Wholesale Property Marketing Example

Effective marketing of your wholesale property deals is a critical component to your real estate wholesaling business. As important as it is, unfortunately this is the one area many wholesalers spend the least amount of time fine-tuning.

In this post, I’ll go over the information you need to turbo-charge your deal sheets to make them stand out from the competition, and help you close more deals. I’ll go over:

  • What information and how much information you should include in your marketing
  • Numbers that cash buyers are looking for
  • How to create the perfect deal sheet
  • Methods to market your property that work

Ultimately however, marketing comes down to trust, trust that relies not only on the information that you present, but also just as much how you present it.

Wholesale Property Deal Sheet Stats

To Include or Not Include the Property Address

Deciding whether to include an address for the property that you have a contract on is not an easy decision.  If you include it, you risk having your deal stolen from you by other unscrupulous wholesalers, or the buyer going around you to work directly with the seller.

On the other hand, without an address, your contract buyers don’t have any way of researching the property behind the deal and are less likely to even look at your deal sheet.

This comes down to trust.

If you have a relationship of trust with your buyers, then you should let them know the address, as it will give them the information they need to further research the deal.

If, on the other hand, you’re blasting a list of random people who have never bought from you, then I would not recommend sharing the address.

Tip: REI/kit reports let you easily toggle whether or not to show the address of your property and it’s related comps.

If you choose not to include the address initially, you can add a requirement of a proof of funds (POF) before releasing the address.  In that case you should go the extra mile of researching the property and getting the right numbers to make a compelling case for why the buyer should provide you with a POF.

Your eventual goal is to build a small list of buyers who always come back for more deals, and whom you can personally contact with each deal, moving down the list until someone bites. If you present solid numbers, it should not take long to get to this stage.

Vivid Property Descriptions

Which of these sound better to you. This:

Price is 699k. 3/2 Cosmetic Fixer. DO NOT CONTACT LISTING AGENT.

Or this:

We are excited to announce that we have acquired a gem of a project in the gorgeous city of Arcadia.

Settled right next to the majestic San Gabriel Mountains, the city of Arcadia boasts some of America’s proudest housing statistics. In 2016, Arcadia was ranked the 5th most expensive housing market in the United States by Business Insider, with an average list of $1,748.680 for a 4 bedroom home. In 2012, Arcadia was ranked 7th in the nation on CNN Money magazine’s list of towns with highest median home costs. And in 2010, Bloomberg Business week named Arcadia as one of the “Best Places to Raise Your Kids” for a second year in a row. So, what do all of these facts mean to you? It means homes in Arcadia sell for top dollar!

This home is a 2,012 sq ft, 2-bedroom, 2 bathroom future masterpiece that sits on a massive 15,971 sq ft lot. The home is on a quiet, private street so you don’t have to worry about traffic at any time of the day.

By the time you are ready to put this house on the market, you should expect it to be sold in no time and well over list as many of the comparables did!! This is a million-dollar home, smack dab in a multi-million dollar neighborhood and city. With your finishing touches and classy finishes this home will be one of the best and most sought-after purchases for home buyers in the area.

Don’t forget the city of Arcadia is next door to Pasadena which holds the world-famous Rose Bowl, it’s also home to the world famous Santa Anita Racetrack, and right next to freeways, shopping, entertainment, and fine dining. This property is a win-win for any investor who knows what a million-dollar home can do! Hope to see you soon.

It’s easy to see, when you put yourself in your buyer’s shoes, the kind of description that will get them on board. The more details you can provide, the better. The less work they have to do to determine if the property is worth visiting, the better. The friendlier and more approachable you sound, the better. The length may seem intimidating and perhaps even unnecessary, but quality descriptions will set you apart from 99.999% of all other wholesalers, and give the appearance that you work hard for your assignment fee.

Dazzle with Pictures

You should provide numerous high quality color photos. When I talk about high quality, I don’t mean rush out and buy a $2,000 camera. I mean, take the time to get great shots.

A blurry floor, a toilet, half a room, or your finger in the frame do not inspire an investor to place a foot onto the property.

Do some research online on the best ways to perform real estate photography. Here’s a decent video of some of the basics to consider:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZPRULu1avQ

It may seem counter-intuitive to provide pictures of a property that make it look worse than it really is, but having the trust of your buyers is paramount to return business. They need to know exactly what they are getting into, and your pictures will go a long way towards inspiring that trust.

That said, have the end goal in mind when you walk the property, and aim to take many pictures of the exterior and all of the rooms from a distance, clear shots of hot spots that require repairing, appliances, and expensive fixtures like water heaters and A/C units.

Let the Numbers Do the Talking

Your cash buyers are savvy, and they will only let you send them incomplete or inaccurate deals so many times before your messages are sent to the trash bin forever. So, how do you make sure your deal is one that will make them climb over each other to get first dibs? This part is easy – when you’ve found a great deal, your numbers speak for themselves.

What numbers do end buyers look for in a traditional fix and flip deal?

Accurate ARV

The After Repair Value of the property is the holy grail of investing. Without this number a cash buyer has no idea what they can sell the property for after rehab. In order to find the most accurate ARV possible, the wholesaler must use similar and recent comps and adjust them.

A premium subscription to REI/kit comes with premium comps (not the free Zillow ones used by other software, ones which aren’t good enough for valuation) and a sales comparison analysis tool to help you come up with the most accurate ARV using standard appraisal techniques (also not available in any competitor’s software).

Similar and Recent Comps

The majority of wholesalers simply give the addresses of one or two comps and the price they sold for. Most buyers will immediately look those comps up and toss your marketing when they find out the properties are 2 years old, not rehabbed, or 5 miles away from the subject property.

