It sometimes can be challenging to find motivated sellers as an investor. Even with the bailout actions of the government, property values continue to fall and competition is making it challenging for investors.
With thousands of layoffs being announced and a dismal economic forecast locating motivated sellers is like taking candy from a baby. Truth be told, there simply is not. The question is, how do you find them?
One of the best ways I've found to locate motivated sellers is on the internet. If you look around even a little you'll find plenty of services offering motivate seller lead lists. I'm insinuating a thorough internet presence that the owner has exclusive access to. Basically, a motivated lead funnel, or website, that you own.
How should you put such a solution into action? It all begins with a quality website. It must go far in showing you as a serious business with sufficient capital and knowledge to solve the problems of motivated sellers. It should show that you've solved the problems of other motivated sellers recently. Be sure it has compelling copy writing that induces the visitor to want to give you their information. It should contain avenues for them to submit their property details and contact information to you.
Starting with the professional website you can either design it yourself or pay someone else to do it. Or you can get a pre-designed template and make some modifications to it. Making something from scratch or buying a template from a store will require coding competence. Hiring it out will certainly require capital. Put a value on your time and decide whether it's worth it. Should you allow yourself to make $20 per hour to create the solution yourself? Do you have time on your hands and not much money?
Happy customer testimonials should be littered throughout. You've likely been using some sort of credibility kit so migrate that to your site. The use of real numbers, audio testimonials and faxed letters is a must. You may also want to put some streaming audio testimonials. There is nothing more convincing than a satisfied customer.
Use convincing sales copy to prod your visitors to complete your online forms. It's no secret that Dan Kennedy is a great person to emulate when writing your copy. He's a proven professional when it comes to copy writing. Buy his book, The Ultimate Sales Letter, and go through it thoroughly. Then write each page of your website ending each one with a call to action.
Perhaps the most important step is putting plenty of lead generators on the pages. These are forms online that your visitors fill out. The fields on the forms will capture important property and contact information. Some database programming here is necessary to link the form fields to the database records.
The last trick is driving traffic to the site. Ads on Yahoo, Google and MSN can be an effective way to do this. You can accomplish this with SEO and paid advertising. When you start getting visitors you may discover that you need to modify your content. If it turns out that you're not getting as many leads as you would like try having your copy critiqued for improvments. Landing pages that only offer the ability to fill out a form can be effective.
With a quality website and the use of paid listings and strategic SEO you'll be gathering motivated sellers and doing more profitable deals.