This page is a running list of the top tools, software, and resources I’ve found helpful.

I’ve used everything here and hope these can support your journey, too.

Note: While I’ve had great experiences with these resources, results may vary. Some links are affiliate links, meaning REtipster earns a commission at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase. I recommend these tools because they’re useful, not for the small commissions we will make if you buy something. Please invest wisely based on your own needs and goals.

Facebook

Facebook is a website that needs no introduction. In addition to being the dominant player in social media today, it has also grown into a very active and effective place to buy and sell real estate. Whether you choose to post properties for sale in the Facebook Marketplace or in one of the local “For Sale” Facebook Groups in your area – this social platform offers a TON of opportunity to get more exposure.

Craigslist

Craigslist is one of the highest-traffic websites in the world for buying and selling real estate. I’ve used Craigslist for almost every single property that I’ve sold over the past 6+ years. If you haven’t tapped into this resource yet, you need to. I would highly recommend it.

Zillow

Zillow has a For Sale By Owner platform that provides a solid way to create property listings and market them to a GIANT audience of buyers. This site will give you an easy (and free) medium to do reach thousands of people in a matter of minutes. It’s a great way to reach thousands of eyeballs very quickly. I still use Zillow for every property I sell because it’s free, easy-to-use, and can get some great results!

LandSearch

LandSearch is a well-made online marketplace built for land investors. Whether you’re looking to buy or sell, this is a fantastic place to look around. It’s also free to list your properties for sale! They also have some paid options if you want to pay for more exposure, but if you just want to get more eyes on your listing organically, this is an easy place to get exposure to many more potential buyers.

DataTree

DataTree is one of the most convenient (and cost-effective) data services online for download mailing lists. They also offer services that can help with due diligence, property research, title work, etc. If you’re looking for a great combination of fast, easy, and inexpensive, I’ve found this to be a pretty solid option. Note: If you want a substantial discount on their plans, sign up through our affiliate link.

The Land Portal

The Land Portal is an awesome data service and mapping application designed specifically for land investors. It has features and tools that no other data service has, like the ability to filter properties based on road frontage, access, and more. All land investors need to know about this because it delivers a unique blend of value that can’t be found elsewhere, and the price is pretty great, too! See this video to learn how it works.

Connected Investors

Connected Investors is an easy-to-use, budget-friendly online resource for generating marketing lists. It offers unique filters and features I haven’t seen in any other data service. It comes with all the same powerful data as DataTree but is packaged to deliver exactly what real estate investors need. It’s a month-by-month subscription with no long-term commitment, and you get 2,500 free skip traces and 5,000 free records every month. Start your 7-day free trial, and you’ll see what a great value it is! Need a walkthrough of how it works? I’ll show you in this video.

PropStream

PropStream is an extremely versatile data service that can be used for everything, such as generating lists and bulk skip tracing them, using direct mail, SMS campaigns, email marketing, and more. It’s a great data source for house wholesalers, house flippers, agents, land investors, and other industry pros. Check out this YouTube playlist for some tutorials on how to use it.

ITI Direct Mail

ITI Direct Mail has the best pricing of any direct mail company because it’s a self-serve website. If you already have your template and list and understand how to do a mail merge, you can place your order without ever talking to a person. This video explains how it works and this video explains how to get the best pricing on your campaigns.

Rocket Print & Mail

Rocket Print & Mail offers superior customer service and some of the best rates for direct mail marketers sending large quantities of mail. If you’re running a company that relies heavily on direct mail (as many real estate investors do), this is a company you need to know about! This video explains how it works.

REIPrintMail

REIPrintMail is a direct mail service that offers some of the most unique mail pieces I’ve seen, which can help you stand out from the crowd and get your mail opened. You’ll also get free access to a personalized direct mail coach, so you can be confident you’re sending out the most effective type and quantity of mail in each area. You can even get a 10% discount on your first order when you sign up through our affiliate link. Want to see more about how REIPrintMail works? Check out the factory tour I did with them in this video!

Pebble

Pebble is a system that can manage your entire acquisition and marketing process with an easy-to-use interface. It’s great for handling direct mail campaigns, keeping track of inbound leads, and keeping each deal organized as it moves through your pipeline. Note: If you sign up through the REtipster affiliate link, you can get a free $50 credit toward your mailing once your 14-day trial is complete. See a detailed review of Pebble in this blog post.

Launch Control

Launch Control is the best system I’ve seen to date for sending SMS campaigns in the real estate business. They have a great user interface and content builder, making it extremely easy to set up drip sequences and communicate effectively with every person you send a text to. If you’re serious about building an acquisition machine with SMS, this is the software you want to work with.

