How to Build a Cash Buyers List for Real Estate Wholesale Deals

As mentioned in our guide Wholesale Real Estate Investing 101 for Beginners, one of the first and most important questions you should find an answer to is “where to find cash buyers for real estate wholesale deals?”

Having access to an active list of cash buyers should always be an essential part of your wholesale real estate marketing plan.

One way to find a list of cash buyers is to simply buy it from list brokers. The most appealing thing about buying a list of cash buyers is that it’s a quick way to get started.

However, are these lists worth your time and money?

Depending on each list broker, the quality of data will vary significantly. There are many list providers on the market that sell outdated lists.

Finding a quality provider that properly maintains their list to keep it up to date will be both challenging and expensive.

Even if you find a good list broker, you’ll be cold calling on these prospects. These contacts have already been contacted by many others who purchased that same list before you.

Calling on them will be about as tough a sell as you’re going to encounter. Therefore, the best use of your funds would be to build the list of wholesale real estate buyers on your own.

Yes, it will take longer to build your list this way. However, it will pay off in the long run due the following benefits:

• Creating a wholesale property buyers list for yourself will teach you a lot about the business.
• As you build your list, you develop relationships with your buyers.
• You won’t have to depend on someone else to bring you wholesale property buyers.

Searching for real investors is a better use of your time than calling on people who aren’t active investors. You’ll make connections with people who want what you are selling.

Finding buyers by yourself lets you control the quality of your list. When you need a buyer you’ll know immediately:

• Who is active at that moment
• What type of property they want
• What locations interest them
• The level of repairs and remodeling that they can handle

Now that we’ve determined why it’s not a good idea to buy a list from third party providers, let’s look at how to effectively build a cash buyers list on your own.

When you are building your real estate wholesaling business, one of the things that you’ll need to learn is how to find cash buyers online. A great place to start is HouseCashin.com.

HouseCashin is the largest online marketplace for the off-market properties for sale that attracts tens of thousands of active cash buyers every month.

#1 HouseCashin Directory

Unlike many online resources, HouseCashin screens the investors and cash buyers listed on the platform. The cash buyers on HouseCashin have been vetted for their experience, integrity, and reliability.

To find real estate cash buyers in the geographical area of your interest, just choose your location and you will see a list of cash buyers active in that area. These are the individuals and companies who are actively looking to acquire wholesale properties for cash.

Those same cash buyers use our popular business directory to find local real estate wholesalers to get on their buyers lists. If you run a legitimate wholesaling business, you’re welcome to apply to get listed on our directory to get in front of those cash buyers.

HouseCashin is a quick way to add active investors to your list of buyers.

#2 HouseCashin Marketplace

HouseCashin investment property marketplace is a powerful disposition engine designed to help wholesalers find cash buyers actively looking to acquire wholesale real estate deals.

Unlike other online property marketplaces, thanks to proprietary property-matching engine, HouseCashin marketplace offers the most advanced targeting capabilities that boast industry’s greatest exposure and most precise targeting when it comes to property disposition.

Additionally to the basic parameters such as a property’s size, asking price, and description, the listing information includes such metrics as profit potential, estimated ARV (After Repair Value), rehab estimate, and others that help investors evaluate each deal’s profitability.

This makes HouseCashin platform investors’ favorite place to shop for investment properties. Investors interested in your listing will be able to contact you and inquire about the deal. Once you get contacted by a potential cash buyer, add them to your list.

#2 Google and Bing Search Engines

When looking for cash investors to assign a contract to, most wholesalers will start with an online search in Google’s search engine.

Use the typical phrases often used by homeowners who are looking to sell a house to an investor. For example, keywords such as “we buy houses in [your area]”, or “we buy houses for cash in [your area]” will do the trick.

The Google results will often return many websites that target home sellers. However, not all of them will be actual cash buyers.

A considerable portion of those websites would belong to wholesalers who target home sellers too. But that’s alright. Reaching out to each website to find out which companies are wholesalers and which ones are cash buyers is worth it.

