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No matter if you’re just starting out or already a seasoned real estate investor, we bet that you can relate to a common industry pain point and harsh reality. And what is that, you ask? The fact that constantly hunting for leads can be annoying. Perhaps even worse, lead generation can be a time-consuming process that bears little fruit if done improperly. Trust us: we feel your pain. The good news, however, is that finding motivated sellers can actually become quite easy if you know what you’re doing.
Here are some of our top real estate investment strategies for finding motivated sellers:
MAILERS
Sending mailers may be a basic strategy for lead generation, but it’s a strategy that works. Direct mail is a time-tested lead generation tool that even the most successful real estate investors still use. Whether you send direct mail to a targeted group of property owners in your area or you buy a list of leads from a service online, sending mailers to your ideal lead can be a successful strategy for finding motivated sellers.
Pro tip: If you’re sending direct mail, ensure that you have a follow-up strategy in place. This will help you make the most out of this real estate lead generation strategy.
BANDIT SIGNS
Yet another effective lead generation strategy comes in the form of bandit signs. Sometimes it’s best to keep things simple, and bandit signs make it possible to do so. It is rather cost-effective to have bandit signs created and include a short-and-sweet message with your contact information. If you’re new to the world of real estate investing, bandit signs allow you to affordably generate leads and find fixer-uppers. If you’re an experienced real estate investor, bandit signs can breathe life into your flow of leads and facilitate connections that you wouldn’t have made otherwise.
Pro tip: Place your bandit signs in locations that your ideal seller will see. The higher the traffic — and the more unobstructed the view — the better.
HEAD TO THE COURTHOUSE
Sometimes you need to take things into your own hands and put in the grunt work to get things done. You can do just that by heading to your county court (or the county work where you’re interested in buying property) and viewing documents regarding pre-foreclosures, tax liens, and other judgements that may result in motivated sellers. Let’s be real here: this is a time-consuming process. However, if you’re short on cash and really looking to bootstrap, this lead generation strategy could pay dividends.
Pro tip: If you’re pursuing this option, stay clear of pairing it with telemarketing. (In fact, steer clear of telemarketing at all.) Interrupting people while they’re relaxing at home can backfire majorly and spoil a lead that would have otherwise been great.
MASS TEXTING AND ONLINE ADS
We’ve touched on some traditional ways for real estate investors to find motivated sellers, so it’s time to tackle some modern strategies. Thanks to advancements and innovations in the world of tech, there are now platforms and services that allow you to send mass texts and contact a plethora of potential sellers at once. Additionally, many social media sites and search engines allow you to advertise on their platform for rather reasonable fees. Together, these strategies can help you leverage your tech savviness to generate leads without lifting a finger.
Pro tip: If you’re new to digital marketing or generating leads online, you may not want to tackle this on your own. There are plenty of companies that will help you automate these types of marketing — and we’re one of them. Here at Motivated Leads we create online ads to generate leads for our clients, but more on that in a bit.
“Driving for dollars”
Much like heading to the courthouse and going through records, this strategy takes time. Thus, while effective for newbies, this may not be the best lead generation strategy for busy real estate investors. (At least, not on a consistent basis.) So, what do we mean when we say “driving for dollars?” It’s simple. Hop in the car and go hunting in the area in which you’d like to invest. There are key indicators to look for when trying to find investment opportunities, the most obvious of which is overgrown grass or a dilapidated home.
Pro tip: Since this isn’t the quickest lead generation strategy for real estate investors, “driving for dollars” is perhaps best reserved for investors on very tight budgets and/or investors who are tapping into an area of which they’re not already familiar.
WORKING WITH MOTIVATED LEADS
Our name says it all. We’re all about finding you Motivated Leads. As we mentioned previously, we are experts in online ad creation, execution, and monitoring. We create effective ads on platforms like Google PPC and Facebook, and we do it all while ensuring that you generate the brand awareness that will take your real estate investing business far in the long run. As pros with decades of experience both in real estate and in digital marketing, we also use search engine optimization in order to harness the power of SEO for our clients.
Pro tip: While we’d love to work with you, we realize that you have many options out there. Before choosing a real estate investor lead generation service, be sure to thoroughly vet the expert or company with which you’ll be working.
Keep in mind that all of these strategies work — it’s just that ours is arguably the most efficient if you have a marketing budget. You can save time — our most precious resource as humans, after all — and generate leads that will further propel your real estate investing business by working with experts like ourselves.
If you’re not at the point where you have the budget to invest in marketing services, that’s A-okay. The aforementioned free or cheap lead generation strategies all work as long as you put in the effort to make things happen. And when your business grows and you’ve grown too big for bootstrapping? We’ll be here for you.
What’s important to remember is that you want your leads to come to you. It’s much less efficient (and much less successful) to constantly ask people if you can buy their houses. Instead, with a strategic lead generation strategy that you consistently execute, you can find motivated sellers without ever seeming like a pest.