Direct Skip

Direct Skip is a bulk skip tracing service that can help you find phone numbers and email addresses of the people you’re trying to contact (which is essential information for any kind of email, SMS, or ringless voicemail campaign). It can even find the owner contact information of some business entities! It’s a cost-effective way to get information that would otherwise be very difficult to find.

Want to see how it works? I’ll show you in this video.

DealMachine

DealMachine is a mobile app that can be extremely useful if you’re pursuing specific properties located near your physical proximity. It only does a couple of basic things (finds property owner information and sends them a tailored postcard message about their property), but it does them well. Not the best fit for every investor, but a VERY good fit for some. To learn more about how it works, see this blog post.

Foreclosure.com

Foreclosure.com is a great one-stop shop for finding MANY different types of motivated sellers and real estate deals. You’ll find everything from preforeclosures to short sales, sheriff sales to bankruptcies, vacant land foreclosures, and more. Before diving into the site, there are many things to know about each listing type, so be sure to get educated before diving in (note: this blog post is a great starting point). If you want to sign up, do it through this link, and you’ll get a nice discount on your subscription!

Carrot

Carrot is the best real estate website solution I’ve found for real estate investors who need to build one or multiple websites. This service offers several different layouts and design options that will give you a great deal of flexibility, whether you’re trying to sell properties, build a buyers list, attract new motivated sellers, or simply establish your brand identity online. Check out my video review in this blog post for a more detailed overview of how the system works.

Droners

Droners.io is the best place to find licensed drone pilots throughout the country. These people can travel to your property and shoot drone videos and photography of anything you want, so you can use the images and videos for due diligence purposes (before you buy) or for your marketing (in your property listing). If you have a few hundred dollars to put towards this, it can be quite useful!

Zillow Photographer Directory

Zillow has an entire directory of real estate photographers and drone pilots all over the country that can handle your property pictures. If you have no pre-existing connections with photographers in the area, this can be a quick way to find the right person for the job.

99designs

99designs is a great service to work with if you need a company logo, product design, artwork, or other visual elements for your business. You’ll get A LOT of different options to review and tons of flexibility in choosing your final design (note: all of the REtipster logos have come from 99designs)! Check out this review, and you’ll see what I mean; it’s a great way to get the job done.

OpenPhone

OpenPhone is a great cloud-based phone solution for real estate investors. Having a dedicated phone number for your business is very important. I’ve had a great experience using OpenPhone, and it hasn’t disappointed me. This service can screen calls, take messages, send & receive texts, set up toll-free numbers, and more. This can easily be your all-in-one solution. See this blog post for more info!

Traveling Mailbox

Traveling Mailbox is an incredibly convenient way to set up a physical mailing address and receive your mail digitally. That’s right! This service will not only receive physical mail at a dedicated, unique business address, but they’ll even scan the mail and send it to you digitally, so you can check it from your computer or phone and decide which items (if any) you want to have forwarded to you. It’s pretty great! Be sure to check out this blog post for more details on how it works.

PATLive

PATLive is a virtual receptionist service that allows business owners to outsource the work of answering phone calls. PATLive will put an actual human being (not a voicemail message) on your phone lines, so your callers can speak to a real person who can schedule appointments, take notes, process orders and pass along all the pertinent information so you can follow up if-and-when you decide to. See this blog post for a comprehensive review of the service.

DISCOUNT: If you sign up through our link (above) or call them at 800-861-4543, you can get a discount on the service!

Loom

Loom is a service that allows you to send video emails to your clients and prospects, which can be instrumental in helping you build trust and influence with your current and potential customers. Many people won’t trust a faceless name in an email or property listing, but that’s where Loom comes in. Most people respond very well to video emails, and this is the service I use to build instant credibility with my new prospects.

TextExpander

TextExpander allows you to type out “snippets” and generate pre-written lines of text of any length and complexity. Think about it… if there are ANY common strings of text you always find yourself typing out (e.g., greetings, website URLs, repetitive sentences, or full-length emails), this will save you TONS of time. Once you’ve figured out which common phrases you type out repeatedly, this can be a life-changing tool. You can learn more about how it works in this blog post.

Relay

Relay is the most user-friendly online money management platform I’ve seen. Setting up or maintaining your account costs nothing, and there are no minimum balance requirements. If you’re a fan of Profit First, you will LOVE how this online banking platform works. It’s beautifully designed and has an incredibly well-made mobile app. If you click through our link and deposit $100 into your new account, they’ll give you $50 for free! Learn more about it in this blog post.

Mercury

Mercury is one of the most convenient and cost-effective banking solutions for startups. With free business checking and savings accounts, no minimum balances, free domestic wires, and free USD international wires, it’s a stronger contender to consider if you’re starting a new business or migrating away from another bank. Mercury is based entirely online, with a beautifully designed dashboard and first-in-class mobile app that makes banking as easy as possible. Get $100 FREE when you deposit $10K. Learn more about it in this blog post.

