NEED BUYERS ??!!!!

I sure appreciate your posts. Could you please show me how to find homes easier. I would be forever grateful. Thank you!!!

Barb Christianson
dbchrist@earthlink.net

Interested in an Iowa connection? I'm new, too, but maybe we could partner up.

What are your buyers looking for? Let me know and we'll see what we can do.

Thanks,
--Barb

_______________

Barb Christianson
dbchrist@earthlink.net

Post what your buyers are looking for here, I am sure if anyone can find a match with their needs they will not hesitate to contact and work with you.

Angela

Gary:
When you mention "Cash Buyers" above, do you physically mean that they paid cash or bankers check? Or are you referring to the buyer getting conventional financiing to make the purchase? In addition, is there anything that prevents the agent from telling a caller this type of information?
Thanks!
-M (If not Gary that answers, maybe someone else can clarify)

Michael,

I would be interested in expanding my buyers list. What is the criteria they are looking for on the properies?

Thx, Bruce

Good point and great post. No I have access to CASH buyers. You see I have a way to find out the properties they own and I check to see if they have bank codes on those properties. If they don't have bank codes then they don't have any mortgages on them. NO BANK CODE= NO MORTGAGE which 9 times out of 10 = an investor with DEEP pockets! If they have 8 plus homes or some other variation, and none of the homes have bank codes, then they are cash buyers. I actually got a call from a guy that told me he buys all his properties for cash. I had my pen and pad handy while he spoke to me on the phone. Cash closes quicker for obvious reasons.

Get creative to find cash buyers!!! I've even contacted retired professional athletes and sent them post cards and letters. I've just started doing this literally last night so I'll see where this leads me. It's important to research a celebrity or someone you think might want to invest with you because if and when they do contact you, you can talk about their accomplishments and build rapport with them and so forth. Wikipedia a name and find out their background information. Often times the person that wrote the wikipedia article will tell you where they live. Like ( just an example not real information here but) For example, Larry Bird, retired Celtics player now lives in Frankfort KY with his lovely wife MOCKING BIRD. <<< Clearly not true but hopefully you get the idea here. Then your next step is to go to www.zabasearch.com and type in their name and match it with the appropriate state where they might be living and see what you come up with. I have match a few names. I even have phone numbers on a few but I figure I'll send them 4-6 direct mail pieces first and then I'll follow up with a call to see if I get anywhere with this strategy.

Another thing you can do is drive around NICE neighborhoods and get the addresses of million dollar homes and try to see if they have any bank mortgages on them as well as who owns the home. See if the owner has additional homes in the area too. Then send them a post card and follow up with a letter a day later and then the following day send them another post card. ( SEE where I'm going with this!) Be persistant. Go to the post card today or tomorrow and buy 60 postcards and get busy writing creative messages on them. I have developed one for BANKS that I think is PRICELESS! I wrote several over the course of 3 days but I finally think I got one that will get my phone ringing off the hook!!!!

Post cards are the mail that everyone reads plus they're only 28 cents. Studies show that the average person has to see your name in writing ( whether it's through direct mailing <<<< my personal favorite, or email before they will respond to you so if you send 3 postcards/letters, and get nothing, don't stop!) They may contact you to tell you to stop sending them letters so be prepared for that and ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS include your email address on the postcard and letter too because some people are more comfortable to send you an email over a phone call. You'll see what I'm talking about when you do it. The ones that typcially send an email or the ones that are in a "sticky" situation such as foreclosure or are about to lose their home and the phone calls are from the investors or the ones that are curious about what you do. JUST be confident with your delivery and tell the person you're a private real estate investor and that you find great deals that most people can't and you'd like to help them build their wealth through safe and secured real estate OR you invest in real estate buy aggressively buying homes to help people get out of sticky situations such as a potential foreclosure situation, a job loss, divorce, job relocation etc. Of course you'll tailor your delivery based on their personal situation because both investors and desperate sellers will call you. ( you want to say private real estate investor because they might ask you where your office is located so at that point you'll just say, " I don't have an actual office because I'm a private real estate investor that is in business to find great deals for people that are tired of losing their hard earned money in the stock market or their 401K .......OR of course the other delivery would be " don't have an actual office because I'm a private real investor that is in business to help people get out of sticky housing situations so that they don't have to stress over possibly losing their home.....) The more you talk the talk the easier conversations become.

