Lead and List generating

[Eric Abel]

Hey there BP Community! I am a rookie wholesaler and want to step my game up. Till now I have been getting all my leads from driving for dollars and non-MLS listing sites. I want to add cold calling and direct mail to my tactics. My question is, How should I go about getting a list? I've already tried my market's public records department, but they do not have absentee owner lists available. What have you found most helpful to generate leads?

[Jerry Puckett]

@Eric Abel

To offer a different point of view, someone new, or a self described Rookie might have a different definition of a "successful wholesale operation". What Don described above is a mature business operating successfully. No one I've known personally has begun there. I certainly didn't.

Those businesses began somewhere. Mine and many others started at a fraction of that cost and grew organically over time. My definition of success in my first year was 3 deals. If you are one man working alone AND you have a full time job, doing a few Real Estate Deals a year is like a side hustle. The next year I did 15. 

Don, I believe, has been a Real Estate professional for decades with Diplomas, Licenses, Certifications, etc. The real deal with a mature business. His circle is replete with other long term, fully mature successful businesses. I was a Bartender. I have worked with many who started in a similar place and went on to better things. 

That said...to actually answer the question rather than to sway you away from what you ask, I find ListSource to be the most complete and up to date datasource from which I have pulled hundreds of thousands or records for over 90 markets throughout the U.S. 

[Full Disclosure: I am an authorized Corelogic reseller] I chose a Corelogic product for the reasons above, and because they also happen to be the backend of 90% of the Nation's MLS system. Complete, accurate data; quick, easy and inexpensive.

If I had read a post like the above years ago and let it discourage me, I wouldn't be where I'm at now.

Hope that helps.