Tag Archives: commercial real estate

The Commercial Real Estate Distressed Assets Association CREDAA Story 2009 to 2011

CREDAA Advisors

About The Commercial Real Estate Distressed Assets Association

History

CREDAA was founded in pre-launch in January of 2010 and was first developed starting on August 20th 2009.

CREDAA is the brainchild of Scott Miller and Warren Samek, both National Commercial Account Executives with Fidelity National Title in Seattle, WA and JW Najarian, formally a commercial lender with Pathfinder Commercial Mortgage and the Founder of The Commercial Real Estate Professional Investor Group out of Los Angeles.

After the real estate and stock markets fell in September of 2008 the founders envisioned a commercial real estate collapse coming as the CRE market tends to lag just around 2 years from the Continue reading

ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING NEEDS BROADBAND CONNECTIVITY

banner james carlini - Carlini's CornerBy James Carlini

There is a lot of promise from the growing industry of 3D printers and manufacturing products through their use as well as new 3D scanners. This technology is providing a second industrial revolution in the United States as well as globally.

Continue reading

BUILDING CONNECTIVITY: FIVE WAYS TO TELL IF YOUR BUILDING IS OBSOLETE

banner james carlini - Carlini's CornerBy James Carlini

EXCERPT from James Carlini’s upcoming book, Location, Location, Connectivity :

How receptive is your building to all the new connectivity technology exploding onto the market? Have your Smartphone with you? Does it work well in your building? What about your applications running on your enterprise network? Are you getting the speeds you need to compete in the 21st century? Or, are you stuck with 20th century connectivity because no one knows how to upgrade the building’s network infrastructure? Continue reading

SMARTPHONE WARS: SAMSUNG Galaxy 4

banner james carlini - Carlini's CornerBy James Carlini

It’s been almost a year since I moved up to a Smartphone.  I did not jump on the first wave of Apple Smartphones because I wanted to see how the market shook out and what competitors would offer.  It is so typical to see technology get refined in a short period of time after the market becomes established.

My final choices at the time were the Apple iPhone i3 and the new-on-the-market “dark horse” at the time, the Continue reading

DEFINING 21st CENTURY REAL ESTATE

banner james carlini - Carlini's CornerBy James Carlini

Real estate is going through some critical changes in this century.  It has become a more complex product to understand, manage and sell.  It has become more sophisticated than just “selling space”.  It has gone beyond the inclusion of traditional amenities of energy management (HVAC), life safety, security, elevators and Continue reading

CRE Auctioneer Brecht Palombo on Bulk REO, Notes

Brecht Palombo Founder DistressedPro.com and Auctioneer for Nationwide Commercial Sales (Tranzon)

Speaks to CREPIG about the current state of the Commercial Bulk REO and Notes Markets. The Good the Bad and the Ugly.

120911 Brecht Palombo Edit 01

Duke Long Audio Interview Use of Social Media in the CRE Industry – To hear this interview [CLICK HERE]

Brecht and I have know each other as acquaintances for over 4 years now. I have always been interested in what Brecht was doing as he started DistressedPro.com around the time I was working on CRE Distressed Assets Assoc. CREDAA.

Brecht has made success out of distressed properties on the web as few others have and I applaud and am jealous of him at the same time.

I want to thank Brecht for his frank, no nonsense opinion and the wealth of info that he brought to this conversation  – JW

Brecht Palombo

As an auctioneer I work for lenders, special servicers, attorneys, court appointed trustees, receivers and businesses and provide them with rapid commercial real estate, multifamily, and construction property or note disposition services via online auctions, live auctions, sealed bid, or hybrid bid formats. I act as a single point of contact for real estate auctions nationwide.

Real estate auctioneer and software entrepreneur.

Brecht also designed, developed and currently markets an online web application that real estate, investment and banking professionals use to find bank contacts and evaluate the REO and non performing loan information for 97.3% of US banks via ‘live’ call report data.

Specialties

* Commercial real estate foreclosure and REO auctions
* Multifamily foreclosure and REO auctions
* Construction REO and foreclosure auctions
* Condo project liquidations and REO auctions
* Subdivision liquidations, foreclosure and REO auctions
* 363 sales (debtor in possession)
* Developer closeout auctions
* Online real estate auctions
* Non performing note sales
* FDIC call report data
* Regional and local bank contacts
* Distressed asset data

Distressed Pro:

Distressedpro.com is home to BankProspector, the fastest easiest way to find banks and bank contacts with non performing loans and REO, GUARANTEED, or your money back.