Knowing who the players are in your market makes you more knowledgeable as well as helps you to build a solid network. You may need to work together sometime and co-wholesale a property.

#3 Social Media Platforms

Some social media platforms are more suitable for wholesalers than others platforms. Make sure you have an account on those real estate social networks.

For instance, Facebook and LinkedIn host groups of users with similar interests. These venues are very useful to the real estate industry.

There are groups created particularly for investors in specific locations. Simply join them and find cash buyers.

The search function will help you find groups in your local market. Use variations on your query and make sure you include the name of your city:

• House flipping in (your location)
• Home flipping in (your location)
• House flippers in (your location)
• Home flippers in (your location)
• Fix flip in (your location)
• Real estate investors in (your location)
• Real estate investing in (your location)

Additionally, using the same approach, look for groups for other professionals with whom you would personally network such as local hard money lenders, landlords, and property managers (more on this in the next section).

Wholesaling is one of the real estate investment strategies where networking is the most crucial.

As long as they are working in their clients’ best interests, professionals who serve investors can refer them to other professionals (like you). If you can bring opportunities to their clients, you are helping them add value to their client relationships.

After all, the opportunity that you bring to their client is an opportunity for them as well.

Remember, your referral sources will also expect referrals from you. You can only feed business to so many attorneys, lenders, CPAs, etc. If you try to keep too many referral sources, you will weaken your influence with them.

Eventually, you will need to reach a balance in your referral network. For now, network with as many professionals as you can to find those who are a good fit for you.

#4 Title Companies

A relationship with the right title company is very important for real estate wholesalers. You need to find one that is experienced in closing wholesale transactions.

This can be especially important with “double closings” where you take ownership (temporarily) of the property instead of selling the contract.

As a wholesaler, you are in a position to bring business to a title company regularly. They should be able to introduce you to other referral sources.

#5 Investor-Friendly Realtors

Most of the realtors only work with the typical, traditional real estate clients. Many realtors either have never worked with investors or had some limited experience with them.

In every market, however, there are real estate agents specializing in investment properties.

One way in which they can help you is to share real estate market data from the local MLS about all-cash closings. The buyers in those transactions are often investors who you want to add to your cash buyers list.

#6 Hard Money Lenders

A hard money loan is one that is made by an individual or company other than a traditional lender like a bank or a mortgage broker.

They are typically short term loans that are secured by real estate and designed to finance investment property purchase, fix and flip loans, rehab or ground up construction.

Because they are based on the value of a property rather than the creditworthiness of a borrower, hard money loans can be processed faster than traditional loans.

For that reason, they are often used by wholesalers and house flippers who need short-term financing that closes quickly. Both hard money lenders and real estate wholesalers work with short term investors.

Therefore, they can be a great source of referrals for one another.

#7 Closing Attorneys

If you haven’t already, you will find a real estate attorney to represent you in your business. You are bringing your attorney real estate closings. That should count for something.

However, don’t assume that they will think of you when they have referrals — ask for them.

Sometimes it’s good to have several attorneys in case you need something done quickly and one of them is busy. You can probably manage a good referral relationship with a number of local real estate attorneys.

#8 Landlords

Current owners of residential rentals are good prospects for your buyers list. Many of them are constantly looking into purchasing rental properties to add to their portfolios.

Look for rental properties that are posted online on websites like Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, and Realtor.com. You can also find landlords advertising directly on Craigslist.

Driving through your target markets should be a regular activity. Look for properties with ‘For Rent by Owner’ signs. The property owner’s information can be found on the county tax records.

#9 Property Management Companies

Many landlords use a property management company to handle property repairs, collect rents, and market the property for rent.

This can be a very good mutual referral relationship for real estate wholesalers. They want to know who you are selling to so that they can solicit their business.

Property management companies are allowed to share their clients’ names with you. After all, you can easily look up the ownership of the properties that they manage on public records.

#10 CPA/Tax Advisors

Tax advisors who work with real estate investors can provide and receive client referrals. According to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, they can also receive fees for referrals.

