​How to Market as a Wholesaler on a Shoe String Budget

I want to start out by saying that I am personally not a wholesaler, but I do understand the business. I also spend a lot of time marketing for different real estate purposes. Since joining BP and attending real estate investor meetups I have met lots of people that want to wholesale but most have the same problem; limited money to market for deals. Most that I have met decide that they don’t have enough money to buy large mailing lists and send huge mailings so instead they don’t do any marketing. I wanted to give a few opportunities that I see to market with little money. Also keep in mind that these are some basic ideas and are meant to help give a few ideas and cause you to get creative and come up with other ideas!

1. Order business cards! If you don’t have business cards that you can hand out to prospective sellers and investor buyers, then please order some now! Seriously, stop reading this and go to Vistaprint and order cards now. Even if the cards only say your name and phone number and some basic information. I would suggest giving yourself a title like: Purchase Specialist or Acquisitions Manager. This helps you seem more legit to sellers, and easier to network to build the buyers list.

2. Send 10 letters a week to prospective sellers. The large wholesalers buy seller lists and send out thousands of letters a month and have a call center to process the calls. This is great but not necessary when you are starting off. Spend some time and figure out who, and where to find your target properties. In most cases it is older properties with out of town owners. A little driving around and internet research and you can get these addresses on your own for free, and for the cost of ten stamps a month you can start targeting these sellers. This isn’t as sexy as sending out a massive mail campaign, but it can still be effective, and everyone can afford to do this.

3. Create flyers showcasing what you are looking for. Once you have some marketing materials you can drop these off to Real Estate Offices, Title Companies, Lenders offices, Probate office, bankruptcy and estate attorneys, bail bondsmen, etc.…. Basically, anywhere that people will encounter your target seller and may be looking for someone to recommend. This will take time and effort but very little money and can be great at building your network.

4. Door to Door! Yes, I said it, go door to door! I will follow this up by saying to follow the laws, and make sure to go to safe areas but if you know your target area this can be helpful. I also suggest making yourself a name tag with your picture on it and wearing it. Also carry a clip board and dress professionally. When people look out the window and see someone dressed professionally, wearing a name tag and carrying a clip board they are much more likely to open the door and hear you out, and don’t forget to give them a card!

5. Social Media! Create a Facebook fan page, linked In Profile, twitter, etc… Post some information of value once a week along with a quick pitch saying something like “if you know anyone that needs a fast and seamless real estate sale, please have them call me”. For a few dollars a week you can run Facebook boosted ads that you can target to zip codes, etc…

6. Send in a press release to your local newspaper. Something like this: PRESS RELEASE: Local Person working with local sellers to help sell quickly with limited closing costs. Then follow up with a little bio and some target information and how to contact you. This may seem silly but getting an ad in the local newspaper can be some of the best advertising you can get and its free! The newspaper is looking for content so if you read it for them they will print it when they have the space and need filler.

I am going to stop there because if I go any further no one will ever finish reading this. Remember Marketing is about hitting your target from different angles and consistently over time, so don’t just do one thing, do several of them consistently.

If you have any ideas, please share in the comments below. Thanks Aaron