Marketing for new wholesaler

Flipper/Rehabber · San Diego, CA · Member since 2018 · 46 posts · 47 votes

Hello my name is Alex and I just got my LLC to start wholesaling in San Diego, CA. I am going to start knocking on a few doors today using the lead sheet that I got from my local title company rep. However I am looking for some advice on how to best use my marketing budget to get new leads. Should I just send out hundreds of mailers? Focus on building a website ans driving traffic with a blog? Drive for dollars? Any other creative ways to let people know what we do? Any advice is greatly appreciated! I would love to hear what others have found successful in the past. I know it's not going to be easy and I'm okay with that. Nothing worth doing ever came easy! Thanks in advance - I look forward to connecting with more people here on BP.

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Michael Guzik

Real Estate Agent · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2017 · 523 posts · 362 votes

@Alex Bradley Welcome to BP brother and good on you for taking action! My advice would be since you are just starting out is to get involved and plugged in. Start going to every meet up in the area that you can and network with other investors, wholesalers, and cash buyers. Join the real estate groups on Facebook in and around your area and add everyone in the group to your friends list and message them. Just doing this alone will put you so much farther ahead than all the other people getting started. I'm assuming since you are just getting started that you don't have butt loads of money to spend on marketing. Assuming this I would say that Driving for Dollars is the best way to accomplish what you want. This not only will help you gain a better understanding of the neighborhoods and area, but it will also help you reach out to owners that aren't being marketed to because they aren't on some list. Knocking on doors sucks, and is super uncomfortable but I can promise you by doing this you will build confidence, learn how to deal with sellers, and find deals where you aren't competing with someone. My personal opinion is to go to these meet ups and do your best to find a mentor or person willing to help you. Continue to market, drive and knock on doors and bring them a deal and have them walk you through it. You will be providing them with value and proving you are serious, along with receiving guidance and wisdom and hopefully building a promising relationship. Good luck my friend and whatever you do don't give up!

