For a moment, imagine yourself as a Retailer, with the capital you need to buy a house to fix up and sell again. You enjoy the work — maybe you’re a handyman, or maybe you just enjoy the profits from a good sale.
Most likely, you would rather let someone else do the footwork for you, would you agree?
Your job as a Finder or a Dealer is to find deals for the Retailers or Rehabbers. But first locate the Retailers and Rehabbers so you know where to turn when you have a hot prospect. They’re not trying to hide from you,t so you only need know o where to look:
- Read Newspaper Ads. Look in the daily and weekly newspapers for the “We Buy Houses” ads.
- You may even find billboards or signs around town that say “We Buy Houses.”
- Participate in your local Real Estate Investor organizations (REIA Clubs). Not only are these clubs good for your educational growth, but also you meet and mingle with a host of people who are happy to give you money for properties, or even participate with you in the acquisition of other properties. Most major metropolitan areas have at least one club that meets monthly. You need to join and attend every meeting. The networking opportunities are endless. When you go to the meetings tell everyone what you are planning to do. Once again, collect names and information about people who are interested in buying houses.
- Attend real estate auctions, not as a participant, but to meet the investors that gather.Foreclosure auctions and tax sales take place on a county basis, but don’t forget estate sales. Some investors hate to go out knocking on doors and dealing with emotional, distressed owners; they much prefer to buy at the foreclosure auction. At most auctions, the property must be paid for with cash or a cashier’s check within hours of the sale.
What a wonderful opportunity for you to meet cash buyers for the houses you find. Introduce yourself to the investors and hand out business cards. Tell them you find houses just like the ones sold at the auction and ask if they would be interested in being contacted when you find something. Just as you did with the “We Buy Houses” ads, you need to find out where and what price range they buy in.
Ask for their business card and make notes on the back or take along a notebook. Make sure and do this either before or after the auction because the investors will be focused on bidding during the auction and won’t appreciate distractions,
Numerous groups of people will want to buy houses from you: real estate newbies, rehabbers, contractors, retailers, investors interested in doing lease options, etc. Make a connection with someone in any one of these groups, and they could become regulars.
- Get hold of a list of “section 8″ investors at your local property management company.
- Property management companies can also put you in touch with other investors who might be interested.
- Put a classified ad on Craigslist (www.craigslist.org): “Investors wanted. Local property owner selling houses at huge discount“. (phone number)” Or some such wording.
- Call the “for sale” classified ads in your local newspaper. Especially the ones that say “newly renovated.” That indicates a rehabber or contractor who might be interested in future deals.
— In the classifieds, look for the words “rehab special” to find investors
— Other words to look for in the classifieds: “Thousands below market,” or “I buy houses.” In short, any indicators that you might be dealing with an investor who can potentially be responsible for stuffing your pockets with cash.
- You are walking or driving down the street and see a house being remodeled. Stop to chat with the contractor or rehabber. Or get the contact information of the owner, if the workers are only hired help.
- Contact “hard money” lenders for investor names.
- Of course, you can always place your own classified ad. Something like “House for sale. Thousands below retail,” or “investor special” to get your phone ringing. VERY IMPORTANT: Be sure to get the contact info, including the email address, of everyone who calls. You want the email address so you can do an e-blast without having to write individual notices to prospects.
Suppose you don’t have a house for sale? No problem.
Always be running “blind ads” in order to strengthen your buyer’s list.
Something to say when a caller responds: “That house has been spoken for, but I will call you when the next one comes up for sale. What is your contact information?”
What’s The Goal?
The Goal is to find an investor/buyer to take your contract and pay you your assignment fee. You will get a token down payment on the fee when you both sign the assignment agreement, and the balance at settlement.
When you get a house under contract, the race is on to get a buyer. Let me just say a couple things about experiences with finding investors/ buyers. There a lot of “investor wanna-be’s” out there. You’ll meet a lot of them at your association meetings and at real estate seminars. Some of them are serious and some just think they’re serious. You’ll need to find this out for yourself and weed out the time-wasters.
If your deal is riding on someone that doesn’t follow through, you will not be able to flip the property and get your assignment fee. Always have a back-up buyer lined up on any given property.
How do you get a back-up buyer? Well, call more than one investor or follow-up with multiple investors who call you. The first one that makes an offer gets the deal, but the second and then the third get a back-up deal. You simply tell number two and three that you have a buyer but, if the deal does not go through, you’ll sell to them, and work out the details from there. It’s that easy.
I highly suggest that you get a website to use to present your properties. You can then easily direct prospective buyers to your URL, be it over the phone or from your forum marketing. This will save you a lot of time on phone calls.
Numerous groups of people will want to buy houses from you: real estate newbies, rehabbers, contractors, retailers, investors interested in doing lease options, etc. Make a connection with someone in any one of these groups, and they could become regulars.
Put an asterisk beside the names of potential buyers who 1) can close fast , 2) who are cash buyers, and 3) who are experienced. You don’t want to waste a lot of your time, especially at first, hand holding a newbie who can exhaust you, and possibly make you think that wholesaling is not profitable. It is.
Interestingly, you don’t need dozens of buyers to be successful. You are more interested in the QUALITY of your buyers, especially ones who are experienced cash buyers and can close fast.
Once you get going in this business, you will find many buyers for your properties. There are a lot of individuals who want to get into rehabbing properties but they do not have the time or the ability to prospect for properties.
Earn thousands by being a
Real Estate Bird Dog
This is where You Come In!
Once it is known that you have great deals, you will be sought out and will have offers on every viable deal you can put together.
Keeping things organized:
Keep an investor profile sheet on every investor that you meet and then enter into your spreadsheet or data base when you get back to your office .
Be honest and tell them that you are just starting out and will be looking for houses that need to be rehabbed. Make sure you find out what locations they prefer and the price range they look to. Some are particular about these things, and others will accept any good deal from any location. It’s important to know who you’re dealing with.
Find out if they are a cash buyer or if they will need some extra time to arrange for financing…this is key.
Keep Telephone Logs. Once word gets around that you flip contracts, you may get regular phone calls from investors asking if you have anything.
Keep a log of who calls; these will be the first investors you need to contact when you have a deal.
Go get ‘em!
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