For those unfamiliar with the concept, cash buyers are sought out when the property being sold is “unmortgageable.” The property might have defects like structural issues or roof damage, and hence it is hard or impossible for the buyers to get a mortgage for the property. When sellers know this, they will advertise it for cash buyers only.
Related: How to Sell a Rental Property to Buy a More Profitable One
Properties with defects are not the only cases when all cash buyers are preferred, but this is becoming a trendy strategy in the real estate industry. This is definitely for the benefit of the sellers but is a nuisance for the buyers who do need to rely on mortgages to buy a property. Finding cash buyers is vital for real estate investors and house flippers who want to move investment property faster and grow their businesses. But how can you find cash buyers for homes? Below we’ll list a few methods real estate investors, agents, and homeowners can use to find cash buyers when selling a house.
#1 – Market Online
There are multiple methods online for attracting cash buyer leads, which are a lot cheaper than real estate ads in newspapers or with agents. A few effective methods are opening a website, writing blogs and advertising with Google ads or social media. With a website, you could even easily set up a form to capture leads, i.e. getting all the potential cash buyers who visit your website to submit their contact details to your property buyers list. However, you do first need to figure out how to create traffic for your website. You can do this through social media or traditional advertising, or writing interesting blogs using search engine optimization that improves their ranking in the search results.
Setting these up might, however, take some time and energy. Thus, this strategy for finding cash buyers is better suited for investors who are selling and buying houses on a more regular basis.
You can also advertise your property for sale online in the Mashvisor Property Marketplace where thousands of real estate investors will see your listing! Click here to create your listing now for FREE.
# 2 – Network Online and Offline
If you are already working in real estate, you know that networking is key. Let’s start with online networking. So, how to find cash buyers online? The online world provides numerous opportunities for networking without even having to leave your home. To this end, you could try some of the biggest online real estate forums, such as BiggerPockets or Connected Investors.
However, effective networking, of course, does require you to go all in in real life as well. The first thing you want to do is to attend courthouse steps as frequently as you can. All those who buy properties on the courthouse steps must do so in cash. In other words, these are all cash buyers! An alternative way to find cash buyers is joining your local real estate investing club or landlord organization, where you’ll definitely end up meeting a variety of cash buyers. Do also check out the National Real Estate Investors Association and whether they have groups in your area.
There are also plenty of local, regional, national and even international events where you could meet potential cash buyers on the lookout for investment opportunities. It often comes down to meeting someone who knows someone who knows someone, so go mingle, talk to people, hand out business cards, and form your network. When the right time to sell your property comes, you’ll already have a list of cash buyer leads.
#3 –Check Cash Buyers Lists!
The Cash Buyers Lists is a growing database where you can find cash buyers for real estate. Every real estate cash buyers list is compiled per state and is comprised of individuals or entities that have made real estate purchases with cash for real estate deals. This saves you a lot of time and effort, as on these lists you can find real estate renovators or rehabbers and wholesalers who have the capital or access to private funding to purchase real estate properties without conventional financing. These are definitely an easy way to find leads.
#4 – Utilize Craigslist
To leave no stone unturned, try utilizing your local Craigslist “houses/apt for rent” section. There you can easily find dozens of property owners and their contact details. Look them up and gather as much data on the property owner as you can and evaluate if they would be likely to pull off a cash deal.
Or how about posting a simple subject to advertise your upcoming real estate sale? A short ad explaining that you sell properties with X criteria should get the right real estate cash buyers to contact you in no time.
Related: How to Sell Your House: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide
#5 – Use the Right Google Search Terms
It might seem like a no brainer to use Google for searching cash buyers, but there is one pro tip that makes this search so much easier: use the correct search terms. This method is foolproof and only requires you to type: “Buy my house for cash (+ the location of that property)” on Google. You will get plenty of search results and all that is left for you to do is to go through those willing to buy in cash and call them up.
#6 – Seek Insights from a Real Estate Agent
It is also smart to seek insights from those who close deals for a living – real estate agents. As a real estate investor, you may want to have an agent or two in your network that you can turn to for market insights. Why? Realtors often have access to tools and databases of recent sales which others don’t. If you can build a good working relationship with a real estate agent or realtor, they might be able to compile a list of recent cash sales for you. Naturally, this does not provide you exact names of the buyers but does provide you an excellent starting point to conduct searches of your own using public records. It will definitely save you a lot of time when selling your home.
Related: How to Find the Best Real Estate Agent
Now you know a few different ways of how to find cash buyers for real estate. Go ahead and try any of the methods above to sell your house fast. Don’t forget you can also list your property for sale on Mashvisor to be viewed by real estate investors – traditional and cash buyers alike!