One last thing before I go ( When a seller calls you, instead of making it seem like they are on an interview, ask open ended questions. In other words, instead of saying how many bedrooms does your house have? How many bathrooms does your house have? What's the neighborhood like? And so forth.... The best technique to do here is to just say "Can you tell me a little bit about your house?) This question alone will give you a good overview of the home so take copious NOTES!!! Trust me, they will try to sell you their house over the phone so just listen to what they say. And then any addition questions you have after the fact, ask them and then set up an appointment. Don't make any promises over the phone either. Best of luck.

NOTE TO ALL DG'ers.

I've been getting a lot of emails to my inbox with regards to finding houses so I'll just put a post on here for the beneit of everyone. I'm in the middle of something right now but I'll sit down and elaborate more on this tactic at some point today. My fingers are soar from all the emails I've been sending out to newbies that contacted me which is cool but I hope some of my feedback is being put into action. Take action and take control of your real estate investing career. Please copy this post and put it in a word document and then print it off!!! Put it in a folder or in your real estate notes binder or notebook as a reachback reference tool. Just a suggestion, not a command. LOL

It doesn't matter what you're career or current situation is. Whether you're laid off work, a single parent, in the military, a cashier, attorney, nurse, painter, or whatever you do, if you want to be a real estate investor then tell everyone you know that you are just that!

More to come at a later date....

FYI: I didn't proof read what I typed so there my be many mistakes so I do apologize.

Great post Hines Enterprise!

Thank you GoldBar Gary for your fantastic information and feedback!

Thanks Gold-bar Gary,

I'm just getting started reading the book and all. Your information above is invaluable. A little unnerved about real estate transactions, however, going for it. I look forward to offering knowledgeable advice.

Thanks-A-Million

You are the Truth brotha

Show them The Light

Gary, thanks for the reply. Your insight goes a long way! Although I still do have one question. Can you answer the question about agents supplying you the list of Cash Buyers? Meaning, are most willing to devulge that info or are they obligated to etc. In the past, how has it worked for you?

Thanks Again.
-M

Thanks Gary! Your post was very helpful!

myshel,

I appreciate your reply. You have the right attitude already by just going for it!

You took action and are reading Dean's book. You'll have tons of questions and all of them are on here somewhere so i encourage you to just read some posts from other investors and learn from them too. We are all learning here. I continue to get better at my craft and I love helping others achieve success too! Best of luck and stay with it.

Thanks for reminding me. Okay so you're now wondering if most agents are willing to give you this information correct? And more importantly are they allowed to give you this information correct? The answer to both of your questions is YES!

As long as you are completely transparent with them and simply say "hey look I'm a real estate investor and i want to work personally with you to close on some great real estate deals", they won't frown to that proposal. You will of course have to explain why they should even bother with it and once you tell them that you will be marketing to potential cash buyers that have liquid cash to buy houses and you want to use him/her to close on future deals they will be more than willing to work with you. I had four turn me down initally because two said they were too busy to send me the list ( which literally takes about 2 and half minutes according to one of my agents that set me the list) one didn't want to get involved because they were "doing real estate for years" I guess he was set in his ways and the other one simply didn't understand what I was talking about. Again, what I'm saying here is that you may not get a yes at first. It's no different than putting a worm on a hook and casting it into a pond hoping to catch a fish on your fist cast. Sometimes you have to recast more than you like but the bottom line here is that it will work - you'll catch a fish eventually. Just take my email, cut and paste it into your email and begin sending it out. It will work. I understand your caution but it will work. And if someone blows you off, do you really want to work with someone you will have to depend on down the road if they are blowing you off EVEN though you're telling them about a money making opportunity? NOPE!! Don't waste your time with those people. Just be patient and your list will come.

