Building A Buyers List

The Importance of Building A Buyers List

Building a buyers list is one of the most important things you can do as a real estate investor. What surprises me the most, it that a lot of investors are not building a buyers list which can really cost them. Having a buyers list is the difference between selling a house in a few hours as opposed to a few weeks or months. And the longer you hold onto a house, the more it takes from your profits because of holding costs.

Building a buyers list is a tremendous asset and something every real estate investor should spend the time doing. So let me share a few things you can do to really begin building that list of buyers.

Building Your Buyers List One Name At A Time

The very first thing you need in order to capture and organize names is a form. That form is usually connected to a database which will store the information.

Now, there are several ways this can be done, however, I would encourage you to set something up that has email capability because then you can simply email your buyers list when you have a deal.

You’ll want to make sure you that the email service provider you use has a good delivery rate because if you can’t get to your potential buyers email inbox, all your work is in vain.

I would stick to Aweber, Icontact, or GetResponse.

I personally use Aweber and love them! They are very user friendly and their delivery rate is amazing. At any rate, being able to email your list has huge advantages, so get set up with a good email provider.

Now, I should also mention that you can do this by using excel and manually filling in names, numbers and emails and then load the list into outlook or gmail if you want, but I’m all about automation and using my time wisely.

Once you’ve set up your Aweber account, created a database (or list as they call it) that will store all the information you collect.

Then you need to create a form to capture information. You can capture anything you want. For example, First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone Number, State, etc.

Most email service providers have a form builder that you point and click and it creates a form for you. Then you just have to copy the form code and place it on your website.

So yes, you need a place to put the form to automatically capture your buyer leads. You do this by having a website.

You’ll simply copy the auto generated form code from Aweber and paste it on your website and start sending your potential buyers there. You can also add them manually.

If you don’t already have a website, it’s super easy to set up a free one. They are also very user friendly.

You can use Blogger, WordPress, or Weebly. When you set up a website on any of these platforms, you get the pick what to name your site and it will never cost you a dime. You never have to pay for hosting or any of it and they come with a few templates. The URL’s will look like this…

• ibuyhousesinflorida.blogspot.com
• ibuyhousesincalifornia.wordpress.com
• seegreathousedeals.weebly.com

Now if you don’t want to see blogspot, wordpress or weebly at the end of the URL, you will need to register an actual domain name and get hosting.

By doing this, your domains would look like

• ibuyhousesinflorida.com
• ibuyhousesincalifornia.com
• seegreathousedeals.com

which looks more professional. You’ll be spending about $5-7/month for a domain and hosting like this.

Ways to Build Your Buyers List

Once you have your website up and form is working, you can now start to advertise and begin building a buyers list. You can advertise on Craigslist, Postlets, and Local Real Estate Club sites.

You can also hand out fliers around the city pushing them to your website. You can find lots of templates online and even in Microsoft Word which you can customize.

On Craigslist, you can go to the real estate section (under “services” category) in your city and post an ad.

Post Title:
Distressed Houses and Handyman Specials in [insert location]

Body:
Hey, if you’re a local real estate investor, rehabber, or landlord and are looking for great deals on houses, we would love to talk to you.

We have an endless supply of houses we find for .60 and .70 on the dollar in [insert location] and would love to pass those deals on to you.

Just reply with your best contact information and we’ll add you to our Exclusive Buyer’s List.

[Your Name]

It’s that simple. These you will have to add manually. You may also want to call or email to verify it’s a legitimate person. But this is good because they you can find out what they are looking for. And if you know what their buying criteria is, you know where you need to be on price.

Some of the best leads you can get are when you call on those “I Buy Houses” signs on the street corners. They are telling you they buy houses so call them up, get their name, email and phone number and manually enter them into your list. And don’t forget to call on those “I Buy Houses” ads you see in your local newspaper or PennySaver.

Another great way to add leads and build your buyers list is by going to the foreclosure auction. Most of the investors that go to the auctions have CASH because it’s the only way to buy these houses at the auction.

Start getting names an numbers of investors at the auction. They too are looking for great deals on properties. That’s why they are there. You really only need to show up a few times because it’s the same investors over and over again. Those are the contacts you want.

Don’t forget landlords either. Call all the For Rent signs and find out who is interested in adding more properties to their portfolio. By doing these things a few hours a week, you’ll be surprised how quickly your buyers list grows.

Another great way is by networking. One of the best places to network is your local REIA group. Now, I realize some places don’t have these, but they can be a great way to not just find buyers, but also money to fund deals as well.

Automating the buyers list

For those of you who want the “easy button” for creating a buyers list, yes you can have all this done for you. There are tools out there that will automatically create the website for you and build the buyers list as well. It all comes with a price.

What I’m referring to is called iFlip. One of the best automation tools out there for this. As you can see, you can get by without it, but it will save some time if you decide to use it.

Next time, we are going to really dig into the meat of wholesaling and talk about how to find these great deals.

Let me know if you have any creative ways for building a buyers list.