Marketing in CA

Hello,

I have actually been working on building my buyers list and I got about 5 cash ready buyers. However, I have found it hard to find motivated sellers that are not REOs and it has been hard to get properties under contract. Any advice on marketing for motivated sellers? I look to my first deal so I can invest more in my education. Thank you for your time.

I am also interested in any advice on marketing for motivated sellers in Ca.
I have tried bandit signs, but did not get the desired results.The signs were quickly removed by the city,land owners,property managers etc.One property manager told me that all landscapers in this area are instructed to remove all signs.I am moving on to direct marketing.Any advice for finding motivated sellers in Ca. would be helpful. Thank you.

You are VERY right about signs; they get taken down quickly. There is one area I have found my sign will stay up over the weekend; and only one. So, bandit signs here are VERY hard to work with. I have to get expensive metal signs with thick, heavy chains and padlock them tighly to a tree to have them stay up. That being said, if you want to target FSBOs in this area, it will require a lot of work; as 90% of them want too much for their house or are very flipped; and the competition for the ones that will sell lower or aren't flipped is fierce here. Other strategies work for the flipped properties; and others still for people who just can't afford their mortgages any more.

A couple of ways of targeting homes here is to leave fliers on homes or yellow sticky notes (You can have them printed up at Vistaprint so they look hand written) on mailboxes or homes. What I do is find the pre foreclosures and keep track of listings I have been watching that expire and target those; as well as driving neighborhoods for vacant/ and/or poorly maintained homes.

This is why its important to learn how to wholesale REOs and short sales here; as well as connect with other investors and co wholesale. Its tough to get properties under contract here; and you can modify the 25:1 formula to closer to 50:1 or even 100:1; so you will be making a tremendous amount of offers. (The reason for this isn't necessarily the banks, but rather the listing agents who don't present offers to the banks as they should)

Finding buyers here is pretty easy using Craiglist, FB and LinkedIn; as well as other REI sites and searching on Google. You can also go to the registrar's office in Norwalk and look up all the cash buyers that have closed on homes recently. There's literally thousands of them a week.

Hope this helps give some direction! Happy New Years!

take place on the courthouse steps and are usually the first Tues of the month (unless they've started them daily now). They usually start at 10am sharp if I remember correctly. Just contact the courthouse and they'll tell you. In LA, they take place in a few different spots; the Norwalk courthouse and Pomona are 2 I know of offhand.

The bidders here are VERY serious, and when prospecting for lenders and buyers at one of them, it is a bit intimidating to approach them. But , there are a few nice people there that will talk to you. I'm hoping to get to them more often to increase my networking, but its tough with kids with me all the time.

You can also get information on them from looking at the notice of trustee's sale in the paper, or online here http://eznotice.com/search (I find they aren't always on here though; if someone has a better site, let me know).

Also, prospecting for probates is also very lucrative way to get leads. Use that site to look for 'notice to creditors' to get a heads up on probates before anyone else. Happy investing!

It is CERTAIN we will SUCCEED!

If you believe it you can achieve it with a positive mental attitude! (Success through a Positive Mental Attitude)

California seems to be a whole different animal.It seems as if we have been down a lot of the same roads with a lot of the same results.I'm currently working on some direct marketing.If it works here I'll let you know.Thanks for the post.

Is there any other quote "average investor" or "average person" from California having any regular measurable success finding deals in California using any of the D.G. methods? If so which method or methods works best for you?

Still waiting for a response to the California question.

California deals are in Fresno, Stockton, Modesto, Bakersfield, Palmdale, etc.

They are EVERYWHERE, but if you mean FSBO, I know a few investors that pick one up every now and then. Also, probates are very alive... Also, you may want to look up 'Ranger16', he does lease options here in CA.

Thank you for your posts.The question wasn't about locations, it was about which methods, strategies or types of investing are getting the best results in terms of locating and making deals in any area of Ca at this time.Thanks again for your input and information.

Re locations...you fish with the same pole, some places it's easier to catch fish than other places.