One of the things you have to consider as a real estate investor is matching buyers with properties that you acquire. When you develop a buyers list for your properties, whether you’re trying to wholesale or rehab, you will find that the simple saying, “Different strokes for different folks,” applies. Some of the different “strokes” might be low-end rentals, high-end rentals, multiple unit rentals, and rehabilitation projects.

The different “folks” will often match these properties. For every investor, there is a niche they specialize in. If you want to wholesale properties, it’s up to you to offer the greatest spread of properties to fellow investors. Also, you must take into account, your regular home buyers (owner-occupants).

Part of any building block of a business is to identify the target market. For instance, with this site, we identified the people who would be visiting it most likely. We tailor the articles with content that is basic in order to meet the “customer” needs. We don’t overload the articles with complexities, but we do offer the basic 1-2-3 steps for beginning a real estate investment business or a business in general. Part of this required developing a “character” for our visitors. In doing this, we are constantly developing new avenues of interest that we think our visitors will benefit from, including hard money financing (coming soon).

So, for matching buyers with properties is to simply define what each potential buyer prefers. When you decide to advertise for buyers, you might put out ads like this:

Deep Discounts-Properties need Rehab, Priced to Sell, Call XXX-XXX-XXXX

or

Excellent Cash Flow Rentals offered at Discounted Prices, Call XXX-XXX-XXXX

This may attract buyers who are looking for rehab projects. Thus, you’ll be matching rehabbers/contractors with properties in need of rehab. However, when the phone starts ringing, you’ll need to distinguish the type of homes each potential buyer wants. For instance, some might want 4 bedroom, 2 Bath, high-end rehabs, while others will want your basic “bread and butter” home, 3 beds and 1 bath. Also for the second advertisement, you’re looking for landlords. Additionally, you’ll need to identify the different areas each buyer will consider.

You may also run an ad like this:

Stop Renting-Starter Homes Available-Mint-Discounted Prices Call XXX-XXX-XXXX

These buyers might be your owner-occupants that are currently renting that you’ll add to your buyers list. Part of your strategy here might be buying, rehabbing and selling them yourself.

Of course, running one ad might be most economical:

Deep Discounted Properties for Sale, Home Buyers, Investors Call XXX-XXX-XXXX

Now, how do you determine what each investor/buyer wants? You may ask the following questions:

What type of property are you looking for?
Specifics? (# of bedrooms, baths, rooms)
What locations are you primarily interested in?
Have you closed on properties in these areas before?
What are your overall objectives for properties you buy?
What is the ideal return on investment you’re looking for?
What type of rentals do you prefer?
How do you continue to grow your customer base (the amount of people you can sell a property to)?

Well since money is always the bottom line and not all buyers have cash to buy (and you should never expect or rely on that solely), expanding the pool of investors and buyers you can sell to comes down to having contacts. If your buyers don’t have the contacts or the cash, you will need them. So four simple things you should do are:

Make contacts with good mortgage brokers and use them to qualify buyers
Make contacts with good hard money lenders to qualify investors (noobs)
Make sure these brokers and lenders can close deals quickly
Make sure you know the process inside and out so you can expedite the process
Lastly, you may look for ads that offer rehabbed homes for sale. For example, if you see a for sale ad that says, “…renovated” or some variation, call that number and begin the process of adding that individual to your buyers list. Visit the property to get a completely true feel for what they look for. This can be a very effective way of getting investors who are actually involved in performing on a contract because they already have demonstrated the ability to do so!

Always remember that you’re running a business. Every successful business has a well-defined strategy for marketing, sales and growth. Real estate investing is no exception!