How effective is your marketing? Until you start this important element of your business, your business will not really be started…
The key fundamental element in the first level of your real estate investing business is creating systematic and consistent lead generation. Have you focused on that yet? If not, you do NOT have a business, you have a hobby or a dream. Your commitment to this area of your investing career is critical to your success. There are many different ways to create leads.
Here are about 100:
Accountants and CPA Firms:
- They have clients with financial problems where an investor can be of help.
Advertising: Never stop. Use simple ads with a USP, Unique Selling Proposition: Quick Closing, All Cash etc., Buy Houses Ads, Newspapers, Flyers.
Attorneys: Attorneys know when people need money, often to pay their fees! Not just probate but divorce, family law and real estate attorneys.
Auctions: Do your homework in advance. Auctions move very fast and a single mistake can be costly. Visit your local auction a few times to just observe. Know values and repair costs before bidding.
- Foreclosure: Very risky, not for the newbie
- Sheriff Sale: Same as Foreclosure
- IRS Sales
Apparel with Logos: Hats, T-Shirts, Golf Shirts, Hand Bags
Appraisers
Bandit Signs: Check your local sign ordinances. Some places have no issue with them others do.
- We Buy Houses
- Stop Foreclosure
Bird Dogs:These people can be very valuable to your business. It is important to know your local laws about compensating unlicensed people.
“Blue Tarp” Houses: often blue tarps on roofs
Boarded up windows: or visible disrepair
Business Cards different types: one for seller, one for buyers, one for professionals (banker, attorney, CPA)
Builders Models: Frequently builders will sell a model home at a discount.
Building Inspectors
Car & Truck Loans: Some folks would rather keep the wheels than a roof over their head. Buy here, pay here dealers can be a good lead source.
Car Repos: If the car is going the house isn’t far behind.
Carpet Cleaners: Many of their customers are preparing a house for sale.
Charitable Groups: Frequently receive gifts of real estate, but they’d rather have the cash.
City & County Inspectors: Code violations and red tags. If you develop a reputation of buying distressed properties and improving them, you become an asset to the community.
Classified Ads:
- For Sale: Look for Key Words – transferred, motivated, divorce, owner financing
- Want to Buy
- For Rent by Owner: Look for burned-out landlords
Condemned Houses: Many counties will provide you a free list.
Consumer Loan Companies: When their loans go bad they are frequently willing to deal rather than foreclose.
Courts: Eviction Filings, Probate Court, Divorce Cases, Tax Liens, Code Violations
Credit Repair Agencies & Counselors: Many times the only way someone can get their spending under control is to sell a house they can no longer afford.
Direct Mail: Pre-Foreclosure Letters, Probate Letters, Out of Town Owners, Post Cards, Bankruptcies, Divorce, Delinquent Taxes, Military Owners
Door Hangers: You can also use pre-printed post-it notes to leave messages at target properties. Be sure to advertise on both sides, you can even sell the back side and recover your advertising cost!
Door Knocking: Distribute flyers and go door-to-door asking residents if they know of anyone planning to move because you’d like to buy a house in their neighborhood!
Drive or walk Neighborhoods: Get to know them well and take notice of changes.
Estate Sales – often the real estate will also be available and perhaps with owner financing
Eviction Court: great place to find landlords
Expired Listings: Connect with an investor friendly Realtor
Family Members: talk about what you do and ask for referrals
Farming Local Areas: Become the local neighborhood expert.
Flyers: Cut your cost in half, print two to a page and distribute: Shopping Centers, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Malls. Put on car windshields or pay someone to do it for you.
Friends: “Do you know anyone who wants to sell?” Most people know 2 people who will be buying or selling a home this year.
FSBO Signs: for sale by owner
Funeral Homes: Can be a good lead source before information on a decedent becomes public.
Garage Sales: Are they moving?
Hair Salons: Lots of talking going on during hair cuts!
Home Builders: Need to sell their buyers houses so they can close on the new place.
HUD Foreclosures:
Internet: Rent Clicks, EBay, Craig’s List, Wholesale Sites, Lead Services, USLeaseOption.com
Insurance Brokers: Policy changes from owner occupant to landlord or vacant house coverage.
Investor Packages: Investor who’s ready to retire and cash out their portfolio. May be able to negotiate seller financing as well as a discount.
