Effective, Free Lead Generation Program

One of the best ways for new investors or investors new to a territory to locate a property is is farming an area yourself.  Farming an area is the most effective way, yet can be both difficult and time consuming.   What farming an area yourself means is that you should establish a territory and constantly drive through this territory, and take notes on every real estate occurrence in that in that territory.   Everyone understands this concept in theory, however, most investors fail to act upon it consistently.

Specifically, you should know the following for every house on the market in the area:

• every house that is for sale
• what the asking price is
• how long it’s been on the market
• what the price per square foot is.

You farm area may start out small, as in the sub division in which you live.  Then it may start to grow to a .25 mile radius or so.  Then to a mile radius.  Eventually, it may spread to an entire zip code.  Also, once you get a property under contract, farm that entire subdivision as well!  Knock on doors, introduce yourself, give them a flyer about your property for sale and ask them if they happen to know anyone who is selling their property as well.

When farming an area, the key is to keep driving through different areas.  While this process may seem time consuming, it really is not.  Take a different way to work every day.  Go through different neighborhoods.  Keep a notebook with you in your car and write down the addresses & phone numbers of all the for sale signs you see.  Once a week, call and gather info.  See how easy it is to build your data base?!

This type of knowledge is how successful real estate investors become wealthy and why most others are not wealthy.

For example, suppose I was to tell you that there was a house available in Austin, TX, that was 2000 sf for $100,000.  Is this a good deal?

Who knows?  There isn’t enough information to know if it is a good deal or not.

But if you are familiar with the neighborhood and knew most houses were going for $100 a square foot, then you would know that the After Repair Value of the property is $200,000, and act on this deal right away.  Knowledge is POWER!  Think how valuable this information is!

Secondly, imagine if you come across a property that seems priced a little high but you find out that it has been on the market for over a year.  Do you think the seller may be ready to negotiate?  Maybe instead of a letter, you drop in for a face to face visit.  You gear your implication questions towards 'what will happen if you don't sell soon' or your needs-payoff questions towards 'how great will it feel to rid yourself of this financial burden in 7 days?'  The more you know about your area and the more you know about the properties in your area, the better negotiating position you will put yourself in.

When farming an area, keep an eye out for ‘FSBO’, or For Sale Buy Owner signs.  FSBOs can be a great source for finding properties at a discount because you have the opportunity to negotiate directly with the owner of the property.  And since no realtors are involved, you can avoid those fees.  However, some FSBO owners curious rather than serious, and will only sell above market value.  So the key is to find the motivated FSBO owner and negotiate directly with him or her.

Finally, also keep your eyes out for homes that appear to be abandoned.  Signs of an abandoned house are combinations of the following:  unkempt lawn, newspaper pileups in the yard, boarded windows, weeds in driveway cracks, lack of outdoors furniture, no lights, etc...  Write down these addresses and look for the owners through tax records.

Farming an area is a low cost high reward process that leads to success.  All that is required is an investment in a pen, notebook, and time.  For those who take great action come great rewards!  Happy investing.