A great fear that people who are venturing
into the Wholesaling business have is whether or not they are going to be
able to sell the homes that they put under contract. “Find the Deals and
the Money will Come” is a popular phrase amongst investors. But when you
have never done a wholesale deal, it is a very difficult phrase to grasp
and to put faith into. Consequently some Wholesalers refuse to get started
until they have the buyers and the money lined up. Then they want to know
how to put together a wholesale buyers list without anything to sell.
The first thing a Wholesaler should
consider when building a Buyers List is how he or she is going to get a
wide array of buyers. By this I mean, you want to have low-end property
landlords, high-end property landlords, multi unit buyers,
contractor/rehabbers, newbies, seasoned cash buyers etc… You should have
someone lined up for every scenario of property. It does not do you any
good to have a list of seasoned cash buyers who all like high end rehabs
if you are not able to locate properties that suit their criteria. What
are you going to do with all of the other opportunities that you find?
How do you put your list together? Start
out by running ads in the local classifieds. I started out by running ads
such as the following:
Fixer Uppers- Deep Discounts- Financing
Available XXX-555-1214.
An ad like this will get the phone ringing.
Then talk to the investors who called about their experiences, where they
like to invest, how they pay for their homes, what their exit plans are,
and so on. I always want to know the investor I am dealing with. I did not
want to talk about property because I had nothing to offer. When our
discussion finished, I told them that I did not have anything available
for them at the moment, but I would call them when I found something that
suited their needs.
As I built up my buyers list, I had a
potential buyer for every property that I put under contract. I never
bought in the war zones when I first started Wholesaling; I did not know
to whom I would sell them. However, once I found a few buyers who were
experienced in the war zones and who were interested in buying more if I
found the right deal, I started making offers on war zone properties as I
learned about them. NOTE: I did so, only because I had buyers lined up to
take them from me.
“Bread and butter” properties are never
a problem to move if you get a good deal. A majority of your buyers will
be interested in most of the properties that you find in these
neighborhoods. They are typically very easy to sell.
YOU DON’T NEED ALL CASH BUYERS!
By locating hard-money lenders in your
area, you can turn newbies and contractors into your best buyers. Bring
the deals that need a lot of work to a contractor, get them the loan to do
the deal, and they will keep coming back. Show newbies how to get their
first deal done, line them up with the property and the money, and most
likely you will have earned a customer for life.
I talk about Contractors and Newbies as
your best buyers simply because this is where I have had my most success.
A hard-money lender, a good deal, and a newbie that needs your guidance is
a payday just waiting for you to put it together.
Another very successful method that I have
used to find buyers is to call “for sale” ads; particularly ads that
say “newly renovated”. In most cases this will be an investor who has
just purchased a home and fixed it up. I call the ad and ask the seller if
he or she is an investor. If so, I begin the same rapport as if he or she
called on one of my ads. The fact that he or she has a home that is newly
renovated, lets you know that you have a real buyer to ad to your list for
the area that he or she is selling in.
I frequently teach my students that they
can learn more from the “for sale” ads then they can anywhere else. If
you study the ads and get to know the players in your area, then you can
see the trends and the areas they invest in. If you investigate further
you can find out what they pay for homes and what they sell them for.
There are buyers everywhere, in every
market. You just need to dig them up, and with a little effort you can
have The Ultimate Wholesale Buyers List.
Steve Cook is a real estate investor from Baltimore, Maryland. He is the owner of flippinghomes.com. For more information on Steve or his materials, click here