My daughters are constantly teasing me about my old school ways. They’re all about Snapchat; I like to chat on the phone. They send “Thank You” texts, whereas I send actual cards. They get their books on Kindle but I still get mine from the library. There is one area, however, where I’m ahead of my time: my professional life. I’m a real estate investor and have done pretty well if I do say so myself.

Since before my girls were born, I’ve been building my real estate portfolio and, as a result, their futures. Admittedly, getting started was a little rocky because I didn’t know how to find good leads on investment properties. But I did know that one day I’d want to start a family and, therefore, had to find solid ground–preferably sooner, rather than later. So I got to work on researching the best real estate investor lead generation systems and finally found the one that finally delivers results. Let me tell you a little about what’s out there these days and what still delivers results for me.

Integrated Software Options

Because not every individual marketing strategy is an effective catch-all for generating the best leads, the obvious solution is to use more than one. But this can be time-consuming, difficult to set up, and costly. Plus, you’ll need additional tools to help you capitalize on your lead generation strategies, as well as generally run your business.

There are a variety of real estate software systems available that do just that. Several provide marketing and lead generation, others assist with property valuation and forecasting ROI. Some even help you communicate with prospective sellers. Few, unfortunately, do all of these things. Even fewer give good tech support.

But three stand out as offering more to real estate investors than most others:

REIPro gives you access to its database of over 120 million properties, plus the tools to compare area comps and submit offers once you’ve found one you like. It also provides phone scripts for communicating with homeowners–a nice perk when you’re starting out and uncertain about what to say. The program also contains easy-to-use templates for creating direct mail campaigns and printing them on demand.

Unfortunately, the software does not help to manage your contacts or any communication with them, nor does it help to evaluate renovation costs or any potential ROI. Both of which you need to make competitive offers. There’s also the risk of spending too much time searching the database for leads and creating marketing campaigns to reach them. This could slow your deal-making down–the exact opposite of what you want when growing your investment business.

ProfitGrabber allows you to import property lists, then organizes the data for more effective target marketing. For any lead you want to pursue, the software provides property reports and the comps it purportedly receives from title companies. You can then fax offers directly from the platform–hundreds at a time if you want–without the need for an agent. This is about as efficient as making an offer can get.

Except that you’ll still have to buy the lists to import from somewhere else. And, unless you make hundreds of automated low-ball offers at a time, you’ll have to spend time sorting through what to make an offer on. Additionally, the automated form-filling can turn problematic if the laws change and your documents do not. In my opinion, the risk is not worth the price of the program.

Real Estate Investor 360 gets closer to providing a more comprehensive software solution than some of the other options. For one, it tracks your calendar, client communications, and contracts. It also generates automated emails to your leads, lenders, wholesale buyers, and any other contact lists you create. You can estimate potential ROIs, pull up comps on your mobile phone, and even get help with setting up a website.

But in evaluating a potential ROI, it doesn’t factor in the cost of the rehab. When it gives area comps, it gives too many. Too many comps equal too much confusion and an inaccurate picture of a property’s market value. It’s also unknown where the software’s data comes from, which leaves me questioning the program’s reliability.

I don’t know about you, but spending any time downloading, then updating software makes me nervous anyway. As I already mentioned, I’m a little old school. So any software system designed for real estate investors has to be easy to install, learn, and operate, in addition to providing all the bells and whistles my business needs to run smoothly. After all, my kids won’t be around as in-house tech support forever! These software options failed the test.

The HomeVestors® Solution

Ultimately, the best and easiest solution I found—and still use–for managing leads is HVA MAPS. It is an integrated lead generation system that lets me know when the leads come in from HomeVestors® nationally known and trusted “We Buy Ugly Houses”® marketing campaign that reaches motivated home sellers via television, print, radio, and direct mail advertising.

With HomeVestors®’ software tools, I can connect with, communicate, and track prospective sellers at every point in the conversion pipeline. The proprietary software ValueChek™ helps me estimate repair costs based on locally-specific costs so I can confidently make an offer to the homeseller on the spot— and win the deal.

The best part? This industry-specific real estate investing software is plug-and-play and available to every independently owned and operated HomeVestors® franchisee. Talk about savvy!

Ready to get your lead generation system on track? Contact HomeVestors® to request more information!

Each franchise office is independently owned and operated.