BankProspector is the only software that lets you see the late and non performing loan portfolio details of any US bank.

With BankProspector you can find banks with distressed residential, multifamily, commercial, and construction loans nation wide. Research banks to find non-performing notes for sale, real estate loans in default, and bank owned real estate.

* Brokers: Find banks with residential, commercial, or multifamily REO
* Investors: Pre-foreclosure opportunities, loans for sale and more
* Developers: Capitalize on broken condo deals, distressed construction
* Attorneys: Research lenders who need your services
* Bankers: Get an instant detailed view of your competitors real estate reporting.

Specialties

bank research, bank data, non performing loans, distressed real estate, bank owned real estate, notes for sale, workout, special assets, REO, OREO, auctions, foreclosures.

Tranzon Auctions

At Tranzon Brecht serves as a single point of contact for distressed asset services nationwide.

Lenders’ workout and special assets groups, turnaround professionals, CMBS special servicers, attorneys, court appointed trustees and receivers as well as businesses rely on Brecht to provide rapid commercial real estate disposition and real estate loss mitigation services.

His services include site inspections, foreclosure auctions, bankruptcy auctions, negotiated or accelerated commercial REO sales, and rapid corporate real estate and business asset dispositions.

Tranzon is a nationwide auction company helping owners sell their real estate in the shortest possible time, at the highest possible price. Tranzon’s independent member companies combine the benefits of local market knowledge with the resources of a national organization. With trained and licensed staff who are among the most talented, experienced and longest-tenured in the industry, we provide a single point of contact for all of your local, regional and national asset sale needs.

Our proprietary Market-Making SystemSM is a proven-effective methodology for the quick sale of real estate. The System provides sellers with a sophisticated and effective marketing program, specifically designed for each seller’s individual property, and the benefit of our database of tens of thousands of potential auction buyers. Tranzon uses the most advanced online marketing techniques to achieve the best possible results for sellers.

Tranzon conducts all types of auctions:

  • Live onsite
  • Ballroom
  • Sealed bid
  • Online-only
  • Simultaneous live & online

Tranzon companies serve:

  • Financial institutions
  • Bankruptcy trustees and estates
  • Corporations and developers
  • Trusts, guardians and estates
  • Private individuals
  • Investment groups

Links:

Distressedpro.com
Trazon Auction
Brecht’s Blog – Brechtify.com

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crepig comercial real estate professional and investor groupThis post courtesy of the Commercial Real Estate Professionals and Investor Group who are dedicated to bringing news, information and resource to the commercial real estate industry. www.CREPIG.com

Duke Long on Using Social Media in Commercial Real Estate

Duke Long Commercial Real EstateDuke Long Commercial Real Estate Social Media Expert, Speaker, Broker and all around CRE activist

Takes some time to chat with us about the CRE industry and social media’s role now and in the future.

Duke Long Audio Interview Use of Social Media in the CRE Industry – To hear this interview [CLICK HERE]

I have been following Duke Long and his blog for a few years now. I was Googling Commercial Real Estate sites and found a list of the top 25 social media people in the industry.

I looked up and down the list and searched it for my name. I found my co-partner on my CREPIG site and many of my site members, but not my name.

I was disappointed and made a mental note to make sure that this Duke guy recognized me and put me on the list. Well the list was done so I put myself on it in the comments section.

Duke wrote back saying essentially cool man… No prob. I kept a keen eye on his lists since then and I have rarely made any of them.

Duke and I have spoken several times over the years and we finally got to meet each other and hang out at NAR together. We actually had a great time hanging out and got to talk at length about many subjects.

Duke is going where most other CRE professionals do not dare with social media and blogging and he does have an attitude, which he share via his blog…. Listen in as we take a moment to chat about the industry and new media challenges. – JW

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Duke LongDuke Long

Duke Long is the Broker/Owner of The Duke Long Agency.

Duke is the creator and author of the blogsite www.DukeLong.com

Duke has delivered numerous presentations, panel discussions, and moderated panels on the subjects of online commercial real estate technology, communication, marketing, branding, data, content creation and digital media.