Judgments: Check the public record or hire someone to do it for you.
Large Employers: Let them know you buy properties because if they need to transfer an employee, they don’t get stuck carrying the house. This can be good for renting executive properties for short-term transferees, too.
Lenders: Banks / REO’s: – Mortgage Brokers, Private Lenders, Hard Money Lenders
Liened Properties: Mechanics Liens, HOA Liens, Tax Liens
Lis Pendens: Notice of a law suits, usually a foreclosure.
Lists: You can buy lists for anything you want to market to; pre-foreclosure, free and clear, neighborhoods, etc.
Magnetic Car Signs and Wraps: Check with your auto policy carrier as to whether or not this will affect your coverage. A rider may be required.
Market Bulletin Boards: Grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants
Military Transfers: Military bases provide an excellent transient market for those needing to sell and buy off base housing
Mobile Homes: Get to know park managers. Banks don’t like mobile homes but they can become little cash cows. A special license is required if you’re going to get into the mobile home business.
Moving Companies
Neighborhood Newsletters
Networking: Other Investors, Call We Buy Houses ads & signs, Churches, Public Speaking, Investment Associations, Work, Clubs
Newspaper Carriers: Who see the vacant houses everyday?
Nursing & Retirement Homes: Frequently residents need to sell a house.
Pens: Buy cheap ones and leave them everywhere you go.
Pet Odors: If your home has housed a number of pets we may be the buyer for you.
Pizza Boxes: many sell advertising or sponsorship spots
Postman
Public Speaking: Rotary, Lyons and Kiwanis Clubs, Realtor meetings and other associations
Quit Claim Deeds: Are a sign that something has changed with the property.
Radio Ads or Show
Real Estate Agents
Referrals
Relocations: Great for Subject-to or buying on lease option
Rent Credit: Trade rent credit for a down payment
Rental Agents & Property Managers: Let them know you want to buy and also find a local manager. You buy, they manage…win/win!!
Retirees: A growing population with free and clear homes. Excellent prospects for seller financing.
Section 8 Landlords: Each county maintains a list
Short Sales
Social Media: A new way to get your message out: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
Structural Damage: Once you know what you’re doing, you can buy at a rock bottom pricing.
Tax Deed Sale Properties: These do not come with title insurance so do your home work.
Tax Lien Certificate Properties
Termite & Pest Control Companies: Write a check and the termites die. Write another check and replace the damaged wood. May find great deals.
Title Companies: Not all transactions close like they are supposed to. Let the title companies know you can help in a pinch, for the right price.
Trading Up: Trade your newly renovated property at retail for a property down the block that you can buy wholesale. Try a sign that says “Will Take Your House In Trade”
TV and Radio: Cable companies may have community service spots for free.
Vacant Properties – look for tall grass and neglected houses
Web Sites
Wholesaler Lists: A good wholesaler can find you multiple properties.
Withdrawn MLS Listings: Easy to get from a friendly real estate agent.
As you can see there is no shortage of ways to generate leads.
To start, pick out 10 ways for consistent lead generation for your real estate investing business and focus on those. In the beginning of our investing career, Jim & I walked neighborhoods with flyers and put magnetic signs on our cars. Why? Inexpensive and effective! Not glorious marketing techniques but we got leads and our very first seller called from our magnetic car signs!
The number one common element of failures in a real estate investing business is not treating it like a business. And, the most important step to establish in ANY new business is LEAD GENERATION! Without customers, there is no business.
Whether you are looking for foreclosures, REO’s, owner-finance, HUD, wholesale, free & clear, rentals, fixer uppers, spread investing, etc, it all revolves around having leads. Get busy and NEVER EVER stop marketing for leads!
Anything you’ve tried that’s not on my list?
Hi Karen,
Nice post. Here’s another for your list from my ebook, How to Find 100 Motivated Seller Leads.
Barber shops and hair salons are great places to find bird dogs. Barbers and hair stylists talk to people all day every day. Just let them know what you do and how you can help others and they can be a hero to their other customers. If they give you a lead that pans out and you give them a $500 tip for your next haircut or perm…you’ll be the hero and everyone in the shop will hear about it!
