FRUSTRATED BY BUYERS LIST

Bird Dogs, Wholesaling
1

I tell you what I done some wholesale deals already and I have better luck dealing with selller then buyers. What I mean is that a lot of so called buyers are either rude , don’t know what they want , or are not buyers at all. I have propably close to 100 buyers on my list but a lot of them don’t give you a specific criteria or don’t return calls. A lot of these are new investors who might only be able to buy 1 home per year and can’t close quickly.

Most of the time when I had deal locked up , I put in the paper , craigslist , or bandit signs to market it. I almost fear calling most of my buyers because a lot of these guys want to “steal” the home for cheap or for the reasons mentioned above. I feel like this a weak linc in my business and would like some advise on how to handle buyers. I would also love to hear how you organize this list . I use Excel but find it boring and not very efficient . Please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

2

Those sources often lead to tire kicker type buyers or other wholesalers - or wholesaling wannabes.

Our best source is sending out postcards to people that have bought in that area in the last 3-6 months and paid cash - real buyers - much easier than dealing with the Craigslist crowd (although we have sold some that way as well).

We track everything in Karma CRM - an online database program - it’s currently free, but they will start charging soon. It’s great for managing sellers and buyers and all the steps in the process. Even when they start charging, at our level it should be about $25/month.

good luck

3

Hi,

When I Google "Free Advertising for __________ , ___ " I get 32 online platforms for placing free ads in the first 5 results pages! If I place a "2 Bedroom / 1 Bath", a "3 Bedroom / 1.5 Bath", a "3 Bedroom / 2 Bath", a "4 Bedroom / 2 Bath" and a "5 Bedroom / 3 Bath" ad in each site I have 160 ads running! I don't place my ads one by one in just one site, I place one in each site and come back to the beginning again, I want a gap of a few hours to a day or two between my ads, I want to describe the ideal home in my market area, I know what buyers are seeking because I am continually reviewing and reassessing my market!

I jump out and put a post card on every supermarket bulletin board, I place a card in the barber shop, the beauty shop, the hardware store, I put flyers in store windows and on cars, I am putting free or close to free signs, banners, text, etc. where I can!

When someone calls I don’t care what they say, what there problems are or whether there rude or not, I simple say “Hi, let me get your name and phone number first as I have been having problems with my phone” then I ask which house there calling about “Oh, were looking at your ad for the 4 Bedroom / 2 Bath, is it still available?” No, im sorry we just made an agreement on it yesterday, however we have other homes were working on, I probable will have others available in the next week! I tipically can offer a home for sale with 5% or more in walk in equity and in many cases structure homes to help buyers with down payments and closing cost’s!

In 31 years I have never had a fellow investor steal my deal, remember that old saying “Paranoia Will Destroy You” , now I have had contracts I could not perform on and when I could not perform had other investors walk in and take the deal, however that’s hardly stealing my deal as when my contract goes null & void it’s no long my deal to be stolen!

In fact as a seasoned experienced investor if I feel someone is being to greedy I can sit back and wait out the deal, after all I don’t have to have the property and if you fail to perform I have no problem stepping in after your contract expires and taking the deal, and if you do succeed then no love lost as I have no emotional connection to property!

Now I tell buyers in order to find you a property with walk in equity, I need to ask a series of qualifying questions, 1 - 100, and do you have a mortgage prequalification? If not I send them to my team mortgage broker!

I only search for properties for my buyers who perform, who return phone calls and act to become qualified!
However I am nice and sweet and courteous to the rude, obnoxious, out of sort callers as everybody has a bad day, week or month and someone who is less than coordual today may be my buyer next month or next year!

But you would be surprised how nice people can get when you can get them into a home with 5% or more in instant equity!

If your buying homes wholesale, provide them to owner occupied buyers or investors wholesale as you don’t care who the buyer is and you just want to move real estate!

                             GR
4

Thanks for that advice Gold River. I kinda feel like OP “The_Great_Martini” in that I have been running in circles for over a year. I have met many wannabe wholesalers and tire kickers instead of buyers and boot lickers.

Alot of guru’s still preach about “if a deal is good the buyer will come” but I believe this “if a buyer is good a deal will come”. 60% ARV is dead in todays market. Sure the gurus can still sell properties at 60 to 70% arv but they have 10,000+ people on there buyers list and a huge marketing budget. For the small guy we have to get our deals at 30 to 40% ARV now which means finding DESPERATE INSANE SELLERS!

To cincyben: what postcard service do you use? Also if you don’t mind telling what criteria do you use in your campaign? What LTV, equity, type of house, etc, etc?

5

We use Click2Mail.com for all our postcard mailings. To find buyers we mail to absentee owners who have bought in the last 6 months in the same zip as our deal is in, paid all cash, 3+ bedrooms - that’s it…

6

Dear cincyben
You mentioned that your best source for finding buyers was to send out postcards to people who have bought in that area and paid cash in the last 3to6 months.

How do I go about finding these cashbuyers and their contact info that have purchased in the last 3 to 6 mo’s?, so that I can contact them with a postcard?

Thank you,
Bergie

7

Have a real estate agent run an MLS report with cash sales in the areas of interest for the last 6 months. The report will show property address and selling agent.