Commercial Real Estate Speaking Topics

  • Social Media: Making sense of it all.
  • Building an online community: Finding customers and clients online.
  • Developing an online reputation: How to create your brands online reputation.
  • Creating content: What content should you create and who are you trying to reach.
  • Business Blogging: Generating traffic, writing and creating valuable content.
  • Mobile: Strategy, applications and tools for commercial real estate.
  • Commercial real estate data: What to do with it and how to maximize its value.

Duke has presented in front of audiences of varying sizes all across the country for local, regional, national and international companies and associations.

Although Duke is not a professional speaker but as a business owner, commercial real estate practioner and communicator. The content is practical, actionable and results driven for today’s commercial real estate business.

Contact dukelong@dukelong.com to schedule me for your next event or conference.

If you want to connect:

Twitter:https://twitter.com/dukelong
LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/in/dukelong
Blog:http://www.dukelong.com/ Uh, your on it.
Google + :www.gplus.to/dukelong
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/DukeLongCRE?feature=watch

No adds, no sales pitches, no listings push…… but maybe a little attitude!

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crepig comercial real estate professional and investor groupThis post courtesy of the Commercial Real Estate Professionals and Investor Group who are dedicated to bringing news, information and resource to the commercial real estate industry. www.CREPIG.com

Leveraging Social Media to Find More Deals and Dollars in Commercial Real Estate

JW Najarian interviewed by Value Hound Academy

Leveraging Social Media for the Commercial Investor or Professional

JW NajarianJW Najarian Founder of one of the largest Commercial Investment Groups on the web and co-founder of the CRE Distressed Assets Association talks to ValueHound about the truth about using social media to build leads, find funding, deals and resources.

FREE WEBCAST

http://www.valuehoundacademy.com/public/339.cfm?affID=Intrvue

Wednesday September 21, 2011, 11 AM PST / 2 PM EST

We are pleased to pass on an invitation from Value Hound Academy to attend their webcast interview with JW Najarian, Founder of membership website CREDAA- Commercial Real Estate Distressed Assets Asscociation and CREPIG- Commercial Real Estate Professionals and Investors Group.

Leveraging Social Media to Find More Deals and Dollars

Finding great deals and the financing to get your deals funded has become very competitive.  If you’re like most, you read about other real estate investors finding and closing great deals, but you are scratching your head wondering how are they finding these deals and dollars?  How are they uncovering off market deals and beating others to the best deals?  Where are they finding the equity and debt funds to get their deals closed?

To get answers to these questions, we are speaking with JW Najarian, a leading expert on how to leverage social media to build strong personal and business relationships so that you can find more deals and dollars. JW has founded many leading social media sites, including the largest group of almost 11,000 members on LinkedIn called CREPIG, Commercial Real Estate Professionals and Investors Group.

JW, teaches us the ABC’s of using social media to improve our real estate businesses.  He will teach us how to effectively use the tools of the new economy to give us a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

In this interview with JW, you will learn:

  • How social media will help you find more deals and dollars
  • The biggest myths and misconceptions of using social media
  • How members of JW’s many social media sites are profiting
  • The biggest mistakes investors are making using social media
  • The “must have” tools for rolling out a social media campaign
  • Why it’s in your best interest to starting using social media
  • The best social media strategies to get results
  • The do’s and don’ts of communicating within social media sites

If you are looking for a competitive advantage to build your real estate business and find off market deals and dollars, then you need to listen to this interview with JW Najarian.  This timely interview will help you set-up your social media campaign to build strong relationships. JW reveals to truth about using social media to leverage your business so that you step into the new economy and don’t get left behind.

To sign up to this F.R.E.E webcast, please click on the link below:

http://www.valuehoundacademy.com/public/339.cfm?affID=Intrvue

Commercial Distressed Real Estate CMBS, Notes, Bulk, Auctions, Debt Restructure

Commercial Distressed Real Estate CMBS, Notes, Bulk, Auctions, Debt Restructure

Robert Kline of RW Kline Companies

Many of you may not know that I run a large Commercial Real Estate site where we often do interviews with Financial Experts and Leaders in the Industry. I will be posting several here that I believe are interesting to a wider community. Hope you like them.

To Watch the Video CLICK HERE

We interviewed Mr. Kline at the 2011 GreenPearl Distressed Real Estate Event held in Los Angeles. For more event information go to www.GreenPearlEvents.com.

