17 Ways To Build A Wholesale Buyers List
Hey Team,
As I venture my wholesaling biz to Memphis and other cities I find myself with a sharp focus on building a hungry buyers list. To get the activity in motion I scoured Biggerpockets, articles, asked others, and used my strategies that worked here in Hawaii to build a buyers list. I compiled a list with ideas and suggestions to get this done. I know that many successful wholesalers have their own unique niche in targeting investors, so please feel free to share your most successful approach in the comments section.
Buyers of your deep discount investment property is the lifeline to your success.
To paint a basic illustration, lets say you have a vision for starting a surf shop because you love surfing, and you have connections with the best deals and discounts on surf gear. So you start looking for a space for your shop, and decide on a great location in the middle of a cornfield in Iowa.
The only problem is there are no buyers for your great product where there are no waves! However if you take the surf shop
to the North Shore of Oahu, where the waves are the size of skyscrapers then I would say finding buyers will be a breeze. So what I am saying is “go where the waves are.”
So this really more of a guide for me as it is as much for anyone else.
Building A Wholesale Buyers List
- Call the “For Rent” “lease option” “renovated” ads in the newspaper, craigslist, backpage, kijiji, etc.
- Call the “For Rent” signs that are handwritten that you see hiding behind the bushes:)
- Call the “We buy houses” people. Yes, the majority are wholesalers..which we all need.
- Market for another wholesaler by using a Flex Option. This will put money in your pocket, and build your buyers list. Market the property using Bandit Signs (you can order 25 for free right now!) , online ads, newspaper, social media, etc..When the investor calls, spend a few minutes discussing what they are specifically looking for.
- Have a property under contract!! Nothing speaks louder than real deals, and if the numbers are good, your responses should be high.
- Go to a real estate Auction. In Honolulu, every business day there is an auction downtown. Find the investors that are making offers and introduce yourself to them. For the most part, these auctions require all cash.
- Call the section 8 office in your city, and property managers. Ask them who they know who is actively looking for more real estate investments, or needing to sell quickly. Start schmoozing with them and try and get a list.
- Hard Money Lenders all know cash buyers and most are very willing to spread the word. Get a deal under contract, make sure your hard money lenders know about it. They are motivated because they might get the points and interest for funding 30-40% of the deal.
- Your local REIA meetings. Nothing takes the place of talking and shaking hands. But beware, many are tire kickers so proceed with wisdom.
- Use Social Media!! Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, BiggerPockets, RealEstateInvestor.Com, REIClub.com. Sign up to be a part of a group for your target city. Make sure you read the profiles, and connect with those people.
- Post an ad in Craigslist saying you have properties 30%-50% of retail value. Send them to your site or squeeze page.
- Make a solid contact with a realtor that will search the MLS for cash buyers within the last 6 months.
- Go to events that are geared towards real estate, hard money, financing. I recommend Pitbull Mortgage School’s hard money conference Oct. 14th. Hence, pretty biased as my dad is the President and I am director of business:)
- Search in Google, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, Twitter “Sell houses fast”, “We buy houses”. Typically in Google you will get the first page of national wholesalers or lead capture services. Page 2 is where you will start seeing genuine sites that are typically real deal investors.
- Contact you’re power team members such as your title agent, attorney, insurance agent, buyers real estate agents, birddogs. Just start talking away, and the word can spread quick.
- Become internet savvy. Create a website with a squeeze page on it. Work on making your site SEO friendly. If you use WordPress, there are SEO plugins that are awesome. Just search SEO plugins for WordPress. A couple that I like are SEO smart links, and SEO friendly images.
- You can purchase a list of landlords and absentee owners from Listsource or Realquest. Contact them via direct mail or call them. I have not used this approach but heard it works.
My favorite approach is using the internet. So here is a quick and easy “cliffs notes” version to getting a site up and running ready to capture buyer leads.
Online Marketing 101
- Choose a domain name. www.yourinvestorsite.com You can go to Host Gator for domain and hosting.
- Hosting your website. There are allot of good hosting companies out there, but HostGator has proved themselves very professional and cost effective. Transferring domains from one company to another is a headache that you shouldn’t have to go through.
- Upload your hosting to WordPress. Use WordPress as your blog platform. Just ask your hosting company to help you:) WordPress is the 800lb gorilla when it comes to creating a site.