If you send enough of these, you will be blacklisted by your buyer’s list and gain a negative reputation. You can avoid this by learning how to find great comps, and that starts with knowing the criteria for a good comp, as would be expected by your potential buyers:

What are your buyers looking for? In a nutshell, comps that:

  1. have sold within the previous 3-6 months;
  2. are within the neighborhood geographic boundaries;
  3. have similar features;
  4. are approximately the same square footage;
  5. and are of similar construction and finishings

The next steps are to adjust your comps and get your ARV for the property, but those points above are a good start.

Tip: For a thorough explanation of how to adjust your comps and calculate ARV, check out this post:

https://www.reikit.com/wholesaling-houses/deal-analysis/arv-real-estate-meaning-calculate-after-repair-value

Educated Comps Descriptions

You could simply list the comps, their sold price and sale date – or you could really knock this out of the park by including comp descriptions that will convince the buyers that you have done your research and they can trust your comps analysis, and ultimately, your ARV.

Here are a few examples of great comps descriptions:

1270 Newburgh Pl: This here is your MAKE SENSE comp. This home is 300 sq ft smaller and sold for $1,081,000 this year. Clearly, this is a very nice property and as you can see they sell quickly as this one sold within 19 days! If you add the value for the square footage you clearly get to the projected ARV.

5209 Helena Av: This is your NO BRAINER comp. This home is just over 1,000 sq ft, which is 600 square feet less than the subject property, yet it sold for $1,104,000 last year 12/26/17. This makes it crystal clear that our projection is very much in line with future expectations.

1330 Royal Dr: With this home having the same sq ft as ours, this is your SIMPLE MATH comp! This home sold for $1,028,700 last year 7/21/17.  And we all know how prices have gone up since last year, so fixed up this home will easily sell over its ARV.

No matter how you decide to list them, remember to supply a link to the Zillow, Redfin, or MLS website to make it as easy as possible to check.

Tighten Up Your ARV With Comps Feature Adjustments

While the property will determine any adjustments that you need to make to your comps in your marketing, including a complete sales comparison analysis with feature adjustments shows the thoroughness of your numbers, and is another crucial signal of trust between you and your buyer’s list.

Tip: A great video guide to how to adjust your comps from beginning to end can be found here:

https://tools.reikit.com/education/how-to-use-comps-get-an-accurate-arv

It’s from a flipper’s perspective…your buyer, and the sooner you get into your buyer’s shoes, the easier it will be to show them how good of a deal you have.

Provide Repair Estimates

This is one of the trickiest areas for most wholesalers AND flippers, and it’s not likely that you’ll get this number correct unless you’ve been doing it a while. However, by walking the property and then presenting the buyer with the best assessment you can give of the condition, your buyer will have confidence that at least some of the bigger issues are accounted for in your rehab estimate.

The more detailed the estimate, the higher the level of trust you will present.

Take the rehab walkthrough estimation spreadsheet here:

https://www.reikit.com/rehab-walkthrough-estimation-checklist

along with you on your initial property visit and use your camera phone to record a thorough voice narrated video of the property. After you return, watch it over and over along with this article that gives a great breakdown of the costs associated with many rehab projects:

https://www.reikit.com/house-flipping-guide/how-to-estimate-rehab-construction-costs

You can then use the detailed rehab estimation tool in REI/kit to provide a complete itemized list of rehab items needed to get the property in sellable shape.

99% of your competition is not doing this.  Be the 1% that is making the sale.

Lay Out the Purchase Price and Terms

You can either list the purchase price as one that includes your fee, or you can simply state “Buyers fee included” and not indicate the amount.

If there are any other terms, such as the closing date, cash only, or types of financing considered, include those as well.

How to Create a Professional Wholesale Deal Sheet

Once you have hammered out those elements above, it’s time to wrap it all up in a polished, beautiful package that will exhibit professionalism.

You may have tried to create a word processing system document, and found out that it is neither easy to do, nor is it pretty to look at.  That’s why your descriptions end up looking like this:

“Come buy my house for sale!”

instead of the thoughtful description that you should have written, but were busy trying to create a deal template.

Inserting and formatting pictures into Word is a painful way to spend an afternoon that you could be using to find more deals, and in the end, your Word template, especially if it’s filled with pictures, cannot be easily shared or linked to.

A different option is to use a product like the wholesale deal sheet marketing tool offered by REIkit.com. After you’ve found your comps, adjusted them, and have the ARV, you can input your description of the deal and then simply select to have those items included in your shareable, printable, linkable pdf deal sheet. The end result will be similar to this:

https://tools.reikit.com/properties/0d89ffde

Methods to Market The Property That Work

Besides blasting your finished wholesale deal sheet to your buyer’s list via email, there are a number of other ways to market your deal:

  • Post the deal on BiggerPockets, PennySaver, Craigslist, Oodle, and other online marketplaces
  • Print your deal sheet and go to auctions to hand out to interested buyers
  • Post it in Facebook groups, LinkedIn, Tweet it out on Twitter
  • Add it to the wholesale inventory page on your REI/kit real estate investor website
  • Use mobile apps such as Offer Up, 5 Miles, Let Go, and so on
  • Text a link to the deal to your phone contacts

Looking to build your cash buyers list? Check out 34 Actionable Ways to Grow Your Cash Buyers List

Professional and Trustworthy

Marketing is about trust.

By delivering thorough and detailed property information, presented in an easy-to-read format, your buyers will be far more likely to respond to your marketing.

Doing your research and providing accurate numbers is essential to building the necessary trust before presenting the deal.

Finally, channeling all of those elements into a beautiful marketing report ensures that you present yourself and your business in a professional and trustworthy manner.