As a real estate investor you know that generating leads are the life blood of your business. Without leads, it can be stressful finding where your next deal is going to come from.
The traditional way of how to generate leads for real estate is taking out classified ads in papers, direct mail, and networking. For some real estate investors this works great and they can focus their marketing efforts on outbound marketing.
For others, due to a competitive market, time, or cost a less direct approach is more desirable for generating leads for real estate.
A website can be a great tool for inbound marketing. In fact, a lot of businesses are turning to inbound marketing because of the ROI it can produce.
Inbound Marketing Can Produce High ROI’s -via Hubspot Study
But it must convert, bring in traffic, and be set up so you can quickly call a lead to make them a fair all cash offer.
Regardless of how you are finding leads for your real estate business there are many creative ways out there to get in front of potential customers.
If you are looking for the best way to generate leads for real estate it is probably online.
Here’s why.
A motivated seller wants to sell their house fast, where do they go to learn how they can do that?
Someone wants to buy deeply discounted properties to invest in. Where do they go to research if that is a good idea, and how to do it?
A person has bad credit and is curious how a rent-to-own deal works.
You get the idea.
Inbound marketing is a huge industry and can be very successful for real estate investors.
If you need a website, that is SEO optimized to drive traffic, converts leads, and is insanely easy to set up, take a look at InvestorCarrot.
Once you have a website online, you can generate leads and bring them to a credible looking home page.
But going back to the tip about being creative. You can help your inbound marketing with some creative offline marketing tactics.
Here are 6 simple and creative ways how to generate leads for real estate.
#1 Accountant and CPA’s
Most CPA’s and accountants have clients with financial problems.
If you network with a few CPA’s and accountants you could provide a win-win solution for the person in need.
Perhaps they are struggling with a rental property in another state, or need help avoiding foreclosure, having an accountant or CPA on your side can help you generate real estate leads.
Here is how to find accountants and CPA’s near you that might be willing to help you generate leads.
Visit a site like CPAdirectory.com.
You can search by city and CPA services.
Find Local CPA’s
Once you have a list of CPA’s near you put them in an excel spreadsheet with their email or phone numbers.
Send them a polite and professional email stating who you are (build credibility) what you do (your services) and how they can benefit from your partnership (you could send them business referrals as well or provide a link to their site on your website.)
Here is a sample email you could send to a CPA.
Hi [insert name]
My name is [your name] and I found your company by doing a quick online search.
I provide win-win solutions for people looking to seller their home fast or buy investment properties.
I know people like me have a bad rap but I am a hard working businessman/woman like yourself looking to help home owners out.
I have included a link to my site so you can see what I do. [link to your site].
Anyways, if you have clients that could use my services I would be happy to talk with them and see if I can help them out.
I know it would mean a lot to me and if we are able to have a working business relationship I am sure I could reciprocate referrals for you.
Hope this doesn’t come off as too forward, but let me know what you are thinking, and I can provide a little more info on what I can and cannot do for clients.
Have a great day,
[Your name]
Here is a list of websites you can use to find CPA’s and accountants near you.
#2 Carpet Cleaners
Similar to above, a carpet cleaner could be a great business relationship. When someone is listing a house or moving/renting it out they will have the carpets cleaned.
A carpet cleaner is only as busy as the work they can find.
So why not find a local carpet cleaner who is respectable and is willing to share your business card with people looking to sell quickly, or do rent-to-own types of real estate deals.
In exchange you can use them for your newly purchased houses or recommend them to your customers.
Just use YELP.com to find a carpet cleaner with good reviews near you.
Find Local Carpet Cleaners To Network With
From there you can send them a professional email explaining who you are and how they can benefit from your relationship.
Hi [insert name]
My name is [your name] and I found your company by doing a quick YELP search.
I see you have some awesome reviews and are willing to go the extra mile to help out your clients.
I am a real estate investor who is looking to network with some local business owners to arrange a mutually beneficial working relationship.
I am always looking for ways to help customers with their real estate options and I know you come into contact with home owners and landlords.
If you are interested, I would love to talk with you a little more about what I do and how we can work together to both get more business.
Let me know what you think.
Best Regards,
[Your Name]
Once they call back, simply chat with them about what you do and how they can help you generate leads for real estate. Drop some business cards off, or offer to mention them on your website as a preferred service provider.