- Capturing leads with an auto responder. Aweber will be able to use professional forms on your site, manage your email subscriptions, send out professional emails to your list, manage and track your opt in rates, and so much more! I really like AWeber and the service they provide. It seems that all the major players use AWeber for there email campaigns and tracking the lists they work so hard for.
You can simply post ads everywhere, and when someone clicks on the link, they are sent to your squeeze page where you then capture there information before they go to your site. You can post ads on Linkedin, Facebook, Biggerpockets, Google, articles, squidoo pages, hubpages, Craigslist, backpage, Kijiji, FSBO Sites, etc..
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I look forward to connecting and reading your comments.
To your success
Matt
Virtual Wholesaling 7 day countdown *Final Results*
Final Results!
Today is 7/8/2010 so let me share with you the final results to my 7 day wholesaling countdown. This challenge deadline is today Friday 7/9/2010. Can you hear the Rocky theme song? I can, its ringing in my ears. So to quote from one of my all time favorite movies….
“Get up you son of a bitch! Cuz Mickey loves ya!” ~Mickey Goldall (the movie Rocky)
My initial goal on 6/30/2010 was to complete a wholesale deal within 7 days or less in a state and market I have never stepped foot in. Another caveat was that this would be done using social media and use my contacts from there to get this accomplished.
Just a note… This post is simply me giving people hope that from scratch you can put together a deal from anywhere in the country. This is to give hope to someone who really hates having a J.O.B and wants a way out! Please do not over complicate things, its much simpler than you think.
Well lets cut to the chase…
DEAL IS DONE!!
From Hawaii to Memphis, we put together a virtual wholesale deal from scratch. And when I say “we” I mean a team. More specifically my partnership with Greg Harris from TheWholesaleKnockoutKing.
Here are the nuts and bolts of this deal. (basic version)
- Set a goal to achieve this
in 7 days - Wrote my goal down via this blog
- Created a plan (blog)
- Created my buyers list by spending many late hours consolidating my contacts I have made through Twitter, Biggerpockets, Linkedin, Plaxo, and all the groups associated with these sites.
- Made a list of all the hard money and private money people I know in the Memphis area
- Got a call from Greg Harris who wanted to collaborate our resources and vision for Memphis
- We found a landlord with a large portfolio that needed to liquidate
- Placed one of the properties under contract
- Sent an email, tweeted, posted it on Linkedin, made some calls, and sent everyone to the Sellpoint page that Greg setup
- Within minutes had over 60 views to the property
- Had an offer made and accepted on the 6th day!! Earnest money being deposited right now!!!! For a “tad” more than we asked for.
You might be saying..
“Oh thats great and all, but he probably was sandbagging this deal” Answer: NOPE
“Yeah, they already had well established connections ready to go” Answer: NOPE
“Yeah, but….NOPE Zip it!
Things I learned and could of done better:
- I created an investor buyer list of 180+ in a few days. Actually I had them lingering in all my social networks, I just never
consolidated all of them and looked at the value of what I had. Having a list of people that know, like and trust you is much more effective than having just a list. Finding out exactly what your buyers want, and delivering it. - Learned that you can buy a house in Memphis for less than what I paid for my car
- my opinion Linkedin and Biggerpockets are the BEST sites where you can connect with solid investor buyers. You just need to be saavy about the approach and use all the proper social media engagement rules. And not be spamming idiot. Linkedin groups has a ton of available resources.
- Visit the investor’s blogs that you find on social networks. Many of them will blog about the types of properties they are looking for and that are currently in the works.
- Partnering with the right wholesaler with the same vision can be very fruitful if your partnered up with the right people. Greg Harris from TheWholesaleKnockoutKing and I have collaborated our goals and resources. I am very thankful for Greg, and highly recommend connecting with him if you are serious. I can honestly say if you are looking for a real estate mentor Greg is the man for that. There is a huge difference in getting mentorship from a seminar gur
- FOCUS on the task at hand. And not get tied up in social media, webinars, opting in to everything, or just anything that has nothing to do with the task at hand.
- Of course, progress into direct mail, bandit signs, advertisements, birddogs and a clear website presence.
- Some sites that you might like that I found useful. GoSection8, Zilpy.com, Rentometer, SpotCrime.Com
Thanks again for all my awesome team members!!