And no it's not illegal in no way shape or form. It's not like they are selling it either it's just information that they have access to that's all. Okay to better answer your question let me put it to you like this.....

If you asked me if I could send you all of my greatest cooking recipes because you wanted to use them to create a recipe of your own and if you end up creating an even better recipe, I would get paid in the process. Do you think I would turn that down? Of course not. I know I just compared apples to oranges but hopefully that was a good analogy that will help you realize that this stuff works.

Please take action. Use my email and start sending it to agents. I would even recommend following up with a few agents via phone after a few days if they don't reply to it just to let them know you're in the game and you want to help them close more deals!

What you can do is just put all their email addresses in the BCC line and send out one mass email to them so you won't have to waste your time resending the same thing over and over. If you have never done a BCC ( blind carbon copy) email before, the other people won't know who you sent it to so don't worry about it.

Okay gotta get back to writing more cardcards to this banks that own properties in my area!

no problem at all. Please apply it because it will work. Just do it! - No I don't work for NIKE either. LOL

RE: FINDING HOMES

Who has them? Where are they? How do I find them? What do I do? Homes are like oxygen on land - they're ubiquitous <<< meaning they're EVERYWHERE. I find houses by doing 4 things and 4 things only. Keep reading because you'll be happy you DID!

Unless you live in the mojave desert, you can find a home. They are out there and some of the homes have people living in them that NEED your help to get them out of their "sticky" situation. You will soon learn that I use the term "sticky situation" often because that encompasses many areas such as loss of a loved one, job loss, divorce, medical issues, just retired and wants to move to a warmer state etc. and some of the homes are empty and need to be brought back to life ( rehab houses) and some just need a user. ( an end buyer) And yes, then there are those for sale by owner and for rent properties that Elixbrown often mentions. The truth behind for sale by owners from my experience involves one of two things:

A) FSBO properties:

1. Often times these homes are paid off and have no mortgage so the seller figures "I'm not going to give an agent 6% to sell a house I can sell on my own!" So they just stick a for rent sign in the yard or a for sale by owner sign in the yard and hope someone just happens to drive by, see the sign, like the house, and either knock on the door, or call the number. But the odd part about the whole process here is that you can offer them far less than a 6% discount if you present your offer appropriately and inform them that you can close in 30 days. If they haven't received any hits on the house and you come into the picture willing to buy their house ( your end buyer will obviously buy the house) they will often accept your offer. If they decline, follow up two - three weeks later if you still see their sign in their yard. Always keep it positive and wish them luck in getting their house sold. So the first take away here is that for rent signs and FSBO signs more than likely have a seller that has no mortgage on the house and has opted to sell it themself to avoid paying a measely 6% realtor's fee.

2. For rent houses and FSBOs often are owned by landlords or people that have several homes. So if you ask them about their house and find out that they have several in the area and you are able to negotiate a deal with them, make them a proposal to buy their other homes too. ( I HAVE NOT DONE THIS YET SO I'M JUST MAKING A SUGGESTION HERE THAT'S ALL) A proposal would be something like this, "If I'm able to negotiate a purchase price with you after I due my due diligence and run some numbers on my end and then I bring in my partner ( your end buyer) to close on the property in 30 days or so, would you consider showing me some additional properties I can buy from you? This may work or it may not but again, it's just an option and an idea I have that I intend to use should this situation present itself for me. So the second take away with these homes is that it may lead to more homes. FSBO Properties is complete, lets move on to the next chapter of knowledge. Take action!

B) Driving for Dollars:

