So you need to sell your home?
This article is exactly what you need to do, to sell your home or create a bunch of leads of individuals, who are HOT prospects to buy your home.
PREPARATION
- You need to locate and interview an aggressive Mortgage Broker, very knowledgeable, with a GREAT TRACK RECORD of closing deals, especially difficult ones. I cannot stress enough the importance, of having a great broker on your power team. Whenever I hear someone say they got a difficult deal closed, I always make sure to inquire for an introduction, because this might be the broker who can get my deals funded.
- You should make some effort in fixing the home up; even if it’s a hunker, I’d still get the lawn cut and maybe throw a coat of paint on the property. You’d be amazed at the improvement to even an ugly property, with a simple coat of paint on the front of the property.
- Go to your local community financing office or local grant and home buyer bond office. For example in my area the county run a FREE class on becoming a first time home buyer and when they finish the class, they then get a voucher from the county, giving them $10,000.00 toward the purchase of their first home. The best part is sometimes the loans are even forgiven, when certain criteria are met by the new homeowner.
LET’S DO SOME MARKETING ON STEROIDS
There’s no magic pill, but this has been working for both my students and me, for the last year, and we’re always testing and fine-tuning the system. And I can tell you, that while every other investor, is sitting with their heads in their butts, my students and I are able to sell all of our properties
#1 – Buyer First System
Basically you create your own buyers. The best example would be converting a lifetime renter into a homeowner. Just so happens, that while becoming the American Dream, they also end up buying your home. Very simply, create a flyer or postcard, and market to communities of people who would be a great prospect to buy your home.
The real key is you must understand, that these individuals renting, most are under the impression they CAN’T get a mortgage. They might have tried in the past, and we’re shutdown and embarrassed, only to believe they would live the rest of their lives as a RENTER. These are the best leads you can focus on, because it’s not a matter of IF they’ll buy your home, they will, the key is can you get them funded or is it the right house for them, financially affordable.
#2 – Extend Your Sphere of Influence – Friends, Family and Coworkers
Go where the most prospects are for your home. I’ll give you some examples, you need to go where the most and the best prospects are to buy your home, assuming it’s a good deal (priced right, and there’s still built-in equity for your buyer). If you have any contacts or a friend of a friend, now is the time for using it and your expectations are for these contacts to open doors for you, to their sphere of influence.
For Example, one of my students, Courtney, leveraged a contact he had, his cousin (she was a middle school teacher), and she introduced him into the schools, where it just happened that the schools are in the same area, that he was selling a great starter home.
He sold the home that he needed to the most, but then, once word spread of what he was able to do, the rest of the teachers came out of everywhere, wanting him to help them. He’s since helping the 1st teacher, sold another 5 homes, to 5 different teachers, earning him over $30,000.00 for this simple, leveraged relationship.
BEST: Teachers, Cops, Firefighters, Government Employees, Bus Drivers, Department of Transportation. (These careers are loved by lenders, they mostly have good credit, and their income is basically guaranteed and very stable.)
#3 – Use the Internet
You should definitely have an individual website for your property. You can get a simple site built for under $100.00.
There are plenty of low cost services for getting your site created, most offer similar features. If you want a designer, try gig websites like Fiverr (www.fiverr.com) or Upwork (www.upwork.com). Create a post about your project (your home website), and then people bid on your job, and you get to see samples of their work and read all their feedback, after you decided who wins your job, you choose a winner. Take some pictures with a digital camera of your home and you’ll end up emailing them to the site designer, to post on your site.
Treat this as an online, digital brochure, basically being able to do whatever you can conceive. You can take a video of the home, with you walking through the home and then have it placed on your site. If you’re intimidated by video, like I was at first, don’t be, you talk to people everyday just as you are.
Now, when ever you talk to someone on the phone or in person, they can quickly look at your property, on the web. This will be the best $100.00 you’ll ever spend on marketing of your home.
BONUS: Promote and hold your own, “First Time Home Buyer Seminar”
A friend of mine is doing one a month, every month. Also, since he’s has a few successfully under his belt, he’s now selling sponsorship space to his seminars, to Mortgage brokers, credit repair companies, and he’s even worked out a joint venture with two different realtors, whom pay him for every property they sell to one of his prospects.
If you’re curious how he’s filling the room, all he’s doing is as follows…
- Flyers in Parking lots, I.E. Wal-Mart, local supermarket and church parking lots
- Free Advertising on www.Craigslist.com
- He uses bandit style signs on the side of the road, 18 x 24, corrugated plastic signs.
- A simple website that the attendees, can pre-register for the seminar. (Sorry, he didn’t want me giving out the site, for obvious reasons)
Good Luck!