Robert Kline KW Kline CompaniesRobert W. Kline – Principal and CEO RW Kline Companies

Mr. Kline is a savvy, experienced executive with over 30 years of successful leadership in the commercial and residential real estate industries. Mr. Kline’s firm specializes in CMBS and Commercial loan modifications, note sales, restructuring, commercial brokerage and mergers and acquisitions.

R.W. Kline Companies also specializes in assisting lenders in the disposition process.

Mr. Kline is a seasoned workout specialist with personal experience in the real estate industry. As a former Senior Vice President for Pulte Homes and the Communities of Del Webb, he ran the nation’s largest land operation and division within Pulte, delivering more than 5,500 lots a year with over a billion dollar balance sheet and budget. His responsibilities included leading the national land team and council with over seven billion in land, acquisitions, entitlements, land development, strategic positioning, trade partnering, and short and long-term strategic direction. Prior to his leadership role at Pulte, Mr. Kline founded and owned seven separate companies throughout his career, including a residential/commercial restructuring, advisory, development company and a marine construction/dredging company.

His well-rounded experience has provided him with a thorough understanding of financial and operational controls. He works alongside company management to develop a workout plan that makes sense and is able to be executed. His goal is to provide expert assessment, evaluations and real estate asset management to those who may be especially hard hit by pending or likely commercial foreclosures.

Over the past 32 months, Mr. Kline has facilitated more than 290 note sales, crafted large merger and acquisition plans and quadrupled the size of companies. His niche is working with clients, lenders and servicers to restructure both CMBS and conventional loans for companies with hospitality, gaming, retail, master planned, multi-family, mixed-use, industrial or office properties. Due to his expertise and relationships with numerous lenders,

he has successfully negotiated write-downs that are approximately 15 to 20 percent more favorable than a company that negotiates on its own behalf. Additionally, he has worked with private or court-ordered asset solutions, receivership and workouts on behalf of more than 175 lenders and CMBS servicers.

R.W. Kline Companies’ team is comprised of former national lenders, former RTC agents, FDIC contractors and former CMBS servicers. R.W. Kline Companies also provides full service disposition solutions to lender clients across the country. Mr. Kline is a frequent guest speaker within the commercial real estate and financial industries and is a member of numerous professional organizations, including:

Urban Land Institute (ULI), Lodging and Hospitality Conferences (IHC, ALIS, NYU), IMN Debt, Distress Property and Lender Conferences (IMN),International Council for Shopping Centers (ICSC), Turnaround Management Association (TMA), Home Builders Association of Central Arizona (HBACA), National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), American Bankers Association (ABA), Florida Bankers Association and the California Bankers Association.

Mr. Kline serves on the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Board of Directors and well as the Community Development Council (CDC).

About RW Kline

www.RWKline.com

R.W. Kline Companies is in most major and secondary markets throughout the country which enables us to service our clients with all of their real estate needs. Our experienced teams work together with all levels of management to recognize your needs, establish an all encompassing turnaround solution while preserving long-term relationships.

We are a real estate capital management company with professionals that offer a broad range of services that
include:

  • CMBS and Commercial Loan Workout Specialists
  • Capital Debt and Equity Platforms
  • Note Sales Intermediaries
  • Restructuring and Redevelopment of Distressed Projects
  • Commercial Brokers
  • Land Development and Management Experts
  • FDIC Portfolio Transactions
  • Loan Syndications
  • Distressed Debt Acquisitions

To Hear More Podcasts CLICK HERE

Scams, Cons and Questionable Deals

The Commercial Real Estate Professional Investors Group www.CREPIG.com, has become a great place to get Internet eyeballs on your deals. It is inevitable that two things may occur on CREPIG and many other places on the web. One is that a person with great integrity is working as an agent for someone that does not. I have found that many scams are perpetrated via very intelligent, but not necessarily savvy deal makers.

Lending Scams:

You should never pay an advance fee to secure a loan. Legitimate loans, like loans obtained through Lending Club, do not require an up-front payment. Here are tips from the Federal Trade Commission on how to avoid lending scams:

• Don’t pay for the promise of a loan. It’s illegal for companies doing business by phone in the U.S. to promise you a loan and ask you to pay for it before they deliver. Requiring advance fees for loans also is illegal in Canada

• Ignore any ad — or hang up on any caller — that guarantees a loan in exchange for a fee in advance. These are called Front Money Scams.

