Regardless of your chosen path in real estate whether it be wholesaling, subject2, rehabbing, being an agent, or anything else you need sellers! It’s the most basic yet important principle in the entire business.
Since I’ve seemingly had more success using Craigslist than others, I will share my simple yet effective strategy and some time saving tips. Some of them are as follow:
I use the same techniques to locate sellers for each of the areas I like to work in varying in population from 40 thousand to about 1 million people.
1. Don’t just market for deals but actively seek them in the real estate for sale area. I find marketing on Craigslist is kind of hit or miss and way too passive of an idea in the way most people use it. The bigger your market the quicker your ad disappears unless you want to check it multiple times a day or even use the pay service, even then there isn’t a guarantee anyone is gonna click on it.
2. When searching for deals I go straight to the F.S.B.O. section and do keyword searches i.e. owner financing, fixer upper, investors, cheap, etc. (side note if you are looking for buyers rehabbed is a good word to search.) I do it this way to find exactly what I am looking for, and not take an hour to do it.
3. Sometimes I use a webscraper and send all of this new information into a spreadsheet or you can just bookmark individual pages and make a quick folder for them, and come back to the page.
4. I respond with a quick saved message to all of the sellers I see if the numbers are close to decent after some quick research. Some sellers prefer you not reply by email that is fine just give them a call. Email to me is easier than playing phone tag.
5. When you are going to market for sellers be sure to save your ad so you don’t waste time retyping it. Don’t over complicate these things save time where you can. If you have an ad that didn’t get much response the first time use it a 2 0r 3 times before you start over. Repetition is sometimes the best thing for an advertising piece.
6. Don’t post your ads all that often to market for sellers. If they can find your ad ,and want to sell odds are their house is already listed on craigslist. It’s essentially a great waster of time to do it yourself daily!
7. If you have a webpage you can route a potential seller to then at the very least post a link in the ad. I personally use a banner embedded in my ad and then I let the auto responder do it’s job once they fill out my form. Its much faster than talking to everyone.
Their could be better ways to find sellers on Craigslist but all of the one’s I have seen are almost guaranteed to get you flagged in no time flat. You can either choose to market for possibility or actually take a little action and make things happen by seeking out the leads that are already right there in front of you.
Just take a few minutes and figure out what you are looking for and make your own keywords list. Then go get those leads you are after. As you get more comfortable searching you can really fine tune your searches to price ranges, beds, and baths.
Leave a comment below if these tips were helpful to you or if you have some to add, we’re all here to learn from each other. And don’t forget to connect with me on Twitter @GregHarris66720
photo cred: InfoMofo
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Great post!! Craigslist is a major source for both my buyer and seller leads. Which type of ad do you find pulls best – text only or text and image?
Image ads for buyers especially. For sellers there doesn't really seem to be much of a preference.
Great tips once again.
Quick question: what exactly did you mean by “I let the auto responder do it’s job once they fill out my form.”?
Once they fill out the form, it sends them a follow up email? Just curious.
I let the auto responder send the first reply email letting them know we received their information. Then I check out the property and see if it is worth dealing with. If they are asking within 10 thousand of what I want to buy it at I usually end up at least calling them once.
I wanted to chime in Greg and thank you for rocking it for you first guest post. I sincerely hope there is more to come.
You are very welcome thanks for the opportunity!
Greg I think this is a very creative and effective way to find buyers. My first deal was searching threw craigslist . With your steps hopefully I will generate additional clients.
LeJon Ratchford
I did number 2 earlier this week (that sounds funny) and I hopefully sign a new short sale client this week. It'll be my first ever lead from craigslist.
well I'm glad for you that you did a #2 this week, otherwise, you'll get all backed up