Marketing for Wholesale Leads

[Michael G.]

Ive heard somewhere that to be a great real estate investor you have to be a great marketer. My marketing method is primarily a 2 letter direct mail drip campaign to landlords. The response rate is ok. I want to pick the brains of the successful wholesalers on this forum and I know there are many. How much of your wholesaling business is marketing for a) seller leads and buyer leads? How big is your your buyers list? What percentage of marketing is your wholesaling business - 40% 60% 80%. Do you prefer Direct Mail Marketing or Internet Marketing or other? Let me know your thoughts. Happy Wholesaling!

[Tom Bukacek]

Depends on the area. Bandits signs in Austin are a no-no and the holster sniffing code enforcement dufus squad will ticket whatever $$$ the Federal Govt doesn't tax from you.

BTW Joseph- a 1.5 return on signs is outstanding! When I used to do it I was lucky to get a .25 response rate. Area was too saturated and signs got pulled quickly.

CL seems to yield a great response...from autobots trying to cross sell you anything from viagara to gambling websites...and even some stuff I don't need or want. Internet marketing isn't as effective with wholesales as many people who are free and clear or paid a good chunk of their mortgage are elderly and don't check the whole computer internet contraption thinggy too often.

As such, the youth-challenged Americans generally like prefer to read print media. To quote my dad: 'I'm not taking a laptop to the john!' Therefore, newspaper ads can be pretty effective. But stay away from the major newspaper and focus on smaller, local fringe town newspapers. Also, Greensheet and Thrifty Nickels offer just as good of a return and are less expensive than the bigger city daily rags.

I do like targeting my lists. Free and clear or mortgages that have been in place for 15+ years are good places to start. Using a hand written yellow letter direct mail campaign to target this list has been most effective for me. When people see a hand written envelope the size of an invitation or birthday card, they open it. What more can you ask from a direct mail campaign?

Also, many times a list broker can give you phone numbers with the list, which is a good way to find leads.

One final tip: put business cards about buying houses in local cafes, diners, Denny's, or barber shops, etc... If it serves dinner at 3pm, chances are elderly people who own their homes are there and this is a good market to target.

Hope this helped! Happy investing.