• Remember that legitimate lenders never guarantee or say that you will receive a loan before you apply, or before they have checked out your credit status or contacted your references, especially if you have bad credit or no credit record

• Don’t give your credit card, bank account, or Social Security number on the telephone, by fax, or via the Internet unless you are familiar with the company and know why the information is necessary

• Don’t make a payment to an individual for a loan; no legitimate lending organization would make such a request

• Don’t wire money or send money orders for a loan through Western Union or similar companies. You have little recourse if there’s a problem with a wire transaction. Legitimate lenders don’t pressure you to wire funds

• If you are not absolutely sure who you are dealing with, get the company’s number in the phone book or from directory assistance, and call it to make sure you’re dealing with the company you think you are. Some scam artists have pretended to be the Better Business Bureau or another legitimate organization

• Check out questionable ads by calling Project Phonebusters in Canada toll-free at 1-888-495-8501. If you live in the U.S. and think you’ve been a victim of an advance-fee loan scam, report it to the FTC online at www.ftc.gov or by phone, toll-free, at 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357)

Bulk REO Scams

I have been involved in several of these. Most of the people involved are seasoned and legitimate professionals that seem to be taken in by large sums of money paid as commission. In your usual day to day deals you are used to working with people you may know as legitimate and if you do not know them at least there is a procedure where you will be able to check with who and what you are dealing with.

Many of the professionals I have worked with in the bulk REO market seem to throw caution to the wind in order to get these mostly fake deals done.

If you are not a Real Estate Lawyer and you solicit million and billion dollar BULK REO deals on the internet, and are asking for proof of FUNDS etc. you are probably in violation of the LAW!

Make sure you find out who you are dealing with and beware of the realm of secrecy and have to move tactics that are so prevalent in these deals.

Find out and corroborate any past deals that have been done.

There are legitimate brick and mortar companies that handle bulk REO and you should seek them out if you are an investor in these commodities.

BG’s, PPP, MTN, LC and SBLC’s

These deals seem to be scams also. Bank Guarantees almost definitely are scams. You can search out the Internet for more information and you can check out the FBI site http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/fraudschemes.htm

Gold, Oil, Diamonds and other commodities

More of the same. I have worked many oil deals and know the ins and outs. Again most are scams.

I am sure I will get emails back about this information from those of you that claim to have legitimate sources of money, property or investment platforms. I will not argue the validity or your deal with you or anyone else. What I will say is that if your stuff is legit, then it should be easy to prove. I say if you have nothing to hide than you hide nothing.

I know of an FBI sting going on to catch a group for stealing upfront money investments and the people that were duped were all successful, seasoned and intelligent. The problem is that we all seem to lose our heads when large amounts of money are involved. Also when your life is falling down all around you and someone tells you they can get you millions without great credit or collateral be very leery.

The important point here is not to believe anything you hear or read. If you get a call from a trusted friend who says they are working with someone direct to a bank that has bulk REO’s and needs a buyer; great. Go to the bank and substaintiate the claim.

If you need to get the information on any bank or financial institution, their asset managers and / or lost mitigation etc… Try Lane Guide. It has all the most recent information and I have used it to connect to banks directly. Use it… Call them… Confirm.

Please do not come back to me to check out your particular deal. I will not. It is up to you to do the due diligence.

JW Najarian

CREPIG
CREDAA

CREPIG helps them who help themselves

The Commercial Real Estate Professional Investors Group allows CRE investors and professionals the ability to promote their project, product, services, deals, funding options or requirements to other investors and professionals.  CREPIG is also a great place to find CRE resouces and network with others.

I get calls and emails all day long asking me to promote an event or deal and I would love to, but I only have so many hours in my day and the site was set up to allow you to do it on your own.  There is plenty of help and it is actually pretty easy if you take a minute to check it out.

CREPIG’s Promotion Forum provides a place to enter anything you need to enter.  You can upload files, insert pictures or videos and us HTML tags to make your stuff zing…  This section updates the CREPIG Twitter page with thousands of followers.  It also updates my Facebook page and over 5000 CRE investors and professionals over on LinkedIn.

So in the future don’t call me.  Take advantage of the ability to make yourself know to around 8000 investors and professionals by joining the site and posting your stuff.

JW Najarian
www.CREPIG.com

Where’s the Fracken Bottom of the Commerial Market?

