Generate Cheap Leads for One-time Rental Purchase

[Alex Kaplan]

Hey BP,

I'd like to buy my first rental property in the next 5 months and I was hoping you could help me generate my own leads. I have pretty specific criteria in mind and so far I've found some leads on the MLS - but not many that I'd actually make an offer on. Plus, my ratio of [leads] to [time I have to analyze leads] is way too low… I feel like I'm not actually doing the work that finds me deals.

I’ve heard about all these different ways to get leads and I’m gung-ho for trying them - but I just thought I’d pose the question to the community before I commit to following a bad system for months on end – why find out the hard way that I chose a poor system when people already know what works, right??

Specific details in my case:

1. I’m kinda just doing a proof-of-concept in an area close to home that doesn’t appreciate much but does cash flow well

~What this means:

A. I rather not set up a long term leads system because once I get a property in this area I’ll probably be investing OOS in areas with better appreciation

B. I rather not spend a ton of money on leads. I suppose I can budget for some marketing costs but I haven’t heard anyone else factor in marketing when they calculate their COCROI. So if I can spend as little as possible that would be great 😊

2. I live about 150 miles from my target market

~What this means:

A. Driving for dollars would add more to my marketing costs with gas and tolls – not ideal

B. I can still drive to my market if I had to

C. It would take a lot of time to drive to my market. I can still listen to podcasts but I prefer not to read audiobooks while driving (because I can’t take notes) and I can’t network or analyze deals or do many high-value activities that I can do when I’m not driving

3. I don’t mind calling people

4. I have about 25 hours of free time each week

What I’m considering as solutions:

1. Attend as many virtual events as possible

I've joined a couple REIA's and I'm considering a couple more. (I don't mind this expense as much because it is nice to network and learn)

2. Post ads for homes wanted on Craigslist/BP marketplace

3. Post ads for wholesalers/turnkey providers on BP marketplace

4. Call landlords who are posting ads to rent their property (searching Craigslist)

5. Search for homes for sale by owner on Craigslist

6. Continue searching Realtor/Zillow/working with RE agent

Other thoughts:

I’ve found from The Millionaire Real Estate Investor the following break down of how the author was getting leads at one point and I used that behind some of my reasoning:

Networking: 32%, Agents/MLS: 28%, Driving/walking: 10%, Newspapers/ads: 9%, Foreclosure listings: 7%, For sale by owner: 4%, Internet database research: 3%, Target marketing: 2%, Other: 5%

Please let me know if you have any feedback/suggestions for my specific case or any book/resource recommendations. I feel like the amount of time/money a beginner investor should invest in generating leads to get a multifamily rental property is not covered very much… but maybe I just missed some great books/discussions!

So TL;DR:

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions for how to get cheap leads for a beginner multifamily rental investor looking to buy one and only one property in a specific market. Thank you for your thoughts!