Ideas for generating Seller leads - Wholesaling

[Tim Wilkson]

Hello BiggerPockets team,

 My name is Tim Wilkson, a beginner in Wholesaling up in the Great Northwest, Woodinville WA to be exact. I have been posting to Craigslist over the last week looking for Sellers and Buyers in the greater Seattle Metro area without a whole lot of luck. Took one r two calls. I have been using headers such as (Looking to Sale your House, we buy with Cash!) Can anyone comment on listings or methods that you have tried in your area that have helped to bring in leads to follow?  

  Thanks,

Tim Wilkson

[Ryland Taniguchi]

Originally posted by @Tim Wilkson:

Hello BiggerPockets team,

 My name is Tim Wilkson, a beginner in Wholesaling up in the Great Northwest, Woodinville WA to be exact. I have been posting to Craigslist over the last week looking for Sellers and Buyers in the greater Seattle Metro area without a whole lot of luck. Took one r two calls. I have been using headers such as (Looking to Sale your House, we buy with Cash!) Can anyone comment on listings or methods that you have tried in your area that have helped to bring in leads to follow?  

  Thanks,

Tim Wilkson

If you are on a low budget, the cheapest way to wholesale is to systematically make calls to people like agents, loan officers, etc. who would most likely have access to distressed buyers and sellers.

If you have a small monthly budget, start a marketing campaign to different categories that have equity. There are plenty of deals out there in Seattle. Best advise is to start with one zip code. Looks like you live in Woodinville and that might be the best place to start. You want an area that has low prices and high prices (rehabbed and new construction) on the same streets. You don't want the suburban communities where every house is the same and not that outdated. I like pre-1986 homes.

I like areas like Ballard, Wallingford, Queen Anne, Tacoma, and Everett where there are price variations. In Ballard there homes in the $400s and high $800s on the same street. Tacoma has homes we can pick up for $60 k with houses rehabbed selling for $180 k on the same streets. Everett has homes we can pick up for $140 k on the same street as homes in the low $300s. 

Start by building your database by driving by and writing down homes with old siding, old roofing, old windows, old doors or signs of vacancy. Ask Chicago Title or Nextitle for a list of high Land to Improvement value homes... these are teardowns or infill land deals possibly. You're looking for houses that can't qualify for traditional financing. As wholesalers and flippers, we're doing the community a big service and financing deals that banks won't finance. That's the only reason why these are deals. If the seller could retail sell their home, they should list with a real estate agent. If a flipper is putting in $150,000 in rehab, they should be able to make a $75,000 profit for use of their capital. 

No one invests in any business without an expected return on investment. The profit motive drives the entire economy, and I don't understand the politicians and government agencies that would prefer to ban capitalism and kill our country. In any case, as Grant Cordone says, we have a duty and obligation to be financially successful as this helps our communities. Without developers and flippers, we'd be living in warzones and in third world countries. 

If you have any questions about wholesaling, feel free to contact me. We're very active everywhere between Tacoma to Marysville.