Direct mail, calls, texts, & web forms of marketing all work. But nothing is quite like being face-to-face.
The problem with face-to-face is it’s hard to scale. And because it’s hard to scale, you won’t have a lot of competition when you show up at someone’s doorstep.
We’ve bought so many houses this way, especially personal ones.
Here are some advantages:
- People like selling their home, especially if it is sentimental, to people they know & trust.
As you meet a homeowner at their door & build a relationship with them, you’ll often find that they become more comfortable with the idea of selling to someone they’ve met. When Realtors are involved, it’s more uncommon that the seller actually meets the buyer.
- You’ll likely be able to buy the house without much competition because it’s off-market.
The real estate market is so competitive right now and bidding wars are common. It makes it hard to get an offer accepted on a house you’re interested in. When you meet the seller before they’ve ever put it on the market, you’re the only prospective buyer at that point & if they’re interested in selling to you, you may not have much competition.
- The chances of getting a “deal” or a reasonable price on the house are much higher this way.
Because the seller will get to save on real estate commissions costs by selling to you, the chances of getting a good deal are higher. And because they know & like you, they may be willing to give you a good deal.
- You can pick out your “dream” home & pursue the seller directly.
Rather than just choosing from what’s available on the market when you want to buy a home, you can pick out your dream house this way & pursue a relationship with the seller. Then when they are ready to sell, perhaps they’d sell to you because they know you really like the house & would take good care of it.
I’ll share two examples.
There was a house in our neighborhood growing up that my mom loved. She would’ve called it a “dream home.” She wanted the seller to know she was interested, so she went to the house to introduce herself one day. She told them she loved their house & would love the opportunity to buy it if they were ever interested in selling. A few years later, they contacted her & she bought it. It didn’t get put on the market, no real estate commissions were paid, and there wasn’t any competition. My Mom got her dream house just by knocking on their door.
The last house our family lived in was in a neighborhood my wife loved. Before buying it, we lived in a different area of town. Since she knew she wanted to end up in this neighborhood, my wife would drive down the streets on Saturday & go up to the doors of the homes she liked. She’d simply introduce herself, let the owner know our family was looking to move into the neighborhood, and then ask if they’d ever consider selling their home. She was doing this one Saturday afternoon when she met a very friendly lady at one of the houses she liked. She told my wife that she wasn’t interested in selling her home but she knew a guy one block over who was about to list his home on the market. My wife drove by his house & she loved it. She definitely would’ve knocked on his door too once she got to that block. The lady gave my wife his number, we called him, toured the house, and bought it at a great price a few weeks later before it ever hit the market.
Whether you’re buying a personal home or a house to flip, having face-to-face conversations with sellers will give you a competitive advantage in this hot market.