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Aaron K.
Specialist · Riverside, CA · Member since 2015 · 6k+ posts · 3k+ votes
8y
It depends on which you value more your time or money. If you put a low value on your time then doing everything you can for free is the way to go. If you value your time then spending money on marketing will probably be better but plan to send thousands of mailers not hundreds because response rate is about 1%. And that is just people who will give you the time of day.
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Michael Guzik
Real Estate Agent · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2017 · 523 posts · 362 votes
8y
@Alex Bradley Welcome to BP brother and good on you for taking action! My advice would be since you are just starting out is to get involved and plugged in. Start going to every meet up in the area that you can and network with other investors, wholesalers, and cash buyers. Join the real estate groups on Facebook in and around your area and add everyone in the group to your friends list and message them. Just doing this alone will put you so much farther ahead than all the other people getting started. I'm assuming since you are just getting started that you don't have butt loads of money to spend on marketing. Assuming this I would say that Driving for Dollars is the best way to accomplish what you want. This not only will help you gain a better understanding of the neighborhoods and area, but it will also help you reach out to owners that aren't being marketed to because they aren't on some list. Knocking on doors sucks, and is super uncomfortable but I can promise you by doing this you will build confidence, learn how to deal with sellers, and find deals where you aren't competing with someone. My personal opinion is to go to these meet ups and do your best to find a mentor or person willing to help you. Continue to market, drive and knock on doors and bring them a deal and have them walk you through it. You will be providing them with value and proving you are serious, along with receiving guidance and wisdom and hopefully building a promising relationship. Good luck my friend and whatever you do don't give up!
4 Reply
Alex Bradley
OP
Flipper/Rehabber · San Diego, CA · Member since 2018 · 46 posts · 47 votes
8y
@Aaron Klatt thanks for the response! I have two jobs and a two year old daughter so my time is definitely limited! I have a few thousand dollars saved that I plan on using for marketing but I have heard that mailers can be a waste of time so I'm just looking around for some other creative ideas before I send any out. Like I said in the original post though, I sill plan on driving for dollars and door knocking! It will just be limited to two days a week or so.
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Alex Bradley
OP
Flipper/Rehabber · San Diego, CA · Member since 2018 · 46 posts · 47 votes
8y
@Michael Guzik wow thank you for taking the time to leave such a thoughtful response! I have been working two jobs for a while so I have $2-3k that I'm comfortable spending on marketing for the first 3-6 months (hense why I'm trying to get an idea of the best way to spend it). With that being said I'm definitely trying to get involved with investors in my area as much as possible! I met an amazing father and son here in SD that started wholesaling years ago and now do flips 100% of the time and they have already helped me a ton with getting my contracts set up as well as giving me there old door knocking scripts. They will most likely be my first buyers too! Also, I've done door knocking before (for a previous job) so I have a little experience with that and I think it will help a little with the initial nerves. Thanks again for the advice and I'm definitely going to start attending more local meet ups like you said.
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Aaron K.
Specialist · Riverside, CA · Member since 2015 · 6k+ posts · 3k+ votes
8y
@Alex Bradley I think you will have a very difficult time but I wish you the best of luck in your attempt.
0 Reply
Alex Bradley
OP
Flipper/Rehabber · San Diego, CA · Member since 2018 · 46 posts · 47 votes
8y
@Aaron Klatt good luck to you as well
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Riley Neilson
Specialist · Detroit · Member since 2018 · 14 posts · 12 votes
8y
@Alex Bradley hey man I'm a wholesaler too, and I'll be honest no one answered your question, the mailers CAN work but they most likely won't where you live, competition is ridiculous, getting in touch with people before anyone else is the key, I would check your county recorders website every morning for motivated seller, like pre forclosures and private and tax liens and then skip trace them with a really good skip tracer like lexisnexis or irb, crap like white pages or spoke can be useful once in a while but rarely has accurate info, to get that you need to spend, and that's what I would advise spending on, put those lists together daily with your wife and skip trace them and call them on a mojo dialer that day, and where you're done maybe do door knocking or d4d, but creativity is really important good luck brother, add me on Facebook Riley Neilson, I own luxe painting on there still I think, or flying n llc, I can't remember
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Riley Neilson
Specialist · Detroit · Member since 2018 · 14 posts · 12 votes
8y
@Alex Bradley SEO could be good but make sure the guy you hire has done is for your field before, they need to know which terms to optimize for, Facebook can also be good for microtageting your leads. But you're like me man, surrounded by thousands of wholesalers... All beating down the same down, meanwhile we climb in through the window.
0 Reply
Vince Lucas
Flipper/Rehabber · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2016 · 133 posts · 69 votes
8y
@Alex Bradley what are you good at? That is where you should start until you get a couple deals under your belt.
0 Reply
La'Keita Redfern
Charlotte, NC · Member since 2018 · 34 posts · 13 votes
8y
@Alex Bradley I am new at this as well, but I don't advise you to go knocking on doors. The way the world is now that's not a good idea because you already know to much about their situation without them disclosing it to you.
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Alex Bradley
OP
Flipper/Rehabber · San Diego, CA · Member since 2018 · 46 posts · 47 votes
8y
@Riley Neilson hats killr fees back in definitelygoing to look into this thankvyou so much. Btw just sent you a message on a Facebook. I look forward to talking withou more soon!
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Alex Bradley
OP
Flipper/Rehabber · San Diego, CA · Member since 2018 · 46 posts · 47 votes
8y
@La'Keita Redfern I did some door knocking yesterday and it wasn't that bad! Only one person who wasn't happy to see us but they weren't too mad.
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Alex Bradley
OP
Flipper/Rehabber · San Diego, CA · Member since 2018 · 46 posts · 47 votes
8y
@Vince Lucas definitely better at networking and talking with people face to face than anything else but I'm looking for some creative ways to bring in more leads to that I can spend as much time possible having those face to face conversations with Home owners
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Vince Lucas
Flipper/Rehabber · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2016 · 133 posts · 69 votes
8y
@Alex Bradley How many deals have you done? If you are good face to face, walk a targeted area and visit properties that are in need of repairs. If they are not there leave a note.
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Alex Bradley
OP
Flipper/Rehabber · San Diego, CA · Member since 2018 · 46 posts · 47 votes
8y
@Vince Lucas none yet just got my LLC a couple weeks ago and started door knocking this weekend.
0 Reply
Diego Martinez
Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2015 · 1 post · 0 votes
8y
