newbie from LI,NY need HELP finding motivated sellers !!

[Willaim Cody]

been trying to do a deal for 6 months and cant find the right motivated sellers in long island usleadlist didnt help at all

[Andrew Massaro]

Forget craigslist. You're not going to find many, if any, distressed sellers there, IMO. And, I've never used USLeadlist. So, I can't give you an opinion of the quality of their lists. I use listsource.com. I do know, however, that there are a ton of cash deals happening in the four counties located on Long Island. I ran a cash buyer report on them in FreedomSoft for the past six months, and there were a ton of buyers making cash purchases. So, you know that deals are being done.

We're back in a seller's market now, which means that deals are harder to come by. But, you should be able to make a bundle on them, once you find them. It's getting harder and harder for cash buyers to jump on the MLS, REO or auction sites and have their pick of the top deals. That inventory is drying up. And, they are looking more and more to wholesalers to bring them the best deals.

That's where you come in.

For one, I'd switch your list from foreclosure and pre-foreclosure, to absentee owners with equity. And, I'd use listsource.com, also. Make sure you narrow your list, by putting in criteria. You don't want to send mailers to people who will never use you, or whose situation does not fit what we do. So, make sure you add in SFR, equity 40-100%, etc, etc. Make it as targeted as possible.

The next step is a mailer that will get the phone ringing. My experience has been that letters get a bigger response rate... but postcards get a more motivated seller. And, postcards are about half the price, as well. Something to think about...

In addition, you need to be doing more than just mailing... unless you are mailing a ton. If you're going to put all your eggs in one basket, you need to bomb the hell out of that list. Doing one mailing a month, and that's all, is probably not going to get you many deals. There are five to ten things you can, and should be, doing each month.