My favorite thing to do as a private real estate investor is to grab my notebook and a couple of ink pens and get in my truck and drive neighborhoods to canvass new areas. I would suggest using a GPS so you can see on the screen if a road deadends or leads to additional side streets and it will help you figure out where you are so that you don't get lost. Another reason I like using my GPS while doing this is because it helps me get the name of the street so if I see a vacant house with an address number of 82, I look to see the name of the street I'm on from my GPS screen and I write the street name and the number and a few notes about the property. i.e. "possible vacant house, electric meter not spinning, blue tarp on roof - possible roof leak, no major signs of vandalism, on a quiet street, one car detached car garage that needs paint, Took four pictures ( red brick home w/ blue tarp on roof) FIND OWNER!!" That's what my notebook is full of - full of homes and full of notes. Also, bring a digital camera and take some photos too to help remind you what the home at 82 Grand Ave looks like. I do this constantly. When I get home I go onto my county website ( google your city then tax assessor, auditor's office, real property records, parcel map data or some type of variation. Ex: Google box "Dallas, TX tax assessor's office" and then search the property section. Every town is different. I work with six right now, 3 in NY (where I live currently) and 3 in OH (where I grew up) and they are all different so it will take some time getting use to finding the information you need so just go to yours and find out the owner's information to include where they live now. OR you can just call you real property tax office or tax assessor's office and ask if they have a website and tell them you are trying to find out information about a certain home in your area. These people are usually friendly and are willing to help you out. It's their job to do this and always thank them for their time. Once you find this information out, I begin my marketing campaign. I get my pen in my southpaw and grab a post card and write them a friendly message and include BOTH my phone number and email. ALWAYS include both because some people will respond via email and the others will respond via emails. I have found that the people responding via email are usually the ones involved in a "sticky situation" and the callers are the ones that are either curious as to what you do are my want to sell but aren't quite sure or they are cash buyers looking to see if you have any homes for sale. You may be thinking to yourself "but wait, Goldbar-Gary has advertized that he sell houses in this post?" That's correct but once you read section C, you'll see that I get calls from buyers from a sign I use that advertizes that I buy houses. People will call you to see if you are selling any of the homes you bought so from there get their information and put them on your buyer's list. Okay so that's your class on "Driving for Dollars" Take action!

FYI: I don't bother asking the neighbors anything about vacant houses because I don't like doing that but one time a person approached me while I was writing down some property info on a vacant home and she asked me if I wanted the house. I said yes, and she told me great information about the house. She told me it was an estate property and that the daughter has been trying to sell it for 18 months and that there hasn't been any interested buyers from what she could. At another location, a guy asked me what I was doing on his street and just told him I'm a private real estate investor and that I was interested in buying the home I was looking at. He too provided great info about the house such as, "that thing has been empty for 5 years, the lady died years ago and I don't know if she has any relatives in the area to do anything with it. I'm waiting for it to go back to the bank so I can buy it and then level it so my kids can have more room to run and play." He lived next door to this green little eye soar of a house. I'm currently working this deal to find out if I can just buy it from the county because there are no hiers to the house.

C) What's you Sign?

( I'm a capricorn by the way.. LOL, Yes, I write my own jokes too :-)~)

I like working harder not smarter so another thing I do is order yellow signs and write, "DON'T FORGET! We buy HOUSES for ANY reason! xxx-xxx-xxxx. I put them by freeway off ramps, next to stop signs, and on telephone poles. The trick to having your sign last on telephone poles is to put it up high! I have a step stool I use so that it's more difficult for the "sign police" to get them or even my competition to remove them for that matter. 18x24 works the best. When you make money with this then you can spend a little extra and help the company professional put your message on your sign. FYI: YOU MAY feel odd or akward putting up signs on telephone poles ( don't put them up everywhere, just put up may 4-6 on a Thursday afternoon because you will make someone mad if they see your sign on every telephone phone) or you may feel odd or akward putting your sign in grass by a stop sign or at on off ramp. I did at first but then I had to tell myself, "Wait, why am I nervous about doing this? I want people to see these signs so why do I care if they SEE me putting up these signs? If they see me and see the sign at the same time and want their house sold, then I've accomplished my intent!!!" After thinking that way, I am at the point now where I just point my signs up as if I'm supposed to be doing it and then get in my truck and go about my business. This will have houses find YOU!!! Doing a little leg work up front will be dividends on the backend. I get calls from my signs often so I know they work!!! If you want to order signs just let me know and I'll send you some information on who I use. Your class on "What's you sign" is officially over! Take action!

D) Invest in an Agent!

