You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
-
All,
Bit of an odd question, but I travel to Washington frequently for work and have developed a good base of operations and team to use for Highest Bidder Sales and the market is far superior than my home area both in number of sales and average home price. I want to start marketing to sellers to find homes I can do HBS on as I am looking to generate large chunks of cash. What suggestions do you have for someone that can’t knock on doors to find motivated sellers/empty houses?I know mailers/postcards are overdone, but what is a good “arms reach” method? I need to get moving as summer is winding down.
Thanks,
GregGreg
Why don’t you do this in your own backyard? It would be a lot easier. Surely there are opportunities there.
What’s the Washington market like? Do houses sell fast and for full price or do they sit on the market a long time? What taxes will you have to pay if you do a deal in Washington? Do certain areas have higher crime than others — you need to avoid those areas. You’lll need to do some driving around to identify neighborhoods you want to work.
If you insist on working a market several states away, you should remember that your objective is to find a motivated seller. The most motivated seller is one with a vacant house. You can recruit people to look for signs of a vacant house (mega lead generator), or you can cruise the FSBO type websites looking for vacant houses.
If you are there often, then you should be able to spend 3-4 hours door knocking to find deals. But you need to identify the neighborhoods with the best opportunities. If houses are selling like hotcakes in a certain neighborhood, you won’t find many deals. You’ll need to do extensive research to identify the sweet spots – and less hot areas yet still desirable.
Jackie,
My area is depressed in every sense of the word. Here the average sale price is $100k and in Seattle its over $600k. There is no state income tax, so no worries there.It is a very hot market, maybe too hot. I have a few areas that I am looking at–not high crime. I did driving around last time I was there and didn’t see many tell tale signs of empty houses (unmowed grass, mail piled up, etc.) in the neighborhoods I drove–very high pride of ownership in those neighborhoods and many areas have community covenants that are strictly enforced. I will use FSBO sites, and then was planning to send a letter to the owner explaining that I buy houses or could help them sell their house. Is this the right approach?
.
Agree about the door knocking, but I am not sure when ill be back. I need to do this remotely for now, and then if I get a house under contract, go there on a Wednesday to set up for the HBS, and fly back Tuesday. I could do some door knocking then when I am working the HBS (obviously not during the open house), but right now I don’t know when ill get back for work, so I don’t want to lose the summer. I have recruited help for the sales with some colleagues there.I know it’s best to work you own backyard (and I will continue to do so) but this is a much better market for me to do HBS in.
Greg A few ways you can get leads remotely are
1) Web. If you have a website you can do pay per click to get people to your site. Make sure your Message is about doing a HBS to sell their house fast.
2) Out of town mailers. Pick an area you want to work in and send a letter to them. Make sure you drill down your list to weed out the bad houses.
3) VAs Have a VA c scrap the craigs list, Zillow and other for sale buy owner lists. Then email them, Text or Voice blast them.These I have found bring in the most HBS. there are hundreds of other ways to bring in leads.
All these ways work BUT if you don’t know your area it wont do you any good. Also don’t try and force a HBS. some time it isn’t the best way. I love them and have made a lot of money off them. Just remember HBS are a method to sell the house. It may not always fit the house or the deal.
.
Greg, when you wrote that the Seattle market was “hot, maybe too hot”, you were really on target. You’ll find this article most interesting:–Dee
.
Hi Greg,
Generating Leads in “remote” areas is what I’ve worked with for most of the last 20 years. It takes the same steps as generating leads in your “home” market. It starts by deciding what houses you want to target, adding in the motivating factors like Jackie mentioned with hopefully vacant houses, and then using the best methods possible to put your message in front of them like TK mentioned. Website, direct mail, VAs. I would also ad potential local publications that may be a good fit for your target sellers.
I would however also ask, why do you consider your local market not attractive to do business in?
Ben
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
