Define Additional Investment Criteria

Investment criteria help individuals meet their short- and long-term goals. A variety of factors influence it, including:

• Age
• Goals
• Lifestyles
• Financial situations
• Available capital
• Personal situations (family, living situation)
• Expected returns

These considerations aid an investor in determining the types of investments they want to make, such as stocks, bonds, money market funds, real estate, asset allocation, and risk tolerance.

Obtain A List Of Properties

Build a list of properties using the three pieces of information above (market, property type/class, and investment criteria) using online tools such as the county auditor’s website.

Apartment buildings purchased five years or more ago are an additional filtering choice. Owners who bought a home in this time period have possibly built up enough equity to embrace a lower-than-market offer price and still make a profit.

Find the Owner’s Contact Information

When you pull the list for properties identified under an individual’s name, you should be able to find the owner’s contact details. If it’s classified under an LLC or a property manager’s name, use skip tracing software to find the owner’s phone number and/or mailing address, or look it up on the Secretary of State’s website.

Conduct Mailing Campaigns

Direct mailing campaigns are one of the most well-known methods for obtaining off-market offers.

An effective direct mailing campaign relies on two factors. Your mailing list is one of them. Only owners whose apartment communities meet your investment requirements and who show at least one indication of interest in selling will be included on a high-quality mailing list.

The second factor to consider is the volume of your mailings. Decide on a mailing schedule for your list of owners — weekly, quarterly, every six months, etc. — and stick to it. Often you’ll get a response on the first mailer, and other times you won’t get a response until you’ve been mailing to the same owner for a year.

Cold Calling

As opposed to direct mail, cold calling gives you more leverage over the number of conversations you have with business owners.

Cold calling will also help you convert more leads. If an owner isn’t interested in selling, they won’t respond to direct mail. When cold calling, you should give the owner a letter referencing the conversation, including your contact details, and informing them that you will call them again in X (2, 4, 6, whatever you decide) months to see if they are interested in selling.

Call “For Rent” Ads

Calling apartment owners listed on online rental sites or on “for rent” signs spread across your local market to gauge their interest in selling is a perfect way to find off-market offers.

If an owner has a unit available for rent, you’ve already found an issue. They are losing money because the unit is vacant. You may be able to catch them at a time when they are eager to sell.

You can select any two methods from above and focus on generating leads from those for at least six months. Keep track of the outcomes for each of the marketing strategies during your six-month trial period. If either or both of the marketing strategies aren’t working, tweak them or try something else. All of these strategies have worked in the past, but they might not work for you due to your market or your specific skill set. It can take some trial and error to find a strategy that aligns with what you’re uniquely good at. It’s not about getting five lead sources in the end. It’s all about figuring out which ones work best for you.