How Well should I Know My Buyers

[Christian Brown]

Hello all, some say" just get a deal and then market it. Somebody will buy it." Is this what your process is? Do you as a Wholesaler go to any effort to get to know your buyers criteria in detail before marketing and talking to Sellers? If your a Buyer, what level of understanding your specific criteria do you prefer from Wholesalers?

[Alex Breshears]

Hi Christian!  This is a fantastic question, and very much a chicken versus the egg discussion.  I would say there can be a gray area in the middle that may be worth exploring.  I say this because understanding WHAT a buyer MIGHT want is crucial.  For example, if you are looking at properties that need a lot of renovation, like permits and plans and significant updates, but you know your city is taking MONTHS to get permits processed, you might have a smaller pool of buyers for a project that large, so they would likely want or need a really good deal to make it worth their time because their holding costs are going to be higher than another project where its just a paint and carpet type rehab.  Creating a buyers list is one thing, but knowing those buyers, what they are after, how fast can they close, what sort of financing do they need to use, that will give you a much more fruitful database of potential leads to sell to.  You can start a free CRM account with something like Hubspot that allows up to 1000 marketing contacts for free.  Start documenting a process of HOW to find buyers for your deals, what they are looking for as specifically as you can, and then also an idea of how quickly they could close on something if needed. Its not about quantity it is about quality. If you can connect with a few buyers in your market that always come through, it becomes really easy to manage your pipeline, versus someone who has 1000 email contacts and just takes the shot gun approach to someone come buy this thing from me!  Success is likely to happen with fewer deeper relationships, so knowing who is in your market, what they are buying, under what terms will help alot. That doesn't mean stop working on finding deals, just make sure the numbers work out in real life. Don't rely on a spreadsheet, try to give accurate and even slightly conservative pro forma numbers to people, and if you  maintain that great reputation buyers will show up for the deals you have under contract.