BiggerPockets

The Done 4 U Craigslist Marketing Plan

How would you like to see a complete craigslist marketing campaign? A completely free way to get deals. In fact, not too long ago I picked up a lease option in Fredericksburg, VA from the plan I'm about to show you. And right now you're about to see a deal in progress using this marketing plan.

So let's get right to it: What you want to do is get on Craigslist.com and go after absentee owners (AKA landlords). This is my favorite niche and the most profitable in my opinion. When you get on Craigslist you will go to the "for rent" section and you will email the listings which have a house that meets your buying criteria. For example, you will send an email to all of the 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, bread and butter houses in the area where you invest.

Here's the important part of this plan: In order for it to work, you must be disciplined. You must get on Craigslist every day and email 5 landlords per day, Monday-Friday. If you do this, you'll send out 100 emails a month and you could easily get a minimum of one deal per month off Craigslist. Now, if you're thinking this sounds like hard work, it isn't. It should take you about 10 minutes a day to do this, because all you're going to do is cut and paste the information I'm about to give you. The key to success with this is that you do this first thing in the morning, every day. As soon as you've gone to the bathroom and brushed your teeth you should go straight to your computer and do NOTHING else until you've emailed the 5 landlords. Once you get in this routine it becomes automatic… and there are few better ways to spend 10 minutes in the morning than getting a deal. (I said few). Now let me lay out the steps, in easy-to-follow fashion:

1) Go to craigslist.com.
2) Search in the "for rent" section for properties that meet your criteria.
3) Send the following email below. This is the exact template that I use and it works fantastic.

"Your property looks very good. I was wondering if you might be interested in a lease with option to buy, with the property. This is where I would rent the property from you and you would allow me to buy it down the line. In a lease option, I would lease the house from you for a period of 3-5 years and then purchase it during the term. During the term, I would GUARANTEE the rent and, maintenance and when I bought the property, you would save 6% on Realtor's fees and I would pay almost all of the closing costs (because I'm not a Realtor, I don't charge you any fees or commissions). Landlords love this program, because they get guaranteed rent, even if the property is vacant.

I know this might sound a little confusing, so please email me back and I will be happy to explain everything.

Have a great day and please let me know if you are interested in a hassle free rental of this property. If you are not interested now, please keep this in mind in the future. Also, please visit our website for more information on how we assist landlords. Thank you.

Sincerely,



P.S. Don't forget to ask for our free special report, "The 5 little-known ways to eliminate tenant hassles forever."

4) After you send the email you will either get a "no thank you" reply, or you will get a reply like below, which is the real reply we got.
Hello,
I can see you are interested in the ad I have pasted, I am currently in [another country] where I work as a volunteer with [a church organization]. Here is the site for more detail about why I am here in [this country]. I spent less time in the States so I could not get a hold on any Realtor to handle this rent issue, although it was when I knew how long we are going to stay [here] that I decided to rent out the house. However, the initial plan was to sale out the house. which I tried, but sometimes the agents inflates the price and it takes longer to sell I am telling you this in case if you find the house on another website, that is the old advert So I need a tenant to take care of it but since I am out of the states now, I have received some proposals regarding the rent because it is located in a very nice area of [town], but I still have to make sure it is rented out to someone who can take good care of it. It includes facilities such as water and heat laundry facilities, air
conditioning, Internet and telephone access and a car park and other necessary facilities, also comes with trash collection, pets are allowed as well as long as they are not destructive. So if you know you are capable of the task, get back to me so that I can provide you with some questions that I would want you to answer.

5) After you get an email from someone who shows interest, you'll email them back to collect more information about the property. Below is the next email in the series.

Dear Mr. [Seller],

Thank you for responding to my e-mail. As I mentioned, we specialize in lease options, which is the best way to lease and eventually sell your property. In order to create a customized proposal for you, we need a little more information about the property. Once we get this information, we will research the property and make you an offer. Please supply the following information:

1. Address of the property
2. Number of bedrooms
3. Number of baths (full and half)
4. If there is a basement (finished or unfinished)
5. Number of levels (including basement)
6. Garage or street parking
7. Repairs needed to make it ready for a new homeowner
8. Names on the deed to the property
9. Monthly rent you are asking
10. Purchase price you are asking

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to earn your business. Once we receive all of the information we will have a proposal for you within 24 hours. I have attached a special report to this e-mail, which explains our program in greater detail. Have a great day, and please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

6) In this step, you'll get an email back from the seller where he answers all of your questions. I'm not going to show you the email we got back for privacy purposes, since there is a lot of personal information in it.
7) You evaluate the deal and run the numbers. Will it cash flow? Can you make $30,000 or more on the back-end when it sells?
8) If you evaluate the deal and the numbers work then you simply email the seller an offer and then follow up with a phone call to go over the offer. If he's motivated he will most likely accept your offer.
9) Set up a visit to meet with the seller. Make sure the house is in good condition. Sign all of the paperwork and you've got your lease option deal.

Now, I wish I could come to your house every morning for 10 minutes and encourage you to send out the 5 emails every day. But I can't. So I hope you'll use the above plan and get a quick deal in the next 30 days or so.

Comments

• 

  Cole Haynes — over 1 year ago

  Jason, I get that response everyday from responding to ads or posting on craigslist. That is definitely a SCAM email. I am 100% sure! I am confused why that is your example...lol.

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  Rich Johnson — over 1 year ago

  Cole, How do you figure it's a SCAM?

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  Daniel Dumas — over 1 year ago

  I have seen something similar when looking for a car on craigs list those where scams. The letter looks very similar but it could be real just use your CIA skills to tap there phones and find out what they are up to

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  J. Lamar Ferren — over 1 year ago

  The letter is definitely a scam template. When you reply to them they typically send you an "application" that is just pasted into the email (Not Attached) and expect you to answer a bunch of personal questions, so they can steal your identity. Usually they just steal someone's ad and promote it as if they were the owner, when in fact they are not. I actually verified this when being able to get in contact with the actual owner who had already sold the home and had no idea that someone was steal advertising it. Google is a great place to check for skeptical email replies like these. I only had to paste one line of the letter into google and a bunch of scam results came up. Here is what I pasted: "I can see you are interested in the ad I have pasted, I am currently" Be sure to put the quotations in there and you will see the template plastered all over the net for different properties where the home owner is in the western part of Africa. This is where many scam attacks originate. Knowing some of Jason Hanson's marketing/investng background and the value that he provides, I'm sure this was just a mistake and he wouldn't want anyone to get hurt. The main point of the article is to be consistent with contacting actual absentee owners to get a deal quickly. This is a great way to go! - J. Lamar Ferren "New Breed" Investor

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  Brian Wall — over 1 year ago

  Can you share the website that you refer the seller to in your first email?