Listening to CNBC, why do I continue to listen and watch this nonsense?  They are forever trying to find the indicator that the market is turning around.  As the market fell and fell they were all good news on a turn around and then when the inevitable happened they finally said OK we might have a problem as the market is at all time lows and dumping 700 points a day!  Only to go back to their rosy outlook the very next day on some news that housing sales may be up 1%.  First remember that governments tend to cook the books and change indices in growth and employment figures that don’t paint the picture they want to paint so you can’t trust the numbers.  Which ones? Who knows?  The stock market numbers for the life of me make no sense so why is anyone speculating on growth based on those numbers?

I used to write a newsletter.  You don’t see much come from me anymore on commercial real estate, because I got tired of reporting bad news.  One year ago I predicted, without having to know too much, that the commercial markets would go by the way of the residential markets as many of those loans were also securitized.  Commercial always lags residential by around 2 years so it was just a matter of time and we are seeing commercial numbers get progressively worse, like the 2008 CMBS delinquency figures which continue to rise according to Fitch Ratings and Fitch expects more large delinquencies in 2009 (http://nreionline.com/finance/news/fitch_expects_loan_delinquencies_0121/).  I keep hearing reports that it can’t be getting worse because someone, somewhere just completed a mega commercial deal.  I remember buying stock in a phone company, no names, but it rhymes with MCI, and I road that falling knife all the way to the floor.  Buying ever more stock at the new reduced rates because how can MCI go down any more for gosh sakes!?  Also, as I have said many times before, all real estate is based on location not global figures so there could be some very lucrative deals being struck as the rest of the world continues to fall and falter.

International Real Estate Investor’s Institutional Outlook reported in the March 9th issue (http://nreionline.com/finance/news/stunned_losses_institution_0309/ ) that institutional investors were seeing their investment portfolios drop by 31% in 2008.  Where will the numbers go in 2009 with rising un-employment and inflation figures?  Well the article says that the investing news is actually good as these investors will move to real estate.  What?  The poll they took stated that more investors would leave the equity markets to place their money on real estate.  On what news?  On what numbers is there a basis for this general move to real estate? 

I will make another prediction…. The bottom is not here yet!  Unless you know your market or have money to sit on you should wait to buy as the market goes up not as it is falling.  This is simply investment 101.  By the way, when the market does start to make a steady rise sometime between 2010 and 2012 it will move very slowly and steadily up globally so appreciation will not be at the staggering rates of the recent past. 

I know picking between 2010 and 2012 makes me right no matter what, so just to make you feel better or not I believe steady growth may not occur till 2012.

JW Najarian
www.jwnajarian.com

www.crepig.com

 

 

Is Social Networking Becoming Specialized?

Social Networks are everywhere and it seems like everyone is at least on one or six of them.  Where are we going with this?

Almost everyone it seems belongs to a social network like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Jaiku, Plaxo, Roov, Friendfeed, Nexopia, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster, Orkut, Pownce, Xing or Eacademy and they are becoming more and more popular every day.  I get so many request to join different ones that as soon as I see the requests I delete them.  You only have so much time in the day to go check all your various networks.  I like LinkedIn because as a businessman I don’t get bothered with pokes and hearts.  I get to meet and search on other businessmen that I may be able to work with.

Most of the networks that I have seen have different cultures like MySpace and Facebook that seem to be designed for families and friends wheras, Xing, Ecademy and LinkedIn are more business aligned.

How many people are using social networks worldwide?  I have no clue, but it is in the hundreds of millions and shows no signs slowing in the near future.  Facebook just blew MySpace out of the water with 161 million unique visitors worldwide in September, compared to 117 million for MySpace in September. 

There are many reasons people are on social networks.  Sometimes it is just to connect with friends.  Sometimes it is to make new friends.  Sometimes it is to meet with known business contacts, sometimes it is to meet new business contacts and sometimes it is to try to build very large networks of people in order to stroke your ego or to build a large database to market to.  Whether you are or are not on a large network you still do not like to be spammed or marketed for the most part. 

Recently with the advent of websites like Ning, everyone can now create their own social network.  It is daunting at best.  This sounds almost nuts, but I believe that with the advent of Ning that the new wave may be the niche network.  You will still have to go to the big boys if you are collecting names to build large lists, but in order to really be effedtual and get to work with like minded people you may find yourself going to or guilding a smaller specialized network.

