Where can real estate investors and savvy home buyers find wholesale real estate leads?
Leads, leads, leads. Everyone wants to know where they can find leads on the best wholesale priced and undervalued properties. Real estate investors want them by the dozen, and even regular home buyers are desiring the types of deals. So where are they?
‘Wholesale’ leads, actual deals, or at least common sense value investments at attractive prices, come from a variety of sources. In virtually every scenario, it means finding a motivated seller. It could be that the home owner is facing default or foreclosure and needs a fast exit. It could be a company with too much real estate on the books that needs to liquidate. In other cases, it could simply be a seller who has a business selling wholesale properties at attractive rates like Costco does with retail.
So how do you find them?
Bandit Signs
These small and inexpensive real estate marketing tools can pack a big punch, and incredible ROI for those seeking to reach local sellers. Expect to have to replace them frequently, but they can be very powerful, especially for those starting out on a tight budget.
Direct Mail
Some real estate marketers, especially wholesalers, often claim the only prospecting they need is direct mail. Of course, they still maintain a good mix of online paid and unpaid advertising too. Direct mail can be a huge success, and sometimes a total flop. There are many factors involved in maximizing results, and it helps to stay creative.
Driving for Dollars
Driving your local ‘farm’ area is one of the staples of weekly life as a real estate estate wholesaler and Realtor. Even if not uncovering potential homes by their condition and appearance, it is a great way to better get to know the neighborhood, get familiar with values, and more efficiently be able to pinpoint awesome deals.
While many new methods of communicating have been developed in the last few years, email remains one staple that is perhaps best suited to reaching the widest audience. Everyone has email right. Not everyone has Facebook or Twitter or use apps on their tablets daily. Email can be used to reach out to personal contacts. Very targeted lists can be built and groomed for specific emails. Vast email lists can be purchased or leased on demand, and messages can be exchanged for cross marketing through other people’s lists.
Social Media
Social media has become one of the best platforms for all types of home and real estate buyers to source properties for sale. Social media is great for general outreach and can accomplish it very cost effectively. While the rules have changed over the last year, paid social media advertising can work great for those that are good at it and need a steady flow of real estate leads.
SOI
Your sphere of influence (SOI) is one of the best sources of real estate deals, and especially bargain priced ones. This includes your friends, family, neighbors, past co-workers, attorneys, real estate agents, insurance agents, bankers and financial planners. Referrals from these individuals can provide great deals that close smoothly, and these leads don’t have to cost anything to generate. Sadly, most in the industry, and even regular home buyers, completely fail to leverage this source. There is a massive difference in the success of those that do this from the start and those that don’t.
Real Estate Investors and Wholesalers
Obviously if you want wholesale priced deals, it makes sense to go right to a property wholesaler. This helps to skip a lot of the time, investment, training and testing involved in many of the above approaches. They can be found online and often at local real estate investor clubs. Other investors at these meetings may have deals to offer that just aren’t the right fit for their personal strategy or resources, but may be right for you.
REOs
Banks, credit unions, asset managers, large corporations, municipalities, and others all hold many billions in property that they don’t need, don’t want, or have repossessed and need to move off the books. While they can sometimes be awkward to work with, and don’t always provide real deals, they can offer access to discounts.
