As a quick turn real estate investor the wealth of your business is not primarily in properties owned but in contacts and relationships, particularly with your most important clients, your buyers. Thus your number one asset is your buyers list, and it should be tended to like a tree that sprouts money for leaves.



There are fundamentally two types of buyers in the real estate market, known as wholesale buyers and retail buyers. Wholesale buyers are professional buyers, or investors, who buy properties repeatedly as part of an ongoing business or profit seeking venture. A solid core of wholesale buyers is fundamental to a wholesaling business.

They will buy single family residences that need repairs or that have tenants in them, as well as multifamily and commercial properties. It takes a relatively small number of wholesale buyers to sustain a business compared to retail buyers, who are people buying homes to live in and expecting to pay at or near full retail value.

This is because retail buyers are more selective about the house they choose and because they tend to no longer be prospects after they have made a purchase. A large base of retail buyers is vital to any business that depends on retailing.

Half of cultivating your buyers list is growing it by adding new buyers. These will be attracted to you through your marketing by means of signs, ads, and the internet. You can put up signs advertising houses for sale in your farm area, and make use of newspaper and online classifieds to get them calling. In the case of wholesale buyers you can also take the initiative to call them if you can identify a list of investors or landlords in your area of interest.

The other half of cultivating your buyers list is strengthening the ties you have with your buyers by staying in touch with them. It's not just the number of contacts you have that is important but also the relationships and reputation that you have with them. You should be staying in touch on a regular basis by mail, phone, or email, preferably in the form of presenting new potential deals or potential homes to purchase. As you get to know your buyers and they get to know you, you will build the confidence and familiarity that leads to sales.

Obviously the more buyers you have on your list the better, and likewise the more information you have on each buyer the better as well. Naturally the best way to store and maintain all of this information is with some sort of computer database or spreadsheet software.

Information to be gotten from all buyers should definitely include contact information, including fax and email, information about the type of property they are seeking, and information about their financing. If you have a website through which buyers can register then it can capture all of this information. It doesn't all have to be captured up front, though, but can also be gathered over time by means of regular email and telephone follow ups.

A strong buyers list isn't created overnight, but with time and persistence it will build the momentum to carry your business forward to uncanny profits.