Most seasoned real estate investors say that wholesaling is the best way to dip your toe in real estate investing. However, if you want to go this path, you should be equipped with all the necessary skills, including how to find leads!
To get wholesale real estate leads, the fastest and easiest way would be to buy from a pay-per-lead platform. But you can also generate leads through the MLS, lead capture form, Google Pay Per Click, cold-calling, SEO, online and offline auctions, The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), bandit signs, networking, direct mailers, social media advertising, and many more.
If you want to land your first wholesale deal, this blog is meant to help you. Here we have listed more than 15 ways to find seller leads both online and offline!
Wholesaling real estate is a short-term investment strategy in which a "wholesaler" searches for distressed properties and enters into a purchase contract with its owner.
The contract is then sold to an end buyer, who is another real estate investor or cash buyer.
The real estate wholesaler earns a finder's fee or the difference between how much the seller sold the house and how much the cash buyer bought it.
For example, if Seller A wants to sell the house for $80,000 and the contract was sold to the final buyer for $90,000, the real estate wholesaler will earn $10,000 from the deal.
Most wholesalers earn an average of $5,000 to $50,000 on wholesale real estate investing, depending on various factors such as the size of the property, the repairs needed, and the current situation of the real estate market.
Very little money is needed when starting wholesale real estate investing since the wholesaler (business owner) won't be buying the house. They only need sweat equity to grow the business.
However, compared to other investment strategies, this generates the least money as well.
A wholesale lead is a potential property seller that is identified by the wholesaler through a lead generation strategy.
Usually, a wholesaler has the name of the seller, their contact details, as well as property information.
A wholesale lead can be considered a motivated lead if the seller is in a hurry to get rid of the property for some reason. Motivated sellers are the most profitable since their asking price is contingent on their level of motivation to sell.
There are many different methods to find wholesale real estate leads. We've listed 17 of them to help you decide which is the most viable and practical for your wholesaling venture.
The easiest and fastest way to get wholesale leads is to purchase them from professionals who specialize in wholesale lead generation.
These wholesale lead generation platforms or companies have already fine-tuned their processes and they only charge a meager fee compared to the cost of setting up your own lead generation process.
Not all wholesale real estate lead generation providers offer quality wholesale leads, so you should still review the process of each company or platform.
Direct mail is one of the originals when it comes to generating wholesale leads in wholesaling properties.
In this lead generation strategy, you send out a direct mail that contains details about your company, the type of homeowners you help, and your contact information.
Direct mail doesn't convert right away. You would need to hit people a few times before they reply. If you don't do it right, your mail will likely be returned to you or dumped in the trash.
Bandit signs are the forefather of all lead-generating methods we have here and it was once the lifeblood of the real estate wholesaling industry.
This wholesale lead generation strategy is pretty dirt cheap, but it used to generate more than two deals a week, according to some experts.
Essentially, a bandit sign contains a slogan and your contact number. A few bandit signs you'll see on the streets commonly have "We Will Buy Your House Fast" or "We Buy Houses for Cash" in huge letters to attract attention.
Placing bandit signs on poles, on the side of the road, or anywhere that is easily visible to bypasses is suggested. But make sure that you put them where it is legal to avoid fines.
Cold calling is a pretty popular method lead generation strategy. Here, you can use your existing wholesale leads so you can generate more.
Similar to how there is a network of buyers, wholesalers, or investors, home sellers also gather together.
You can call your current connections to check if they are ready to sell or ask them if they know anyone who might be interested in making a contract with you. This way, you can find more than a single deal.
The MLS or multiple listing service is a database that is exclusive to real estate agents. This features currently available homes and the ones sold in the market.
If you are a real estate agent or you are partnered with one, you will have access to this database. However, it's easy to get lost on this platform.
You have to go through thousands of wholesale leads before you get a good deal.
Your online presence can also get you a lot of wholesale leads. That is if you integrate a lead capture tool into your landing page.
This tool will help you set up a form that potential wholesale leads can fill out with their contact info.
Note, however, that generating wholesale leads through a lead capture form will only be successful if your website has high-volume traffic. You may need to put in a lot of work for this to happen.
Google Pay Per Click is a form of digital marketing that blows both mailers and bandit signs out of the water. This wholesale lead generation strategy utilizes PPC ads to drive leads on your real estate wholesaling website.
PPC is a paid ad that charges you only when someone clicks on the link.
To set up a PPC, you need to identify the keywords and phrases sellers use when they need to sell their property in a particular area. You then set up a campaign for these keywords and phrases.
Google PPC is not a simple platform. If you lack knowledge on how to properly set up a campaign, you'll be wasting a lot of money on this wholesale lead generation strategy.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a powerful way to drive huge amounts of traffic to your website if you do it correctly. As we've mentioned earlier, high website traffic can convert to wholesale leads.
