{"id":123459,"date":"2020-04-03T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/?p=123459"},"modified":"2021-03-16T14:59:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T20:59:18","slug":"find-motivated-sellers-land-great-deals-wholesale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/find-motivated-sellers-land-great-deals-wholesale","title":{"rendered":"How to Find Motivated Sellers &#038; Land Great Deals in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today, we&#8217;re going to talk about how to find motivated sellers in 2020. We&#8217;re going to break that down so that this year, you can find motivated sellers and increase revenues in your wholesale business.<\/p>\n<p>Many of us are looking for those <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/ultimate-beginners-guide-real-estate-wholesaling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wholesale deals<\/a> out there, but the million-dollar question is: How do I find motivated sellers?<\/p>\n<p>One thing I like about this particular skill is that, once you pick it up, you can use it in any market\u2014whether the market is hot, whether it&#8217;s a slow market, or whether the market is cool. If you know how to find motivated sellers, you&#8217;ll always be able to make money.<\/p>\n<p>So, how do we go about that?<\/p>\n<h2>How to Find Motivated Sellers &amp; Land Great Deals<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hu5Z7G7aT-M\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Ringless Voicemail<\/h3>\n<p>We&#8217;re going to talk about a term you might have heard: RVM. What is RVM?<\/p>\n<p>RVM stands for &#8220;ringless voicemail.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With RVM, if I call your phone, it goes directly to your voicemail. Your phone will not ring, and I will leave a message.<\/p>\n<p>I might say, &#8220;I was driving around the neighborhood. I buy about three to five houses a month, and we are interested in yours. If you can, please call me back. I would really appreciate that if you&#8217;re open to selling. Thank you. Have a great rest of the day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s it, a short and simple message. If interested, that person would then call back.<\/p>\n<p>They might say, &#8220;Hey, I&#8217;m not interested.&#8221; Or they might say, &#8220;Hey, I am open to selling my house.&#8221; Or, of course, they just might not call you back.<\/p>\n<p>Any response is a good response. Even a &#8220;no&#8221; can get you closer to a &#8220;yes.&#8221; Always remember that.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Related:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/ultimate-beginners-guide-real-estate-wholesaling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Ultimate Beginner\u2019s Guide to Real Estate Wholesaling<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Texting<\/h3>\n<p>Another way is texting.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s say you buy a list from a list provider. There are many list providers out there:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/flipthisrealestatelist.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FlipThisRealEstateList.com<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.listsource.com\/homepage\/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ListSource<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Ask for recommendations on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/forums\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BiggerPockets Forums<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Get a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/perks\/pro?category=Lead+Gen+%26+Marketing&amp;sort=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">discount on seller lead software<\/a> with your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/membership-types\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BiggerPockets Premium<\/a> membership<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can then skip trace that data by going to a site like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reiskip.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">REISkip.com<\/a>. By uploading that data into that particular site, it will spit back out phone numbers.<\/p>\n<p>After that, go into a platform for texting. If you just Google &#8220;texting for real estate professionals,&#8221; there are plenty of sites that will pop up. You just pick the best one that works for you.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s say you had the data with the phone numbers. You would then upload that data into one of these texting services. Once you do that, you&#8217;ll start texting and say something like, &#8220;I&#8217;m calling about 123 Main Street. I just want to see if you are open to selling that particular property.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Most people won&#8217;t respond. Some will say no. But eventually, you&#8217;re going to get to a yes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-92237 size-main-slider\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/manwithphone-702x336.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"702\" height=\"336\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/manwithphone-702x336.jpg 702w, https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/manwithphone-1078x516.jpg 1078w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Cold Calling<\/h3>\n<p>Then we have cold calling, but I&#8217;m not going to get into too many details about this method. Every state&#8217;s guidelines are different. Look into the rules specific to your area.