Your favorite method to finding deals?

[Jeremy H.]

What is y'alls favorite way of finding deals?

Quick background: I have a few rentals at the moment - kind of used the brute force method and put 20-25% down on each of them and a couple of them turned into BRRRRs (left some $$ in the deal but not as much as I would have buying at market price). That being said one of the quick realizations I made was how using your own money slows your velocity down significantly. So I've come to the crossroads where I am hoping to get more deals faster (ie: more leads).

Here's what I've got so far:

Cold calling - not going to lie, I straight up don't have the time, discipline or willpower to do this lol

Websites: Auction.com/HUDhomestore (just closed on a HUD home for a new primary residence - awesome place!). Foreclosure.com (I think it basically compiles a list of foreclosures for a monthly fee).

Sheriff Sale/Auctions - don't know how comfortable I am bidding on places that I can't verify the title on. I would be comfortable doing this through auction.com, I just need a way to verify there are no existing leins on the property. I'd have to offer a very low price since the property is "As is" and unseen. 

Propstream (will likely start a direct mail campaign and door knock on the properties that are close to where I live) - I will have this narrowed down by neighborhoods I am interested in. Still need to research on what criteria to use to filter properties and make lists, then skip trace. Costs $99/mo for the service plus I will probably budget 4-5k for initial marketing. 

Other investors - (FB Marketplace/Property Managers/Bandit signs) - Searching places that are for rent on FB marketplace and calling the owner, talking with my current PM and seeing if any landlords are looking to sell their properties, calling the number on bandit signs and seeing if they have anything for sale 

MLS - decent deals seem to be rare or I need my realtor to start essentially low balling very frequently until something sticks

Wholesalers - My networking is the lacking part - I'm on a few FB groups but 99.9% of the stuff is complete garbage. Got one guy that is pretty good, but he only sends a deal every few months. 

I'm about to finish the rehab on my new primary home and will have a sweet office set-up. Hoping to really get going once we get settled in so I'm trying to get prepared and set up now. 

What methods do you all like the most? Which seem to have the most success? How do you formulate your lists on propstream? Favorite criterias to use to filter the best properties? Any insight you all have on any of the methods you personally like to use would be awesome. Thanks!!

[David Lee Hall, III]

All methods work. End of story. It is really what you are comfortable with and how much you want to spend.

1) Buying a list and cold calling: cheap but time intensive. Can be outsourced overseas. But in my area there is a lot of racism with older sellers and not being local or having and accent has almost killed many deals I had to save by coming in as the local yocal. You also have no idea of motivation usually.

2) SEO: You know you are getting a motivated seller because they sought you out. This can be pricey to maintain a high ranking on popular keywords and you never know when Google may change their algorithms. Easy to start getting into with sites like Lead Propeller or Carrot or Realeflow. But to be a star you need regular management and updates. 

3) Pay per click: Don’t sweat native SEO and pay for ad space at the top of native rankings. It seems (our experience) people don’t seem to care if it is an ad or native. Can be pricey but unlike DMM you know the person has some motivation.

4) Facebook: Can be cost effective and gives you tons of tools to target people specifically. We don’t do much here but I know wholesalers that only market this route. 

Side note: For all online intake you need a way to follow up QUICKLY. The chance of getting in touch with the person drops off ridiculously fast from when they fill out all your forms.

5) Direct Mail: Tried and true. Only as good as your copy and your list. Repetition works. We had someone get 52 letters from us once before calling (and selling). Average is 5-7. I know some people with good campaigns get 3-4% response rates (so 30-40 calls per letter). Ours is rather horrible at around 0.3%. So you can easily see the difference in targeting.

6) Bird dogs: Guys that get paid to tell you when they find homes that meet your criteria.

7) Networking: This is probably the all time king and covers so much. From going to your local REIA to telling your mailman you will give them a finders fee if they let you know about any vacant homes on their route and you buy it. The more people that know you buy homes the more opportunities just show up at no cost.

8) Driving for dollars: This one is great for finding those houses that obviously are ugly. Peeling paint? High grass? Shrubs not trimmed? Shingle missing? All have distress and lack of care. Now what you do with that house is the question. You can put a door hanger on their door or a flyer in their mailbox if you are non confrontational and then add them to a DMM campaign. Like to talk to people? Go knock on the door. Somewhere in the middle - skip trace the owner and hand off to a VA to cold call.

9) Awareness marketing: Billboards, TV, Radio - these can be great but you need to be careful because you can drive people to competition accidentally. How? Say you have a billboard that says “Sell Fast in San Antonio to Bob” - someone could just remember ““Sell Fast in San Antonio” and if you are not paying for pay per click or in the top 3 on SEO then you likely just sold the guys house to  a competitor.