Ask your network of closing attorneys, landlords, lenders for the names of tax advisors in your market. Like attorneys and title companies, you don’t want to spread yourself too thin by promising referral business to a lot of CPAs.

For that reason, you should spend your time networking with local real estate CPAs and accountants who are most likely to have cash buyers as clients.

#11 Real Estate Investment Clubs

Finding and joining real estate investment clubs in your area should be a priority in your business plan.

In addition to enhancing your overall knowledge of the marketplace, active participation in a club can lead you directly to cash buyers.

Attend your local club regularly, not just when you need a referral. You need to get to know the players, and they need to get to know you. Prepare for the sale long before you have a property under contract.

#12 Self-Directed IRA Meetups

Most people don’t know that you can direct the investment of your IRA. Knowledgeable investors self-direct their IRAs for investment funds all over the country.

Meetings of Self-Directed IRA investors are similar to Real Estate Investment Clubs. Getting to know these investors will introduce you to an entire category of cash buyers for your business.

#13 BNI

BNI is Business Networking International. This is an organization that holds regular networking meetings for its members.

BNI charges a membership fee of between $400 and $600 a year. There may also be a fee to offset the costs of renting a venue or meals/refreshments.

BNI claims that its members closed over $16 Billion in referred deals worldwide in 2019.

Members are given the chance to present themselves and their services to the membership during one of the meetings.

There are over 9,500 BNI chapters throughout the world. Each chapter restricts membership by profession. Your local chapter will only allow one real estate wholesaler. You need to ask up front if they already have a member in your profession.

#14 Co-Wholesaling

Networking with other professionals may lead to an opportunity to work with another wholesaler on a deal, or as partners in business. This is called Co-Wholesaling.

Such a joint venture can be especially beneficial to a young wholesaler who is just starting their business.

The benefits of Co-Wholesaling are:

• Access to each other’s buyers list
• Access to each other’s property pipeline
• Combining your knowledge and experience
• Sharing the workload
• Closing more deals

You have to be careful to put any partnership in writing. Make sure that you spell out the responsibilities of each party and how you are both to be compensated.

Long-term partnership agreements should account for the details of a dissolution of the partnership. If you decide to stop being partners:

• Can you still call on the buyers on your list?
• What happens to any pending contracts/sales?

#15 Online and Off-line Auctions

There are handful of great foreclosure auction sites you can use for finding cash buyers. A lot of cash investors use these websites to acquire deals.

But these auction sites don’t give away their  database of investors. Therefore, you will need to be more creative here.

A wonderful approach I used many times when wholesaling properties is to reach out to these websites and ask about a sponsored email blast to their network of investors.

While not all of them will agree to that, I had a great success with this approach, which ended up being very affordable.

As far as off-line auctions, the downside is that you have to physically be there. Regularly attend auctions in your market to meet cash buyers.

Look for foreclosure auctions, tax lien auctions, and private auctions of real property. In an auction, the bidders have to be ready to complete the purchase quickly.

Sometimes, they have to present their funds within 24 hours. This makes an auction a gathering place for cash buyers.

Be prepared before you go. Rehearse your “elevator pitch”. This is a short, concise description of you and your business that can be told in an elevator before the doors open.

When you meet someone at an auction or any other networking event, you aren’t trying to convince them to work with you. Your goal is to get the opportunity to follow up with them. It’s an introduction, that’s all.

Add the buyers you meet at auctions to your buyers list and start marketing yourself and your properties to them.

#16 Public Records

We’ve already discussed how you can use public records to find the owner of a property that you know is an investment property. You can also search public records to uncover investment properties. Those owners are cash buyers who need to be on your list.

Information on property sales is available to the public. Most counties have an online platform to search their records.

When a property is sold, the deed is recorded. This shows that the ownership of the property has changed. The deed will tell you the name of the new legal owner.

When a mortgage loan is used to buy the property, the mortgage or deed of trust is also recorded. This is a lien on the property. If there is no lien filed, the transaction was done with cash.

