With the Federal Reserve raising mortgage rates to combat inflation, it’s becoming more difficult to find homeowners who want to sell their properties. However, there are an astounding number of homeowners who want to sell but can’t do so on-market.
These people are known as motivated sellers, and they’re often willing to sell for below market value in exchange for a quick, convenient sale. Whether these owners are facing foreclosure, have inherited a home that they don’t need, or are simply tired of being a landlord, they provide the opportunity to make great investments at low prices. To help you get started and supercharge your pipeline, here are five proven methods you can use to find property owners who are motivated to sell.
Driving for dollars
Driving around neighborhoods looking for distressed properties is one of the classic ways to find people who may be motivated to sell their homes. This method is very simple because it relies on creating lists based on obvious signs of distress or neglect. These signs often indicate that a seller is in a financial situation that’s keeping them from fixing the house and selling it on-market. The best part is that when you find one of these houses, contacting the owner is often as simple as knocking on the door!
Network with real estate professionals
Anyone who works with properties on a daily basis has their fingers on the pulse of local real estate. Landscapers know about elderly homeowners who need to sell. Real estate agents know about people that want to sell but can’t list on the market. The more of these connections you can leverage, the more leads you’re going to identify.
Direct mail marketing
Mail campaigns may seem outdated, but they can be very effective because they give homeowners a physical piece of marketing material that they can hang onto. If you want to use this method to find homeowners, you can send marketing materials to a collection of addresses that you suspect will have motivated sellers. However, if you want to use this strategy as a marketing campaign, you can pair it with real estate lead generation software to target your outreach and customize your messaging.
Leverage real estate lead generation software
So far, we’ve discussed manual ways to identify motivated sellers, but if you want to maximize your search as efficiently as possible, a real estate lead generation platform like BatchLeads is the way to go. BatchLeads lets you search for properties based on over 300+ data points, including financial distress factors like pre-foreclosure, tax defaults, inheritance, and many others. The best part is that BatchLeads has quick filters that will let you generate a list of these properties with a single click.
Review expired MLS listings
When a property has stayed on the market for long enough without selling, the contract between the seller and their listing agent will expire, giving it an expired status on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This situation can create a lot of stress for homeowners, making them highly motivated to sell, often below their original list price.
These properties can be tricky to locate unless you have a real estate license, since the MLS is closed to anyone who isn’t a real estate agent. However, a select few real estate platforms will give you access to expired listings. BatchLeads is one of them, and like financial motivating factors, you can search for these properties with the click of a button.
Key takeaways
Real estate investing rests on a core principle: buy properties for as little as possible. When it’s time to close the deal, you’ll want to know that you’ve bought a property at a discount so you can maximize your profit. Whether you’re wholesaling, fix and flipping, or buying and holding, working with motivated sellers is the best way to accomplish this goal.
In this flash guide, we’ve explored five simple ways that you can start finding motivated sellers. It doesn’t matter if you’re new to the industry or a complete veteran. If you add these strategies to your toolbox, you’re going to fill up your pipeline and, if you’re diligent, turn these leads into profitable deals.
