Off Market Deals - What is the best way to find / approach them?

Question

Hey everyone,

Fairly new to real estate investing and I was wondering, what ways have you found the most successful in finding off market deals?

What is the best way to find and approach people who are not necessarily selling at the moment and make them consider a sale?

Jaron Walling · Answer

@Constantinos Zavos It's tough out there right now. There's multiple strategies that work but the reality of 2024 is you'll end up in two camps,

1. Grass roots marketing/networking/free social media

2. Spend LOTS of MONEY on mass marketing

The "rate locked affect" is limiting a large portion of the market and stopping transactions from happening. People can't afford to sell and buy by another house. This affects opportunities for buyers. I have friends that routinely complain about it. They want to move but can't. They're not investors so the market prices and FED rates control them. That's how the majority of homeowners "invest" in real estate.

We had success with choose grass roots and stuff listed on the MLS. I've had success with letters, driving for dollars, and off market deals. Haven't had any luck lately but the market has gotten harder to find deals. We don't time to hammer the market for leads. If it's listed on the MLS there's motivation. An agent/broker/wholesaler found them and needs paid so it's probably not a homerun deal, but base hits can add up. Negotiate the base base hits and make it worth your time.

The BP forums are full of useful marketing information. Search for it and read. Get creative if you like but end of day a property is only worth what someone will pay. That's the reason we target distressed properties. New or remodeled stuff rarely works for LT rentals and never works for value add/flips.

FED is reducing rates another .25% at the next meeting. It's a small step to "unlocking" more real estate and more transaction volume. Best of luck.

Gustavo Munoz Castro · Answer

I run a call center that works with investors, so I get to see this up close. Prospecting is usually the best and most cost-effective way to generate conversations with potential sellers, plain old cold calling. The key is to generate a solid list that starts with high equity homeowners and you can layer on top other filters like Notice of Default, downsizer, absentee owner, etc.

In my experience, the goal isn't to make someone consider an offer on their home, they're either going to be interested in selling or not, you can't control that, but you can control trying to figure out is they have any interest and finding out their motivation.

Yogev Lifchin · Answer

@Constantinos Zavos

I had a lot of good experience with Yellow Letter HQ, OLM is good too. they suggest multiple styles of templates for you to use. Try to figure out what works in your market and try it out. the success you will get comes from the actual list stacking you prepare before, the more targeted list with multiple 'distress factors' you can increase the chance of them calling you. inbound leads is truly the best way to go in Wholesaling.

Yogev Lifchin · Answer

Over the past three years, I’ve been using most of the major off-market techniques.

One standout method has always been pulling data and feeding it into a call center to generate off-market leads. In my opinion, this is much more effective than texting, which often feels like a constant game of cat and mouse with phone carriers. It’s relatively simple and, while it does cost money, it’s one of the more cost-effective options. That said, expect to deal with a fair amount of fluff leads.

The two best strategies I’ve found are inbound methods: direct mail and Google Ads.

Direct mail can be expensive, but it can also yield highly discounted properties.

Google Ads, on the other hand, doesn’t require data extraction like calls, direct mail, or texting. However, it does demand solid digital marketing expertise to see positive results. These days, I’m all in on Google Ads.

One last thing is to start working with PROFESSIONAL wholesalers (emphasis on PROFESSIONAL). These are reputable people who stand behind the properties they find and are reliable for ensuring a smooth transaction.

Julia Lyrberg · Answer

I'd recommend checking local Facebook Groups!

Plenty of Wholesalers looking to connect with buyers.

Gustavo Munoz Castro · Answer

There are tons of list building tools out there, Propstream is the most famous, The Share Group is my personal fav, they can provide just the homeowner info and some (not all) can provide phone numbers.

Constantinos Zavos · Answer

Thank you both! And what are some resources you used when creating those lists? Is this information usually publicly available? And what is the best way to sort and filter it before feeding it into these call center servcies?

Constantinos Zavos · Answer

Thank you both. I have heard of success stories with direct mail as well. What platform do you use to send it out? Any advice on what you usually include in these letters?

Off Market Deals - What is the best way to find / approach them?

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