For the past couple of years we’ve been told that housing prices are so high, and bidding wars are so competitive because there is an incredible shortage of inventory. Yet, the data shows that there are actually millions of vacant properties across the US. Could these not only be the answer to retaining some affordable housing, but also fueling your deals as a real estate investor?

America Has 16M Empty Homes

According to a new report from Florida Trend in May 2022, the US has 16M vacant homes. Most of those are in Florida. Which has 1.7M, despite being one of the hottest states for buying activity.

This doesn’t count all of the vacant land and building lots out there which can also be used for housing. Nor, the enormous amount of no longer needed office buildings, and other commercial properties which are ripe for being converted to housing.

Affordable Housing

One of the big observations with all of these vacant houses, is that they far outnumber the amount of homeless in the country.

Official counts only put the number of homeless in the whole country at 500,000. Each could be given almost four houses each in Florida. Still, leaving over 14M empty homes across the nation.

More can be carved out either by government, private investors, or combinations of both in partnerships to retain a pool of truly affordable housing. That’s certainly better than spending over $500K a unit to develop new housing for the homeless as some governments are doing.

Of course, plenty more of this pool of properties can be sold wholesale to rehabbers and landlords to operate at market rates.

Finding The Deals

The discrepancy between the retail market and all of these vacant properties, is that they are not being publicly advertised for sale online. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be bought.

The key to unlocking all of this deal flow and profits is direct marketing to true off market sellers.

This can be done by mail, email, cold calling, and search engine marketing.

This is a great service to provide. You can help these owners liquidate all of these properties which are costing them money to hold every month, and turn them into cash.

On the flip side, you are providing much needed inventory to retail, rehabber, and landlord buyers. Like mining for diamonds or gold and bringing it to market.

 

Motivated sellers make or break your career as a wholesaler. Without a seller ready to give you a contract, you're pretty much dead in the water.

Finding motivated sellers isn't always easy. There are plenty of traditional ways to go about finding these sellers, such as bandit signs, auctions and real estate meetings. However putting this into a plan you can actually use is quite different.

Before you start looking for the right sellers for your wholesaling business, you need to understand why they are so important. Without these sellers willing to sell you their discounted property, you don't have much to make money from. You need these off-market properties to create success as a wholesaler.

Motivated sellers bring you a property they are ready to sell, usually due to a life-changing event. Maybe they need cash fast because of an illness, a divorce, or because they inherited the property. No matter the reason, they are ready to sell and they want to get the deal done fast.

There are several ways to find motivated sellers with properties they want to sell fast. Here are just a few of the top choices.

Direct mail. When you sent out postcards through the mail, it only takes one deal to cover your expenses for about an entire year using this marketing method, maybe longer. You have to figure out your target market first and get a list of the address/names for that market. The good news is that it is very scalable, and can bring in quite a few deals. It's pretty easy to spend a few thousand dollars on direct mail marketing and come out of it with multiple deals.

Driving for dollars. It's hard work and a bit like pounding the pavement, but driving for dollars is a great way to find motivated sellers, especially when you're on a tight budget. If you don't have much to spend on marketing, this is one of the least expensive ways to find your next deal Look for properties with high grass, boarded windows and those properties that simply look ugly. Then, write down the address and find out who owns the property from your local tax assessor's website. You can easily find the owner's contact information with skip-trace software and give them a call about the property.

It's free, and some of your best deals may come from looking on Craigslist. People put up properties they want to sell there all the time. Not only can you search for these properties for free, but you can also put up your own ads on Craigslist.

There are many ways to find motivated sellers. Sometimes, you have to think outside the box, but you don't have to reinvent the wheel. When things are moving slowly, get to work and start marketing your wholesaling business for your next deal.