Doola

Doola has made it very easy to find a qualified bookkeeper to keep track of your ongoing transactions, and a CPA to file your state and federal tax returns, and the cost is practically guaranteed to be less than what you’ll find anywhere else. Visit doola and use code ‘DOOLARETIPSTER10‘ to claim an immediate 10% discount on your plan. Want to learn more about how doola works? Check out this blog post to learn more!

Fund & Grow

Fund & Grow helps real estate investors and entrepreneurs get access to 0% interest business credit lines. The company will negotiate with various banks on your behalf to help you get access to as much funding as possible.

To enlist their services, you pay them an annual fee of $3,997 (note: if you go through our affiliate link, you’ll get a $500 discount that will bring the price down to $3,497). This annual fee includes four rounds of applications, so if you continue working with them repeatedly, you’ll have to pay them again for each additional year.

This kind of short-term financing isn’t the right fit for every person and situation, but for an experienced real estate investor who knows how to manage debt and needs access to cash (rather than relying on funding partners or hard money lenders that are far more costly and restrictive) Fund & Grow could be a great option to consider.

For a comprehensive look at how the company works, see this blog post and listen to our conversation with Mike Banks, COO of the company, in episode 35. You can start the prequalification process right here.

Northwest Registered Agent

Northwest Registered Agent is a cost-effective service that can make it fast, easy, and painless to form your new business entity. If you’re starting a new business and need to form an LLC, this is one of the best services I know! You can learn more about how it works in this blog post.

PandaDoc

PandaDoc is an incredibly convenient and useful service that can be used to sign documents electronically. I use PandaDoc when making offers and sending out purchase agreements to buy new properties. It’s a great way to speed up one of the slowest aspects of getting a deal closed. The service is pretty easy to use, but if you need a quick tutorial on how it works, check out this video.

Rocket Lawyer

Rocket Lawyer is for people who need to draft their legal documents. Of all the “do-it-yourself” legal websites I’ve seen online, none of them have made my life easier than this one. Rocket Lawyer has demystified the process by offering users easy-to-follow, interview-style documents that don’t include confusing legalese. opened many doors for people needing basic legal documents (wills, deeds, trusts, promissory notes, operating agreements, and more). This has become an extremely valuable resource for my business. Give it a try and you’ll see what I mean!

USLegal

USLegal has almost every form and legal template imaginable for the real estate trade. If you’re starting on a shoestring budget and can’t afford to pay $500/hour for a real estate attorney, you’ll find many of the same legal templates on this website at a fraction of the price. I’ve bought a lot of forms from US Legal over the years and continue to use them to this day.

DataTree

DataTree is a service that will give you instant access to property information in the vast majority of counties around the U.S. This is an excellent resource for researching properties before you go through the trouble of visiting them in person. Note: If you decide to subscribe to this service, be sure to use use the REtipster affiliate link and you’ll get a substantial discount for the life of your subscription

PropStream

PropStream can also be used to research individual properties, bulk skip tracing, pulling comp reports, and much more. It’s a great data source for house wholesalers, house flippers, agents, land investors, and many other real estate industry professionals. Check out this YouTube playlist for some tutorials on how to use it.

Zillow

Zillow is a surprisingly helpful tool that can be used for property research – especially when it comes to land valuation and finding local realtors who can help get pictures, find comparable properties and even get your properties sold for you. Zillow is one of those priceless resources that I use all the time (and it doesn’t cost me a dime).

Google Earth

Google Earth has long been one of the most useful tools I know about when it comes to finding accurate and reliable data on the topography, surroundings, elevations, street views and much more of the properties I’m researching. When you’re making a buying decision on any property (especially when its vacant land), this kind of perspective can be extremely useful – and the fact that it’s FREE doesn’t hurt either! For a quick overview on how I use Google Earth, be sure to check out this blog post.

Land id

Land id, (formerly known as MapRight) is a convenient way for real estate investors to see a lot of useful information about a property in one place. Everything from parcel boundaries, wetlands, flood zones, owner information, school districts, topographical data, and much more. While the information isn’t always perfect, it’s an easy, first-step solution that brings a lot of information into one place for you to see. See this video for an overview of how it works.

Parlay 2.0

Parlay 2.0 is a KMZ file plugin that works in conjunction with Google Earth to show parcel line overlays throughout most of the United States. It can also show you property ownership data and is very useful when you’re trying to determine exactly where a property is located (in the case of vacant land, for instance). To get a closer look at how it works, see this video.