First go to the Recorder of Deeds office and see if you can locate the buyers yourself by looking up the property address: cross check address with online directories, or if it is a busines the Secretary of State site will have the business registration with the owner name and address. :biggrin

It takes some work to build a viable buyer’s list, but well worth the effort.

8

You can also search the hud bid stats for your state, except for Arizona & a few other states. There, you can find sold hud homes addresses, and find out if it was bought by an investor or an owner occupant.

9

I’m going to share my experience, and take it for what it’s worth. Buyer’s lists are a bunch of crap! That’s been my experience over years of investing. With one exception…if you are dealing with investor-buyers who buy frequently such as rehabbers who make their living by buying run down homes. I have a list with a few hundred buyers like most experienced guys do, sure. But my experience is each time I find what they’re looking for (again, with the exception of investor buyers), they don’t know what you are talking about, etc etc. So I got very very pissed off & at the same time curious as to WHY this was happening, so I decided to ask ALL of these people in kind of a exit interview way if you will. My findings? People are horrible with money! They have 10k today, and by 8pm that same damn night they use it to go on vacation! It’s hilarious. Or they find something else ridiculous to do with it and continue renting. I prefer to just advertise a house for sale like always and continuing to add potentially to the database WITHOUT contacting people, big waste of time. I still sell faster than most because I’m offering special terms or big discounts to the public. Now, maybe I’m just stubborn and won’t take the time to actually do it differently. But I’ve been doing this for years now, have actually taken time to ask people why no interest now, and screened those same people initially very well and I will NEVER ever call a list again. It isn’t helping me sell quicker, and isn’t selling quicker the reason to maintain a buyer’s list in the first place???

10

You all make great points! I had the same problem last year which was my first year of wholesaling. I had three deals under contract at rock bottom prices but buyers would not perform. Even after I negotiated a lower price 3 times down to 8k! I was PO’d! I found that I had to do not what the Guru’s were saying but what the market was saying, which was multifamily units not SFH! To rebuild my buyers list I use only 2 strategies. Only adding buyers that have actually purchased in the past 6 months using cash, and driving to rehab sites. It seems that my list is stronger now sense most are developers.

11

If you don’t mind, would you be so kind as to share with us how you are building (or built) your current buyer list?

Thanks !

12

I have a realtor to run a report for sales of properties in my area that have sold for cash in the past month. I due this once a month. I then due the research at the recorder of deeds. For the properties that have already closed I try to drive past the site to see if there is any activity. From there I network. It’s very time consuming. But, from my experience Craigslist sucks! All I get is wholesalers trying to build their list.

13

We use Click2Mail.com for all our postcard mailings. To find buyers we mail to absentee owners who have bought in the last 6 months in the same zip as our deal is in, paid all cash, 3+ bedrooms - that’s it…

14

I always say, build your buyers list always even if you have no deal to send them to, atleast you have a fat list. Its fairly cheap to do. Keep your seller lead funnel going all the time.

Make offers, take offers, make money. Some will some wont who cares, my buyers list is fat as hell. lol :biggrin

15

I agree, the bigger the buyers list the better. there are always going to be a lot of pretend investors but you will find a couple that will be good buyer investors. Keep them close and treat them good. Another tip may be to screen/interview your potential buyers before hand. Ask them about their financing, do they have it lined up already? How many deals have they done to date? Questions that will help you to determine their experience level.

16
I'm going to share my experience, and take it for what it's worth. Buyer's lists are a bunch of crap!

Ditto.

I can assemble a qualified buyers list of more than 50 in a matter of six weeks with up to $60,000 for down payments. But the shelf life is too SHORT to screw with …and what can be frustrating… the buyers start acting like they’ve got alternatives …all of the sudden …despite working with the credit challenged.

I just had something along these lines happen two weeks ago. A credit challenged buyer woman responded to an ad for a house we were lease/optioning. She emailed me with her requirements (instead of filling out my online form) on a lease/purchase arrangement she wanted help with. The list was a page long, single spaced …and then she wanted it ‘no down’ …lease option (a “no option money” option if you will).

I literally laughed out loud. I responded with, “We don’t do ‘nothing down’ deals on the retail side, but I’ll certainly call you when I’ve got the 2 acre ranch with 4k sqft living space, a 2-stall barn, a pool, downstairs laundry, granite, tile, and 3-car garage” …when hell freezes over.

It’s better just to find a deal, and market the deal you’ve got to the hottest prospect you have ‘today.’

I teach how to build a buyer’s list, but mostly it’s to comfort those operating on a shoe-string. who have little staying power. Frankly, I think it too stressful to operate that way for very long. And the ones who must operate this way, also seem to live on the margin in the first place, and if they’re also not enormously self-disciplined, financially speaking, they cannot remain above water.

Great post “chunkoftheearth”

17

I gave up on cragisstlist officially last year. The GURU’s all keep recirculating around the same outdated material to Wholesaling newbies. I have a database of all the zip codes in my area where investors have bought properties within the last six months. Whenever I have a property to sell, I print the details and location of the property on a yellow postcard along with my buyer website which has a virtual tour of the property.
One way to know if an investor invests in certain zipcodes is to look at the absentee address of the owner. If you see that address coming up under different zipcodes but the name is different, that means the buyer is buying in multiple areas and zipcodes.