How To Find End Buyers For Your Real Estate Deals On The Internet In REAL TIME!

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This past week, one of my new clients asked me the following:  “Peter, my entire business is focused on flipping houses, mostly to real estate investors.  To tell you the truth, I don’t see how the internet is going to help my business?”

Here’s my answer to him and to anyone else:

The internet is a goldmine for such a business.  Consider this . . . If you are a real estate wholesaler or flipper, then your main sources of end buyers are other investors including rehabbers.

Where could you find other investors and rehabers on the internet?

There are many sources for that, but today I would like to talk to you about one source, social media.  In fact, BiggerPockets is one website where you can find thousands of other real estate investors who are looking for what you have to offer.  Few other websites including Facebook and Twitter offer the same opportunities.

How do we find the investors who are interested in what I have to offer?

Let’s look at Twitter.  When you go to Twitter.com and login to your account, you’ll see a search box on the right side of your screen, under your profile and the photos of your followers.  That search box is missed by the majority of people, yet it is one of the most powerful features of twitter.  Why?

Because it allows you to search for people and their conversations in REAL-TIME.  That’s right!  Whatever you input into that box, Twitter will go out and search their entire database to see who is talking about that phrase RIGHT NOW!

For instance, let’s say you input the search phrase: “fix house” or “real estate.”  Twitter will return all of the current and live conversations that include those phrases.

How do You Monetize that Feature?

Now you know who is online and what they are talking about, you can follow those people talking about things that relate to your business and send them a message.  Remember, once they receive the message, they are more likely to respond to you right away because they are in the ‘twitter mindset.’

Now, you start a conversation with them. Proceed with caution here.  When you send them a message and when you start talking to them, do not and I repeat, do not market yourself and your business. 

Think about this for a second — If you go to a party where you don’t know anyone, do you talk about your business right away?  No!  You introduce yourself, you ask them to tell you something about themselves and you make a connection with them.

The process is very similar on the internet.  The difference here is that you can’t see them in person.  So, look at their profile and at their tweets to see what they are interested in and what they tweet about.  That’s how you start a conversation.

Before you know it, you are emailing each other, talking to each other on the phone and meeting for a lunch to discuss business.  Remember, real estate is a relationship business so start forging relationships!

You can apply the same principles to other social websites on the internet – remember that the key is to engage!  Twitter is just one social media website you can use for your business. 

As always, I would appreciate any comments and questions below.  Let me know and I’ll be happy to answer them for you.

To Your Success,

Peter Kolat

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.