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever you do, make sure you <em>do not call anyone on the do-not-call list<\/em>. Don&#8217;t touch them.<\/p>\n<h3>Drive for Dollars<\/h3>\n<p>Now, some of you may be thinking, &#8220;Hey, those three things that you just mentioned\u2014RVM, texting, and cold calling\u2014they cost money, and I don&#8217;t have any money. What can I do? I&#8217;m broke. You know, I&#8217;m living paycheck to paycheck.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I was there, and here&#8217;s what you&#8217;re going to do\u2014you&#8217;re going to get out and you&#8217;re going to put in some work. When I say &#8220;put in some work,&#8221; that means you&#8217;re going to <a href=\"\/renewsblog\/2013\/05\/03\/driving-for-dollars-bible-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">drive for dollars<\/a>. This is how my real estate business started out. I know guys who do five figures each month just driving for dollars.<\/p>\n<p>OK, now I&#8217;m going to tell you my way I started out, and I also want to tell you much better ways you can use now.<\/p>\n<p>I started out every Saturday morning because I worked a job Monday to Friday. I got a mentor and I would get up every Saturday and drive for dollars. What you&#8217;re looking for are houses with tall grass\u2014beat-up houses, houses that need roofs, houses that are boarded up, houses that look vacant, mailboxes with a whole bunch of mail in them.<\/p>\n<p>And I would find about 100 houses like that and write down those addresses. I&#8217;d repeat the process the next day. I would then go onto the city assessment site to see who owned those houses.<\/p>\n<p>If you remember anything about 2011, around one in every five houses was bank-owned. So, I couldn&#8217;t contact anyone at those homes, and I couldn&#8217;t mail them. I just took them off my list.<\/p>\n<p>At that point, the list had been whittled down to owners. It then took me about eight months to find my first deal.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t make a bunch of money off that first deal, but it was so refreshing because it was proof of concept. And it propelled my real estate business.<\/p>\n<p>Fast forward to today, and I have a seven-figure real estate business. My first deal I made $2,000, but I had to take baby steps to get there.<\/p>\n<p>Well, you&#8217;re in luck, because today, there&#8217;s a better way to land deals.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-114573 size-main-slider\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/distressed-home-exterior-702x336.jpg\" alt=\"Exterior facade on abandoned foreclosed home\" width=\"702\" height=\"336\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Related:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/which-real-estate-investing-niche-right-for-you\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Which Real Estate Investing Niche Is Right for You?<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Apps<\/h3>\n<p>Nowadays, there are plenty of driving for dollars apps. Personally, I use <a href=\"https:\/\/dealmachine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DealMachine<\/a>, but there are many other apps out there. Search through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BiggerPockets Blog<\/a>\u00a0or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/forums\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">post a question on the Forums<\/a> to get seasoned investors&#8217; opinions on all the apps.<\/p>\n<p>Now, all I have to do is just take my phone out. I can take a picture of the property, and I can mail them a postcard directly from there\u2014no more cross-referencing everything. I can actually pull up in front of the house and see who owns the property. I can even skip trace them from the app and get a phone number.<\/p>\n<p>So things are much simpler now, and if you can afford a drive for dollars app, I strongly recommend you get it.<\/p>\n<p>If you can&#8217;t, that&#8217;s fine. Just keep going\u2014do it with pen and paper, old-school-style like I did. I would buy 100 pre-stamped postcards from the United States Postal Service and go from there.<\/p>\n<p>I hope you&#8217;re ready to get going now, whether you choose to utilize RVM, texting, cold calling, driving for dollars, and\/or apps to locate motivated sellers. Good luck out there.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-91217\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/blog_ads-01.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"85\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/blog_ads-01.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/blog_ads-01-300x36.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>What&#8217;s your favorite way to find motivated sellers and deals?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Let us know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let&#8217;s talk about how to find motivated sellers in 2020. Finding motivated sellers is the best way to land deals and increase revenue in your real estate wholesaling business. Here&#8217;s where to look. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7518,"featured_media":121144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5526],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-wholesaling"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}