Augie
http://www.PactProsperity.com
Jun 30th, 2010 / 11:01 am
Excellent list, Karen. As with any business – it’s about what you put INTO it and not what you expect OUT of it that equals success. Thank you for the reminder that it is incumbent upon me to find my business and not wait for the phone to ring so I can take an order. Hahaha! As if that works for anyone!
Jun 30th, 2010 / 12:26 pm
Thank you so much for your comment! And, yes, many people start a business and wait for it to succeed. Wrong approach!
Jun 30th, 2010 / 8:51 pm
René Fabre with The Talon Group) wrote and added one to the list. Here is his quote:
Karen, nice list… I’ve been helping real estate agents with their prospecting for years and all your suggestions above do work. Also, most title companies usually have a customer service / property information specialist that can be your goldmine. It takes a creative thinker for sure, but that CS person sits on a lot data and many know how to manipulate it to find move up, move down, farms by QCD, etc.
Thanks for that information, Rene!
Jun 30th, 2010 / 9:39 pm
Erica Ramus of Realty Executives Real Estate in Pottsville, PA, added her helpful comment:
“It is good to be friendly with competitors, as I have gotten listings from expired listings when the ex-agent gives me a heads up (when they know they won’t get the extension).”
Such good advice! Even your competitors can be of help! You help them and they’ll help you.
Very good.
Jun 30th, 2010 / 11:45 pm
Rose Marinaccio of Engel & Voelkers wrote suggesting hotels! Wow! When I was in furniture sales, I put my business cards and flyers in hotels. GREAT source of leads.
Jul 1st, 2010 / 11:06 am
Jan Green (RE/MAX Excalibur, REALTOR,CDPE,SFR,ABR, EcoBroker,Scottsdale) comment:
Great list! I’ve got a good one for you. License plates. Would you believe that I met a client in a parking lot because I had my company name on the front of my car on a $14 plate?! Sold them a $630,000 property w/cash because of that plate! Kudos for coming up with the list!
Jul 1st, 2010 / 11:40 am
from Sybil Owens:
Great list, there are several that I will use. I also have 2 that after a quick glance at your I don’t see.
1) Name Tag – very basic and simple, but it always sparks a conversation about real estate, and I have gotten several clients form this.
2) Schools/Volunteering – I am quite active in my kids schools and PTOs, as well as with their Boy Scout troop and our neighborhood pool. Every e-mail I send to the school or other community groups has my Professional signature. I have also used school career days as an opportunity to have kids make refrigerator magnets to take home with them, and the principals allow me to provide magnetic calendars to the teachers. I average +/- 5 leads from schools and community activities each year without much effort.
Jul 1st, 2010 / 12:03 pm
Karen, let me offer another few ideas.
1) Partner with employers to be their referral of choice. As a mortgage lender we have put together a very slick marketing package of material and we also set up a password protected site for each company. As a lender we offer $500 off our fees, my real estate partner does the same thing. We get attorneys, appraisers, and other vendors to do the same thing. We have a kick-off and do monthly or quaterly lunchroom seminars on “How to Buy a Home”, “How to finance a Home”, “Credit Scoring”, and we even bring in finanical planners and other advisors. We want to be the one stop financial resource for them. If you look at the statistics the average person buys a new house every 7 years. If you sign up a company with just 400 employees, 57 off them on average will buy a new home. If you just capture 20% of them you have 1 new sale a month. This also works with neighborhood associations that don’t have their own website. Give them access to the one you set up and it can be used for association business but your photo is on the site everytime they look. Also Clubs, condo aasociations, etc.
If your lender partner does have a program such as this they can affiliate with a company that has a complete turn key program including the websites, first class marketing material. The cost is only about $850 per year for as many employers you can set up.
2) Someone who has been in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy for two years and made payments on time can qualify for an FHA loan. It’s easy to find who filed two years and if they don’t list a house as an asset they are ripe for buying which is kind of the final touch on their financial turn around.
3) Don’t forget seniors. With the reverse mortgage now available for purchases a lot of seniors are moving in to more appropriate housing.
4) Public speaking at the local public libraries and Chambers. They are always looking for weekend one hour seminars.
4) Lastly, veterans who have been active duty overseas. They still qualify for the $8000 and $6500 tax credits until next year. The list of active duty assignments should be fairly easy to obtain and would be a great group to market to.
