Ready to start building your cash buyer list? Thanks to the wealth of online resources, the groundwork for building a powerhouse buyer list is easier than ever. By applying a simple vetting process, you’ll be able to sniff out the best of the bunch – the buyers who are the best foundation for your business.
Where to find Cash Buyers
How to use Craigslist to Build a Buyers List
Craigslist is an outstanding way to build a buyers list for little or no cost. It’s free to advertise your services on craigslist, but that can be a double edged sword. Because it’s free, anyone & everyone can be quick to plunk down their latest listings and investment opportunities on the site.
Your goal in advertising on Craigslist is to make your ads and offers stand out. In my experience, that means not focusing on the actual properties in your immediate purview and, instead, on some peripheral reasons to get in touch with your business.
Ready to start building your cash buyer list? Thanks to the wealth of online resources, laying the groundwork for a powerhouse buyer list is easier than ever.
By applying a simple vetting process, you’ll be able to sniff out the best of the bunch—the buyers who are the perfect foundation for your business. Craigslist is an outstanding way to build a buyers list for little to no cost. Let’s take a look at a number of ways to tap these all-encompassing classifieds.
Step 1: Advertise your Business and Services
It’s free to advertise your services on Craigslist, but that can be a double-edged sword.
Because it’s free anyone (and everyone…) is quick to plunk down their latest listings and investment opportunities on the site. And that means there is lots of stuff—for better or for worse.
Your goal in advertising on Craigslist is to make your ads and offers stand out. In my experience, that means not focusing on the actual properties in your immediate purview and, instead, on some peripheral reasons to get in touch with your business.
Here are some ad examples that I’ve used to drive tons of buyer leads on Craigslist.
While each of these ads target different audiences, they each follow a similar template and focus. Here are the few things to remember.
BE CONCISE
There’s a lot to see on Craigslist and, often, prospective buyers don’t have the time to read a novel about you, your business and your property. Be short, direct and have a clear next step—i.e. what do you want the person to do next?
BENEFIT-FOCUSED
To answer the vital question all visitors seek: “What’s in it for me”. Be the first to know about REOs, non-luxury prices for luxury properties, get free reports, hear about the best deals fast…you get the idea.
Show readers what the “get” is by engaging with your business, and show them ASAP. That’s more likely to entice them to take that next step with you.
STRAIGHTFORWARD CALL-TO-ACTIONS
Motivate your readers to take real steps.
I want more…now what? Is that question easy to answer by reading your classified ad?
In these examples, the answer is a big YES. I want them to click on the link that I’ve clearly included in the copy.
It’s not confusing, it’s not multistep, it’s not complicated. Just click. That’s it.
NO WEBSITE? NO SWEAT! If your website isn’t set up yet, you can always direct people to a social media page, email address or phone number. Just be sure it’s easy and it’s direct. The more steps you make people take, the less likely they are to engage.
Step 2: Leverage Smart Keyword Searches.
Like Google, Craigslist has a powerful keyword search tool that enables you to find resources quickly. While it’s not perfect, it’s easier than clicking through hundreds of thousands of classifieds, hoping to stumble on the right buyer. When you search Craigslist for buyers, you want to put yourself in that buyer’s shoes. What kinds of ads would they be posting? What keywords and phrases would they use to advertise their services? And how can you use those potential search terms to find these buyers quickly and easily?
Many rehabbers and landlords post on Craigslist looking for homeowners who need or want to sell ASAP. Their property could be distressed, they could be completely underwater on their loan or they could have a new home on the hook with the contingency that they sell this one first. Either way, these sellers want out—and real estate investors are always on the lookout for those kinds of deals.
Are you wondering how that impacts you and your buyer-building journey? Think about it—those buyers post looking for sellers. By scanning their ads, you can select which ones are wholesalers and which ones are cash buyers ready to go. Collect their info or reach out and make contact (more on that in a minute) and start qualifying them. Chances are, these are rehabbers, landlords or other real estate investors looking for a quick cash deal. And you just might know someone who’s got a deal or two in the works.
But, again, there are seemingly endless Craigslist ads floating around, especially in the real estate category. So, to cut through the clutter, start with a quick search.
You’ll perfect your own keyword list but, in the meantime, start here:
Step 3: Automate and Activate Using IFTTT.
By now, we’ve established that without some smart system in place, you’re going to be spending a lot of time poring through contacts and opportunities on Craigslist.
Ads and keyword searches are a good place to start, but there’s another solid approach to perusing Craigslist—If This Then That, or IFTTT for short. This automated systems prompts you to select pre-made “recipes” or create custom “tasks” for what you’re looking for on Craigslist (or eBay, Woot, Amazon and a host of other massive sites), then alerts you when it spots something that syncs.
To start, create a free account and select the Craigslist alert option. You’ll then be prompted to turn on their task – agree to it. From here, you’ll be prompted to configure your IFTTT search.
Now, good news, this configuration couldn’t be easier. Simply:
With these three methods in place, you won’t miss a thing and are on your way to properly using craigslist to find cash buyers. If a quality real estate investor is somewhere on Craigslist, your powerhouse searching will pop them to the top. Again, as you go, keep collecting contact info and key points in your preliminary buyer list. We’ll refine it, but for now, bigger is better.
Next, we will show you how to do a keyword search.