Upwork

Upwork is another awesome place to find help for just about anything. It can also be a great place to find a long-term virtual assistant because you can hire someone for a small, one-time project (just to test them out) before bringing them onboard as a more permanent team member. The communication and payment platform for Upwork is also very easy to use. The freelancers on Upwork tend to be a bit higher priced than on Fiverr, but the overall quality of work is directly in line with what you pay for. Be sure to check out my overview on how to use Upwork in this blog post.

Fiverr

Fiverr is a HUGE online marketplace that allows entrepreneurs to find freelance services that will fit within their budget and timeline. I’ve found varying levels of quality on Fiverr, but in terms of price, they’re pretty hard to beat. Whether you need help with web design, sorting through your lists, managing your social media profiles, or fill-in-the-blank, pretty much any feasible service is available here. Check out my overview of how Fiverr works in this blog post.

Thumbtack

Thumbtack is a great place to find local professionals and contractors for all kinds of services. Mobile notaries, photographers, drone pilots, handymen, and much more. If you’re a virtual investor who needs help finding helpers in another market, this is a great resource to keep bookmarked in your browser!

DealCheck

DealCheck is a deal calculator that can be used for more than just rental properties. It’s also a web-based mobile app, so you can run the numbers on your phone when you’re on the road or away from your computer. It’s a similar concept to most of the deal calculators I’ve seen but designed to be much more intuitive and user-friendly, with a cleaner look to it. If you spend a lot of time analyzing potential deals, this is a great tool to have at your disposal! Note: Use promo code “RETIPSTER” at checkout, and you’ll get a 25% discount for the life of your subscription. For a full review of how the DealCheck app works, be sure to check out this blog post.

RentCast

RentCast is a great resource for looking up potential rent estimates, rental comps, and local market trends for pretty much any property. It’s also popular with investors and property managers who want to track their properties and projected rents to ensure they’re not leaving money on the table and keeping up with changing market conditions. They have a public API that you can use to get access to all of their rental data as well.

Note: Don’t forget to use promo code “RETIPSTER” at checkout to get a 20% **forever** discount on your subscription. And check out this blog post for an in-depth review of how RentCast works.

Stessa

Stessa is free, easy-to-use software that allows real estate investors to track the performance of their rental property portfolio. It’s a great way to track your finances automatically, and you can control everything from an app on your phone. I’m not sure why a rental property owner wouldn’t be using this! See our full review in this blog post.

TenantCloud

TenantCloud is a feature-rich property management software that helps landlords and property managers handle tenant screening, payment processing, and managing applications. It also has a messaging platform (similar to Facebook Messenger), a task management section for maintenance requests (similar to Trello), an accounting integration with QuickBooks (save yourself a ton of headache at tax time), and a dedicated mobile app. Learn all about it in this blog post.

Land Investing Masterclass

The Land Investing Masterclass is the flagship land investing course that offers a 12-module (80+ lesson), deeply comprehensive guide on how to start, run and grow a land investing business. In it, you’ll find all the tools, videos, calculators, downloads, and community you’ll need as part of the price of admission.

If you’re looking for an in-depth, step-by-step guide on how I managed to skyrocket my income on a part-time basis and quit my job through the power of land investing, this will show you how it’s done.

Land Investing Foundations

Land Investing Foundations is our entry-level beginner’s guide that explains all the basics about the land investing business.

Rather than focusing on one specific strategy, this course will show you the fundamentals of the land business BEFORE you start looking for deals. Learn the different strategies and business models available in the land industry, find out what kinds of opportunities the land business has to offer, and learn how to speak the language of a land investor.

If you aren’t sure which land investing strategy to pursue or where you fit into the overall picture of the land business, this course is for you.

Land Elite Masterclass

The Land Elite Masterclass will show you sophisticated strategies that will elevate your land flipping business beyond the ordinary and to the new heights you’ve been searching for.

Are you ready to go beyond the basics, break barriers, and unlock the full potential of your land-investing business? Welcome to the next chapters of your land investing business, meticulously designed to arm you with the knowledge, skills, and strategies you need to find more blue ocean opportunities where the competition is lower and the profits are much bigger.

REtipster Certified Coaches

Are you looking for coaching help in your land investing business? A decent coach can be hard to find. That’s why we’ve worked hard at compiling a list of experienced, trustworthy, reliable coaches on our site.

REtipster Certified Coaches are dues-paying members who have been vetted and have agreed to abide by the highest ethical standards and code of conduct.

These coaches are independent contractors. They are not employed by REtipster, and we do not dictate their pricing or the specifics of what they teach. We encourage you to evaluate them and make your own determination about their suitability for your needs. Any engagement for their services will be directly with their business and not through REtipster Publishing LLC.

If you’d like to find a coach from our directory, you can see the current list on this page of the site.