I just wanted to know if it would be a good idea to search websites that feature for sale by owner homes and contact the owners that way. I appreciate the feedback!
Until enough people know what you do, and your referral business is built up adequately, you’ll need to do ‘everything,’ including calling up the FSBO’s. There’s no “one thing” you do. You advertise and market heavily within your farm, until you are consistently making “x” dollars, and then adjust accordingly.
Personally direct mail is my favorite tool, but it’s not cheap. Posting bandit signs, passing out cards, putting notes on doors, getting an absentee mailing list and mailing, looking up properties with code violations and mailing them (finding the owners), and just plain old cold calling is a start. Of course, when you’ve got some money, you farm out those tasks, and you focus on negotiating deals. Meantime, you’ve got to do more than one thing to gain momentum.
That doesn’t take into consideration the importance of defining a farm and profiling the exact property you want to deal with (and the particular seller, too). This takes some thinking and patience. Otherwise, you ‘end up’ trying to be successful as a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. That’s NOT where the real money is. The money is in specialization.
Hope that helps.
Agree 100% with javipa. You need to create a marketing plan to find deals. This is a numbers game. You want to view tons of leads each month… from various lead streams. Put out signs, send out mailers, pass out business cards, drive for dollars, call FSBO’s, post flyers, network, etc, etc.
If you’re putting all your eggs into one option each month, it’s going to be very difficult and frustrating to get your business off the ground.
Yes, FSBO’s is one of the best places you can go to market for sellers when you are starting out. I like driving around and looking for distressed properties. Look up the addresses in the real estate assessor’s office for your county and see what you’ve got for leads.
You have to create your own avenue and your own lane, once you have bored that out you have a steady flow of leads that you can screen and profit from. Never stop marketing. :beer
If you are looking for inventory your best bet would be go to the nearest gas station fill your tank up and hit the nearest neighborhood where there are lots of vacant houses present. Get the addresses off of these homes and use your local county property appraisers website to track down the owner. The mailing address should be different from the address of the property you are interested in purchasing. Use a postcard or preferably a handwritten letter expressing your interest in the property. Make sure you mail a business card as well so they have all of your contact information.