For those of you who don't know me and my strategies I will tell you that I'm the guy that probably is doing things you never considered even doing until NOW. The things I'm doing right now LITERALLY right NOW, are things I've just started putting into action and they are WORKING!! Sorry for the side bar there. My orginal thought I wanted to convey to all the DGers here is that I'm the guy that does not look at the MLS. I know this may seem crazy to many but I literally don't even bother personally looking at the MLS for homes. There's too much competition out there in my opinion because you're fighting to try to find great buys with other investors, desperate buyers, first time home buyers, newlyweds, cash buyers, landlords, your mom and second cousin, Joe the plumber etc.... So I don't bother with it, but in NO WAY AM I SAYING DON'T use it. The multiple listing service (MLS) has proven to work wonders for many people so I assume it works based off what others have said but for me, I simply pass on it. Here's where my agent comes into place... Okay, so if you are currently paying for a "free foreclosure" website, after reading this you my want to consider cancelling your membership because what I'm about to reveal to you should have you excited to the point that you are going to want to tackle your agent and hold him/her hostage until they provide the data you're looking for. Warning! The following section is only intended for HUNGRY investors that want to EARN massive paychecks! All others, need not read.....

This evening seek out REO agents. These are agents that deal with foreclosed properties. They have the same list you're paying a monthly fee for right at their finger tips! Pretty cool right! Okay, so you are going to want to get in contact with him/her and explain that you're a real estate investor and that you invest in shortsales ( properties that a bank is willing to accept less than what's owed on it), and foreclosures and that you would like to work closely with them and buy great deals so that you can achieve your business goals and so they can sell some of the homes in their inventory. Also mention that you want to build a long term business relationship with them and that you value their time. You are going to want to make your request specific instead of saying, "send me everything you have TOM!" They may not take you seriously so I would say that you choose no more than 8-10 towns in your county that you are interested in and send him/her the names of those towns and ask if they can send you a list of all of the short sales and foreclosures throughout those towns! You will be provided with great information and thank them for their time. Again, they will send you the list because they are in business to get them sold so you're providing an outlet for them to do so. Please do this! Oh yeah I forget to remind you to, PLEASE DO THIS... Get the point. Then go through the houses and look them up to see what they sold for and what they are worth. type in the addresses into www.totalviewrealestate.com ( AN amazing website that DEAN and his CREW were so generous to allow us to use FOR FREE)to see additional info about the property and the imagery will allow you to get a bird's eye view of the neighborhood too. Run some numbers and then make some aggressive and firm offers through him/her and wait and see what happens. Get with a CASH buyer that will buy from you if you can bring them a GREAT DEAL and you will not FAIL. JUST do these things and you'll be successful!!! And let them know that when you close on your first deal, offer to take them out to a nice steak dinner, or send them a $50 gift card to Longhorn steakhouse or something just to let them know you are greatful for their willingness to provide the data you have request. It's always best to give back to those that gave so much for you! I give back so much of my time on here because Dean has provided a new life for me and I am now changing my family tree financially because of what I'm doing as a real estate investor. This post alone has taken me nearly 90 minutes to put together. Not because I type with two fingers like Dean.. ( Sorry Dean, but hey you said it.LOL) but because I value each and everyone of you taking the time to read what I post so I continue to answer my countless emails and try to reply when I have time because I hope I can influence many people out there.

Overall recap on finding homes: A) FSBO and For rent properties B) driving for dollars C) placing signs telling people what I do D) Working with a great real estate agent

Please cut and paste this post somewhere so you'll always have it. Hopefully you see the value in this post! Put this in a binder or in a folder and refer back to it and add your notes to it. I'm a firm believer that something can always be better and improved upon so here's a good templete for success that you can run with.

Best of luck! "Building Weatlh by the Numbers"

will you please E-mail me that info on how 2 get buyers. becouse i have tried everything and nothing even the academy just loosing money my name is Thomas Lewis email is tellajoe@**** thanks if U can

I know its sacreligious to go against the grain on here or what the Success Academy says, but for me what has always worked is having a deal to show buyers and keep them interested.

You can have 50,000 buyers on your list, but if you have no deals to show them, what good is it???

Give it a try.