Effective Short Sale Lead Generation

By: Nick J.
Submitted: 06:12PM on Monday 15 June 2009

There is a lot of info via Articles and blogs regarding short sales and most of them simply say the same thing or have the same content but are worded a little differently. You'll notice that most of them just explain the same basic "process" and give very little detail on how to make them successful or even to generate the leads.

We're going to discuss some creative and effective ways that you probably haven't seen discussed anywhere else. These strategies are going to about generating warm leads, not so much the standard place an add on Craigslist type of article. I want to give you some real substance regarding actual techniques that I as a full time investor have and or still use.

I don't currently and haven't for some time actually marketed to get any of my own short sales leads, I learned a long time ago that it's much easier to close a deal and earn their trust when the lead is brought to me or I'm introduced to the seller. Here are some of the ways that I've done in the past and still generate as many "warm" leads as I want or can handle.

· Realtors

· Property Management Companies

· Previous sellers

There are many more but I want to keep these articles short and sweet and easily absorbed, I will be providing more articles discussing more effective ways later on.

Realtors: These creatures are an amazing tale in themselves, it seems like there are so many bad apples among them that it gives a bad name to the whole crowd. Reality is, that there is an enormous amount of amazingly smart and productive Realtors who "get it" These Realtors are a pleasure to work with. When you network with Realtors, offer to work their short sales for them, tell them you'll put in an offer to the lender and work the tedious things yourself allowing them to do more productive things.

Assure them that they will get their commission and encourage them to market the property and bring a buyer to the table to receive more commission, considering you're doing all the paper pushing and they're getting more in commission it will be a win/win. The trick is finding a Realtor willing to do this. Most have been trained by their Brokers how to do short sales according to the way they Broker wants it done etc.. Nothing wrong with that, move on until you create a relationship with a Realtor and make sure you perform. You'll have as many deals come your way as you can handle!

Property Management Companies: This method I rarely see used by other investors who do short sales and that’s absolutely fine by me. The great thing about networking with PM companies is that their clientele are obviously other Investors so that is a plus to begin with. The other thing is that most PM companies don't have a solution for their clients when the clients are having trouble keeping the property and are facing foreclosure. When the PM company can offer you and your services to these investors it provides value to not only the PM company but also the client.

Think about this, when you get a warm lead that was introduced to you by the PM company typically the property has a renter, although usually they are paying lower than they should be, but the great thing is you can now short that property and quickly sell it as a turn-key investment and typically not have to involve any Realtors so your profit is a tad bit higher. It's much easier to sell something when it has advantages. If you were going to buy a car would you buy one with or without an A/C? Probably the one with A/C. Network with PM companies and you'll profit from it greatly!

Previous Sellers: This is the best and easiest way to generate leads. It is however something that will build up over time. Certainly you cannot expect for previous sellers to refer you business if you have no previous sellers. The key here is to get their testimonial and ask them to refer you friends and family that either now or may later need your services. You can offer to pay them a referral fee but I've found that most of the time they become so loyal to you that they feel it's an insult to take money from you which is great. I've been given warm leads from previous sellers months and months after the fact. One time a previous seller was in line at a grocery store and overheard someone else speaking about their current situation and the previous seller had convinced them that I can help them out since I did such a good job with their property. When that seller called me they required no closing techniques simply because they were already willing to move forward with me because they wanted the same result as the previous seller had achieved.

Work on these techniques and it will be sooner than later that you'll have warm leads being brought to you and your pipeline of deals will quickly fill up. Stay tuned to some other articles I'll provide you with more great content. If you want to learn the basics of a short sale there plenty of great articles here on BP that explain that.