3 Steps To Finding Buyers in ANY Real Estate Market - Part 1...

One common theme that I keep hearing from real estate investors is that they are having challenges finding REAL buyers for their properties; particularly in depressed markets. So I want to write about the 3 Steps To Finding Buyers in ANY Real Estate Market (including markets such as South Florida, California, Phoenix, etc..)

1. Analyze the buyer and message you are sending:

The key to success in any market is to adjust your investing strategy to the market and have proven, tested business systems in place.

Buyers are the name of the game in slow markets, and their are 3 different types of buyers:

1. Investors / Wholesale Buyers
2. Retail Buyers or Owner Occupants
3. And then their are those that are just "dabbling" in Real Estate and will only get involved if a "good deal" comes along.

To set yourself up for success you need to think about what "hat" your buyer is wearing and ask yourself "What is important to them?" For example, if you are selling a house to a retail buyer then you know that things like the neighborhood, kitchen, and bathrooms are probably going to be high on their priority list. What about if you are assigning a contract to an investor or rehabber? They will certainly be more interested in the After Repaired Value (aka ARV), repairs needed, wholesale price, etc...

The point is that by understanding what is important to your buyer, you can create the right marketing message that will make them TAKE ACTION!!!

2. How to Find Buyers:

The idea is to not focus on just one or two ways to find buyers, but to cast a net out of numerous methods of marketing for buyers. Here are 5 strategies for finding buyers that you can implement right now to get your properties sold:

- Property Blog: By creating a blog for each property you are selling you can eventually create a community of followers / buyers that are instantly notified by email once you create a new post (about your properties). In addition, search engines love blogs and can generate traffic for you...

- Bandit Signs: Everyone has seen those 18x24 signs on the side of the road that say "We Buy Houses", etc... and the reason you have seen them is because THEY WORK! Now I'm not talking about bandit signs to attract motivated sellers but bandit signs to find REAL buyers. Here are some quick points about bandit signs: 1. Delegate - Delegate - Delegate. Go to www.craiglist.org and pay someone $10 / hour to put out signs for you. Spend time ON your business not IN your business! 2. Start with at least 15 - 20 signs and always TEST your message. 3. Have a compelling headline, 2 or 3 lines of content, and a BIG Phone #! 4. You might want to put them out on Friday afternoon and take them down on Sunday evening so that the "sign police" does not give you a hard time. 5. Always have a screening process and proper follow-up system in place so that you can sift and sort through the garbage leads.

- Video: 94% of people searching for properties start on the Internet. Of those 94%, 38% of them are more likely to watch a video. The fact is that video is very effective. We have all seen videos on YouTube.com, Vimeo, etc... and you NEED to jump on the bandwagon. Just remember that people like to be entertained so be as creative as possible when marketing yourself or your properties. My final note on videos is that this is also a great way to show features of the property that you can not see w/ just pictures, etc...

- FREE Posting Websites: The most popular one is www.craigslist.com. When posting to these sites you want to make sure that you have a "catchy" headline, compelling copy and photos, and always have a CALL TO ACTION!

- Pay Per Click Advertising (Google, etc...): Contrary to popular belief, if done right this is actually one of the least expensive ways to generate traffic to your blog / website and the best part is that you can turn it off and on depending on your budget.

3. Build a Buyers List: Having a list of buyers is gold! I don't know how else to put it...and this is not just in the Real Estate business, but in any business. Attracting a new customer is more expensive then keeping an old one, so here are some ways to build a buyers list: 1. Get a website with an opt in section and/or Blog and have people subscribe to it by offering something of value (i.e. free eBook or eReport, etc...) Note: you can visit www.weebly.com to build a free website 2. Use some of the methods above to always build your list 3. Get an auto-responder so that you can systematically follow-up with your list on a weekly or monthly basis.

Best of Success and Abundance,

Alex Pardo
www.PropertyWholesales.com