Feedback on lead generation strategy

[Peter C.]

Hi BP community,

Long time reader and investor here. I'm a bit new here, but I have had significant experience in the REI landscape and have run many flips and buy-and-holds in Seattle, Los Angeles, and internationally for both residential and commercial properties. I've had a lot of experience in lead generation in my former corporate life, and I've recently started to bring these skills to my real estate business. Over the past month, my team and I have been able to successfully connect with individuals that are interested in a property "assessment" that match the following criteria:

• 41-90% equity
• Absentee homeowners (in and out of state)
• Los Angeles and Seattle SFRs
• $251K-$1.51M estimated value

We are offering the contact information of these individuals that have voiced interest in having their property "assessed", but would leave it up to the wholesaler or flipper to complete the negotiations. We do not expect all the leads to end up in a deal, which is why we would sell these leads at drastically lower prices than a contract – depending on the level of information and the potential spread, they would range from $100-$500 per lead. Andto be explicitly clear, these leads are NOT contracts – we are not wholesalers. These are individuals that agreed to a property "assessment" and have filled in some basic information, including:

• Estimated range that they're looking to sell the home for (we do not provide advise one way or the other if they choose to give us that information)
• Timeline for selling
• Reason for selling

Our value to a wholesaler/flipper would be the potential to buy inexpensive leads where one would receive an immediate and guaranteed name, number, and address rather than a direct mailing campaign where thousands spent could lead to very few leads. To those wondering why we do not execute on these leads ourselves, we consider ourselves specialists in a specific part of the value chain, and believe we can add real value to the real estate industry through our deep focus.

I wanted to get BP's feedback on this idea:

• What are BP's thoughts on this – especially from the view of a wholesaler or flipper?
• Would there be any interested buyers of these type of leads? If not, what is lacking in the product? Is it price, not enough information on the leads, or something else?
• What other basic information would you as a flipper/wholesaler need to know on deciding whether or not to buy these leads?

Happy to discuss more offline - we're still refining the process and product and would be very happy to get feedback industry experts.

Pete

[Jordan Archer]

@Peter C.

Make sure you have your realtors license before doing this. This would DEFINITELY be considered brokering.

The reason wholesaling without a license is legal is because you are selling equitable title (ie: contract to purchase). 

What you are doing is collecting a referral fee for connecting buyer and seller, without having any interest in the property.