You can locate cash buyers by searching for deeds that were filed with no corresponding lien. Not all cash buyers are investors, but most of them are.

#17 Listsource.com

Listsource.com is one of several websites that provide property transaction information or buyers lists. Some of these providers give you access to any market in the US.

Others focus on the records found in one or more specific counties. Some give you a menu of reports from which you can choose. The price for these services can vary depending on the scope and nature of their data.

There are monthly subscriptions that range from $45 to $500. Usually, these sites let you filter the information requested. The data you receive is based on your criteria and you pick out the potential buyers.

Listsource is known for its ease of use. They generate the lead list for you. You can set filters on the information based on your target audience.

Listsource has an option to pre-pay for a set number of leads. This can run from $600 for 4,137 leads to $1,725 for 13,800 leads. They also offer monthly subscriptions from $150 to $500 per month.

New wholesalers may want to pay by the report. Listsource will do this, but they have a $50 minimum purchase amount.

#18 MLS

To have an effective wholesaling business. you will want to learn how to find cash buyers on MLS. MLS stands for Multiple Listing Service.

This is the database used by brokers in your area to list residential properties for sale. MLS databases are set up and managed locally.

It may be owned by a local or regional association of realtors, a company, or a real estate trade association. Each MLS is separate from other databases around the country and may have its own rules and structure.

Once a property has closed, the listing agent changes the MLS status to Sold and adds information about the sale. This data helps agents to understand the market and estimate the market value of homes that they are listing.

You can usually set filters in an MLS search for cash sales. Once you know which properties sold for cash, you can search county property records for the buyer.

Access to an MLS requires a paid membership. In many cases, MLS membership is only available to licensed agents. You may even have to become a realtor to join your local MLS.

This is a good reason to network with investor-friendly realtors.

#19 Hudhomestore.com

Hudhomestore.com is the site where the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) lists homes for sale. These homes were financed with FHA loans and had to be foreclosed on by HUD.

Homebuyers and investors can buy these homes by bidding for them on the site. The site shows information about the winning bidder. If it shows O/O, that means that the home was bought by an Owner/Occupied bidder, or homeowner.

If the notation is INV you’ve found a cash investor. Simply search for the property address in the county tax records and you’ll get the information you need to add that buyer to your list.

#20 Local Tax Assessor’s Website

The county property tax records in your area contain information on property owners that is open to the public. Go to the tax assessor’s website and familiarize yourself with the search features.

When you believe that a property was bought by an investor, you can look up that address and find the buyer’s contact information. You can also proactively use the tax records to find investment properties. Search for:

• properties that are owned by LLCs or corporations
• owners who have multiple properties.

These are probably investors who can be added to your buyers list.

#21 PropStream

PropStream is a full-service platform for real estate investors that automates their business. The company advertises features that include cash buyers list building, phone and text systems, workflow management, property analytics, lead generation and many others.

PropStream charges a monthly fee that ranges from $97 to $297. The price depends on the number of leads provided and the number of users. To learn more about this tool, read this comprehensive PropStream review.

#22 Flipster

Flipster is a full blown lead generation software for real estate investors. You can use it to find buyers and properties to wholesale. The information filters that you select can direct the results toward motivated sellers or cash buyers.

This is a good resource for wholesalers who use direct mail to market themselves to investors. To learn more about this tool, read this comprehensive Flipster review.

#23 Privy

Wholesalers who want help with their marketing, as well as a buyer database, can use Privy real estate investment app. This platform has one subscription level of $149 per month.

It includes a national buyer database, unlimited searches for any county in the United States, and marketing tools for reaching those buyers. To learn more about this tool, read this comprehensive Privy review.

#24 GoSection8

Section 8 is a government program to assist lower-income renters. The program gives a subsidy for qualified renters directly to landlords.

GoSection8 is a website where landlords list Section 8 qualified properties for rent. These landlords are investors that you can put on your list.

You can also contact HUD to get a list of Section 8 housing in your area. That list includes landlord contact information.