Building Your Buyers List

One of the worst mistakes I see from real estate investors is failing to build a workable list of potential buyers for their properties, so I’m going to let a few of my coaching secrets out for this one. Retail buyers for short sale properties are more likely to be found through a real estate agent, but when you’re investing in rehab properties, you’ll need a different group of buyers in mind.

As a short sale investor, hopefully most of the homeowners you work with have kept up with the property’s maintenance. There’s no doubt about it - homes are easier to sell quickly if they’re in good shape. Every once in a while, you’re going to come across a property that would be better for someone who only concentrates on rehabs or rentals. The profit is going to be less than you would get from a short sale transaction, but you can still walk away from the deal with cash in hand. This is where that list comes in handy.

So where do you, as a real estate investor, find buyers for these properties?

Going to REIA meetings and networking with other investors in your community can help a great deal. You can also place classified ads - like on Craigslist - stating that you are liquidating a portfolio of properties that you need to sell fast. That worked for me, but these few investors knew that they had me. They could basically name their price because they understood I needed money fast and that I had little time to find alternative buyers. They controlled my business. In essence, I worked for them, not for myself. Bad deal. And many other investors have the same problem. Does that sound familiar to you, too? Haven’t we all done the spreadsheet and failed to use it when we needed it most?

I thought the list-building solution had to be complicated, but a little secret helped me learn how to avoid making this mistake.

My solution was to use a business management system called Realeflow to address this issue. The latest version of the software is called Open Road, and it helps me with so many other areas of investing, but its ability to efficiently match buyers with available properties is absolutely staggering.

In building a real estate business, it’s important to use all types of buyers. This will give you the broadest range of exit strategies that you can use to sell property and make money. There are several different types of potential buyers.

    •Rehabber: These guys like to buy low, real cheap, but they can usually     close fast. They will be the initial group you depend on as you build your     business. But since they buy low, that means less profit for you, and thus     the reason you don’t want to build a business depending on this group.
   
    •Lease Option Buyer: These buyers generally have bad credit, so they     will put money down and will rent from you. You will act as a landlord for     1 to 3 years while their credit is being restored. This group will take care     of the property because they have a long-term commitment to hopefully     buy the property at the end of the lease.
   
    •Landlord: This group may not be full-time real estate investors, but they     will pay more because they are looking to build a real estate portfolio.     They will pay more because they are going to buy the house and rent it     out, where as a rehabber is going to look to make their money fast.
   
    •Retail Buyer: These guys give you the biggest bang for your buck. Since     they want to buy a house to live in, they are willing to pay top dollar     depending on the condition of the home.

By using Open Road, I can put buyers into the categories. In other words, I can create a database for each of these groups of buyers. Then, with the push of a button, I can use Realeflow to find potential buyers for any property in my system, and these buyers will be automatically notified. I no longer have to spend time making calls, or doing fax blasts…all with the push of a single button!

But what’s really unbelievable is that Open Road will also match my properties with buyers in the system of any other Open Road user in my market! If I don’t have a buyer, someone else who is using Open Road nearby might have the perfect buyer.

No longer am I solely dependent upon my own limited database of buyers. With this “Power Matching” component, I can extend my search in a manner that is confidential and protects the interests of both Open Road users. My chances for finding a buyer quickly have dramatically increased!

There is simply nothing like Open Road on the market today. Nothing. While no single aspect of the material I’ve shared will completely turn around your business, the ability to match buyers with property efficiently comes close. When you combine these techniques and systems as a whole, then get ready to rock & roll!

Open Road is an entire business management system for real estate investors. It does so much more than build your buyers list, but that buyer-to-property matching system is priceless. Click here to find out more about this system, and why I think it is the secret weapon of choice for investor who want to build a workable buyers list.