Learn How To Wholesale Real Estate – Make Money Wholesaling Real Estate!
Without a consistent stream of quality, money making deals, you’ll be out of business in no time. Lead generation, as some people call it, is the first step to building your wholesaling business. Within the core business function of Acquisitions there are several sub-functions that drive your business and that make up your entire Acquisitions Division. They are:
- Lead Generation
- Lead Capture / Lead Follow Up
- Lead Conversion
- Deal Processing
That’s it! Literally, from an acquisitions standpoint, that is the entire division. Four relatively easy steps, and you’ve got yourself an Acquisitions Division that will probably be more advanced than anyone in your town, even the seasoned pro’s. Now, because you are a pretty cool person, ahh alright, very cool person and have made it this far in this article, I’m going to break down what takes place within each one of these steps. Yeah yeah, you’re welcome!
Lead Generation
Lead generation is the #1 MOST IMPORTANT step of the entire acquisitions division. Lead generation will absolutely make or break your wholesaling business. Lead generation is nothing more than doing “something” to generate seller leads and it doesn’t always require money. I like to break lead generation down into three categories. Those categories are:
- Free
- Cost Effective
- Expensive
Free Lead Generation Techniques
Everyone likes free, so let’s talk about that first. Do you believe you can get motivated sellers calling you LIKE CRAZY for free? We’ll you cant, so just forget about it! lol. Just kidding. Of course you can, and I do it everyday of my life. Here are a few ways you can get motivated sellers calling you without spending one red cent!
Big Mouth = Big Money! – Friends, find the tallest building you can in your town, and scream from the top of it that you are the best home buyer in town and you will do everything in your power to help people sell their house, quickly, easily and for fair price! Now, I’m only kind of joking. Your biggest asset and sales tool is your mouth and darn it, you better use it. Loose lips don’t sink ships, they freaking buy houses! Every single person in your life should know that you buy houses and that you pay for referrals! You do pay for referrals don’t you?
Some of my most profitable deals came from family and friends referring someone to me. And guess what happens after they check their mailbox and get a big fat referral check from me? No after that, you guessed it, I am GOD to them and they blab blab blab about me even more, to anyone who will listen. Start telling everyone you know and even people you don’t know and people you want to know and people you don’t want to know that you buy houses and pay for referrals and you’ll be shocked, dumbfounded, stupified at the amount of interest people will have. I firmly believe that if you flap your lips enough, you could easily buy one house per month for the rest of your life. Big Mouth – Big Money! Become the Don King of house buying, but don’t do the hair, it will not be a good look for you.
Social Media – Just as you will now be screaming from the rooftops of tall building in your town, do the same on social media sites. Remind your friends on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter often, that you buy houses and will hook them up with some cashy cash if they send someone your way. I recommend reminding people, via a quick, sometimes funny post, at least once per week. Also get creative with your referrals from time to time. If the i-Pad is the hottest product out, offer it up to people who bring you leads.
SEO – SEO stands for search engine optimization. This is where you are putting stuff out on the internet such as articles, video and blogs allowing search engines to find you, with regards to specific key words or key phrases. For instance, although admittedly I am not an expert at this, you could go to YouTube, upload a video telling sellers you buy houses in Harrisburg, PA, and tag it with key words such as “We Buy Houses in Harrisburg, PA”. More than likely, when someone searches for that phrase your video will pop up. Then, in your video, you would want to either have them call you directly or visit your website. Make sure you have a clear CTA [call to action]. The good news on this awesome lead generation technique is that there is a ton of information out there on it and if you don’t want to learn it yourself, you can pay someone to do it for you.
Hands Outs / Take Away’s / Flyer’s / Business Cards – You need to always have something to give people. Business cards are the most overlooked tool. When you are talking with someone, give them your cards and tell them what you do. Also, whenever you visit your local gas station or grocery store, post a flyer on their bulletin board or drop off a stack of flyers on the counter! You’d be amazed at how many people read these things. And friends, it FREE to do! Go to church? Great, post your flyer on the bulletin board.
Branded Apparel – Why would you ever wear anything EXCEPT your own branded clothes that tell the world you are the most awesome home buyer on the planet? If possible, wherever you go, you should have on something that reads, very clearly, You Buy Houses, You Are Wonderful, And You Can Solve a Sellers Problem. Make sure you have that CTA. Remember what a CTA is don’t you? Call to action, such as Call 1-800-Yes-We-Buy, which is the number you would use if you partnered up with me and my team! Literally hundreds of people look at you everyday, kind of scary right, but true, so why not market to them? I do, you should try it.
More times than not I have on a shirt, hat, jacket or leotard that states in bold, easy to read text, “Yes, We Buy Houses” and to call our number 1-800-Yes-We-Buy! We just got a call yesterday from someone who said they saw one of our people wearing a We Buy Houses t-shirt. Cost of shirt – 10 bucks! Ok, so it’s not free, but darn close. Also we require all of our contractors and staff to wear company apparel as well! We have about 12 people out on the field everyday wearing our clothes.
Other Investors – Other investors, who are not as good at selling properties as you are, can be a great source of leads. And, if their contract is about to expire, you will probably have a motivated seller on your hands!
TOP SECRET IDEA – One of the techniques I use in my business, for the deals that I cant partner up with other investors on, is I spy / monitor what happens with their deals and then take action when they misstep or drop the ball. So, lets just say I see that Joe Wholesaler is marketing 123 Cash St for 35k. I see it advertised week after week in various ways and it appears he has not sold it. Now, if for whatever reason I don’t want to work with this wholesaler or the wholesaler doesn’t want work with me I still have options. My best option is to direct mail the seller of the property. I may mail them something like this:
“Has someone placed your property under contract and not closed yet? Are you tired of waiting and want your cash now? If so, call me at 555-5555 right now, I can definitely help”
The coolest part of all of this is you already have an idea of what the other wholesaler paid, so you can start your negotiations with the seller from there. You can do the same with investors who tie properties up on the MLS. Watch the deal and track whether it closes or not. If it doesn’t, call the listing agent directly and tell them you are interested if the buyer backs out. NOTE – In order to effectively make this technique work you need to get on the buyers lists of as many local wholesalers as possible. This allows you to track what they are offering and track whether or not they have settled or not. In my business, we buy at least 1 property per month that someone else couldn’t close and almost always we buy it for less than they had in under contract for. It’s hilarious because there is one bozo in my town who ties all types of stuff up, never sells any of it, and we just slip in the backdoor and buy almost everything out from under him. Too easy.
Check out Part 3 of this article series to learn about even more FREE techniques you can use to generate seller leads!
Written by Zack Wiest
CEO of The Investing Cube
About the Author
Zack Wiest is the Founder of The Investing Cube. The Investing Cube is believed to be the first ever full fledged Real Estate Investing Franchise Company dedicated exclusively to the business of wholesaling real estate. Zack has wholesaled over 811 properties since 2000 and continues to wholesale roughly 100 properties per year. His unique way of wholesaling has positioned him and his company as the premier wholesaler in all Pennsylvania, maybe the entire country. Zack has gone on to diversify his investing techniques to include rehabbing properties and long term buy and hold rentals. Zack is the definition of a true success story, someone who came from nothing and made a success of himself. To learn more about his company and the unprecedented real estate investing wholesale opportunity they offer, visit http://www.investingcube.biz/ right now.
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