#3 Charitable Organizations
Sometimes a charity will inherit a property from someone. Although this is a generous offer it can be more work than its worth, and a pain to sell and pay taxes on.
Depending how the organization is set up it might not be able to accept real estate.
You should make you services known to the organization so that you can buy real estate fast for cash and in exchange they get a win-win solution while they generate you real estate leads.
But first you need to find local organizations and start communicating with them.
Here is how to find organizations.
Here is an email template to help you start a conversation (if you can find a charity that you identify with, even better, you should include that in the email)
Hi [insert name]
My name is [your name] and I am a real estate investor.
Your charity is doing important work in [insert a true statement about how you feel].
I just wanted to reach out and network with you to let you know a little bit about what I do.
I help families learn all of their real estate options. I help buy houses for cash which eliminates the need for an agent and the time it takes to close on a house.
I also help families find local rent-to-own opportunities.
Just letting you know in case you run across anyone that might need to sell their house fast, or if your organization needs to sell a piece of property fast.
Anyways, if you would like a little more information about what I do and how we can work together let me know.
Kind of a shot in the dark here. I know.
Give me some feedback, think you could use this type of service? Has your organization ever been given real estate?
Thanks,
[Your Name]
#4 Military Transfers
Every month the military shuffles personnel around. Some will use on base housing, but others with families prefer to stay off base. This market is huge, and if you can tap into it, can provide both buyers and sellers for years to come.
Have you ever thought about how to get in front of military families?
It’s not easy but there are a few ways.
Use SEO and find keywords
Network with your local bases housing department
Market to military families with specially placed ads.
There really isn’t a surefire way to get in front of these types of people. Your best bet is to call your local air force base and see if you can get in contact with anyone who can help you.
Look for locally distributed newspapers on base, or if they have a way to advertise somewhere in the Base Exchange (BX).
There isn’t a ton of keyword traffic for military specific keywords but you can bet if you made a section on your website for military families you could possibly be seen.
#5 Mobile Homes
Have you ever considered looking to wholesale mobile homes?
There is a market for buyers and sellers looking to sell their mobile homes fast.
One of the best places to look is craigslist. Just look at all of these results.
A great way to get in front of people looking to sell their mobile homes fast is to either call the landlord of a mobile park home or drive by a park and see if there are signs up.
To find a landlords number a simple Google search will work. Just type in “Mobile Homes in [market_city]”
Mobile Park Google Search Can Show You Areas To Generate Leads
Each of these mobile home parks has a phone number. Give the landlord a call and ask if anyone is looking to sell their home fast and if you could provide a little more information about your service.
If the landlord is open to the idea you could swing by and drop off some business cards.
If a landlord is not available take a Saturday and drive by some parks looking for signs.
You can also take out ads and market/advertise directly to mobile home owners looking to sell their home fast for cash.
#6 Moving Companies
Moving companies can be an awesome resource and partner for your business.
A moving company knows when and where people are moving. If a divorce or relocation is the reason for the move, chances are a buy my house fast opportunity might be ideal.
Generating leads through moving companies can be mutually beneficial.
When you find a motivated seller, you can mention that you recommend a moving company, and see if the moving company can set up a small little discount for you to offer your customer.
Also, you could give them a backlink on your website, or make a blog post about what to consider when selected a moving company.
Again, just use a simple YELP search. Chances are most moving companies are big companies and they might not deal with small business owners for legal reasons. So try and find someone local if you can.
Find local moving companies to generate real estate leads
Here is an email template to start the conversation.
Hi [insert name]
I found you guys by doing a quick Yelp search.
Looks like you are providing excellent service for your customers. Good work.
I am a real estate investor and I help people buy and sell their houses fast. Like you I take pride in helping people out when they are looking to relocate.
Just wanted to reach out and connect with you and open a dialogue about how we could partner together to share some information with our customers.
If you are open to the idea, mind if I call you and tell you a little more about what I do and how I know I can help you generate more business?
Let me know,
[Your Name]
Of course finding these offline leads means you need to have a place to send them.
If you have a website that converts leads, great you are doing it right.
If your website is not generating you leads or you have no idea how effective it is, then you need to take a demo of InvestorCarrot.
InvestorCarrot generates tens of thousands a leads a month for real estate investors.
If you bust your butt networking with local companies to generate leads for real estate deals, then it only makes sense to have a website that works for you.
