Finding Buyers When House Flipping

Summary: If you are flipping a property, you need to find buyers fast in order to make money. You can find buyers quickly by meeting investors and other potential customers at local business events and auctions and by building online mailing lists that you can send to potential buyers.

If you are flipping a property, you need to find buyers fast in order to make money. You can find buyers quickly by meeting investors and other potential customers at local business events and auctions and by building online mailing lists that you can send to potential buyers. House flipping is attractive because it allows you to start making money right away. You don't have to rent out the property, take care of taxes and management costs for months or years, and you don't have to wait around waiting for buyers. The idea behind flipping is that you buy distressed property, turn it around, and sell it quickly to someone as soon as the renovations are done. The trick, of course, is to find buyers who are willing to buy quickly. If you're planning on flipping a house but cannot find a buyer quickly, the delay in selling will mean lost profits. To sell your investment home quickly: 1) Visit auctions to meet other investors. Local foreclosure auctions are not only a great way to find your next investment property for refurbishing and reselling, but they're also a great place to pass out your business cards to other investors. Collect the business cards of other investors at the auction in order to build an investor list that you can contact whenever you have a property to sell. This is especially important if you plan on house flipping fairly regularly. 2) Build an e-mail list. Once you have a number of business cards and e-mails of other investors, develop a mailing list and an e-mail list. This way, you can contact investors quickly whenever you are about to sell property. However, keep in mind that you cannot simply send unsolicited information to other people. Have investors sign up for your mail newsletter or your e-mail newsletter, and this way you can send information about your latest home in the latest issue of your newsletter. Use a double opt-in list for e-mail newsletters and e-mail discussion groups, especially, because anti-spam laws can be fairly strict. Also, be careful not to abuse your e-mail list or mailing list. If you send investors a lot of information that they are not interested in, they'll not only opt out of the mailing lists and e-mail lists, but they will become annoyed and less likely to look carefully over your property opportunities. You may wish to divide your mailing lists into a few groups. For example, send your higher-end properties to those investors interested in higher-end homes, and send rental units to those investors interested in commercial properties. This way, each investor will get the information that they're actually interested in using. 3) Join business groups in your area. Any meetings, events, or luncheons held by business groups in your area are a great networking opportunity that lets you meet potential investors and investors in your area. Plus, you will be meeting people who are not investors but are still interested in business. These people may still be interested in contacting you when they have a property that they need to sell quickly or hear of a property that is going up for sale. Just about anyone can refer business to you and can refer customers to you, so make friends with lots of business owners in your area. 4) Go online. The Internet has lots of discussion groups, message boards, and forums where you can meet other investors who might be interested in buying your properties. These are great resources if you are house flipping, since you can receive and send information fast.