How to Get Seller Leads For Off Market Deals?

It’s a numbers game- the more leads you generate the better your chances of getting a deal. Quality matters too though- not all leads are created equal.

How do you get quality, motivated seller leads? In this article we’ll go over:

1. How and where to find sellers
2. How to contact them, and
3. How to filter through them and prioritize who to focus on

Ready to get more leads and close some deals? Let’s go!

Lead Generation- Finding the Sellers

Free Sources: If you’re on a low budget or have no budget, here are some free ways to get seller leads.

• Online bulletin boards– Facebook marketplace, facebook groups, Craigslist.
  • Search for land for sale, lot for sale, vacant land, land, etc
  • You will find some motivated sellers here. You’ll also bump into some other wholesalers. That’s ok. You might meet a JV partner
  • You can also post ads on FB and Craigslist- “We Buy Land”
• Driving for Dollars– Tried and true method- Drive the area you’re working in and take down the addresses of vacant lots or run down houses.
• Other Investors or Wholesalers– some people don’t want land leads, they might give them to you to work. You could offer a finder’s fee if you close any.
• Pull a list from a site like Propwire, which is free. Use True People Search or That’s Them to find the phone numbers of the sellers on the list
• Zillow– Search for listings that are for sale by owner, and also listings that have been up for 90 days or more.

Paid Sources:

• List Companies– There are plenty of sites where you can pull lists and pay per listing pulled- Direct Skip, Skipify, List Source,  Listability and others provide good data.  Expect to pay around .02 per listing.
• Propstream– You get 10k listings included with a monthly subscription to Propstream. The data is similar to what you’d get off Propwire for free, so unless you thin you need PS for other features, it may not be worth it to subscribe. It’s around $100 a month plus additional charges for each team member.
• Pay Per Lead– There are companies who will provide warm leads for a fee. Usually $100-200 per lead.  So far I’ve found that the companies I’ve talked to have provided only house leads, not land. For the house leads, we’ve had pretty good success with a small sample size.

How To Contact Sellers

Now that you’ve got your leads, the next step is to reach out to property owners and either ask if they want to sell, or negotiate with them in cases where you already know they want to sell. (Listings you’ve gotten from Zillow, Craigslist, Facebook, etc).

The big 3

1. Call on the phone
   1. Dial individually- this is more time consuming, but not a bad way to go on a low budget if you’re just getting started.
   2. Get a multi-dialer such as Mojo Dialer or Call Tools. This type of service will dial multiple numbers at once and accelerate the process of actually talking to people.
2. Text
   1. A lot of people these days would prefer to have an initial conversation via text.  You can text them individually, or subscribe to a bulk texting platform.  There are a range of options. Launch Control and Smarter Contact are the big, established paltforms, starting at a bout $400 per month.  There are other providers that you can get for less, starting as low as $50 per month.
3. Direct Mail
   1. Direct mail is sending people letters and postcards via old fashioned snail mail.  It works! It carries a higher up front cost than text or calling, but the benefits are that you get inbound calls from sellers, and a higher conversion rate, because these leads are already warm. You’re not filtering through a bunch of no’s and not interested.  Expect to pay .70-.90 per mail piece. I’d recommend sending no less than 1000 pieces and preferably more.  Current response rates in North Carolina are 0.5%- 1% on average.

How To Filter and Prioritize Leads

Not all leads are created equal. I’d suggest focusing on the most motivated and potentially profitable leads first, and then circling back to the others.

How to Determine Motivation

Ask questions to reveal the seller’s level of motivation.

• Timeline- ASAP is high motivation- Example: I need the money for a surgery, or other personal reason. Foreclosure is pending is another one.
• Why selling? This question can give you a lot of insight.  Answers such as I just want to get rid of it, or I’m tired of paying taxes on it/ keeping it up are usually a good sign.
  • Another question that can give you more insight- “Just curious- what will you do after you sell it? Buy another property?”

Price Gap

Prioritize sellers who you are in the ballpark of your max offer. Put sellers in longer term follow up if their asking price is super high.

Begin it

If you want results with lead generation, just start. start anywhere. Take action. Do not get caught up in anlysis paralysis.

“Whatever you dream you can do, begin it, boldness has genius and power and magic in it.” -Goethe

 

Additional Resources:

• I have more lead generation tips in This podcast.
• There’s also a free ebook for land deals that I’ve written available here.
• Direct mail post
• Making Offers

Happy hunting, and let me know how it’s going!