Sorry to be so long winded.
Wayne
Jul 1st, 2010 / 1:01 pm
Wayne:
Wow! Thank you for this. Detailed and thoughtful.
We will be implementing some of your ideas here in our office.
Thank you so much.
Jul 1st, 2010 / 1:11 pm
Karen, Wow, you’ve left no stone unturned here…great stuff. Do you mind if I publish your info for Loan Officers in my next issue of http://www.LoanOfficerMagazine.com?
It’s something that LO’s and agent could partner and work these angles together.
Karen Deis
Karen@loanofficermagazine.com
Jul 1st, 2010 / 4:00 pm
Oh, I would love for you to print it and I hope it helps everyone.
Thank you so much for asking and thank you for reading my blog.
Jul 1st, 2010 / 6:01 pm
Don’t know who wrote this because they didn’t sign it, but it’s good so I’m adding it here, anyway!
Karen, Nice list. Thanks for taking the time to be concerned for others.
If I may offer another one, very similar I suppose to the carpet cleaning one in principal. Many years ago, I was the customer service/sales manager for one of the nation’s largest chemical lawn maintenance companies. I found over the years that some customers will live in a home with a lawn that’s in fairly bad condition and they don’t mind. But, if they decide to sell, they want the lawn looking as good as possible. It might be worthwhile to network with some of the more upscale lawn maintenance/nursery businesses in your area as well as any turf grass farms for these folks who are literally trying to improve their curb appeal.
Jul 1st, 2010 / 6:07 pm
Karen, one of the best ActiveRain Real Estate Network postings I have ever read: 100 Ways to Create RE Leads. You are the leader of the pack!
Matthew Coates
Phoenix homes for sale
http://mc.searcharizonarealestate.com/
Jul 11th, 2010 / 1:57 pm
Thank you, Matthew, for your comment.
I look forward to you following the articles and discussions here!
Jul 11th, 2010 / 2:09 pm
Excellent ideas here Karen! I’ve bookmarked your post for informational and inspirational reasons. Business potential is everywhere…if we have the eyes to see it.
Jul 13th, 2010 / 8:38 pm
You’re so right!
Thank you for your comment and, please, keep reading my blog!
Jul 13th, 2010 / 8:55 pm
I called all the bail-bondsman/bail-bonds women in my local phone book today. No one had property from their bonds to sell me but one bail bondsman has several personal properties he’s looking to sell. Hopefully I’ll be able to take a property or two off his hands!
Jul 15th, 2010 / 1:28 pm
Very creative, Allie!
It’s all about networking, everywhere! You never know who will have a lead. Congratulations and good luck!
Jul 15th, 2010 / 1:30 pm
Karen these are very useful tips, you can put everything on your side to generate leads! Lots of them are inexpensive or cost free tools. Great info…Thanks.
Jul 18th, 2010 / 1:05 pm
Thank you, Tariq, for your comment.
And, yes, many ways to market are free or inexpensive. Thing is, you just have to do it!
Jul 18th, 2010 / 1:13 pm
Can a married couple purchase a house using the wife’s credit ; but both husband and wifes income?
Aug 24th, 2010 / 12:15 pm
Absolutely!
Aug 24th, 2010 / 3:39 pm
While we’re in the ballpark of the 100 Ways to Create Real Estate Leads – Karen's Perspective issue, If budget is a concern, and larger units are more expensive, ensure that there is an outdoor are for your children to run around. Even if the apartment itself is small, if there is a large yard and grounds outdoors, it can be the perfect place for kids to get there exercise.
Jan 8th, 2011 / 9:36 pm
Great ideas list Karen! I love it and will put several more to use…
Jan 14th, 2011 / 10:24 pm
I am a real estate sign post rental and installation company in central west Florida. I have a client who placed a post in her personal yard and hung one of her own signs on it to create sales leads. She told me that she increased leads for the month by 9%.
I have read in a couple of places that a 4 x 4 wooden sign post painted white will increase leads by as much as 12% on any given property. I’d be interested in seeing an actual study of this theory if anyone knows where I can see one.
Art Wayland
Titan Sign Posts
http://www.titansignposts.com
Feb 14th, 2011 / 7:11 pm