I am getting into wholesaling but I have basically no marketing budget until I do my first deal (im just a poor college kid!). Since I have no money and cannot afford to start/maintain a direct mail campaign, buy bandit signs, run classified ads, etc. I will have to search for motivated sellers and people with problems on my own.
I have heard people talk about finding deals by going to probate and divorce court. Anyone have any luck with that?
Also I will try calling FSBO’s and expired’s.
Drive around and look for vacants and try to contact the owner.
Any other ways to find deals without spending money on advertising?
What does everyone think about these approaches for finding deals?
First of all, get a lot of real estate investing education, starting with this site. Look over to the left margin, under the heading of Investor Information. You’ll take days to absorb everything.
Although wholesaling deals may not cost you anything, you should spend a little on your education. If you meet people, you should have business cards to hand out. I created mine at Staples.com. They have hundreds of designs to choose from and I think 1,000 cards cost something like $60.
yes I have been doing that for a couple months now. I have read almost every article posted on this site. I am reading every investing book I can get my hands on right now, almost done with the library collection.
Echo what DemosL said- there’s a lot of FREE website for advertising on! Try “driving for dollars”- keep an eye out for abandoned houses, ones that look like dumps, etc, and look up the owners online and send them a letter. Certainly you can afford some paper and ink, right?!
You don’t have money for bandit signs? Crikey, I see them advertised for $100 for 100 of them.
Get your lazy self down to the local burger joint and flip burgers for a month, and use the money you earn to pay for postage and envelopes and maybe some advertising. There are several places to advertise for free.
A magnetic sign for your car door wouldn’t take you more than a week at the French fry vat.
You’ve got to be willing to put some effort into it, or you will go nowhere.
Also, you don’t have to order bandit signs from a website to make them. Grab some large poster boards, a sharpie, write in really big letters, and nail them down or use a staple gun. It is super cheap and easy to do.
Even if you ended up paying $100 bucks for everything, you can still end up making 5K plus on a deal. I am not a huge advocate of incurring charges on a credit card, but if you know you can make nearly 5K more just by putting up some signs, than I say it may be worth it. Just a thought.