Building a Buyers List for Real Estate
Technically speaking, real estate investing should be an easy way to make a lot of money. The entire business is essentially just a variation of “buy high and sell low.” So there must be a very good reason why not every real estate investor is succeeding. The truth is that “buy high/sell low” is a massive oversimplification that forgets one crucial part of the equation: selling. Regardless of how good of a deal you have, and how many properties you are willing to sell, it won’t do anything if you lack the ability to sell.
This is where building a buyers list for real estate comes in. It will not magically turn you into a smooth-talking marketer, nor will it let you sell to people who are not buying. It’s just a very powerful tool that will give you a leg up. When it comes to learning how to sell real estate, you have to start somewhere and building a buyers list is a great place to start.
Foundation to Building a Buyers List
Many real estate investors tend to avoid the hassle of building a buyers list by simply calling their local realtor and asking them to do all the marketing stuff. While this works well, it is not a very sustainable form of business and will hinder your growth – mainly because local realtors will get a hefty cut from the profits. If you want to fast track your growth, you should be prepared to have full control over the marketing and selling, and you can start by building a buyers list for your own use.
Getting Started on Building a Buyers List
Your first step should always be to build the list infrastructure. Before you get to the actual list building, you have to prepare a few things beforehand:
- A landing page – you need to prepare a simple website that serves as your introduction to the prospects. Think of the end goal, you have to provide compelling reasons as to why the visitor should be on your list. And then the landing page should also have a convenient means for the visitors to add themselves to your list.
- Signing up for an email marketing service – email marketing is one of the tasks that you really need help with. Doing this manually would be next to impossible for a single human, so you need to sign up for an email marketing service like MailChimp or Emercury. This will work in conjunction with your landing page and allows you to put the list growth on autopilot.
- Some help – we know we recommended taking charge of the marketing so that you can have all the profits to yourself, as opposed to giving local realtors a cut. But that doesn’t mean you can’t hire an extra pair of hands or two when it comes to the other tasks. If you lack the skill for web development or content production, you should consider hiring a web developer and a copywriter so that you can focus on more critical tasks.
Venues for Lead Generation
The good thing about building a buyers list is that you are not limited to a single method. There are a number of different venues for lead generation that you can mix and match to achieve optimal results:
Craigslist
Craigslist has earned a reputation for being a cesspool. While the reputation is deserved and has a basis in fact, it is no longer 100% true as the service has changed throughout the years. These days, there is still a lot of noise compared to signal, but it’s a free service so you should still add it to your repertoire.
Just place an ad on Craigslist for your properties. The service’ policies are much tighter now, but that works out to your advantage because you don’t need to compete against low quality ads. Make sure you do it the right way – a great (and honest) headline, a concise explanation of your offer and a means to contact you further.
Direct Mail
Direct mail has fallen out of favor these past few years because, well, it’s not as convenient as other channels for marketing and advertising. But that doesn’t mean it’s no longer effective – in fact, it’s actually a great way of finding leads and allows for a more targeted marketing. All you need is to be willing to put in the extra work.
Paid Promotion
Of course, one should never underestimate the power of using money to generate more money. In this case, you can make bank by relying on paid promotion channels like Pay Per Click, affiliate marketing, direct partnerships with social media influencers, etc. Just keep in mind that you need to be smart about where you spend your money, so that you can earn more than what you put in. Do your research first before jumping in.
Hopefully the above three examples will give you a nudge in the right place towards building a buyers list. It might not be an in-depth, step-by-step guide but it will give you a direction to start with. The finer points of using a buyers list will come with experience and with research, and maybe a future article from us. Good luck, and try to stay positive because it’s going to be a long but fruitful road ahead.