When making your real estate marketing plan there are certain things which probably won’t demand a lot of your time or attention, such as setting your goals for the future or determining your motivation for making it in this business. There is however a part of the real estate marketing plan with which everybody seems to struggle: marketing. Even though most agents are good at making sales pitches, they simply cannot find a way to make their voices heard in this sea of humans that is the internet (because that’s where most of the marketing happens nowadays). Here is a look at a few things you can do in order to expand your influence and get yourself noticed from the crowd.Building a Good Relationship with your BuyersTo start things off, you will need to build up a relationship with your potential buyers. Selling real estate isn’t something which just happens overnight; it can sometimes be a very long process and you will end up talking a lot with your clients, meaning that they better take a liking to you or they many never consider hiring your services. How exactly do you get in good with them? Well, at this point you better put on your charmer mask and send them post cards, or perhaps even giving them a call, striking up a casual conversation during which you need to find a way to transition into what you have to offer them.You could also send emails to your potential buyers, offering them bits of information and tips about what homeowners should be doing in today’s economy, or if you are really dedicated to your job, send them small gifts to show your appreciation.The Great Benefits of Social MediaAnother very popular way of getting yourself noticed in this day and age is to use social media, which is something that should already be in your marketing plan for real estate. If it’s not, then simply take a few minutes to consider this information: Facebook has almost one billion users, and 56% of them claim that they are much more likely to recommend and purchase some kind of brand themselves after becoming a fan of it.To put it in other words, if you do things the right way you can actually spread the word about your brand and get people to lean towards it if they are ever caught in a dilemma, simply by creating a fan page on Facebook and getting people to “like” it. Also, on social media word travels faster than ever before. For example, when the Domodedovo Bomb blew up in the Russian airport, president Medvedev learned about the whole fiasco through Twitter. So, as you can see, social networks work faster than Russian intelligence services, which is a pretty good sign for real estate marketers who are looking to spread the word about their brand.Using Real Estate Listings to Your AdvantageAnother advertising tactic you should definitely consider including in order to make an effective marketing plan for profitable real estate is the use of online real estate listings. There are websites out there which you can find using your search engine of choice which allow you to post your own listings… free of charge. The best part is that these free websites, which include Trulia, Zillow and HotPads, are some of the most popular websites on the internet right now as thousands upon thousands of people go on them every day to check the house listings. All you need to do is simply make a list of these websites and head to each one of them and put your listings up there.There is something special about these listings which will make your job infinitely easier: the people who contact you are only the ones who are actually interested what you have to offer. You see, these websites allow those who post the listings to provide very detailed descriptions of the real estate’s various characteristics, and what’s more, it allows the users to search real estate based on them. So, to word it differently, these people already know what you have to offer and so you really won’t need as much effort to convince them.Naturally, there is much more than that to making a good real estate business plan, but rest assured that if you get the marketing part right there won’t be much stopping you from achieving the success you have been dreaming of all these years.

Your 401(k) plan (or 403(b) or 457 Plan for that matter) is likely managed by one of the following companies: Ameriprise Financial, Credit Suisse Securities, Deutsche Bank, Edward Jones, Graystone Consulting, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Oppenheimer & Co., Raymond James, RBC Wealth Management, UBS Financial Services, or Wells Fargo Advisors. These companies and their financial advisers control most of the retirement wealth in the United States.Now, ask your financial adviser if you can invest directly in real estate with your current plan. They will probably tell you that you cannot invest directly in real estate, but they have a number of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) you can choose from. Even though a REIT has real estate in its name, it is not an investment in property. REIT is an investment in a fund that obtains its cash flow from investment properties. It is different from a direct investment in real estate.REITs do not typically let you leverage your investment, which is one of the most powerful forces for creating long-term wealth. Even with an investment in a REIT, your retirement portfolio is likely 70 percent or more invested in various mutual funds, all of which experience stock market volatility. That’s neither diversification nor smart asset allocation investing. The Internal Revenue Service will let you invest directly in real estate, but your plan administrator will not. Why? Because they’re not set up to handle the administration nor do they earn a commission by recommending direct investment in real estate.Let me give you an example: Say you have only one asset, $200,000 cash and no liabilities. You decide to invest $100,000 in mutual funds and $100,000 in direct real estate investments, both of which are appreciating at 6 percent per year. The only difference is that you can borrow additional money from a bank to buy more properties. You obtain a 20-year amortizing loan at 5 percent. To be conservative, you borrow only $300,000, so you have a 75 percent loan-to-value ratio. After 20 years, your mutual fund investment has increased to $320,714, while your real estate investment has increased to $1,282,854, an increase of $962,140 over the mutual fund investment. That’s a 300 percent increase in value with the same $100,000.What about the payment of the debt over the 20-year holding period? The mortgage has been paid off by your tenant who operates his business on your property. You get the tax benefits of depreciation and interest write offs, if you’ve invested personally. If you’ve invested your money through a Self-Directed 401(k), that money is growing tax-deferred or tax-free, depending on whether you have a Traditional or Roth account.You think this is unrealistic? The only unrealistic expectation is to think that your mutual fund accounts have appreciated at 6 percent. According to Dalbar, Inc., the average mutual fund investment has gone up on average of 3.27 percent over a 20-year period. The National Association of Realtors, on the other hand, reported that real estate has appreciated in value an average of 6 percent over the past 30 years, even with the downturn in the economy that occurred in 2008.If most financial advisors preclude you from investing directly in real estate, how do you invest in real property with your 401(k) account? The answer is, you don’t with your company 401(k) account. The only money you should be investing in your company 401(k) account is enough to get the full matching funds. For instance, if you are making $100,000 a year and your company offers a 4 percent match, you invest $4,000 in your company 401(k) to get the 4 percent match. They do a 100 percent match up to 4 percent of your income. Then you create a Solo or Individual 401(k) account with an administrator/custodian that handles Self-Directed Accounts and invest the rest of your retirement funds in that account up to the $51,000 contribution limit if you’re under 50 or $56,500 if you are 50 or older.So, if you contributed $4,000 to your company 401(k), and your employer matched it with another $4,000, you can contribute $43,000 to your new Self-Directed Solo 401(k) account. If you’re 50 or older, it would be $48,500. That amount can be invested each year for you and your spouse, if you have it set up properly. There are no income limits.Eligibility for a Solo 401(k) account requires two things: (1) the presence of a self-employment activity; and (2) the absence of full-time employees. So you set up a consulting business either as an S-Corporation or limited liability company (LLC) and pay yourself a salary, 100 percent of which can be contributed to your retirement fund. Then you invest in commercial, income-producing real estate investments. It’s that simple.