7 Steps to Building Your Buyer's List

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I’ve been on several REI post forums recently and have seen that a lot of investors are having a difficult time finding buyers for their short sales or even just vacant property. I’ve taken the liberty of compiling a list of 7 potential areas to find buyers. Hopefully you’ll be able to glean a few tidbits of insight from them. I cannot take credit for them all, but have to admit several appear in my courses and e-books as well.



We’re going to assume that you know the drill and have already put a sign in the yard, ad in the newspaper, and have flyered the neighborhood advertising your house for sale. Those are the basics and should be done each and every time. The following are additional ways to build your buyer’s list and cut down dramatically on your holding costs.
• Laundromats - Most homeowners have their own washer/dryer. Most renters go to a laundromat for their laundry needs.



• Clergy - This was a great idea! “Discretion is the better part of valor”, they say. Go to your local churches and let the pastors, priests, etc know what you do and how you can help. Many times, they have parishners or members of the congregation that can use your assistance.



• Websites specializing in selling real estate - I’m not giving these away, but there are several within my course detailing how to find buyers on the Internet without having to talk to them first!



• Any mortgage broker or Realtor you can find - My broker hears from me weekly when I have homes for sale. Chances are she’s got clients who are trying to get qualified and are looking for a house to buy in their price range. Realtors deal with sellers on a daily basis and should be notified of your properties regularly.



• Visit your local REIA club - You never know who you’re going to meet there. Network like crazy at the monthly meetings and make sure that you collect as many business cards as possible. Make sure you leave a lasting impression and let them know that if they want to do business, that YOU’RE the person to do it with. By collecting business cards, you can contact the investor later (if you didn’t get to talk to them at the meeting) and fax or email them your list of available properties.



• Offer referrals - Make sure that everyone you come in contact with knows that you give a $250 to $500 referral fee for every lead that they give you that result in the purchase or sale of a house.



• Use your business cards - Everywhere you go should see a business card of yours left behind. Whether dining out or getting gas, you should leave at least one of your business cards behind dedicated specifically to selling your properties.



Holding costs can make or break you. Failed short sales can result in a loss of credibility that you never get back. The bottom line is that you never know where your next seller is going to come from, so make sure that anyone talks to you knows about your properties. They won’t sell themselves, contrary to popular believe, so get out there and start networking!

Comments(6)

  • ray_higdon18th August, 2006

    I started building my database two years ago and now have over 7,000 in my database. One way that I built it so fast is by using the cheap shopper or penny saver newspaper ads. When I would get a hot property, I would put an 8 or 12 week ad in, even though I knew it would sell in a couple days then capture the email addresses of everyone that called. I move 1-5 houses a week and it is all about having that big buyers list! Good article



    Ray Higdon

    • joel20th August, 2006 Reply

      Why send an email to 7,000 people when only a few have the resources to actually purchase your property. Surley, people who have purchased from you in the past will purchase from you in the future.



      This exact dilemma will be solved with PropBot/TCI's next feature.



      Paid PropBot/TCI subscribers will be able to add in their contact lists. Yes, we could possibly support up to 7,000 people for subscribers, but we will probably limit the amount of people you can put on your buyers list depending on the subscription you have.



      Once you add in your property listing into the PropBot/TCI database, you can have the option of announcing it to your buyers list.



      Best of all, it will prioritize your buyers, so frequent buyers will have first dibs on your property. Others will still be contacted, but only after the others have had X hours of notification.



      If you can think of a feature that you would like in this, reply back to this comment.


  • joel20th August, 2006

    Why send an email to 7,000 people when only a few have the resources to actually purchase your property. Surley, people who have purchased from you in the past will purchase from you in the future.



    This exact dilemma will be solved with PropBot/TCI's next feature.



    Paid PropBot/TCI subscribers will be able to add in their contact lists. Yes, we could possibly support up to 7,000 people for subscribers, but we will probably limit the amount of people you can put on your buyers list depending on the subscription you have.



    Once you add in your property listing into the PropBot/TCI database, you can have the option of announcing it to your buyers list.



    Best of all, it will prioritize your buyers, so frequent buyers will have first dibs on your property. Others will still be contacted, but only after the others have had X hours of notification.



    If you can think of a feature that you would like in this, reply back to this comment.

    • ray_higdon21st August, 2006 Reply

      I believe in doing both, constant aggressive marketing and post properties to sites. I would be interested in tracking how many members view the properties as a feature, you may already have that, don't know

      • joel21st August, 2006 Reply

        The current stats do not show the exact person who has viewed your property. We would have to prompt the person to enter something in. And even that is not reliable.

        We are however want to track the people who contact you to find out more information, simply so you can do a follow up call, OR notify them if you change your price.

        For the statistics question, if you are linking from another website (ie CraigsList) we already show how many people have followed your link to see if the advertising is paying off.

        Properties that are being added to our free listings here, are being exported for free to GoogleBase. That has also helped gain more exposure for your property.

        Start adding in your properties and you will see the benefits of our free listing services.

        If you are adding in as many properties as you say you are working with, you will be featured on PropBot.com's main page in addition to TCI's Active Members area for added exposure.

      • joel14th November, 2006 Reply

        This feature is now in BETA ray. Go to your My TCI > My Favorites area and you can start using this feature.

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