All Forum Posts by: Tim Herndon

@Account Closed I see from your posts that you really want to break into wholesaling. I know a lot of investors down there and can tell you that Miami is very competitive. Don't let that discourage you! There are deals everywhere and even more cash buyers...

I think you are on the right track in regard building your cash buyers list. There are obviously paid and non paid way to get cash buyers, and here are a few tips that may help you.

If you want to build you list fast then you can send postcards to the cash buyers and set up a simple squeeze page to capture their email address. First you have to find the cash buyers. Everything comes from public records! If your budget is low then you can get these records from a real estate agent or a title company. You will probably need to have a relationship with these two in order to ask for the list but it's free. The two paid ways to get the cash buyers in order of cost are ListSource and FindCashBuyersNow. (disclaimer: I have no affiliation with either of these. I am just a user of both).

Once you get the list of names you can mail them a postcard and direct them to your squeeze page. You will need an autoresponder to capture their name and email address. Later you can send them an email when you have a property for sale.

Let's assume you can't send postcards or pay for records - no worries! Here are some free ways to get cash buyers but it will just take longer. I recommend doing the postcards simutaneosly with everything listed below if you can afford it. As a matter of fact, you should be marketing to cash buyers everyday in conjunction with marketing to motivated sellers! I call this parallel marketing. 

Think of this like the ticket scalper who has a sign that says "NEED TICKETS" one one side and the other side of the sign that says "GOT TICKETS" ... LOL. A weird analogy I know, but it's true. If you are wholesaling you are the middleman. I even have cash buyers that become private lenders for my rehabs! 

1) Craigslist: Go to Craigslist and look under the “apartment/housing” category. This is the section that shows rentals. Anyone who has a home for rent, rent to own or “lease purchase is an investor. Contact them. If they have homes for rent, they may need other rental properties to add to their portfolio. Look for terms like “completely renovated” You can also place ads for properties you have for sale to build your buyers list.

2) Google Search: Google is my secret weapon. Really. If I can’t figure it out or just need more information, I always search Google and I often find buyers for my wholesale houses. You can just type in, “we buy houses” or “cash for houses” in your area or city and you’ll find plenty of A+ buyers. I’ve flipped many houses to buyers in under 24 hours using this simple search alone.

3) Other Wholesalers: Many wholesalers list the homes they’ve recently sold. Guess what, many of these homes are sold to investors. So simply copy and paste the address and then see who bought it. And you’ve got a new investor you can contact. And you know how much this investor paid for the property and where he’s buying. You can also get on their lists too and buy and sell the properties to your list!

4) Bandit Signs: Put up bandit signs in the neighborhood’s you want to sell homes in. And here’s the key, don’t make them all fancy. I use black magic marker and hand write all my signs or order signs that look handwritten. Make it look like you’re an individual, not a company. Buyers pay attention to these signs. Do this every time you have a property for sale. If you don’t have properties just do it with a “ghost” property: " Investor Special 3/2 Needs Work, Cheap- Cash! xxx-xxx-xxxx. Trust me this works! You phone will be ringing off the hook. I would use a tracking number for this campaign.

5) HUD Landlords (Section 8): Get a list of Section 8 properties for rent from HUD. This list will have the property addresses, bedrooms and more importantly the investors name and phone number. You can then call them or mail a postcard to these investors letting them know that you have discounted properties for sale in the area near where they already have a house. Ask them if they would mind if you contacted them when you had a great deal. Most will say "YES". Then add them to your list of lower end houses. You can also send them a voice blast using SlyDial. This will only cost .10 per message versus .50 for a postcard.

6 ) HUD Foreclosures: The HUDHomeStore.com is a great source of investors. All you have to do is go there and look at previous bid results. Record each sale in a spreadsheet, then cross reference the property address in public records to get the investor name and mailing address. We use the property appraiser website in our area. You can also record the agents name in the transaction as many times they specialize in HUD Foreclosures and have cash buyers they work with.

7) Local County Auction: You can go to the local county auction and meet cash buyers. Introduce yourself and pick up some business cards. These are all investors! Another little dirty strategy is to go to the houses that are up for auction before the sale and put signs in the yard and stickers on the front door that say “Want to get more properties like this one? We sell deeply discounted properties in “Miami” visit www.YourSite.com to get the hottest deals in town”. There are online sites like www.StickerGiant.com that can produce these stickers for less than .50 ea.

8 ) Landlords: Local “Penny Saver”, “Thrifty Nickel” papers is a great little strategy that nobody ever thinks about doing. Just go down to your local corner “mini-mart” near the areas you want to flip houses and pick up a copy of the current (even old) local papers. Landlords galore.

9) Hard Money Lenders: Hard money lenders are great. They make money when their clients buy rehabs. So, if you can help them make more money by bringing great deals that their clients buy…. you just got access to their entire client base.

I think you get the idea here! I hope this helps you and if you have any questions please fell free to ask. Good luck!

@Shanai Inns Definitely say you are a wholesaler! Focus on building your cash buyers list for two reasons. 1) Obviously to sell your properties fast and like @Johnna Lodge said "Sometimes we wholesalers help each other when we are at the final hour on a property and NEED to sell quick." 2) You can sell other wholesalers properties to your list an split the assignment fee. I wouldn't suggest marking the properties up. 

