like the 3D walkthroughs you see

on home listings right um a common

franchise that always offers this or

almost always offers this is called

Pillar To Post it's franchise so I can't

speak for every single one in every

single city as far as their quality of

inspection goes but they've been pretty

good to us and they generate these nice

3D walkthroughs which for an out ofate

investor is excellent I get to like

physically fully see the property right

U that's my due diligence software

there's no real other software for due

diligence that you need I don't think

and then for closing the deal this is an

interesting but small Pro tip call your

bank and find a way to increase your

wire limits through your online banking

now if you know the limits you need are

particularly high they might have to set

you up with a treasury management

account a whole different portal but it

is worth it if you're closing deals

because we Clos like four five deals a

week six deals a week sometimes I I

don't want to go to the bank and

physically sit down in front of someone

and initiate a wire every single time

and often times I have to set up an

appointment and all that stuff I could

do it for my computer I have higher wire

limits there's just a lot of like

security stuff that goes into it right

so that's worth setting up if you're

actually doing deals and you don't want

to go to the bank and then for property

management after you close you shouldn't

need any property management software CU

if you've been listening to me you're

not managing your own properties you're

letting someone else do that for you but

as far as managers go I prefer managers

that use either AppFolio or buildium

those are the two best softwares it's

not a deal breaker if they've got

something else and they're a good

company um AppFolio is my preference

over buildium and I'll tell you why

buildium is a more modular more complex

and more like you know more detailed

management software but most management

companies are real meat and potatoes and

they misuse it or they use it to kind of

like sometimes cover up information on

that they messed up and kind of be

able to say oh sorry it's just in the

wrong place or you're just not pulling

the right report or whatever it is

AppFolio is really straightforward I

prefer I've always had a better

experience with management companies

that use that folio than with management

companies that use buildium let's put it

that way and then if you are getting a

bunch of rental properties or you

actually are flipping a bunch of deals

or doing a good amount of wholesale or

whatever it is at that point you might

need a QuickBooks account but for most

people you do not so that's the entire

software suite I'll run through the

steps but I'm not going to give you the

softwares again you need software for

market research lead gen data and

Outreach pipeline management deal

analysis making offers so digital

signature there U due diligence closing

the deal and for property management if

you've got all that in place if you've

gotten everything in place that we

discussed in this video you're ready to

go and do some deals you've got a real

estate investing business at least the

framework of it fully set up enjoy