Tim Bell advises real-estate wholesalers to call local "we buy houses" signs and contact operators of "we buy houses" websites as a source of buyers. He emphasizes not assuming sign/website respondents are wholesalers—many are fix-and-flip or buy-and-hold investors who may be ideal buyers—and recommends asking what investing strategy they use. He notes competition from other wholesalers is acceptable and that investors often switch strategies over time.
Chapters
Okay, number one, call all of the we buy houses signs and websites for your area. Okay? I don't know if you've ever seen these or noticed these, but in many communities you're going to find these types of signs says we buy Houses and has a telephone number, Cash for houses, various different things. You're going to see various different things on there. And there are also in many places, there are websites that ask or claim to buy homes and things like that. So with these, you want to contact them, you want to call them. If they're online, you want to find them and you want to communicate with them. Now, a lot of people say, wait a minute, Tim, hold on. If I'm calling the we buy houses signs or I'm going onto the we buy houses websites and I'm offering my wholesale deals, aren't I really just contacting and dealing with my contact competition? It might be, but I personally and many of the other instructors that I know have personally taught many fix and flip investors and many buy and hold investors to use these signs to find properties. So just because somebody puts out one of these signs, do not assume that they're a wholesaler, okay? They very well could be a fix and flip investor or a buy and hold investor who is the absolute perfect buyer for your wholesale property. So call them, okay? Talk to them. It's important that when you talk to them that you try to find out what kind of investor they are. What do you like to do? Are you a fix and flip investor? Are you buying whole investor? Are you a wholesaler? I will tell you that in calling on some of these, you're going to find that some of the people that you talk to are going to be wholesalers and they may be your competition. That's fine. It doesn't matter. You need to call them all and you need to talk with them about your deal. They may be the perfect fix and flip or buy and hold buyer for your particular deal. So make sure that you do call them. Now, if you do run into another wholesaler, that's okay. You're basically just talking to your competition. But here's something you need to remember. If people stay in their real estate investment business long enough, every single person does all three strategies. So even if you call another wholesaler a person who claims and indicates to you that they're a wholesaler at this point next week, they may decide to be a fix and flip investor or a buy and hold investor, or they may like your deal so much that they're not going to. They're not going to wholesale it. They're actually going to do the fix and flip themselves. So, again, don't neglect this particular technique. And remember, you're not just looking for signs. You're also looking for websites. Okay. There are several websites out there that you can find for your area where they advertise, we buy houses. You want to make sure and contact those people, too. That's important.
