How do I contact the home owner?

Question

Went driving for dollars have some great property. How do I contact the owners??

Will Barnard · Answer

As to the original question, there are many ways. Knock on the door, leave a flyer or business card, look up on public records where the tax bill is being mailed to and send them some marketing pieces, locate their phone number through some people search or public records and call them, ask the neighbors, and the list goes on.

Joshua Parr · Answer

Normally you can look up the tax/owner mailing address and info on county auditor site. After you get the info, there are plenty of different ways. The two most simple being direct mail and skip tracing to get their number to call. Hope that helps!

Barry Pekin · Answer

@Lawrence Green,

The best way is to call them.  You can do other things, but that's the best.

If you're using the DealMachine app, you can have it do a lookup for the owner's number.  I would probably start at https://www.truepeoplesearch.c... because it's free, but when that doesn't work, start looking for alternate ways to get the information.

Charles Whitaker · Answer

Choose any route that you can use to get the point across that you are a cash buyer looking to buy their home EXCEPT call. Do now ever call the homeowner, I can't say how many hours I wasted of my life calling what I thought were leads. True prospective leads will come to you, given good marketing, you should never chase leads (not through calling anyways).

"What a man would not sell today, he would gladly give away tomorrow" You need to focus on finding motivated sellers, those who desperately need your service. If you sit on the phone all day...well, you might as well just start selling cars for a living.

Will Barnard · Answer

I get what you are saying Colby and that all makes sense, but honestly, that white whale is so hard for an astute investor or wholesaler to find let alone some newbie starting out. If you need a homerun of a deal to be successful as a wholesaler using your format, then you are likely not going to be successful. Secondly, let’s honestly look at the real picture here, how freakin hard is it really to look up some public records or get them from a title rep to find cash buyers in your area you have purchased 5, 10, or 100 deals and calling them? It literally can be accomplished from start to finish in a day or two and bam, you have a proven buyer, now you can go look for a base hit, double, or your homerun. P

Point is, the wholesaler is in a much better position when he or she has the hurt in place first and there is no downside to having your buyer in place first whereas there is a downside if you don’t. I do agree those morons that call anybody and everybody just to add them to their buyers list is foolish and not the way to do it. Additionally, you can much better avoid the illegal transactions when you already have a buyer in place and don’t need to publicly advertise your deal. Even then, you still may he breaking the law in some states so one needs to be careful and follow the rules, best way to do that is to get licensed.

Colby Hager · Answer

@Will Barnard I see your point, I just view OP's question from a different lens.  I assume if someone is wanting to wholesale, it is legal or they wouldn't be doing it.  When I say deal, I don't mean a thin deal.  To me, a thin deal isn't really a deal.

OP should go out and find a homerun of a deal.  A deal so sweet and juicy, every investor within 100 miles will be crying because they didn't get that deal!

Thin deals are available on the MLS.   @Lawrence Green is out driving for dollars.  He wants that white whale!  Is it hard to find?  Sure.  Is it out there?  Absolutely!  And will he be able to sell the white whale with no pre-existing buyers list (assuming he's not too greed) You betcha!

Incidentally, when he does find that deal, all the investors who wanted it but didn't get it, will be the beginning of his buyers list.  Then, he has credibility.  He just sold a deal on 123 Any Street to Tom Investor and Tom Investor loves him.

I find them and he can too.  However, if he spends his time trying to prequalify buyers who view him through the perspective of getting those phone calls that I mentioned before, he will likely come away discouraged thinking that no one is out there looking to buy deals.

If a wholesaler came to me asking for proof of funds for a deal that doesn't currently exist, I doubt they would get much from me.  Does that make me an unqualified buyer? Of course not.

Mike Dorneman · Answer

@Lawrence Green Chicken or the egg, everyone will have an opinion on this. As for mine, get it under contract first, but be very clear and honest with the seller...

if you’ve done a good job finding a property and can get it listed at the right price for an investor, selling it will be the easiest part of the entire process.

Will Barnard · Answer

I could not disagree with this more. While everybody has their opinion, stating that getting the Del first over the buyer is poor advice. Especially in today’s market environment which is highly competitive, most deals are thin at best and if you don’t know in advance what your buyer wants and that you have a buyer waiting in the wings, you have way less negotiating power with the seller. Additionally, without a buyer in place upfront, you are likely (in most states) going to be advertising your deal to the public in hopes of finding your buyer. That is brokering without a license in most states now and more and more states are cracking down on these illegal transactions.

Get your license, get your team together, then start shopping for deals. And when I say team, that includes buyers. The post above referencing some moron calling him up to get him on his buyers list then never hearing from him again is not “building a true buyers list”. To do this right, you find all cash real buyers, you qualify them by getting their proof of funds and running a search on their company to see how many properties they have actually purchased through title or public records and then you get their exact criteria of what they are looking for. You are now equipped to shop for what you know they already want and you already know they have the funds to close.

Colby Hager · Answer

@Lawrence Green without a doubt get a deal first. Buyers will come if you have a good deal. The key is getting a good deal. I cannot stress this enough.

Forget about a buyers list...that’s seminar talk. I promise you, if you have a deal there WILL be buyers. What’s the point of having a great list if you have no properties. That’s a great way to make a bad first impression.

It happens to me every week. People call me with deals that will be coming in the future. I never hear from them. Why? They wasted all their time on generating a list instead of generating a contract. Don’t be that guy!

Trust me, you will be a flipper or buy and holds hero if you just call and introduce yourself with an actual deal to offer. Make it a really sweet deal and they will be begging you for more. Doesn’t that sound better?? Of course it does!

Lawrence Green · Answer

Is it better to get property under contract first, then find buyers OR to build my buyers list then look for property?

How do I contact the home owner?

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