The main thing is to start networking and marketing! Good luck.

@Neil Schoepp 

Throw all of that stuff out the window. If you want to invest i.e. flip houses then you don't need balance sheets, budgets, or anty of that stuff. All you need to do is have peiple skills. You can negotiate a deal and assign it very easily. It's just a peice of paper!

@Trevor Ewen is correct:

"That being said, personal finance and real estate skills are different. For REI investing, I would say that your number one skill will end up being networking and meeting people."

I think people tend to look at real estate investing as this glamorous rock star business, when really it's just doing deals consistently, even if they are small assignments for 5-10K. If you need more than that then just ramp you marketing and networking up to meet you goals. You don't need a lot of money invest but you do need to have the drive!

@Account Closed 

you can post in the marketplace for cash buyers in your area if you are a pro member (paid).

there are many other ways to get cash buyers too but first i would suggest that you get a squeeze page and an autoresponder to start buolding your cash buyers list. 

I hope this helps. Good luck!

@Bogdan Cirlig 

That's something that can't be explained. Why would someone allow me to take over their payments and leave the mortgage in their name i.e. "subject to". Especially when they have equity- Who know's what they are thinking. I wouldn't do that and I know you probably wouldn't either, but they do! 

That's the beauty of marketing to motivated sellers. I'm not talking about REO's and MLS properties - I'm talking about probates, vacant houses, absentee owners etc. Why waste your time with people who want retail for their houses. They aren't motivated!

@Andee Gerton 

That's a great question! What you are referring to is called reverse wholesaling and I have been doing it for more than 7 years. I would do both simultaneously, however, I think you should get the buyers first.

Most gurus say to get the deal and a lot of people here are going to say the same thing, but there's nothing better than getting a deal and knowing it's already sold! 

Look for cash sales and mail those folks postcards to build you cash buyers list. Then sort that list by zip code and price paid per square foot. From there you will know what the investors are paying and you can offer a little less than that (if you are wholesaling).

I hope this gives you something to consider.

I agree with @Dev Horn . I use Kent Clothier's "FindCashBuyersNOW" software too and it saves a lot of time. It is a paid service but well worth the time that it will save you time and $$$ in the long run!

If you are looking for free ways to get the data @Account Closed is correct that you can get this list from your real estate agent. However, you will need a relationship with them before you ask for this. Additionally, you can get this same list from your title company too (if you have a good relationship i.e. you're closing deals).

Another option is ListSource. You can pull these records for about .08 ea. The main filter to determine whether they are cash buyer and did not record a mortgage is this ... You will search under the "property" tab and use the "equity%" filter. Instead of selecting a preset - type into the box below 100% to 100%. Then, under the "options" tab choose "absentee owned". This will give you the cash buyers! If it sounds confusing send me a PM and I'll send you a video that will walk you through the process. I hope this helps!

@Bogdan Cirlig 

That's a great question. I am a big beleiver in software. However, software can't find deals that a good Bird Dog can find because software doesn't drive around the city in search of properties. Software can only find what is public record! I want off market properties and I haven't found a software that finds these deals. I get about two (closed) deals a month from my bird dog network, so I would have to say that bird dogs will never be extinct. It really depends on how you use them.

@Michael Westberry 

You can use List Source to get this information but you have to know the filter to use to get it. You are looking for properties with no mortgage recorded so here's the secret to do this. When filtering under the "property" tab you must select Equity then manually type in 100% to 100%. This means they didn't finance anything i.e no mortgage recorded.

You can also get it from an title company like @Will Barnard said but you need to be doing some business with them first. The same goes for a Realtor - you can get this information from them too like @James Enright said but you will probably need a relationship first.

Once you get that list I would sort it by zip code and figure out what the average price per square foot is for each zip code. This way you can make the right offers based on the areas of town. You can probably get someone on Fiverr to set this up as in a chart (kinda like a cheat sheet). This way you can see where the investors are buying and focus your efforts there.

There is also paid software that can pull these records for you too. 

You can try Bandit Signs 

"Investor Special"

3 Bedroom 2 Bath

Needs Work / Cheap

xxx-xxx-xxxx

I have had luck getting buyers from the HUDHomeStore.com website too. It's a little more work but you can get the investor sales there. You'll have to wait about a month (depending on the area) until the recorded deed shows up in public records. Then get the mailing address and mail them a postcard OR research them through Google and give them a call. You can also skiptrace them if you can't get either of those things. These may not all be cash buyers but I have found that most are and can close in 7 days or less.

I hope this helps!

@Ross McKenzie 

It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If you want to educate people then you need a website. If your goal is to capture information then a squeeze page. You could even capture using a squeeze page then redirect to a brochure site after to educate. If you are using paid sources like Google PPC then you definitely want to use a squeeze page or you'll lose a lot of money.

The problem with taking your motivated sellers to a website is they look around, get confused and leave without converting and you'll probably never see them again. Don't ask me why but that is the way it works.

I recommend WordPress all the way. Nothing else even comes close!