Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Investing: 5 Lead Generation Resources For Finding Motivated Sellers

Lead Generation is at the heart and soul of any business and it is no different with multifamily apartment investing. Are you at a loss as to how to track down sellers of multifamily properties? There are five solid resources for finding motivated sellers. These five sources are direct mail, brokers, www.loopnet.com, bird dogs and other venues.


Lead Generation is at the heart and soul of any business and it is no different with multifamily apartment investing.  Are you at a loss as to how to track down sellers of multifamily properties?  There are five solid resources for finding motivated apartment sellers.  These five sources are direct mail, brokers, www.loopnet.com, bird dogs and other venues.

Of these five resources, direct mail is the most effective technique.  This simple technique involves mailing letters to owners of multifamily properties in your target area and asking them if they would be interested in selling.

The wonderful thing about this technique is that you can employ its use in other cities.  If you are going on vacation, you can find all of the people in that city who own apartment complexes in your hometown and then send them a letter asking if they are dissatisfied with their multifamily property and let them know that you would like to buy it.  Let them know when you will be in their city and when you would be able to meet them.
The second resource for finding motivated sellers is brokers.  Probably the easiest method of finding brokers is through www.loopnet.com.  You can get very specific about the type of property that you are looking for.  You can enter a zip code with a price range and it will give you a list of all those properties that meet your criteria that are on the market.

When you are looking at the properties, some of them will have brokers.  You can get the broker’s name and call him.  Do not email the broker.  If you are not going to even bother to pick up the phone to call then how serious are you?  You should call the broker and say, “I saw your listing on www.loopnet.com.  Can you tell me about it?”

After the broker tells you about it, then you say “that’s not exactly what I’m looking for.  Let me tell you what I’m interested in.” Now you can tell him precisely what you are looking for.  The more precise and the more knowledge you convey, the more confidence you will build in that broker that you are a serious buyer.
Loopnet.com is also a resource for finding motivated multifamily sellers.  Once you find a multifamily apartment property on Loopnet.com, you can call the seller up and negotiate.  You can ask for the financials and see what is missing.  If anything, Loopnet.com is a great place for you to “practice” negotiating with sellers.

The fourth resource for finding motivated sellers is the bird dog.  The bird dog is someone who is out hunting deals.  Their goal is to find something that looks like a deal and then they hand it to you to do the work.  Bird dogs are informal brokers who scour the market for deals and then match the deals to buyers. The fifth resource, “other”, is basically a catchall for all other types of resources in finding multifamily investing deals.  A few of these resources are estate attorneys, Laundromat service operators, plumbers, property inspectors and insurance agents.

These five resources offer you great opportunities for attracting and getting in touch with multifamily sellers.  If you utilize these resources you will have multitudes of potential sellers at your disposal.

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