I’m starting in wholesaling but am out of work and have no money for marketing. Driving for dollars has been ineffective, i.e., finding poorly maintained properties and sending letters to the property owner.
Can someone recommend an approach for low/no budget marketing to find deals?
Contact other wholesalers, and ask them if they have anything that has been slow to sell. Ask them if you can market those properties for a share of their fee.
Keep an ad in Craigslist, and every other free classified outlet, that offers the main benefit you offer.
Offer the main benefit in your headline, and never mention any of the mechanics of your deal.
Some benefits you might ask yourself if you can offer…
Can you close fast?
Can you offer fast cash?
Can you offer full price?
Can you close on the seller’s schedule?
Can you provide debt relief?
Can you manage property?
Can you offer a ‘sure’ closing?
These are just some potential benefits that sellers are looking for.
We happen to offer fast cash to a hand-selected list of sellers using direct mail.
Meantime, you can also advertise for cash buyers (or any type of buyer).
We advertise an “all cash steal deal,” and then build and maintain a list of cash buyers. As we find deals, we broadcast them to our buyer’s list and it’s first come, first serve.
Hope that helps.
I agree with Javipa…you may want to put up a website and also advertise on all free fsbo websites, place an ad as though you’re selling and build that buyer’s list. You can also use eBay Classifieds.
The advantage of being a seller on a Free FSBO site is:
Hope this helps!
I know it’s been awhile since you asked the question. But, what I did when I was an investor a looonnng time ago was market to absentee owners by sending them a hand written letter which read, "Would you consider selling your property to a prospect of mine? It was very effective AND cost effective.
If you’d like to know how I handled the calls when they came in I’d be glad to offer my 2 cents.
Good luck.
You can do Digital marketing, that will help you.
SEO
E-mail Campaigning
Post free ads etc
No, I have an offline lead generating technique that finds motivated sellers. I’ve used it in the past to generate 100+ calls to one of my clients on a daily basis. His best day was 186 calls.
I had some health issues and ended up putting my marketing stuff on a shelf for a long time. I’ve recovered and moving forward so I’m willing to help someone out in exchange for your opinion and maybe a testimonial.
Let me know how I can help you.
Hi javipa
I see in your post you state, “contact other wholesalers and ask them if they have anything that has been slow to sell. Ask them if you can market those properties for a share of their fee.”
I was wondering what is the reason behind this approach. Seems like if the properties are slow selling then they may be over priced. And if you market over priced properties to your cash buyers this may be a bad look. I was wondering why not get all their properties, even the good deals too, to market to your cash buyers.
Thanks!!
Pete
Issue: Nobody wants to split their profits with you “just because.” Just like agents, the wholesaler wants to flip the property without your help. However, if can’t, he’ll drop back and punt. And that’s where your offer to market his wet wood is more welcomed.
Issue: We’ re talking about “low cost” marketing. What’s lower cost than marketing a property it cost you nothing to find?
Issue: The most difficult part for most beginners is actually contracting a deal (profitable or not). Worse, the longer they go without finding a deal, the more inertia they are forced to overcome, and the less momentum they can maintain. So, for them its important to do ‘anything’ to build momentum, and overcome inertia. And an inexpensive quick way to do that, is to market ‘any’ property, regardless of whom found it. This could include marketing “phantom properties” for sale with the sole purpose of stirring the bee’s nest for prospective buyers AND sellers. I mean, no matter who calls me, I ask for leads on sellers. As far as I’m concerned every conversation I have is an opportunity to get a lead. I’m obnoxious at parties and funerals that way.
Meantime, the sheer act of marketing does several things for the beginner. It generates momentum; overcomes inertia; exposes him as a wholesaler; gets him attention from buyers; generates conversations, and new relationships in the business; and (hopefully) leads to actual profitable deals. So, why not ask a wholesaler if you can market his dud? You’ve got everything to gain, and so does the wholesaler. Who knows, maybe he’ll see the benefit in letting you market all his crap, and so all he has to do is cash checks?
That’s all I can think to add right now.
I see…javipa you always drop some knowledge on us and shed some light on a subject to put everything in a crystal clear light that we can understand.
Not finding many wholesalers right now to raise theirs hands…found one wholesaler, but my cash buyers said that his ‘deals’ are more than their willing to pay…back to the drawing board.
Thanks javipa for your help!! :biggrin
You’re welcome…
I guess I can add one more issue: Relying on one buyer to define value. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
My partner and I came across a cash buyer who thought that buying at 85% of ARV was a bargain …for cash. The buyer was a lazy, ignorant (impatient) knucklehead with a boatload of cash. Guess who tried to empty out his bank account with “loser” deals? (I’m only half kidding)
Don’t allow the quality of any one deal to be defined by one buyer. Meantime, you want to know what every buyer will buy; how he’ll buy it; and how fast he can buy; etc. That assumes you find more than one buyer at a time.
Creating a website and using offpage and onpage activities to market seems to be a good idea.
Digital marketing is low-cost marketing for every business.
I would second that a lead generation website with lots of geographical or keyword tied pages is about as inexpensive as you will get on a cost/serious lead basis.
You can also use a free MailChimp account to send email campaigns to your prospects. MailChimp is pretty generous with its free account.
I’d recommend:
Facebook Groups (post daily)
Instagram
craigslist
backpage
driving for dollars
cold calling
standing in a corner with a large body 3’x4’ sign
business cards (you can get them for about $50 for 5000 online)
As long as you are consistent with it, really any advertising method will work. For example. Sending out 2 yellow letters a day. At the end of the month, that is 60 letters. You are bound to get deals like that. It is just a matter of time.
Ceo
Mark Lopez
Tell everyone that you know that you can help people who need to sell a problem property – someone in your circle has an aunt, cousin, neighbor, ect. that needs to sell a house…and its free
I think like others have said.
1.Drive around and look for distressed properties.
2.See if you can find an agent you can win over and partner with. She can give you deals. Most agents won’t want to give you the time of day but some will.
3.Craigslist.
4.Get a website
5.Get a facebook business page
6.Youtube account, twitter, linked in, start a blog… basically get an online presence. Let people know that you are actually “there” and legit.
If you are looking to spend money, I think there is a lot of bang for your buck with cold-calling.
For instance, it can cost $3 more or less to send 6 postcards to 1 lead.
To cold-call that same lead, it can cost as little as $0.32 to contact that lead 6 times.
If you are looking for low budget marketing, then I will suggest you to watch the seo youtube video and learn how can you promote your website on your own.
If you are looking for a low cost marketing with a large number of audience, try posting properties in Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. Both of these platforms are free.