@Alex Bradley Good to hear you are getting in the game. I'm looking to add another property to my portfolio of single family rental homes so if you can find me a good deal, you got a potential customer!
0 Reply
Heath Ryans
Investor · Kingsport, TN · Member since 2016 · 412 posts · 254 votes
8y
Hey @Alex Bradley
So were both in the newbie boat together, but I'll tell you what has worked for me. I just decided to do wholesaling recently. Its been about 1.5 months now and i have a current list of about 100 people im mailing to. I very much recommend driving for dollars as others have mentioned. You really learn the neighborhood and see all different kinds of housing. Right now, i have a typed letter than i just switch the addresses out on and i have a spot at the bottom to hand sign it. As of today, i have a response rate of 11.69% on my mailers. I looked at 8 houses in the first month of wholesaling. It works. You just have to put in the time.
2 Reply
Alex Bradley
OP
Flipper/Rehabber · San Diego, CA · Member since 2018 · 46 posts · 47 votes
8y
@Heath Ryans wow that’s a huge response rate!! What held you back from closing on the houses that you went to look at?
0 Reply
Alex Bradley
OP
Flipper/Rehabber · San Diego, CA · Member since 2018 · 46 posts · 47 votes
8y
Hey @Diego Martinez! I would love to work with you - I’ll be in touch soon.
0 Reply
Vince Lucas
Flipper/Rehabber · Cleveland, OH · Member since 2016 · 133 posts · 69 votes
8y
@Alex Bradley I would stick with one way of marketing for now and again whatever it is you are good at. When you start getting more deals and trying to scale the business you can worry about all the different way to market. Also, this is a marathon not a sprint, I could take months to get your first deal. Stay with it.
1 Reply
Heath Ryans
Investor · Kingsport, TN · Member since 2016 · 412 posts · 254 votes
8y
@Alex Bradley there has been several things
3 i made offers on , but they declined
2 were upside down to the point that short sale was the only option. i got those two back to back so i hadn't assembled a team to handle those yet. I think i've got it together now and I should be able to iron out all the details for that process Wednesday.
2 had some weird title situation going on where the actual owner of the house didn't actually know it someone was trying to sell it. I have one of the owners phone number so technically i could call and make an offer but that house is a disaster and i just havn't decided if i really want it yet. I'm going to need a foundation specialist to advise me on that one before i put out a real number.
1 wasn't interested
1 just ghosted me the day i was supposed to go look at the house
and i have 1 more that we haven't set a date to look yet.
So that's been the first 10 i've looked at. one of which i found on craigslist. But that's all been since the 27th of July so basically 1 month and 10 houses. sooner or later a deal with break through.
When you go to drive, plan on spending two hours. Don't just go out and make a pass through one neighborhood. If that's all the time you can afford, then sure, use every bit of it. But if you can, put in hours and miles.
Everyone has their own systems but if this is what works for me. you need 2 apps (iPhone). "Map My Drive" and "Google Maps"
Map My Drive traces your location and logs miles driven and hours spent. Its very helpful for seeing where you've already been as well as streets you may have missed (go down EVERY street).
So I will drive with these apps open. When i find a house, i will pull up Google Maps and drop a pin on the house. you may have to drop a couple but sooner or later it will put up that house's address. Screenshot that, then recenter the map so it follows you again.
Drive around doing this and occasionally switch back to the Map My Drive app to make sure your not missing anything.
Once your done driving, go home and write down all those addresses you have screenshot and filter through them.
Something else I like to do is utilize the map creation function of Google Maps. I place pins on every house i mail to and you can save that map. It gives you an overall picture of the concentration of your mailings. So if I have an area that is very dense with run down houses than im mailing to, Im going to make sure i cover every square inch of that area. Whereas if i have maybe just a few pins in a big area, it's not going to be much of a priority.
Map My Drive can also be uploaded and overlaid onto other maps. So if you take your Map My Drive map and overlay it on your Google Map, You can really get a good idea of whats happening in an area.
Just some food for thought. Try things out. Do whatever works best you. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer what i can.
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Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
8y
@Heath Ryans on the West coast we have Property Radar it does all of this for you.. and even tells you if its owner occ or not.. anyone doing any kind of serious real estate on the West coast is crazy if they don't have this subscription..
we found a off market deal in our neighborhood.. Lake Oswego which is about as tough as it come to find wholesale deals or off market deals.. no one got to this but us.. and it has a 200k margin in it.. Now to be fair we don't wholesale we buy value add and resell If I build on it its a 500k deal.. this is were the money is made in real estate.
Other wise putting all this effort in to wholesale on the west coast while maybe 1 in 50 will actually do anything.. but if you put that kind of time into getting your real estate license and just go for listings.. you will have money in the bank and make far more money than you ever will wholesaling IF and that's a big IF your determined and decent people person and sales skills. at least on the west coast were average price points are north of 500k
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Heath Ryans
Investor · Kingsport, TN · Member since 2016 · 412 posts · 254 votes
8y
@Jay Hinrichs I have heard of the wonders of Property Radar. It hasn't made it to my side yet so i haven't been able to see if for myself. I am one of the few wholesalers in the area. I don't know of anyone else but im sure they're out there. So i don't have an overwhelming amount of competition like other wholesalers in your area.
The price points of the West coast always blow me away. Our average home value is 140k. You have to have a great deal to make decent money.
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Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
8y
Originally posted by @Heath Ryans:

@Jay Hinrichs I have heard of the wonders of Property Radar. It hasn't made it to my side yet so i haven't been able to see if for myself. I am one of the few wholesalers in the area. I don't know of anyone else but im sure they're out there. So i don't have an overwhelming amount of competition like other wholesalers in your area.
The price points of the West coast always blow me away. Our average home value is 140k. You have to have a great deal to make decent money.
PR I believe is working on rolling out east... yes price points in this area.. for the amount of money and work you put into getting deals working against massive competition same money and time put into just getting listings.. in the long run probably a lot more fruitful.
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Alex Bradley
OP
Flipper/Rehabber · San Diego, CA · Member since 2018 · 46 posts · 47 votes
8y
@Heath Ryans it’s definitely all about staying consistent I’m sure you will close a deal very soon if you keep it up. We haven’t gotten any appointments yet but I feel like we’re getting closer and I’m feeling good about this month. I’ll definitely take your advice and make sure to utilize the maps apps when driving. I like the sound of the PR app so I’ll get that going for this week when we go driving and knocking. Thanks again for taking the time to share your experiences and what has worked for you. It has been super helpful!
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