Finding an investor buyer or equity partner for your real estate deals.

I do more than just lending. In fact, anything real estate has always been a good fit for me. Real quickly, figured I would talk about how to start new relationships online without begging for buyers, partners, bird dogs, etc.

SOMEONE ELSE'S LIST IS NOT YOUR LIST. Don't add people to YOUR list because they SAID they were a buyer or a flipper or will be an equity partner. Don't add people to your list just because someone else told you to or because they responded to someone else's post, especially from a 130k deep Facebook group. You have two choices...vet people you find out about or make your OWN lists.

Here is what I have done and am still doing with a real world example:

FB GROUP POSTS THAT WORK: I find local FB Groups to participate in and I participate...in a positive way only...for a while. If you cannot be nice, don't post or respond, you will develop a bad rep quickly on pages sub 10k people. Once I have become a top contributor or get some other recognition badge, I will post something like the post pictured here. I never post "looking for buyers" or "I have this house under contract and need a partner". Mine are more general..."I do this locally and want to connect" (adding a picture helps)...but the post itself works like a charm.

QUALITY OF RESPONSES, ADDRESS CONCERNS POSITIVELY: This particular post was posted in four local groups that are all pretty small by themselves. It produced about 100 comments and many DMs. Those DMs became conversations over coffee. The comments that didn't become DMs became a chat full of questions. I answered every question. I flipped every negative comment to be positive. "You are taking away housing from locals by flipping properties" to which I might say "I appreciate your comment. Thank you for expressing what others may feel too. I find the worst houses in any given neighborhood and show them the attention they deserve. Without me or people like me, that house would remain vacant and decaying, I hope this helps to change your opinion" ...this is usually met with "okay".

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS AFTER INITIAL CONTACT: Coffee turned into the sharing real estate stories, projects in the works, how we got here, and what is to come. Ended up with 3 solid relationships. Those 3 people either want to be an equity partner with me, buy my deals, have me find them other deals. They were all willing to let me use their contacts for contractors, the people they employ directly, and are ALL willing to teach me what they know and learn what I know. Do not expect this to happen in one visit unless you are simply a likeable person in person.

If you don't have something to give back, FIND A MENTOR.

WHAT ABOUT THE BEGINNERS? Okay, so through these four posts I also discovered just how many local people have NO IDEA that they could be making money in real estate a variety of ways that don't include funding a full flip themselves. The common consensus was "I don't have that kind of money" to which my reply is always that hard money is certainly not hard to get and almost anyone can get it (my being a hard money broker makes this easier to explain).

That led to more questions in a chat right in FB. What does that mean for me? Those people are not buyers yet but they ARE hungry to learn. I offered to put on a class for those 40 people in the chat, 20 have confirmed going to it. I will hold it at my favorite coffee shop.

NURTURE IT AND WATCH IT GROW: Now, I did sit down for a day and put together all of the things I would want to learn from such a class. (more on that below) the people that actually show up to that class will turn into bird dogs at first and eventually do their own deals. If any of them have any money, I will leverage that to buy my next deal, making them money in the process as an example of how everyone can win TOGETHER. Become motivated by helping others succeed and put that on display. Money will come.

TIME TESTED: I have done this before but haven't flipped in a while because lending kept me so busy the last few years but this is what I did before in TN and shocker...it still works in AZ years later.

In short, schedule a few lunches, teach what you know, cultivate YOUR OWN lists, develop YOUR OWN group, be involved and do great things. I hope this helps.

PS, THAT CLASS I MENTIONED: If anyone wants my notes for the class, it includes good to know terms, calculations (for things like interest only payments, etc), how to use a mortgage calculator, various ways to become make money in real estate, etc. It does not cover specific contracts or paperwork. It is basically a bullet point list for me to use as an outline to guide a 90 minute knowledge boot camp.