However, using SEO as a wholesale lead generation strategy is not as easy as setting up a site on Wix and publishing a few articles. You need to consistently produce highly optimized content like most real estate investors do.
It is also extremely important to know how to use links, images, and other tools to keep your content relevant and maintain a good website.
Online and offline auctions are some of the main channels used by homeowners who want to sell fast, hence making them great lead sources.
Typically, homeowners opt for auctions because finding the highest bidder is faster in this method than selling in the local market.
Aside from getting wholesaling leads, auctions also expand your network because other real estate investors, wholesalers, and cash buyers are attracted to this event.
HUDs or real estate-owned properties are those that fail to sell during a foreclosure auction. Lenders and banks cannot wait to liquidate them because they are a lot to maintain.
Typically, HUDs are listed at a discounted price, making them very much ideal for wholesaling. What's more, you don't need to have access to the MLS to get a list of HUDs. The only challenge here is many other real estate investors are also looking into these properties.
Sometimes, you don't need to go far or employ the best lead-generating strategies to find a seller.
Talking to property managers in your neighborhood can help you identify which properties are for sale.
Once you have established a connection with them, they can inform you about properties with wholesaling potentials or if they know any absentee owner leads.
Aside from property managers, you can also talk to lenders or investors in your area. Chances are, they're looking to sell their rental or investment property but don't know where to start.
Attending industry events and real estate business networking meetings will make you meet other investors or wholesaler, real estate agents, and potential buyers.
Your fellow wholesalers can tip you off about properties that don't suit the portfolio of their buyers but match your target wholesale property.
Meanwhile, working with real estate agents will allow you to tap into their huge network for possible wholesaling leads.
Aside from real estate agents and fellow wholesalers, builders or contractors in a certain neighborhood are also great sources of wholesaling leads.
These people are key industry players, so they often know when a property owner or another investor (focused on flipping houses) dropped a renovation project for the lack of funds or if a particular house is irreparable and they refused to fix it.
Driving around or driving for dollars can help you increase your list of wholesalers leads in a short period of time.
This method requires you to drive around the neighborhood to spot "for sale" signs. Properties with "for rent" signs might also mean that the owner wants to get rid of the house eventually.
Give the numbers a call and ask them if they're interested in wholesaling.
Even if the contact information leads you to an agent, it might still work for your wholesaling business because they may also be looking for wholesale properties for a client who you already have a contract for.
Since Craigslist is a free advertising website, you'll often see some property owners listing their houses for sale on this platform.
You'll surely find deals here for your wholesaling business since it is one of the most visited advertising websites right now.
You can use certain filters to find motivated sellers on Craigslist. Using specific keywords such as flexible seller, must sell, will consider all offers, will sell on terms, etc. can also help speed up your search.
Both Facebook and Instagram have great advertising features you can utilize to find leads for your wholesaling business.
Using Facebook, for example, can help you target homeowners in a particular area instead of a general audience.
The Facebook retargeting feature also lets you market to past leads who did not act on your first try to buy their properties.
There are numerous real estate investment forums that you can join to connect with fellow real estate investors and seasoned real estate agents nationwide.
You can ask questions here about real estate and wholesaling, such as what's the best market for wholesaling, what to avoid when wholesaling in your target areas, etc.
You'll be amazed at how many seasoned REI professionals would be willing to help you in your wholesaling business.
Aside from knowing where to find leads, you should also learn how to pre-qualify them. This will help you save time and energy and will get you more profit-generating deals!
Sellers that are really motivated to get rid of their property due to foreclosure, tax lien, divorce, and any other reason are motivated leads.
Motivated sellers consider selling below market value just to see a successful sale. These leads are best to contact since they are more open to the wholesaling business.
Before making an offer, you want to make sure that the property has enough equity. Don't go after leads that will put your business in trouble in the end or won't earn you anything.
If a property doesn't have enough equity and the owner has a lot of unpaid taxes and mortgage, chances are, your offer won't be enough to cover what the seller owes, much less make room for the assignment fee and the cash buyer's discount.
Wholesaling properties is a numbers game. The more motivated leads you have, the higher your chances of landing good deals!
While the traditional ways of finding leads can still connect you to a few motivated sellers, you must be open to new strategies to find more leads and grow your wholesaling business.
Here at Property Leads, we offer EXCLUSIVE access to the highest converting motivated leads in your county! We use SEO for wholesale lead generation, so you get the best deals with less competition.
To start getting instant leads in your phone, email, or CRM, fill out our form below!
30 N Gould St Ste N
Sheridan, WY 82801
(207) 309-3949
sales@propertyleads.com