On the smaller networks you are more assured of networking with like minded individuals that will be open to your projects, products and services.  Small networks tend to have, support and make their sites work best for the type of group they support or market to.

In order to test this theory and to better support the members of a group I started on LinkedIn, I have started a new social network that is dedicated and supports investors and professionals that work in and support the Commercial Real Estate Industry.

All the News on the site is dedicated to Commercial Real Estate or Global Finance.  The Forums allow members to offer their projects or services and allows Investors to use these services or search for professionals they may need.  The Groups are geared toward the Investor or Professional and so you don’t have to wade through thousands of unrelated sites.

The Ning network allows you to build a social network for your group or cause and allows enought customization for you to get most of what you need to do done.  This is a FREE service so for the small cost of your time you can build a network of great value.

I don’t know where this will all go.  Maybe the large networks can tie together to give everyone the ability to search for what we need from everyone on the big sites.  That would be exciting or maybe we will be like doctors specializing more and more.  Since social networking is still in it’s infancy, it will be fun to watch.

10 Reasons Why You Will Fail At Social Business Networking

Many of us have found that social networking can pay off very big.  Some of us run around signing up for everything without results.  Why do I think so many fail at taking advantage of this incredible opportunity? 

 

I have to define that I am a user of LinkedIn and have my own network at www.crepig.com, which is niched toward commercial real estate professionals and investors.  I am not talking about MySpace or other sites for making friends.  Thought I still believe that most of these reasons still could apply.

 

  1. You don’t upload your photo.  People like to see who you are.  Upload a professional or at least halfway decent picture of yourself.  Take the time to make sure it is not too dark or that you are too small to be recognized.  Also if you upload your business logo or a picture at least you have gone halfway, but you still get a better response from your own face…
  2. You don’t join any groups.  If you don’t like the groups offered start your own.  I have started several groups on LinkedIn and some have grown to Super Groups and others have done nothing.  Why?  I find that I never know what the public wants.  Put yourself out and find out.  Join a group that means something to you.  Woody Allen famously said that “80 percent of success is showing up.”
  3. You don’t participate in the group you belong to.  If 80% is showing up the other 20% is participation.  If you sit back and wait for people to come to you; you will wait a long time.
  4. You don’t place your promotion in a Forum or Blog.  If you don’t let people know what you offer what other reason might they have to connect or speak to you?
  5. You don’t fill out your profile completely.  If people are searching for your service and your profile doesn’t name your product, project or service than how will they find you?
  6. You don’t place your contact information in a non private area for people to see and be able to get ahold of you.  If you are afraid that you might get spammed then go to your email provider and make an alias address.  When I join a network I make an alias account.  eg. at LinkedIn I use linkedin@prigen.net.  This allows me to see where I am getting emails and spam from.  I can then change the email whenever I wish without my friends loosing my main address.  I can’t tell you how many times I read something I got excited about only to find that the writer did not leave any contact info… Argh! 
  7. You don’t allow emails from forums or mail to you to get to you.  If you join a site and then don’t allow the site to keep you abreast of what is up then how will you stay in the loop.  Sometimes you just want to get your name or business out there and don’t want to be bothered by updates.  OK, but at least allow the site to contact you.
  8. You never update your profile.  If you are not getting feedback or contacts from your current profile or Forum post you need to update it.  Every copy writer that is worth their salt knows that you need to change up constantly to find out what copy works best.  If you are getting a lot of play from your promotion then you don’t have to change till demand goes down, but feel free to play.
  9. You have something to say or promote and you don’t set up any teleseminars.  You can get a conference line from FREE Conference call for FREE.  Duh….  Get a number and promote your teleseminar or Webinar in the Events Section.
  10. If you are doing all the above and still not getting any play you might have to re-evaluate what you offer.  Successful businesses make money in direct respect to the value they offer.  What value are you offering.  If you offer no or little value then you will make no or little money.

 

In conclusion I would ask that if you want success you need to make your own Luck, get off your butt and do something.  Don’t wait for the phone to ring… Make it ring.  Get involved.  Get to know people.  Call people that you consider prospects and ask them what they need.  Don’t vomit all your information all over them and especially don’t be pushy.  What a big turn-off.  Listen, get to know another person and be of service.   

JW Najarian 11/21/08
www.jwnajarian.com
www.crepig.com