I am always excited by the opportunity to share as many ideas as I can with regard to locating motivated sellers. After all, without the sellers, there are no deals. I also like having the opportunity to share ideas for both the beginner investor and the seasoned investor alike within a variety of budget constraints.
FLYERS
Flyers are a good way to locate motivated sellers and can be used to target specific neighborhoods where you want to buy houses. You can either hire a company to do this for you, or hire older children to hang these flyers for you. Do follow up by driving by the area to make sure the work was done. When using a company to hang flyers door-to-door for you, make sure you get references from satisfied customers first. There are some companies out there that will take your money and not get the work done, so you want to check their reputation before hiring them.
Flyers are an inexpensive way to locate sellers. This technique can be repeated either monthly or quarterly, depending on your time and budget. When I used to distribute flyers door-to-door, I would take one weekend morning to do this. My husband and I would each take one side of the street and distribute flyers door-to-door. We would keep a chart of the neighborhoods we had done so we could track our results. You always want to track where your leads are coming from so you know which of your marketing campaigns work best. Hanging flyers was also a great way for me to get some exercise at the same time.
BILLBOARDS
Billboards are another way to attract motivated sellers. They can be costly and they will only target one very specific part of your market. One way to make billboards less costly is to go in with another investor on them and split the cost. Have the calls sent to an answering service that can split the calls between the two of you. This method definitely makes it more equitable to use billboards.
Also ask your billboard company about “remnant space”. For a lower cost, the billboard company will put your billboards wherever there is an empty billboard available. This can be a good way for you to get your message out to your market in an inexpensive way.
The only problem with this method is that you don’t know where your billboards will be located. The good part is that you get a lot of exposure for a lot less money. Once again, continue to track the leads coming from your billboards in order to find out if they are a good source of motivated sellers for you. With billboards, you also want to keep in mind that you don’t want to get tied into a long-term contract unless you know the billboards are going to work for you. Start small and add on new billboards as you go, if you see that this method of advertising works well for you by creating good leads.
REFERRAL FEES
To get the message out that you buy houses is to simply tell everyone you know what you do for a living and that you pay referral fees. This is the cheapest way I know to find houses people have for sale. Make sure you let everyone you talk to know what it is you do. For example, your hairdresser, dry cleaner, pest control person, grocer, toll takers, pool cleaning person, lawn person, Fed Ex or UPS delivery person, attorney, accountant, neighbors, friends, relatives, co-workers or anyone else you know or talk to might be a good source of leads for you. The way I deal with these people is to pay them a referral fee if we get a deal from their lead. You could also pay them by the lead. It’s up to you. This is another way to keep people motivated to bring you even more leads.
FOR SALE BY OWNER LIST SERVICES
You can find leads by using a “For Sale By Owner” list service. What these people do is provide you with a list of all the “For Sale By Owner” properties in your area on a daily basis. They will e-mail this list to you daily. The way I use this lead source is to give the person who works for me a telephone script I use for pre-screening. Then I have her call on all the “For Sale By Owner” leads once a week. Though I find that there usually aren’t many leads to get this way, it is still a good way to automate your system by getting someone else to find and pre-screen these leads for you. There are some deals to be made using these lists. It is also a very inexpensive lead source for you to use. This list is also a good way to keep track of how much properties are selling for in your area, which gives you a good idea of comparables on properties you are seeking to purchase.
Author's Products:
August 27th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Since marketing dollars are scarce, it is very important to target specific areas. You can do that best through neighborhood direct mail programs. This can allow you to become the “go to” realtor in desired neighborhoods.