Looking for advice from experienced flippers/ wholesalers

[Skyler Mckinney]

Hello, Biggerpockets family. How are you getting your deals? What works best for you? I'm looking for some advice. I have been looking for my first deal for around six months now and haven't been successful. Heres what I have done so far. Well, the first four months I was using an agent and just the MLS. The last two months I have launched a full-scale marketing campaign. I have started a we buy homes website (balancedhomebuyers.com) check it out, and feedback on the site would be appreciated too. I have sent out mailers to homes in pre foreclosure in a selected area with selected criteria. I have been using google ad words to draw people to my site I have had over 3000 views specific to my area and only 128 clicks and not a message from anyone other than people asking to be added to my buyer's list. I have sent out a 300 person email campaign and done a 50 person voicemail campaign. I ordered my bandit signs am about to put them up and I have ordered flyers that I am going to pass out in the next coming weeks. I am not expecting to have a deal from all of this so far but at least one call back which I haven't received. I'm not giving up or getting hopeless I know this is going to take time and presistance. I'm just wondering how you are getting your deals what do you have the best luck with marketing wise. If you think I should be doing something that is not, please let me know. I read in J Scott's book to leave actual offers on peoples door, and I like that idea and think I'm going to try it next. Any help at all would be appreciated!

[Owen Dashner]

Skyler, you are doing a lot of the correct things to drive leads your way.  Some follow up questions/comments I would have:

1. Your site is OK, but lacks content and the pages load fairly slowly.  How did you get your site setup initially, who hosts it, and who setup and who manages your PPC campaign?  I'd suggest going with a pre-built investor template site like those that Leadpropeller and Investor Carrot sell.  A lot of relevant content is already there, you just need to spend some time getting it customized to include your info.  They are not very expensive - LP's is $50 a month.

I'm not all that familiar with your area, but I would bet it is fairly competitive.  Google "we buy houses", "sell my house fast", "sell house for cash" and other motivated seller search terms and include your area in the search.  Then check to see where your ad displays.  If it isn't top 3, you aren't going to get much traction.  If it isn't on page 1, you will likely get nothing out of it and are throwing money away.  You will need to make sure the right keyword searches are displaying your ads, and consider increasing your budget and/or hiring someone to setup your Adwords account correctly to make sure you are hitting the top 3 ad spots.

2. Direct mail - pre-foreclosures are not a big target list.  You likely are not sending enough direct mail to a wide enough group to actually get appointments out of it.  Consider mailing delinquent property tax owners, owners that live in zip codes you like with more than 5 years of ownership (to ensure they have equity), landlords who have recently been through evictions, etc.

3. Create a Facebook business page if you haven't already, create a Google business site (with a physical address) for free, create a YouTube account and put out some videos.  The more content, the better.  This will help mostly with long term SEO rankings, but it all ties together with you overall marketing plan.

Keep it up - you have some good things going, and once you get traction, you will start to get consistent leads coming in.

Good luck!

Owen