I posted an ad on craigslist for cash buyers to start building my cash buyers list. Here is my ad:
"[i]Wanted: Cash Buyers and Investors (Colorado)
Date: 2012-02-15, 10:14AM MST
Reply to:
Great Opportunity for Investors.
Cash Buyers and Investors Wanted…Local Property Wholesaler Selling Homes At Huge Discounts!
Thank you.[/i]"
I only received one response and all I got was an email address. I sent this person an email asking this person to call me so I can get more info as to where he/she wants me to look, etc. No response whatsoever. Do I hang on to this one response and play guessing games with any properties I find? I don’t know.
Also, should I place a fake ad instead of the one above in order to get more responses? I’ve also sent out letters to local buyers, again, no responses. In a way, that doesn’t surprise me because of the hideous form letter on the software program I purchased. If I received that letter, I’d toss it myself. I gringed when I first read it. I must admit, this is all my first attempt (yes, I expect too much on the first try).
I’m in Denver, CO and I recently went to a local REIA meeting and they said that Denver is starting to upswing so low deals are harder to find. Is it really necessary to look locally when you’re first starting out? Any suggestions would be great.
I have had really good luck on CL and really bad luck on CL. Moreso bad than good. It seems like the flakiest people are on CL. People who won’t call you back, won’t show up, etc. There is one guy where I’m located who posts every few days about wanting to buy misc yard sale type items. I wrote to him and told him I had a ton of stuff at a house we just bought. He wrote back and asked where it was, but then never showed up. I would’ve probably given him everything so I didn’t have to mess with it, but he didn’t show.
Investors may not respond to your ad because they’re just assuming you’re new, don’t really have any deals lined up, etc. The only RE ads I’ve responded to on CL are from other LL’s who are trying to sell their properties.
I’m not a big marketer, but there always seems to be someone advertising “we buy houses” or something like that in any given decent size city. People are advertising in the local newspaper, putting out bandit signs, ads on CL, etc. Find a way to stand out from that.
You can’t just put up 1 ad and expect it to bring you miracles. Put up ads every other day. Be consistent. I’ve been putting up Craigslist ads every other day for about 6 months and I still get a steady flow of about 2-5 buyers per week from it.
Fake ads help a ton. It doesn’t hurt to post them. Make sure you make is a really good, discounted deal to attract more buyers.
Post one ad in Craigslist won’t get you cash buyers.
How to find cash buyers:
Online and offline Networking: REIAs, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.
MLS – pull all cash transactions settled in your area. Then mail to them to join your buyer’s list.
Craigslist/Backpage – daily
For sale signs and We Buy Houses sign – call them
Sherriff sale – talk with the players and find out where they buy and what they buy for
Duke is right. CL can get you leads, but why post one time. Hire cheap CL posters to do this for you that have different IP addresses etc so that you can get more out of your marketing on CL. But don’t just stop there, if you really consider the price of 11 x 17 paper with some print on them, laminated taped to h wire, cheap marketing but very effective.
My friend you have to try and try several different forms of marketing to see what works the best for you. What works for you well my not work for me well in my area, but one thing I can be sure about is this, bandit signs always kick butt. :beer
This is so true. Most wholesalers are scared to work with realtors because they don’t want the realtors to eat up their profits. However, realtors work with a ton of buyers and it is just a whole lot easier to send them a property and let them find a buyer for it. I will gladly give any realtor their 3-6% if they bring me a buyer and there is still room for profit.
Working with just 1 realtor can add hundreds of cash buyers to your list. Imagine how many new cash buyers you can add by working with multiple realtors.
Most wholesalers will price themselves out off a deal trying to make a killing on the first deal. 80% of wholesalers read theses books where theses guru tell them you need to make $40K on each deal but if you ask the guru to hold your hand and show you on just one deal how it is done the guru will run out the back door.
I hope I did the right thing contacting an agent and putting my property in the market in a bid. That way I don’t have to get a buyer who backs out on the day that he has promised to pay.
The best way to find a cash buyer is meet and talk to these guys. I went to my REIN meeting here and met a guy who buys 100+ houses a year. I talked with this guy and found out that he is the real deal but before I met him I had heard about the houses he flipped.
You may come across so called “cash buyers” but the only way to know for sure is to qualify and verify these guys. If your BS sensers go off don’t do business with them.
Great point! You don’t need thousands or even hundreds of “cash buyers.” Don’t get me wrong, you should continue to build your buyers list bigger and bigger every day. But as you are accumulating more buyers, you’re really just looking for those few buyers that are relaiable and buy many many properties on a consistent basis. These buyers are the key and you should give them VIP status or “first dibs” on your properties.
Buyers will find you if you have a good deal. But remember if you want to get greed and over price your property you want find any buyers. Talk to a lot of sellers and one seller said if I can not make $80K on deal it is not worth my time.
I would used Cameron Dunlaps CashBuyerDataFeed.com. It looks up cash buyers using public records in any zip code you choose who have bought a property for cash within the last 3 months. It also categorizes them by whether or not they have bought multiple properties or just one. You can also export the leads into a excel file if you for some reason want to do the mailing on your own.
It’s got an assortment of ready made postcards and letters that you can use as well. You just figure out how big of an order you will be making and then you pay by credit card and they do the mailing for you. I’ve had the service for a couple days and I can say it’s pretty cool. Best of all is just like a 1 to 2 dollar trial and then $40 a month which is very affordable.
This is what I would do and am doing to get cash buyers. I’m trying to get away from all the other labor intensive methods of building a cash buyer list.
I don’t think I would use anything else other than freedomsoft.
one thing ive done when i had a good deal and didnt have a buyer at the time is i know a hard money lender and i let him know about my deal and told him to blast it out to the investors that borrow from him because most cash buyers use hard money from time to time and who would better know of the major players in the game then them that lend out all the money… another good way is to contact land lords ask them if theyre looking to sell any properties they have first then ask if they’d like to add more to there portfolio works like a charm both ways… :cool
I google Cameron and didn’t get good reviews…I was thinking about the system you are using. You haven’t had any problems? Have you had good luck finding buyers?