Need Cash Buyers? Here’s Where to Find Them

If you’re a wholesaler and you have been in this business for any length of time, you probably know that there are times when you need to look outside of your regular buyers list to sell a property.

Did you ever have a deal that for whatever reason you just can’t sell to your regular list of cash buyers? Maybe it’s not in a prime location, or it’s simply not where they like to buy. It could be that you got this property during the 4 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas when (at least in my area) I can’t bust them out of their “holiday cheer” long enough to actually get in the car and go look at property. They just don’t want to work between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Well call me crazy, but I am still working during that period of time.

The “Lincoln” House

Last year just about this same time, I had a house that none of my regular cash buyers wanted. Several of my regular buyers had already headed south and were kicked back on a sunny beach sipping drinks. Some said it just wasn’t in an area where they wanted to buy. A couple of other investors found a reason to tell me over the telephone that they weren’t interested. Heck, I couldn’t get any of them to even go look at it.

Now let me say that I have some of the best cash buyers on my list, but they are picky!

Normally that’s OK. I know exactly who to call when I put a property under contract in one of their preferred areas, and they move quickly. But that didn’t solve the problem of this house; the “Lincoln House”.

Well I have a tip for you; when you need cash buyers, here’s where they are:

They are hidden in plain sight on your local tax assessor’s site.

Finding Cash Buyers the Easy Way

When none of my regular cash buyers wanted this particular house (and I admit that it was in a marginal neighborhood), I had to make a choice. I always put a lock box on the property so my buyers can run out and take a look at the house. But I only do that if I know the investors. I don’t want to send potential “copper thieves” over to a house I have under contract. So I knew if I put this house on Craigslist I would be driving all the way across town to let folks in, and I really didn’t want to do that. It was cold outside and it was … well, a few weeks before Christmas and I had a lot to do. So I decided to use one of my creative strategies for finding cash buyers. I logged onto the Tax Assessor’s site.

It only took me a few minutes to find a list of potential buyers.

Using Your Tax Assessor’s Site to Find Cash Buyers

Normally I pull out a map and look at the streets about 3 blocks in every direction. But in this case, I only needed to look on this particular street which was “Lincoln”. I had a list of potential investor buyers in less than 30 minutes.

I sat down and printed off some bright green oversized postcards and got them in the mail the same day. I used oversized cards to make them stand-out from the rest of their mail, and green because of the Christmas Holidays. I was pretty sure that by using that color, they would at least read the mail piece. And I was right. I sold the house in a matter of days and had it closed before Christmas.

The Process

For any of you that don’t know this, in most areas you can subscribe to your tax assessor’s site in your county typically for a small fee each month. In my area it just went up to $30. There is a free version here but it doesn’t really give you any of the information you need. You will be amazed at how much you use this site once you have access to it. I can pull up a property while I have a seller on the phone and get all the pertinent information needed. There is also a direct link to the Sheriff’s site where I can look up the property taxes to see if they have been paid.

Take a look at the quick video below and see for yourself just how easy it is to find cash buyers in your area.

Here’s the Video

Let me know if you use this Ninja trick in your business to find cash buyers.
Photo Credit: skpy

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