Looking for leads

[Jenice Edmonds-McDaniel]

I am just wondering if there are any free lead lists out there?  I"m just starting out, and am looking for lists.  I'm doing bandit signs, and have a web site(basic) but I can't afford a subscription just yet.  any advice?

[Dev Horn]

Once you get a budget to do some direct mail, a service such as GoBig Printing can do letters or postcards for your and they'll give you a free basic list of addresses.  Of course, we like to mail only to people with at least 50% equity and to get those records you need to pay for them from a service such as Listsource.com.

[George Hammilton]

You can use intellect. There are millions of leads. You just have to find where they are. With such resources as this website, google, facebook and other sources all over, I think you can build your own list sir.

[Matt M.]

Start walking. Print up some good material & door knock neighborhoods. 

[Andrew Wydra]

Go to the city's assessor or tax website. Some municipalities post a ton of data online which you can sort and extract for mailings. I've also worked with cities that do not provide much info. In that case, I was able to work with the records department. They made me a report based on my criteria from their internal systems. Their fee was only $50. 

Best of luck!

[LaTara G.]

Hi @Jenice Edmonds-McDaniel  You could use your local tax assessor site to search your target neighborhood. This could be helpful in building a list. When I first started I searched Zillow for list of all the streets in my target zip code ( there is a page where it will give you a list or you could Google list of streets in " target zip code" ) and I then  took those street names and placed them  in an excel sheet. From that excel sheet I searched each street to see where all the absentee owners were and to see what properties were listed under companies who could be potential investors that may want to sell. It took a lot of work and was extremely time consuming,  but in the end I got a mailing list to start with no out of pocket expenses.

 Further more, some ideas to generate leads would be finding tired landlords, Send mailers to out of state land lords, Drive neighborhoods looking for vacant and abandoned homes, Talk to the mail carrier and other delivery people because they would know the empty houses in the area, Mailers to Landlords who own more than one property with back taxes, Mailers to Landlords who own tax delinquent multi-family properties, Place “We Buy houses” flyers/business cards at unemployment offices….a lot of people there could be having trouble with their homes and may need a solution, One-page Flyers posted on bulletin boards at large stores-get approval from manager though, Using Craigslist to find sellers, Send emails to craigslist ads with apartments for rent (the emails go to landlords who may be looking to sell, or buying more properties) Target people who have been transferred (job) and must sell NOW, Military transferees, Move-up buyers-People that need to sell and get a bigger house but feel stuck free & clear houses because they might sell with seller financing, Network with moving companies, Network with termite (WDO) and pest control companies, Network with real estate servicers – title companies, insurance agents, mortgage brokers and lenders – everybody knows someone in distress, Network with credit repair companies to assist their customers that must sell, Funeral homes and obituaries, Houses with boarded up doors and windows, Houses with blue tarps on the roof, Network at your local real estate investment or landlord association, Network with your sphere of influence - hand out your business cards to everyone you know- you may learn your neighbor has a friend that needs to sell a house etc.

These are just a few ideas in general though always keep your eyes & ears open and network, network, network.

[Jenice Edmonds-McDaniel]

Thanks for the great advice everyone!