Link up with a couple experienced wholesalers you can work with. Once your comfortable spend some $ on marketing. When you get a deal work with one of the experienced people.
Specialist · Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, MI · Member since 2013 · 392 posts · 116 votes
12y
Learn to think like your customers - in this case, other investors. What kind of return do they want on a flip? What are they looking for in a rental? Would this particular deal be appealing to the investors I work with?
Find free (or almost free) things. Read books and articles on how to flip and how to hold. BiggerPockets has these available, and there are many other resources. Also, go to all the networking meetings you can. You need to meet other investors in order to be a successful wholesaler.
Once you have a good grasp of what it takes to flip a house or rent it out, then spend your money on marketing. Choose methods that you can sustain for a while, that you think will work in your area (internet, bandit signs, direct mail, etc) and then adjust based on your results. Get as many quality leads of motivated sellers that you can. Go and see these houses, and make offers on them. Get ready to struggle for a bit, because it is not an easy game.
Set your marketing budget so you can successfully market for several months whether or not you have any successful deals. Then, keep at it, even though the odds are decent you will feel like quitting. Keep learning, and keep trying. Good luck!
Landlord and Rehabber · Newton, MA · Member since 2010 · 2k+ posts · 877 votes
12y
If you only have $5K and no recurring budget beyond that you should be looking at lots of the low hanging free/cheap fruit.
Online stuff is usually cheap or free so get on that stuff.
Bandit signs are cheap, but have drawbacks (such as being illegal generally) but lots of people do well with them.
Probably the best use of the money will be direct mail. However as Dev pointed out don't just send a ton of pieces at one shot then have no money left to follow up. Make sure you leave yourself enough money to be able to follow up and send 5+ pieces to each without having to close a deal to be able to send more.
